Couple of questions to ask

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Couple of questions to ask

Postby Awol71 » Saturday Aug 17, 2013 12:13 am

I've been brewing for about 10 years. All K&K stuff. A few hops here, a few grains there. Nothing special, but I love it. This year is the first time I have ever bulk primed. I put in 210g of dextrose for all the beer I've done lately. (10 batches, I only brew in winter in Brisbane. ) I do a few different beers.Light Pale Ales down to stouts. The problem I have is that the lighter the beer, the less carbonated it is. A nice dark roasty stout is about 1/3 creamy head. Which is what I reckon it should be. But the lighter the beer gets the smaller the head. It still feels carbonated in the mouth but is flat as a tack in the glass. The pales ales aren't too bad. The head lasts about half the drink. The mangrove jack blonde dry that I've done several of wont hold one at all. Whenever I've bottle primed each one in the years before they have all been perfect. Both in carbonation and retention. Using raw sugar.
The other thing on my mind is in these forums I've been reading that most brewers are not in favour of using kit yeasts. The only problem I have is that I don't have an old fridge or temperature controlling device to keep the fermentation at the required temperature that they reckon a better yeast should be at. (18-20 deg) I have a thermometer that I use to get the wort to roughly 20 deg then wrap it in a few towels and blankets for insulation. I only brew during winter up here when the temperature allows me.(and the missus) What yeast would work at a bit higher temperature that would improve the beer.
It's time for bed now. I'm on my 15th beer and its so hard to type on an iPhone with one finger with only one eye open. Plus I always think of something extra to say once I've typed in a long sentence. ( which I've had to add in brackets)
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby weizgei » Saturday Aug 17, 2013 12:29 pm

I don't reckon bulk priming will be having any effect on the head on your beer. I've both bottle and bulk primed and it makes no difference. Head retention comes down to a few things...certainly ingredients is a big one, try adding some wheat extract to your beers...buy a 1kg bag of wheat DME, add maybe 200gm to each beer, the protein in the wheat should give you a better head. Also the glass itself has a lot to do with it...if the glass is at all not clean, it'll kill the head...and if you clean it, but don't rinse well, the detergent still in the glass will also kill it. Some people say dishwashers are bad for beer glasses...but I find as long as you are using rinse aid (that blue stuff), your beer glasses should come out just fine.

As for the better yeast, something like US05 will actually perform better at the lower temps you get during a winter brew. If you're using a blanket to get it to 20...don't use the blanket...use whatever you need, if anything, to keep the beer at 18/19 degrees during fermentation, and you'll never use kit yeast again...
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Oliver » Saturday Aug 17, 2013 2:59 pm

I agree with weizgei. If you want to move away from the kit yeasts go for something like Fermentis Safale US-05. It's a fairly clean-fermenting ale yeast and is also quite forgiving of less-than-ideal fermentation temps. It'll ferment down to 12C (don't forget it will take a lot longer though and will ferment a lot cleaner at lower temps) and your beer won't be ruined if you ferment a bit on the warm side.

In addition, it comes in 11.5g sachets, which means billions more yeast cells than most kit yeasts can provide and will get your beer off to a good start.

Most homebrew shops will stock US-05. Make sure they keep it in the fridge though, and you should do the same until you use it.

There is an English ale equivalent of US-05, called S-04. This will result in more fruity flavours than US-05.
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby weizgei » Saturday Aug 17, 2013 5:33 pm

And at some stage give BRY-97 a try...it's generally $1-$2 cheaper than US-05, and gives very similar results...excellent, clean pale ales. I think it's like AMD processors vs Intel...usually 20% cheaper just 'coz of the David/Goliath thing that's going on.
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Awol71 » Saturday Aug 17, 2013 9:55 pm

Thanks guys. I'll give them a go.
As to my carbonation problem, I thought I would check I the insides a of my scales to see if anything had busted. They are pretty old and still measures in black and white. To my amazement I found that stuffed through a hole in the back was lollipop stick plus the arm and a leg of a little rubber smurf toy that came with the lollipop. I bought one for my little 4 y/o girl about 2 months ago. She denies knowing anything about it. When I put it back together and put a kilo bag of sugar on it, it magically weighed 1 kg. So I think about 80% of my beer I've made for the coming year is undercharged and flat. I think I'll make her sandwiches without butter until she turns 5. Might teach her a lesson about touching dads beer.
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Oliver » Saturday Aug 17, 2013 11:06 pm

That is the funniest post on this forum :-)
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Guru » Sunday Aug 18, 2013 9:04 am

Yes, great story. At least you now know why the beer is flat, problem solved.
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby weizgei » Sunday Aug 18, 2013 12:01 pm

That's hilarious. Where's the like button?!

It did strike me that 210gm of dex was a shit-ton of priming sugar for something to end up flat. If you have 23 litres of beer fermented at 19C, 210gm dex should give you a carbonation of around 3.2 vols. Waaay above what you'd normally prime a pale ale style to, and high even for something like a hefe. Try a calculator such as this: http://webspace.webring.com/people/ms/s ... lator.html next time you prime. Don't get too bogged down in what "Beer temp" means, there's lots of argument, which seems to end up agreeing (sort of) that it's the highest temperature your beer reached for any significant period during fermentation. i.e. if you're fermenting your beer at around 18, but it creeps up to 19 occassionally, just use 19.

That calculator will tell you that 23 litres of beer, fermented at 19C and carbonated to a 'normal' level of say 2.8 vols, would need only 177 grams of dex. Remember to use the volume of what you expect to go into your priming bucket...for example if you are fermenting 23 litres of beer, but you usually leave 1.5 litres behind for the trub, you only need to enter 21.5 litres in the calculator.
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Awol71 » Sunday Aug 18, 2013 1:43 pm

That sounds about right. I think I calculated it at about 7g a bottle instead of per litre. Lucky it was under weighed.

I think I could fill in another 10 pages of grief that my kids have caused me and my beer.
Last year she put red cordial in the air airlock to make a "fairy bubble drink". I don't know if the fairies liked it , but the 3 million ants did. Then the boys stuffed 2 pencil cases worth of pencils in one through the airlock hole. It sits up on a 5 foot high shelf. I'm buggered if I know how they get up there. I've got to stop before I start balling.
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby emnpaul » Sunday Aug 18, 2013 8:49 pm

Awol71 wrote:... the boys stuffed 2 pencil cases worth of pencils in one through the airlock hole...


That's pretty funny.

I don't suppose you got lucky and they turned out to be sanitised, toasted French oak pencils???

I was once mixing up a kit beer in my fermenter in the bath tub, which is adjacent the toilet, when my 4 year old daughter was busting for a poo and came running in and hopped on the toilet. Stuff like this being par for the course round here I thought nothing of it and ran out to the kitchen to get the kettle. When I came back my daughter had hopped off the toilet and was proceeding to stir the beer with her hand, just to help me out. So thoughtful. :(
2000 light beers from home.
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Awol71 » Sunday Aug 18, 2013 9:36 pm

It's amazing the things they do just trying to help.

Don't get me started things they've done to my fishing gear, tools, wallet, glasses, car keys.

I've been reading thru the forums this arvo about hops. I normally just thro in a 12-15g bag. Or combination a of a couple. Or dry hop an extra one. I see some people have been boiling about 25g for 20-30mins then add more with 10-15 to go. Does the 30min boil take out the flavour altogether,leaving the bitterness. Or do people like a hell of a lot stronger hop flavour than me. I've finished brewing for this year so I don't have a chance to test it out for myself.
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby morebeermark » Monday Aug 19, 2013 2:26 am

My kids are both adults now and all they've ever done is drive me to drink!
you've got to love them for that :roll:
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Oliver » Monday Aug 19, 2013 1:58 pm

Awol,

It seems like you're using the "tea bags" of hops that are available from some homebrew shops.

I would highly recommend buying hops in larger quantities in the vacuum-sealed foil packets and using them instead. There are several reasons for this: they are likely to be fresher and have been kept in a fridge, it will be cheaper (I pay about $6-$8 for 40g), and you can split the additions into smaller lots if you like, so some for bitterness early, some for flavour at 5-20 mins and some for aroma at 0 mins or dry hopped.

If you're worried about the loose hops clogging your little bottler buy a hop bag.

Yes, a 30-min boil would contribute just bitterness. Flavour and aroma will be boiled off.

Don't be shy with late additions. A lot of people add at least 1g/litre late. Personally, I think that for some styles this isn't enough and I'd go 1.5g or 2g/litre at the end of the boil or as a "french press" (hops in a coffee plunger, leave for 15 mins then plunge and pour the liquid into the fermenter a few days into fermentation).

Cheers,

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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby weizgei » Monday Aug 19, 2013 4:38 pm

I really like the chart below, while it's not 'exact', it's a great representation of what your hops should add to your beer at any given boil time. As you can see, 30 minutes is about where bitterness and flavour cross over, at approximately 50%. What this means is that you're only extracting 50% of the bitterness out of the hop at that time, and 50% of it's flavour contribution has been boiled off. This is why you won't see a lot of recipes with 30 minute hop additions, you're losing half of what you want out of your hops (and aroma is well and truly gone by that stage).

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7S56lQUpggqODk3X2dTaFZuVjQ
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Awol71 » Tuesday Aug 20, 2013 1:37 am

If I boiled about 20-25g for only 10-15 mins, then put the same amount in at the end would that intensify the flavour too much. I usually just steep a bag for 20mins before throwing it in. Sometimes if I use two of the same or combination they can be too sweet or two grassy depending on which I use. 1 bag mostly seems enough for me but I'm just finding out info. Seeing I use kits I've chosen the ones I use based on bitterness so there is really no need for me to add anymore.

Thanks guys or geiz for the tips and links. They've been answered exactly how I need them to be. (No technical terms) I've never worried about getting too much into it but when I brew again when it cools down again next year, all my shitheads, I mean kids will be at school so ill have a bit more time to work on my beer. Just need to put up that electric fence for when I'm at work and it all should be good.
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Oliver » Tuesday Aug 20, 2013 7:13 pm

Hi Awol,

Depending on the hop, 20-25g would add a heap of bitterness at 10-15 minutes. I haven't got BeerSmith or anything else handy to know exactly how much.

But as an example, an all-grain porter I made recently had 23.0g Willamette (4.90 % AA) added to the boil at 10 minutes, which added 4.2 IBUs. (Let's assume your kit beers are, say, 25-40 IBU to start. This thread will give you a bit of an idea about the IBUs of different Coopers tins). Bear in mind most hops are much higher AA so will contribute more bitterness in a full-volume boil. But you are not boiling at final gravity so the amount of bitterness extracted will be less.

There are some free options for brewing software. Check out this thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10302

You might find that dry hopping contributes grassiness, depending on the hop.

Glad we've been able to help.

Cheers,

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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Awol71 » Tuesday Aug 20, 2013 10:19 pm

Thanks Oliver,

The main beers I do are the Coopers Aussie & English bitter aswell as stout. The bitterness of them is pretty much up there so I'll probably keep the hops just for flavour. I steep them for 20 mins before throwing them in so that seems to take out the grassiness. I also do a Mangrove Jack Dry Blonde with Galaxy hops. (mmm passionfruit) I seem to be getting a taste for those dry beers. I tried a Canadian blonde with the dry enzyme. Tasted like someone put nail polish remover in it. Come to think of it, my bloody kids probably did!
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Re: Couple of questions to ask

Postby Tony230474 » Monday Sep 14, 2015 12:44 am

Hi all
I'm new to home brewing
I've just got a diy coopers larger kit
It contains enhencer 1 and carbonation drops
What would you recommend in place of the enhencer
And I was wondering what's the best suger to use for bottling
Derma , caster or white
sry I've no room for a keg
Thx from uk
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