Switching from glass carboy to Stainless Fermenter for < $50

[Miraculix]

why only a 15 minute boil?

Because it works and I don't have a reason to extend it!

 

[Soulshine2]

Because it works and I don't have a reason to extend it!

so how have you adjusted your short boil time to include your hops additions?

 

[Miraculix]

so how have you adjusted your short boil time to include your hops additions?

I brew a hop tea on the side during the mash. I use plain water for the tea and get even better isomerization rates than with wort this way.

Works really well!

 

[Soulshine2]

ok, so im a little confused,yet intrigued . Can you explain that more? Im sure your (filtered?)side hop tea results in a cleaner wort . How do you use the same amount of hop tea you would if the addition was in the same boil as wort? I'm thinking in volume here. It must be just a super-concentration.

 

[Miraculix]

Yes, you are asking the right questions. In general, wort can hold about 100ibus max, depending on sugar and protein content of the wort. The more sugar and protein in solution, the less isomerization can take place.

I use plain water, and this can dissolve way more alpha acid than wort. I use for example 4 l of water for the tea, while using 12 liter for the biab mash. But I guess even two or three liters would do for the tea. After boiling the hops I just pour it through a sieve into the wort.

The brewers friend online calculator seems to be fairly accurate, but make sure that you put in 1.0 as your wort gravity and the correct boil volume and final volume.

 

[Soulshine2]

awesome. Did you do this as an experiment or read it beforehand somewhere? I like the idea .

 

[Miraculix]

awesome. Did you do this as an experiment or read it beforehand somewhere? I like the idea .

I used to experiment a lot with raw ales and as the wort does not get boiled there, workarounds needed to be found. @Ninoid pointed me to a link somewhere describing that the 100ibu limitation does not apply to plain water and that's how this idea came up. Did this at many batches now. At first with one third of the total volume as hop tea, reducing the tea volume more and more and still getting the same amount of ibus. Works pretty well. The only thing I am not completely sure about is if hop flavour and aroma will suffer a bit when lowering the tea volume further. The bittering certainly does not and for now, it looks like the 4l tea also delivers the expected flavour and aroma in my last batches.

 

[Ninoid]

I confirm what Miraculix says. I cook hop tea in 3L water and get good bitterness, but not exactly the same as boil in wort. It has a slightly sour taste, but it certainly does not spoil the taste of beer.

 

[Samudell]

Has anyone used the binder clips to do pressurized frementation? I'm talking under 13 psi

 

[shoengine]

I haven't tried binder clips, but I can do just over 1psi with the four clips built into a Ss BrewBucket. Any more than that and it blows the seal. Unless the lid is very small, psi starts adding up really quickly.

 

[Jim R]

I also do pressure transfers easily with the SS Brewbucket at very low pressures especially if I just set the fermenter on a countertop and the keg on the floor. I don't need more than 1-2 psi for rapid transfers although this is with the bottom valve of the Brewbucket so I don't need to go over the lid.

Some stronger woodworking clamps would work better than those large paper clips.

 

[cgriffith]

I don't think the binder clips can hold more than 1 or 2 psi. I did a leak check on my system using lung air pressure. If I really put some effort the seal would leak. I surmised it was good enough for fermentation, but not for pressurizing.