Designed an AG recipe - your thoughts

[bullfrog]

Don't think it's too hard, mate. And I'm sure you can get something going that isn't quite 'traditional,' in the true spirit of this hobby of ours!

[rotten]

just looked it up on google quickly , I do understand what you were gettin at. Will go for simplified version for today, should have enough bits in shed.
Cheers

[earle]

Earl what do you do in the passage for temperature control?

Upright freezer with fridgemate controller. The temps up here are suitable for brewing ales in winter and nothing in summer.

[drsmurto]

Speedie - The heat generated during fermentation is much less of an issue on a 20L scale than it is on a 400L scale.

Rotten - Using the californian yeast you are heading into steam ale territory. You could reuse the yeast and brew a steam ale, aka california common - Link

Do you have a chiller Rotten? I cant remember, caffeine levels are dangerously low.

If you do then just throw them in at flameout, whirlpool and leave for up to 10 mins before chilling.

If not then I am not sure what good a hopback would be, you may as well just dump them in the cube.

[rotten]

Just added Northern Brewer to the boil so were well and truly under way. Don't have a chiller, yet. I will put flowers in @ flameout, don't have a hop bag and have been too busy bottling, racking and brewing to make a hop back yet. I purchased 3.8 kg MO with 0.3 kg caramunich 1 yesterday, forgot recipes so just made it up on the spot. It would suit a californian common beer very well, great minds think alike doc. I have many hops to choose from, but haven't decided on anything other than Northern Brewer at this stage.
Cheers, time to check boil.

[rotten]

Thought I would supply an update. I ended up throwing the flowers in @ 10 mins as I had included them for bittering. I can normally drop a whole brew to temp in approx 2-3 hrs to pitch @ 20ish c. I dropped this one down to 15c, so it sat in sink overnight. I need a chiller.
I smacked the pack of wy 2112 and pitched @ 15 c. I didn't make a starter or wait for it to swell.
The wy-yeast site states it's temp range @ 14-20c, so is this a true lager yeast? bottom fermenting. I can't notice any action, only trub/hop debris on bottom of fermentor. I will be patient, although may increase temp to get things moving if needed in a few days.
Cheers

[rotten]

Question answered itself, shook fermentor a lot monday night in an effort to fire it up. By tuesday arvo it worked. It brought all of the saaz flowers to the surface in the process coz i didn't remove them, could they have slowed it down, I wouldn't have thought they would have. Temp still stable @ 15c.
Cheers

P.S. ever get the feeling you are talking to yourself?

[speedie]

I have ferment hopped before had good results
But in retrospect I think that it would be more beneficial to put in your hop in the secondary stage or conditioning time

During rapid fermentation the co2 extracts a lot of the desirable aromas from the brew
This is a comment from my brewing observations only

Hope that your brew is a killer batch
Speedie

[rotten]

Hope that your brew is a killer batch

I'm sure it will be. Will consider dry hopping in secondary, will not be scientific though, go by smell. I chill straight away so it should be fine.
On a side note I hit 80% efficiency, that's using a computer programme though. I was happy with it, extraction looked even and consistent.
Cheers

[speedie]

good one brewster!

[rotten]

Cheers (I think)

[speedie]

how has your batch turned out?

[rotten]

It's been in primary for 1 1/2 weeks, will rack to secondary tonight and cc in fridge. Smells great, might even pinch a taste when i rack.
Cheers

[speedie]

From what you have done it would appear that the ferment has gone on for too long
Given that you used a lager yeast and ferment at temperatures of 16 degrees

Correct me if I am wrong but you had issues with temperature control

As a word of advise if your brew has reached terminal gravity get it off the yeast bed asap don’t let it rest on the yeast this is common (good practice) for lager profile beer

Hope that the rest of your brew is to your expectations
Speedie the enigma

[Bum]

He's using wyeast 2112. The recommended temp range for this yeast is 14-20C. It is a cal common yeast and the temps he's said he's going to ferment at would be fine and I don't see how one and a half weeks would be "too long" to leave any beer in primary. What are your suggested ill effects?

[rotten]

Temp has been stable the whole time. Undecided whether to rack or not, SG is 1022, OG was 1050. If I rack, would it continue to ferment to at least 1012 if kept at ferment temp? raise temp after rack? or while in primary for a few days?
I think there are merits for both, but i haven't used this yeast before, and it is the main character after all.
Cheers

[speedie]

Rotten firstly which yeast did you use
Then check to see what attenuation the manufacture states
So let’s assume that it is for want of a better number 77% attenuation
Now if you can get your head around the math side of things
Use the residual of 100% minus 77% = 23%
Take your original gravity say 1047 (use the last two numbers of the reading) and multiply it by .23 to obtain your expected terminal reading
47 x .23= 10.81 or read off hydrometer 1008
Hope that this is not too hard to grasp
Man it took me freaking years of brewing and I am still learning!

[rotten]

What's 16.17 off the hydrometer? 49 multiplied by .33 = 16.17

Flocculation: high
Attenuation: 67-71%
Temperature Range: 58-68° F (14-20° C

from wy-yeast site
Cheers

[Bum]

Yeah, I had a crack at it myself. I got the same.

But you look at his hypothetical numbers - the supposed SG doesn't line up exactly with the calc either. Perhaps some brewer's black magic he didn't explain in the middle?

[speedie]

I do hope that your post wasn’t too take the piss
So let’s look at your predicament
Your OG was 1050 your yeast manufacture states 67 -71% attenuation
Now apply the math 50 multiplied (go for top end .71=100- 71=29%)
50 X .29 = 14.5 as read off hydrometer 1014
Expected alcohol = 1050-1014 / 7.5= 4.8%/volume