Homebrewers - Whats Fermenting?

[twenty5]

Quick question for you home brewers. I'm thinking of getting into this hobby, but I'm not as interested in doing large batches. I'm more interested in doing lots of smaller ones, so I can do lots of experimenting.

What consideration do I have to have for going to a smaller gal fermenter? Is it just less water, or do I have to adjust the whole recipe?

Thanks for any help you can give.

You have to adjust the whole recipe.

A little idea I came up with for an experiment sometime is to get 3, 2 Gal fermenters, brew up a 5 gal batch and seperate into the 3 containers. Then add coffees, wood etc to the different batches.. That way an experiment doesnt ruin all 5 gal..

 

[mthhurley]

Wilfred,

I use (and many do) brewing software to build recipes. My preference is called Brew Smith 2.0. Within that software you can scale a recipe down (or up) to any size you want. Most recipes you will find on the interwebs are built for 5 gallon batches, you would just plug them in as-is make 2 clicks to scale it down.

 

[wilfredsimpson]

Awesome. Thanks for the info. Just doing a little light reading on brewing and will dive into my new obsession, I mean hobby, soon

 

[smokinghole]

I suspect my wife has thrown out my bottle brushes. I had TWO, and used them last week. Now they're no where to be found! Some of the Belgian yeasts I use (mostly in saisons) I get this weird glazing or coating inside the bottles. It scrubs off but I have to clean it with a brush and I haven't found anything to remove it.

 

[smokinghole]

I've decided I'm doing a saison next weekend if the weather is agreeable. This will be another experiment where I add 20% acidulated malt to the mash in an effort to get a quick sour saison. My plan is to do my mash till conversion with 2% of the acidulated malt. Then after conversion I will add the remaining 18% of the acidulated malt. Hopefully it converts as well. Then I will boil and hop as normal. I will split the batch between my new favorite saison yeast ECY03 (brett spiked) and then I will grow up some Dupont yeast out of the bottle. If the Dupont yeast poops out due to a low pH environment I will add wyeast 3711. The reason for the 3711 back up is because that yeast is an animal. I think it will eat family pets if they get too close to the fermentor. Then as a plan C I have tons of different kinds of brettanomyces cultures in my house. If the non bretted portion of beer will not ferment due to the pH I will add some intense brett to finish the fermentation over time. The brett can tolerate a much lower pH than normal brewing yeasts. I can't wait.

Just added grains to my water for a 15-20 min protein rest. I will decoct 2.75 gal to raise my mash temp to 149. Then I will head to class pretty much. I will add the remainder of acidulated malt to the mash just before I leave since I should have at least 30 min of saccharification by the time I'm have to leave.

 

[smokinghole]

I think this should be fairly sour as a saison being how dry they are. A normal mash pH is around 5.2 my mash pH prior to sparge was 4.02. That's ten times more acidic than a typical mash. So if the pH drops in a somewhat linear relationship to a beer with out that much acid in the mash I should end up in the range of 3.0 pH final. That's unblended lambic sour my friends. So if I've taken this too far I'll have to make another batch of saison (terrible I know) to blend in and raise the pH and dilute the acid.

 

[Lorax429]

So if I've taken this too far I'll have to make another batch of saison (terrible I know)

You have my sympathies. You poor, poor bastard.....


:stretchgr

 

[smokinghole]

So I have a mini-satellite fermentation set up in a mason jar to monitor pH as it drops. I checked pH on that and it's already at 3.65. As that stands its already in the neighborhood of some legitimate sour beers.

 

[hossdawg]

Brewing a Scotish Wee Heavy with my first try at a yeast starter.

 

[smokinghole]

If you want any advice on the wee heavy feel free to ask. I brewed up a bruiser of a beer in november. I'm still hoping the gravity drops a little more to around 1.030. Depending on how high you try to get your gravity it may end up a touch sweeter than you hope for.

 

[hossdawg]

Took the OG at 1.090. Any advice would be great.

 

[smokinghole]

At 1.090 it should be fairly easy to deal with if using enough yeast. Just keep the temp in the low 60s to reduce ester formation. Also if you can stand it, a long period of cold conditioning will do it justice.

 

[danthebugman]

Well I finally brewed (if you wanna call it that) the Mr Beer kit my wife got me for Christmas. Pale Ale. Hopes aren't high for a great beer, but I'll see what I get.

Dan

 

[hossdawg]

I moved the primary to the basement which will give me from 60-65 degrees and I pitched a Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale in a yeast starter with 4 cups of water and 1 cup of DME on a stir-plate for 36 hours. This was also the first time using Fermcap.

At 1.090 it should be fairly easy to deal with if using enough yeast. Just keep the temp in the low 60s to reduce ester formation. Also if you can stand it, a long period of cold conditioning will do it justice.

 

[jonk]

Currently have the following all fermenting or bulk aging:
5 gallons apfelwein
1 gallon JAOM
1 gallon caramel apple cider
2 gallons American Pale ale

 

[mthhurley]

Got my Maibock kit from Midwest....was the freebie one from the Groupon.
My first lager kit so I'll probably do this next week or the following.

Opened my Irish Ale bottles from the Midwest deal tonight and it was pretty good. The first extract kit I'd ever done and was pretty impressed with what it came out as.

 

[smokinghole]

I still have to make my Irish kit.

 

[TreeFrog Frank]

Well I finally brewed (if you wanna call it that) the Mr Beer kit my wife got me for Christmas. Pale Ale. Hopes aren't high for a great beer, but I'll see what I get.

Dan

I like when Daniel posted on Facebook about this... and hinted that he has a better kit coming, etc... and his wife replied ... "Well, you're fucking welcome!"

:stickbeat

 

[Lorax429]

Do any of you guys have tips or tricks for controlling fermentation temps during the warmer months?

 

[BeerAdvocate]

Do any of you guys have tips or tricks for controlling fermentation temps during the warmer months?

I have a basment so it really doesnt effect me. I have heard other people put their fermenter in a closet or in one of those rubbermaid containers with water. You can put an old shirt over your fermenter and it will "whisk" the water up in order to keep it more cool.
These are they simple ways to do it without building a dedicated fermentation chamber with a temp controller