Whats wrong with fermentation?

[jcs401]

So I could just dry hop in the primary? I was told best way to dry hop is once fermentation is complete, rack over hops in the secondary to get the beer off the yeast and cake at the bottom? Any suggestions? Pros vs cons?

 

[BeerLoverHere]

I like to dry-hop in primary after 7-10 days or so when my activity slows down considerably. As long as I don't leave it sitting on the yeast cake for 3+ weeks, I think it is okay to dry-hop in primary. I think my hops get absorbed into the beer better when I can loosely throw them in (more surface area exposure) as opposed to dry-hopping in a mesh/cloth bag in secondary. I've always done it this way and my LHBS think my beers that I dry hop have an incredible nose to them. I'm sure others will disagree, but from my experience I like it this way much better.

I usually ferment @ mid 60s for ales for about 14 days. I pitch lots of yeast so it finishes out quickly. Then I warm up all my beers to 70 degrees plus to finish fermentation for a few days/remove DMS. I cold crash to low 50s or so (depends on what my garage temp gets depending on the season) to clear the beer. This has been very effective for me. I personally would not want to "shock" my ale yeast by lowering it to near freezing temps. It's probably not a big deal to some, but I get very clear and clean beer by lowering it to 50s/keeping it very still before siphoning.

 

[RM-MN]

So I could just dry hop in the primary? I was told best way to dry hop is once fermentation is complete, rack over hops in the secondary to get the beer off the yeast and cake at the bottom? Any suggestions? Pros vs cons?

As homebrewing took off following the legislation that allowed it, much of the "knowledge " about brewing came from large breweries. Big conical fermenters mean lots of yeast under lots of pressure so they had to move the beer out or risk the bad flavors from yeast autolysis. That autolysis doesn't happen in small fermenters so we can leave our beer on the yeast without worrying about those off flavors but it will take many years yet to get that "knowledge" out of the literature so home brewers will quit worrying about getting the beer off the yeast cake right away.

 

[RM-MN]

I like to dry-hop in primary after 7-10 days or so when my activity slows down considerably. As long as I don't leave it sitting on the yeast cake for 3+ weeks, I think it is okay to dry-hop in primary. I think my hops get absorbed into the beer better when I can loosely throw them in (more surface area exposure) as opposed to dry-hopping in a mesh/cloth bag in secondary. I've always done it this way and my LHBS think my beers that I dry hop have an incredible nose to them. I'm sure others will disagree, but from my experience I like it this way much better.

I usually ferment @ mid 60s for ales for about 14 days. I pitch lots of yeast so it finishes out quickly. Then I warm up all my beers to 70 degrees plus to finish fermentation for a few days/remove DMS. I cold crash to low 50s or so (depends on what my garage temp gets depending on the season) to clear the beer. This has been very effective for me. I personally would not want to "shock" my ale yeast by lowering it to near freezing temps. It's probably not a big deal to some, but I get very clear and clean beer by lowering it to 50s/keeping it very still before siphoning.

As long as you don't leave your beer on the yeast for 3+ MONTHS it will be OK.

 

[jcs401]

So if I dry hop tonight along with get the temp up to about 70 and leavin it for another three or four days, then cold crash to about 50 degrees to get some trub etc. to drop out, can I transfer right from primary to keg? Or should I still transfer from primary to sanitized bucket/carboy, let sit and then transfer to keg? What would give better results?

 

[RM-MN]

So if I dry hop tonight along with get the temp up to about 70 and leavin it for another three or four days, then cold crash to about 50 degrees to get some trub etc. to drop out, can I transfer right from primary to keg? Or should I still transfer from primary to sanitized bucket/carboy, let sit and then transfer to keg? What would give better results?

Straight to keg is what I'd (well I would if I had a keg) do.

 

[BeerLoverHere]

Yep, straight to keg.

Also, if you are just dry hopping for 3-4 days, I'd recommend to use more hops since you won't be dry hopping too long. I guess it depends on your style/taste, but if you don't have extra hops on hand, I'd give it more time...maybe 7-10 days. Time is the hard part sometimes when brewing...that's for sure! However, I don't like to dry hop much past 10 days. It's better, in my opinion, to over hop for less days than to under hop for more days.

 

[jcs401]

I was planning in doing 2oz for 3-4 days to just give it a but more. It's a European Pilsner so just want a little more flavor and aroma.

 

[BeerLoverHere]

I think that would be perfect. Even though it's not typical to the style, if you like the flavor/aroma, go for it. It's what I do on nearly all of my beers. Love the aroma from hops...wish they made candles, car scents, etc., that smelled like them! Doubt my wife would go for it tho...

 

[jcs401]

Haha! I agree! Appreciate all the help folks! Still new to this so I'm sure I'll be panicking/asking for much more advice in the future!

 

[jcs401]

Can ya take a look at the pic attached. Trying to get temp up to 70 just in my spare room(beer room) in my house and there is still croisen pretty thick and airlock bubbling every about 30 sec but gravity is 1.011 after fermenting for 17 days. Is the airlock going off because I moved this morning and is it ok to dry hop and possible transfer to secondary??

 

[RM-MN]

The pictures show that the beer is really cloudy yet and that couples with the krausen suggests to me that this beer is still actively fermenting. I would wait to dry hop until that krausen falls and the beer starts to clear.

 

[BeerLoverHere]

If you are in a hurry/impatient, it won't hurt much if you dry-hop now based on your data you gave from your FG reading; you will lose some aroma out through the airlock, but most of the fermentation is done and you won't lose all the hop aroma like you would if you threw them in before fermentation started. Most will stay behind.

if you are patient, let it ferment some more (warm-up the temps) and then throw the hops in primary in a few days; also, if you gently slosh your carboy from side to side, some of the krausen will fall; i'm sure some might say this could oxidize your beer, but I've never had a problem with this

 

[jcs401]

so, this brew is done and kegged. I am getting again, the damn off flavors i have had for almost every brew! Its extremely frustrating and hard to put into words. Its almost like alcholy, sour, and just not good! When smelled deeply it almost so strong and smells sour, strong, alcoholic and almost chokes you out! Any idea why i keep getting this, my routines are always by the book with extreme sanitation and ferment just around 62-65 degrees. I am wondering if could be that i never used a wort chiller and only ice bath to get down to about 75 degrees in about 30-40 min. I recently purchased a wort chiller could this help/be part of my problem? I use kits, so who knows how fresh ingredients i am getting also. so many things it could be but its getting me extremely frustrated. PLEASE HELP!!

 

[RM-MN]

Let your keg set out in the warm part of your house for a week or more. I think what you are noticing may be acetaldehyde and giving it some time where it is warm will allow the yeast to process that into alcohol.

 

[jcs401]

Well problem is I already force carbed the keg and is on my fridge. I just wish I knew why I keep getting this same off flavor. I mean, I can literally smell the hose that I used to transfer it from carboy to keg after being cleaned and still smells like that almost hot alcholy type smell?? I have a pale ale I am going to brew this weekend so before I do I really want to figure out why this keeps happening and how to get rid of it

 

[kombat]

Hot alcohol suggests fusels, which are the result of fermenting too warm. How certain are you of your fermentation temperature? When you say you fermented at 62-65° F, is that the room temperature, or the beer temperature?

Other than that, if you're sure your sanitation was fine (and I believe it probably was), then the other area I'd focus on would be the yeast pitch. How/how long did you aerate the wort? How much yeast did you pitch? How did you prepare the yeast prior to pitching?

 

[jcs401]

I put the fermenter in a swamp bath cooler then looked at the stick your thermometer on the glass Permenter and also use a thermometer to see the actual beer temp and it was right around 62 to 63° after about 24 hours I prepare the dry yeast by taking it out of the fridge letting it sit on the counter for a few hours to get up to room temperature then added into a Erlenmeyer flask with some water and let it sit right after I start my work on the rolling boil

 

[jcs401]

And I only pitched the yeast that came with the kit which was one packet not sure exactly how much was in that packet.

 

[kombat]

And aeration?

 

[jcs401]

I just used a drill with a wisk for about 5 minutes then put into glass carboy and rocked back and forth on my knees for another 4-5 minutes.

 

[kombat]

Then I don't know what to tell you. As I said, "hot alcohol" is usually characteristic of fusel alcohols, which are the product of fermenting too warm. I suppose it's possible your recipe was simply a little overweighted and resulted in more alcohol than intended, or your yeast fermented it down lower than expected (again, producing more alcohol), but it sounds like you did everything else correctly.

 

[jcs401]

Ya, it's very strange to me. I mean next brew I (pale ale) I guess I will try fermenting it in a fridge if I can make some room to ensure temp but I took beer temp after 34hrs in fermenter And was right around 62-63? I have yet to get a real aggressive fermentation so I'm wondering if that could be it?? I mean the airlock will very very slowly bubble and I usually leave on primary for just about 1 1/2 - 2 wks and then take three gravity reading to make sure fermentation is done, but could I just not be getting enough activity from the yeast to cause off flavors? My next brew I did order another packet of dry yeast, should I pitch both?

 

[kombat]

My next brew I did order another packet of dry yeast, should I pitch both?

Only if the calculations require it.

If I were you, I'd try brewing a nice, low-gravity ale without a lot of complexity. Put the fermenter in a swamp cooler and monitor the water bath temperature with a good thermometer. Calculate the correct amount of yeast to pitch (I use MrMalty), rehydrate properly, aerate thoroughly, and pitch. It sounds like you're already doing the main things correctly, I'm just wondering if doing a simplified recipe might help isolate the problem.

 

[jcs401]

Any suggestions on a nice simple recipe? Also I sanitize with tap water, I only use ro water for the wort and if I need to bring level up in carboy. Could that be an issue?? Gosh I really appreciate the help. If I didn't already have it kegged I would if lived to ship it to someone to distinguish exactly what the off flavor is!!

 

[jcs401]

This is the partial mash Oake ale kit that I am planning on this weekend. Please when you can take a look and see if the yeast is ok(I purchased an extra pack in case). What's a good fermentation temp for this recipe and also and do's and don'ts or things to be careful with this pale ale? Went out today a purchased a fridge so I can monitor exact ferment temps so I can eliminate fermentation as a possibility to this not so great off flavor I continue to get. Please keep the advice coming!!

 

[jcs401]

Sorry I meant "pale ale kit"