What I did for beer today

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Curious how this works out! I tried freezing a bunch of ziplock bags filled with water, to try cooling my boiling wort a little faster, but the bag didn't survive more than a minute. Luckily I noticed before the whole ice block melted into the wort, and also glad that I started with just the one before dumping many in at once! The beer turned out fine, but haven't been brave enough to try that again!

(The ziplock part held up fine, the bag however melted)

Restaurant supply stores have paddles to put in the freezer to cool soups and stock. Food safe and won’t melt if you follow directions.

 

[ba-brewer]

I transferred an APA out of my Fermzilla Gen 3.2 into a corny keg now being carbonated. I am quite frankly disgusted with the Fermzilla. After 24 days of fermentation under 10 psi you would think the beer would be carbonated. But no. It had been cold crashing for 3 days. I admit it looks awesome clear as can be. It taste delicious just what a west coast APA should taste like. But it was flat. Nuf said. I got the Fermzilla to enjoy fermenting and serving from the same vessel. How? How is one to carbonate in a Fermzilla? You can't simply attach a gas line to the floating dip tube and if you were to connect it to a port on the catch jar you will have to reattach said catch jar to the fermenter. But how can you do that without introducing air/O2 into the beer? I must have had a few too many when I thought that thing would do what I wanted it too. Before I put it up for adoption, anyone with experience using a Fermzilla please enlighten me how to carbonate without getting air in it and oxidizing the beer.

View attachment 827299

If you left the pressure at 10psi until crashing you only had 1.few volumes of carbonation if you were at ale temps. Cold crashing for a couple days would add a few more tenth, probably need a week plus to get to something like 2.5Volumes. You need to allow pressure to build up close to 30psi at 65F before crashing to get close to 2.5volumes.

edit: seen this Cold Crashing Under Pressure, seem like I got things wrong, never mind what I said. Might be something useful in that thread though.

 

[seanjwalker1]

I placed my Fermzilla G3.2 in the beer fridge this morning. It fermented for 24 days under 10 psi. It is an experimental APA using 2 row pale and Czech Pilsner malts. Hopped with Nugget for bittering, Columbus for flavor and 5 ozs of Cascade for flavor and aroma.

My first time working with the G3.2. So far the verdict is still out. It is by far the most cumbersome fermenter I have ever worked with. It was difficult to get into the fridge and I had to put it up on blocks in order to close the door. By far more difficult to work with than my CF5, carboys or kegmenters. Yet to see if serving clear well conditioned beer will be achieved in the vessel it was fermented in. I'll let it cold crash a couple of days before taping it and then I'll report back.

Sorry to say but so far I'm less than impressed with the overall experience fermenting in this fermenter. And the fact that it is so cumbersome to handle makes it an inferior fermenter.

View attachment 827091

Looks like a beer serving droid in his Excellency's Jaba The Hut grand palace in the Outer Rim

 

[BrewZer]

Looks like a beer serving droid in his Excellency's Jaba The Hut grand palace in the Outer Rim

I wonder what this alewife would think about that contraption...

 

[seanjwalker1]

I wonder what this alewife would think about that contraption...
View attachment 827317

Probably run screaming into the night about demonic possessed contraptions !

 

[seanjwalker1]

Good ole handcrafted beer. No scientific calculation, no fancy electronic brewing equipment, just good old fashioned brewing knowledge. Probably fresh wheat, noble hops and yeast passed down through generations. Can't speak for the water quality though !

I wonder what this alewife would think about that contraption...
View attachment 827317

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Today I brewed 12 litres of Moose Drool an American Brown Ale.
2600g MO
180g Dark Crystal
100g Chocolate malt
10g Black malt.
30 minutes boil
16g Chinook @30m
15g Willamette @10m
CML Voss Kveik @28C
OG 1053 BHE 70%.

 

[T Murph]

I'm gonna try one more gin fermenting in the Fermzilla. To carbonate after cold crashing I will first attach a carb stone on a piece of hose just long enough to hang below the center of the beer. The other end of the hose will attach to a gas port QC on the top of the pressure cap. I will keep positive pressure on it from the minute I put it in the fridge. We'll see how that pans out.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

Spent the day making a cherry porter.. after fermentation is complete , I'm dumping 8 lbs of previously frozen cherries into the fermenter with 8 ounces of roasted cocoa nibs. I'll let it sit on them forb4 weeks before botteling.

 

[T Murph]

Spent the day making a cherry porter.. after fermentation is complete , I'm dumping 8 lbs of previously frozen cherries into the fermenter with 8 ounces of roasted cocoa nibs. I'll let it sit on them forb4 weeks before botteling.

That sounds good. I had the pleasure of drinking some vanilla and wild cherry porter a few years back that I think was one of the best porters I have ever had. Good luck

 

[Wrendelar]

Brewed my Cuckoo Laison (Double Fermented Lagered Saison), cleaned the brewery, cleaned 2x kegs.

 

[seanjwalker1]

Actually it's what I WAS going to do...knock some ice out of the Igloo beer fridge in the garage. And to my surprise found this home brew Xmas ale hiding in the back. It was either 2 or 3 years ago, an attempt at an Old Fizziweg. Cracked it out of curiosity expecting to probably dump it...SURPRISE !! It's delicious! Darned close to old fez ! Still a good head of foam, all the spices have blended and mellowed with the 2 or 3 year bottle cold condition. Just a nice surprise. Putting me in the mood for fall and winter brewing ! Cheers

 

[tdf]

I transferred an APA out of my Fermzilla Gen 3.2 into a corny keg now being carbonated. I am quite frankly disgusted with the Fermzilla. After 24 days of fermentation under 10 psi you would think the beer would be carbonated. But no. It had been cold crashing for 3 days. I admit it looks awesome clear as can be. It taste delicious just what a west coast APA should taste like. But it was flat. Nuf said. I got the Fermzilla to enjoy fermenting and serving from the same vessel. How? How is one to carbonate in a Fermzilla? You can't simply attach a gas line to the floating dip tube and if you were to connect it to a port on the catch jar you will have to reattach said catch jar to the fermenter. But how can you do that without introducing air/O2 into the beer? I must have had a few too many when I thought that thing would do what I wanted it too. Before I put it up for adoption, anyone with experience using a Fermzilla please enlighten me how to carbonate without getting air in it and oxidizing the beer.

View attachment 827299

If you're fermenting at 20c/68f and 10psi, you'll only have 1.3 - 1.4 volumes of co2, which is pretty flat. If you want to carb at fermentation temperature you have to bring the pressure up quite a bit. 28psi will get you ~2.5 volumes.

 

[seatazzz]

I'm gonna try one more gin fermenting in the Fermzilla. To carbonate after cold crashing I will first attach a carb stone on a piece of hose just long enough to hang below the center of the beer. The other end of the hose will attach to a gas port QC on the top of the pressure cap. I will keep positive pressure on it from the minute I put it in the fridge. We'll see how that pans out.

The last cream ale I fermented in my all-rounder came out about 3/4 carbonated, with no added co2. It fermented at 10psi, when I was ready to crash I closed the spunding valve completely and the pressure rose up to 12psi, and stayed there during cold crash. I know yours is a lot more complicated than mine, but maybe give this a shot?

 

[seatazzz]

Lots of cussing here today. Kegged up the last cream ale on Thursday, using a carb lid and a FDT. Left the filter on the brand spanking new FDT, because reasons. I don't know why, but about every 2nd pour the damn thing is getting stuck above the level of the beer in the keg. I really want this one to pour clear beer, but I'm about to say eff it and install a standard diptube back in the keg. This is the second time this has happened (not counting the time I installed the FDT on the gas post), and I'm getting irritated. Before I rage install the standard diptube I'm going to add a couple of marbles to the filter and see if that helps. Grrrr.

 

[seatazzz]

Also *cue shameless pat on the back* my peated Wee Heavy very narrowly won in our club's Iron Brew competition last night. Riding high on that this morning (also hungover, there were some excellent beers last night). Now I have to come up with a recipe using brown sugar or molasses for the next one, this is going to be tricky.

 

[Wrendelar]

Kegged Origami IPL, cleaned fermzilla,

Also checked Cuckoo Laison for fermentation nothing yet only slightly concerned the packet of Safale BE-134 expired in May (noticed after pitching or would have done a viability test) have another order coming Monday hopefully not needed but backup on the way.

 

[HM-2]

Cleaned out the fermenter for my best bitter.

Started writing a 7% NEIPA recipe with motueka and necteron.

 

[OakIslandBrewery]

Kegged a Baltic porter. Listing to RUSH radio to enhance the experience.

Next clean the fermenter and decide on the next recipe.

 

[mattman91]

Finally got around to fixing up a keezer I bought over a year ago. I don’t have a before picture, but it looks much better.

The little keg is my German Pils and the King Junior has my Oktoberfest that is currently lagering.

Prost!

 

[seatazzz]

Brewed the SuperHighPressure lager experiment this morning. Vacuum-sealed ice blocks did okay, but decided it's not worth the hassle going forward; will just do what I've been doing, chill down as far as I can with the plate chiller, then let the ferment fridge chill it down the rest of the way. Wanted to post a small video but HBT won't let me, it's hissing loud and smells great.

 

[BrewZer]

Fri-Sat recap:

Friday, Assistent Braulein and I went to LHBS to get specialty grains for the next brew. Picked up some hops and yeast as well for an American Amber Ale for the fall -- I'mma start a separate thread on that 'cause I want some feedback.

Saturday, performed my Grill Test on the Amber Grains Pale Ale. It's a very complex procedure that requires at least half-a-liter of the ale, decanted and enjoyed through all phases of preparing the grill, grilling the proteins, then enjoying the proteins at the table. I'm happy to report that Amber Grains received high marks (in my very subjective opinion) in all phases of the test.

Today, I'm going to repeat the test to establish validity and reliability.

 

[seatazzz]

Second phase of the SuperHighPressureLager experiment underway. This morning increased the temperature to 81° (no I'm not kidding) and the pressure to 30psi (again not kidding). What little krausen there was dropped like a rock, and a quick test of gravity shows it down from 1.058 to 1.017 in less than 24 hours. Sample was still a tad sweet, but nothing off, no tang, just a little bitterness from the yeast; kinda like eating bread dough after second rising. If it gets down around 1.010 by this afternoon I'll start it crashing. With no esters/weirdness being produced, it shouldn't need any cleanup time. For those who may scoff, this IS just an experiment; not something I will do with every beer going forward. For one thing, with that much pressure on it, the yeast slurry will probably be essentially useless to use again. That hurts my pocketbook a bit. But if this works, it solves the problem of 'oh cr*p my pipeline is super low, need a beer done by this weekend'. On a Wednesday to be done by Saturday. If nothing else, it's fun.

 

[loganklaas]

Brew day complete. Brut IPA.

 

[leedspointbrew]

100% not feeling it, but bottled the latest Tellen-faux buckwheat porter this morning. Not sure about the buckwheat, but the sample I took looked and tasted like an English porter. A partial success.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

Brewed the SuperHighPressure lager experiment this morning. Vacuum-sealed ice blocks did okay, but decided it's not worth the hassle going forward; will just do what I've been doing, chill down as far as I can with the plate chiller, then let the ferment fridge chill it down the rest of the way. Wanted to post a small video but HBT won't let me, it's hissing loud and smells great. View attachment 827429

You never know until you try..pretty cool experiment.

 

[BeerNsteadofH2O]

Didnt do too much exciting today, I rinsed, sanitized and put away my brew pot, and all things associated with last Fridays brew, ordered my grain bill for next Fridays brew day, checked on the fermentation of my Francoinian lager ( drained the trub) also watched my Cherry porter fermentation take off... now I wait ( and drink a pint)

 

[JAReeves]

Prepping for the school year kept me occupied for the last two weeks, so no time to read or post. In that time, hit a Big Brew with the local home-brew clubs at Scholb Brewing-Torrance. Came home with 10G of wort that became a Lager (currently cold crashing) and a Pale Ale which is cold crashing on its 2nd dry hop. Would love to keg them, but can't clean anything until Hilary is done raining on the backyard, so waiting. Bottled the last of the Blackberry wine (still need to label those) and kegged the Cascade-hopped Muscat.

Harvested the grapes (Gold Muscat, Black Muscat, and Pinot Noir) in advance of the storm, but I am afraid my hops are probably a lost cause for this year; will need to wait and see on that, as the NeoMex was almost to harvest but the Saaz, Old Mission and Comet were still putting out burrs. The Cascade, Eroica, and Chinook have barely climbed this year for some reason.

Talking to vendors to source the Crabapples for the 12BOC2023 Crabapple Lambic, I want to move the beer onto the fruit so it's ready to bottle at Thanksgiving.

 

[camonick]

Bottled a couple different styles for a 6 pack sampler a friend wanted to try.

 

[Wrendelar]

Labeled up some Warbler Sugar Cane Wheat