Homebrewers - Whats Fermenting?

[BrewinHooligan]

Primary only, no secondary. 3 weeks total counting 6 day dry hop. 63 degrees for two weeks and 65 for the final week. The batch I have fermenting now I raised the fermenter temp to 65 and will hold it there for two weeks.

From my personal experience, us-05 works best around 68f. After the first 4-5 days I will let it rise to room temp which is usually 75f. Usually I'm two weeks in primary, then package for standard abv beers. IPAs get an extra week for dry hopping. I always try to crash cool/clear the beer as well before packaging to minimize the amount of yeast in the bottles or keg. That being said us-05 is very versatile and can work well at a pretty broad temp range. At the temps you were at I have heard people say the yeast throws a peach flavored ester which could potentially work well in a fruity beer. I still to this day taste samples all throughout the process to monitor things and can take action if something isn't going as planned. If you pitch the proper amount of yeast at the right temperature you would be amazed at how fast you can turn a beer grain to glass. I have heard of people brewing English Milds and having them force carbed in a keg ready to drink in 5 days, the lower the abv, the faster the turn time.

 

[Lezanstar]

From my personal experience, us-05 works best around 68f. After the first 4-5 days I will let it rise to room temp which is usually 75f. Usually I'm two weeks in primary, then package for standard abv beers. IPAs get an extra week for dry hopping. I always try to crash cool/clear the beer as well before packaging to minimize the amount of yeast in the bottles or keg. That being said us-05 is very versatile and can work well at a pretty broad temp range. At the temps you were at I have heard people say the yeast throws a peach flavored ester which could potentially work well in a fruity beer. I still to this day taste samples all throughout the process to monitor things and can take action if something isn't going as planned. If you pitch the proper amount of yeast at the right temperature you would be amazed at how fast you can turn a beer grain to glass. I have heard of people brewing English Milds and having them force carbed in a keg ready to drink in 5 days, the lower the abv, the faster the turn time.

Good info there thanks. The reason I chose 63 was twofold. 1-the safale website listed the optimum ferment temperature as 59-71 so I tried to stay on the lower side because of reading all the warnings of fermenting too high. 2-I don't have a ferment chamber yet. My spare bedroom closet maintains a fairly constant temperature that I can control by opening/closing the register in that room. Closed is around 63 and open is around 65. These are ambient temps obviously and I checked the fermenter temps twice daily with a heat gun. They never got above 2 degrees over ambient. And I can lower another 2 degrees by setting the fermenters on the floor instead of being elevated.
Long story long I should be able to get them up to 68 if I move them to a different room.
I have a blonde ale fermenting now and will only leave in primary two weeks (1.041 OG). I plan to add a small (1oz) dry hop addition to half of the batch in a week and bottle in two weeks from pitch.

I am brewing a Wit tomorrow and will be my first time using this strain of yeast. WLP400. What temperature do you recommend? Their site says 67-73 I think. Was planning on 70 in a water bath with an aquarium heater.

 

[HIM*]

I used to use US05 for everything but it can behave really random sometimes plus it flocs out like shit. IMO I'd switch to Nottingham particularly with that ferm temp. Notty ferments super clean and flocs out so much better. It's also a great yeast for cider too.
WLP 400 is a great yeast for Wits. Start it around 68 then after the fermentation starts to slow let it rise up to 75f on its own. This lets you get a clean fermentation and favors the esters you want as the ferm temp warms.

 

[jasonsbeer]

WLP400 is good stuff. I used to brew Witbier quite often and that was my go to yeast. I always fermented in the 69-71 range with good results.

 

[Lezanstar]

I'll pick up some Notty for a future brew and try it out. It is a dry yeast as well? I assume it is a relatively neutral flavor?

 

[MoldMan]

Primary only, no secondary. 3 weeks total counting 6 day dry hop. 63 degrees for two weeks and 65 for the final week. The batch I have fermenting now I raised the fermenter temp to 65 and will hold it there for two weeks.

Give it another week or two and shift your dry hop. You'll be golden, your beer will be clearer and cleaner. Your actual ferm temp was probably a little higher than you thought.

My go to yeasts were S-04 and saflager s23.

 

[Lezanstar]

Give it another week or two and shift your dry hop. You'll be golden, your beer will be clearer and cleaner.

4-5 weeks primary then a week dry hop? Why did you quote the post with the wort chiller?

 

[HIM*]

I'll pick up some Notty for a future brew and try it out. It is a dry yeast as well? I assume it is a relatively neutral flavor?

Yea it's a dry yeast. Very clean and neutral, attenuates about the same as US05 and doesn't kick off as much sulfur which is nice lol. Your temp range is right in its wheelhouse too.

 

[MoldMan]

4-5 weeks primary then a week dry hop? Why did you quote the post with the wort chiller?

Accident. Try to reply on my phone.
I was a fan of 4 weeks min on all ales then dry hop and crash cool. But I'm lazy. Some of my lagers were on tap at 4 weeks (5gal) while the rest chilled for a few months. S23 works very well up to 60 deg F. For steam beer, Alt bier and cream ales. Drop it down to 48, let it rise to 52 and it makes a real nice clean crisp lager.

 

[HIM*]

I'm not one to rush beer but having said that when it's done it's done as well. Old Rasputin goes grain to bottle in like 2 weeks, how I don't know it's amazing. Generally I wait 3 weeks and by then it's usually been flocced out for a good bit. This doesn't necessarily mean I'd consider the beer "ready" though. Somewhere around 2 months is where the malt profile starts to hit its stride in most beers IMO. Of course this doesn't really apply to IPAs and stuff. One way or the other though it doesn't matter if the time is spent in a keg/bottle or fermenter it's going to take the same time to mature.

 

[Lezanstar]

Finished my first Wit last night. Anticipated 70% efficiency and actually got 80% so the OG is a bit higher. Not a bad thing in my mind! Bubbling away at a solid 70. That yeast kicked off super fast. My first time with liquid.

 

[jasonsbeer]

Finished my first Wit last night. Anticipated 70% efficiency and actually got 80% so the OG is a bit higher. Not a bad thing in my mind! Bubbling away at a solid 70. That yeast kicked off super fast. My first time with liquid.

Nice. Did you make a starter or did you just dump the bottle in?

You must be doing BIAB now?

 

[Lezanstar]

Nice. Did you make a starter or did you just dump the bottle in?

Was this from a kit or are you doing BIAB?

BIAB all grain. The yeast was one of those new pouches and I pitched directly. Havent acquired the equipment to make a starter yet. According to the yeast calculator I used, it should have enough viable cells since this is a fairly low gravity wort (1.049).

 

[BrewinHooligan]

BIAB all grain. The yeast was one of those new pouches and I pitched directly. Havent acquired the equipment to make a starter yet. According to the yeast calculator I used, it should have enough viable cells since this is a fairly low gravity wort (1.049).

A stir plate isn't necessary for starters. I use anything from used PET plastic juice jugs to growlers. Don't use a lid, use a piece of sanitized aluminum foil to cover and pick up and swirl constantly for a few days. Make a simple starter wort of 1.030 gravity. Works really well although I will be getting or making a stir plate pretty soon as it is more effective and faster.

 

[Lezanstar]

A stir plate isn't necessary for starters. I use anything from used PET plastic juice jugs to growlers. Don't use a lid, use a piece of sanitized aluminum foil to cover and pick up and swirl constantly for a few days. Make a simple starter wort of 1.030 gravity. Works really well although I will be getting or making a stir plate pretty soon as it is more effective and faster.

I have a few questions about this as I haven't researched it yet. How much wort do you add? How do you know when it's ready? How do you determine the number of active cells? Do you just pout the entire starter into your fermenter or do you have to decant a portion that is no longer viable?

 

[Hopduro]

Making starters is the best thing you can do for your beer (right next to fermentation temp control). I now overbuild my yeast starter, aka make it larger, so I can save a portion for future batches. This saves me money on yeast in addition, I don't have to go through the shitty process of yeast washing.

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[BrewinHooligan]

I normally do a 1 liter starter. If I plan enough in advance I have the starter going for 3 days, then stick in the fridge for 2. Then decant most of the starter wort and let the yeast rise to the temperature you plan to pitch, then dump it all in. If I'm in a hurry and don't have time to fridge and decant I pitch the whole starter into my wort at high krausen. Haven't had any issues or off flavors from this method. If I'm making a really big beer I will do a two stage starter. First stage at 1 liter, then step up to 2 liters following the decant /pitch method. It's time consuming but save $ on yeast

 

[Hopduro]

I normally do a 1 liter starter. If I plan enough in advance I have the starter going for 3 days, then stick in the fridge for 2. Then decant most of the starter wort and let the yeast rise to the temperature you plan to pitch, then dump it all in. If I'm in a hurry and don't have time to fridge and decant I pitch the whole starter into my wort at high krausen. Haven't had any issues or off flavors from this method. If I'm making a really big beer I will do a two stage starter. First stage at 1 liter, then step up to 2 liters following the decant /pitch method. It's time consuming but save $ on yeast

I've had really good luck with stirred starters, I pitch them at high krausen after only 24 hours, wort and everything, saving a little under half for the "saved wort".
I agree with your statement, no off flavors. You're dumping in a relatively negligible amount of water. Use a very light DME and you'll have no color influences either.

*I should mention my line of work makes stir plates easy to come by

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[Hopduro]

One more thing, fermcap, anti foaming agent, is awesome for big starters. You can fill up a 2L flask to the brim and it won't foam over with that stuff!

Works amazing while boiling wort too and preventing the use of a blow off tube.

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[HIM*]

I'm pretty sure the standard is 100g DME to 1L of water IIRC. However something I like to do is sparge an extra 1/2 gal off the mash and boil it down to 1L. I pitch my starters at high krausen so I'd rather use runnings from the beer I'm making vs plain DME since I'm adding the whole starter wort. It's worked well for me.
Stir plates are great but not a necessity. You pretty much only need them for liquid strains and occasionally propagating slurry into a good pitch IME. I love mine but can think of better aspects of the process to invest in first, like an oxygen wand. That being said a lot of crafty guys make their own.