beer =[ GM's 1st 16x Batches, and/or 10 mo. Brewing ]=

[grantmichaels]

Thinking today could possibly be the day to take the blow-off assembly off and let it start to carb up in the keg ...
 
Once Danielle wake's up, I'll go and see how much activity there is in the sanitizer caddy, and if it seems like the time to, I'll throw a spunding valve on there ...
 
After an hour or two, it should have enough psi built up to let me take a gravity sample off the liquid post w/ a picnic tap ... oi.

 

[grantmichaels]

I was getting worried ... but it came, finally.

I didn't manage any pre-brew prep today, so it'll be an all day and night event tomorrow, but it's all good because I got the real work out of the away today so I'm without pressure ...

 

[grantmichaels]

The reason I double pitched yeast last time: http://braukaiser.com/blog/blog/2013/07/01/growth-over-roasted-malt-content/

 

[grantmichaels]

side-car spunding build before spunding pimping ...

now w/ balls ...

works great, but the beer's not done yet ...

still, though ... I'll check that off the todo list ...

 

[grantmichaels]

Update ...

Roused it, changed from 68 -> 70F, and am preparing a packet of us-05 and a little nutrient in two cans of fast pitch wort to krausen the beer with right before bed, or in the AM ...

That shit tasted good half-fermented, so now I'm intrigued ...

 

[grantmichaels]

When I pitched dry I was concerned ...

It really wanted to float ... and adhere ...

And the floating clear beer server didn't help matters - and it didn't need to be in there during primary whatsoever, in hindsight ...

After ferm slowed to a crawl, I made the starter I posted earlier ...

Lesson learned, I'll put dry yeast into solution before pitching going forward ... look at how nicely the stir-plate handles it comparatively!

Anyways, I'm going to let this batch go at room temp, which is low to mid-seventies where I've placed it ...

When I opened up the keg to pour in the starter to krausen the beer, what happened was obvious - a lot of the initial yeast was never in solution, it was on the float, and stuck to the walls well above the surface-line ...

It's next to my desk bubbling away now, again, so I'm going to let it go since it's not quite as hot out and my A/C's not struggling to maintain the temp (73F) ...

I have a good feeling that this one get's there in the end ...

* I put it in the chamber at 70F, the bubbles were going wild and bugging Danielle while she's watching her show ...

 

[Ozzy2001]

I was a little concerned too when you didn't rehydrate that.

 

[grantmichaels]

Yeah, their instructions actually offer the dry pitch option, so I though I'd KISS ... but, never again. I'll use a 400 mL can of wort, or at least stir it into 20x yeast's weight of cooled-pre-boiled water and some GoFerm ...

Live and learn, and, no big deal - I'm able to keep the O2 contact/interaction exceedingly brief using the keg-fermenter by using the spare co2 tank for flushing ...

Plenty of fresh yeast to deal w/ anything left, too ...

CHEERS!

 

[Ozzy2001]

I've read you don't need to make a starter with dry yeast. Actually there were suggestions to not make a starter because it can actually be harmful.

 

[grantmichaels]

Yeah, I ended up only using it to stir the yeast into solution for 90-100 mins or so, then I set it next to me at my desk for about the same amount of time and made sure it was beginning to ferment, and finally poured it in to do work in the beer ...

I'm about to go unplug the blow off and let the psi build for a few mins, enough to grab another gravity reading and taste it once more ...

After coffee =)

 

[grantmichaels]

Fermentation continues this morning, albeit pretty subtly already ...
 
I disconnected the blow-off and put 10 psi over-pressure on the headspace, and then took a sample from a second sample from a short picnic tap ...
 
It's still basically 16 Brix on the refractometer ...
 
It's 26B -> 16B on the r-meter ...
It correlates to 25P -> 14P in Plato readings common to brewer's ... or 6% ABV ...
 
One less Brix point on the r-meter would be equal to 3.5 additional points Plato, for instance ...
 
Two less Brix points (= 14B) on the r-meter would be equal to ~7-7.5 points Plato, and would be an ABV of ~10% ...
 
I'm going to let it continue for now, and then when it peters out tonight or tomorrow, I'll take a reading using an actual hydrometer as verification and decide whether or not to pitch some champagne yeast to finish up ...
 
Plug some numbers in here:
 
http://seanterrill.com/2012/01/06/refractometer-calculator/
 
The wort correction factor is said to mostly stay between 1.02 and 1.06, and the default in the calc is 1.04 ...
 
I plugged in the different numbers and the correction factor only adjusts the final ABV by tenths of a %, so the wort correction factor is likely less significant than how easily any reading can be seen in the meter imho ...
 
A final reading of 12.5 Brix in the refractometer would be the number that correlates w/ the predictions of the recipe in terms of Plato/ABV ...
 
The thing is, it tastes great, LOL ... so now I have to finish it out.

 

[grantmichaels]

I almost feel bad for the yeast for having to work in that highly unfermentable wort, lol ...
 
I stole a 5' segment of bevflex, so the blow-off length is long, and the interval between bubbles is a bit longer than usual - but I think the volume it burp's once it does, is correspondingly longer ...
 
Anyways, ferm continues, there's just not much in the way of vigor about it =)
 
I'm rocking the keg gently, in place in the chamber, to rouse the yeast a little and to release some of the excess CO2 ...
 
It'll make it far enough for kegging, for me, without requiring champagne yeast or brett or beano, I think ...
 
 
 
As soon as there are no more blow-off bubbles, I'll take an actual hydrometer reading to see where things are really at ...
 
I checked it this morning expecting that to be the case, but it's still going - just, slowly is all ...
 
 
 
Mmmm milkshake.

 

[JayT]

I don't know shit about brewing, that is Wheebz' deal, and apparently yours now too, but I tuned in to see how my beer turns out. I envisioned an Old Rasputin' with a little of the bhut taste, and the back, warm, glowing burn after the sweetness of the Russian Imperial Stout. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

[grantmichaels]

I don't know shit about brewing, that is Wheebz' deal, and apparently yours now too, but I tuned in to see how my beer turns out. I envisioned an Old Rasputin' with a little of the bhut taste, and the back, warm, glowing burn after the sweetness of the Russian Imperial Stout. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

 
I'll send you a bottle regardless, you just might have to open it straight away, and also, we might have to wait a little while before mailing it (so it's cooler on my end and to give me time to do some shit to mitigate the risks, possibly crashing the shit out of it and/or filtering the yeast out or whatever) ...
 
Then, you can open it in the shower ... I had to do that w/ those 5 yr old infected CCB Bolita Brown bottles, lol ...
 
So, I mean, you'll get to taste it, one way or another ...

 

[wheebz]

or you can just send it to me and ill give it to jay since he lives 15 minutes from me

 

[grantmichaels]

or you can just send it to me and ill give it to jay since he lives 15 minutes from me

 
i asked you to mail me your addy already
 
i haven't had any difficulty w/ co2 crap since i moved to barbs+clamps instead of 1/4" flare connections ...

 

[grantmichaels]

made an 800ml starter of US-05 earlier ...
 
in doing so i realized that while i've been buying the smallest size pouches available to me, they are actually the larger size in terms of what exists ...
 
they are 11.5g packets, not 5's ...
 
so, i've got a metric shit-ton (30-35g) of yeast in that beer already as two packets were direct-pitched and one went in after some hours on a plate ...
 
if i pitched this starter it would be 50g yeast in 3 gallon ... which is just lol st00pid ...
 
i might just brew something tomorrow despite being slammed with work ...
 
i've been thinking that there's really no good reason why i can't brew and work at the same time, really ... sure, i'll have to stop and start 3x times, an hour on followed by an hour off throughout the day - but fuck it ... i just assume bury it into work day's and keep my weekend day's brew-free, i think ...
 
so, anyways ... i'll brew something tomorrow late-night or thursday morning, i guess ...

 

[wheebz]

Just dump the us04/05 packets right in your beer. No need for starters. Us05 is my favorite American ale strain

 

[grantmichaels]

Just dump the us04/05 packets right in your beer. No need for starters. Us05 is my favorite American ale strain

 
It seems to ferment clean like the WLP001, so far ...
 
But, the granules ride the surface and get stuck to the walls of the inside of the corny and don't end up in solution ... the more you shake it, the higher they go up the walls, and the further from the water level ...
 
The stir plate does a good job of getting the yeast into solution, is all ...
 
But I'm not pitching this starter into that corny ...
 
That beer has 34.5g of fucking 05 in 3-3.5 gallons of wort/beer ... there's no shortage of yeast, it's an unfermentable wort ...
 
I made an unfermentable wort, knowingly, and it just is what it is ... the fermentation went for days, and ran out of fermentable sugars ... I pitched a krausening batch of 05, and it fermented for a half a day, because there were sugars in the starter wort, and ran out ...
 
I've read that Bourbon County finishes at 1.040+ ... I've read that the Zhukov is over 1.030-035 ...
 
I made one of those monsters, is all, I think ...
 
I can add something to put enzymes into it, beta amylase in particular, though ...
 
I actually have amylase at home, because it's useful for baking slider buns to keep them pillowy soft ... but that's alpha amylase, and without breaking down the longer chains, it's not going to budge ...
 
I figure I can pull out a sample into a jar, and sprinkle some sugar or dextrose into the sample jar and see if it ferments, to validate the yeast, but I don't think that's worth doing ... I trust the yeast is fine ...
 
It's the wort, it's stuck because I made it that way ... I did everything to make it that way ... added lactose, added maltodextrin, finished step at a huge-ass mash temp (158F) etc ...
 
I think I need to decide if I want to have the spicy milkshake of a stout of my dreams, or if I want to risk drying it out into some monstrosity by tinkering w/ the enzymes and/or pitching a yeast w/ additional capabilities (lager or brett, not champagne) ...
 
I'm considering taking some base malt and steeping it under 140F, but for over an hour for some pasteurization, and dumping that in with some yeast energizer to unstick it ...

 

[wheebz]

Won't work. The beer is what it is. You could use convertase. Will definitely finish lower, but it will go really low. I'd honestly try a champagne strain.