Brewing & bottling misadventures

[undercover1]

What a weekend. If not for copious quantities of brown ale & the first dig into the batch of Cooper's Pale Ale with 40g of Hallertau (insanely good, by the way) I do not know how I would have coped.
First off , a word to the wise. The orange/gold caps that are on sale at Australian Winemakers in North Melbourne are very tricky and difficult to use. They must be made of a higher gauge of sheet metal. I nearly fractured my wrist getting them on, and this was using a recently cleaned & oiled Super Automatica! I do not know if a hand capper would get them on at all.
Secondly, having run out of carb drops, I tried my hand at priming with dextrose. Lost three bottles due to the huge foam rush that ensued every time I dosed, could not get caps on them quickly enough. Dissolved dextrose works well for bulk priming, but I ended up priming the rest of my bottles using standard white sugar.
Third, I started a batch of bitter. All as usual- can of mix, Cooper's BE2, a bit of extra light DME, stir well, top up to 23l at 20oC & pitch yeast. No action from the airlock 4 hours later, so I sat the fermenter on a heat pad & went to bed. In the morning- still nothing. No bubbles, no krausen, no airlock action. Pitched another sachet of yeast in and left it for two hours. Still nothing. In desperation I poured out a longneck of Cooper's Pale, added the sludge to a warm water & dextrose mix, stirred & waited an hour then pitched that in. (AND I had to drink the Coopers, at 9.00am on Sunday!)Still nothing. At around midday I sterilised the mash paddle, gave everything in the fermenter a good stir, sealed it, swore at it & walked away. Has this ever happened to anyone else? A perfectly good brew that for some reason decides not to play? Three doses of yeast should be enough to kickstart anything.

Finally, I put 2.2 litres of lager in a Darwin Stubby with 6 carbonation drops, and am happy to takes bets on whether or not it will explode before drinking in December!

[simonb]

undercover
I have used those caps from Australian Winemakers (in nth melb) and not had that problem

But I have had a huge problem with priming using dex, with way to much foam happening - an my las few brews have been under carbonated as a result

[peterd]

> Secondly, having run out of carb drops, I tried my hand at priming with dextrose. Lost three bottles due to the huge foam rush that ensued every time I dosed, could not get caps on them quickly enough.

More assiduous combing of the pearls in this forum would have saved you three bottles. You can, of course, dissolve the dextrose in water and add it to each bottle individually, but this requires careful measurement, calculation and attention to detail: none of which are amongst my forte! (but I have non-the-less done it).

> Finally, I put 2.2 litres of lager in a Darwin Stubby with 6 carbonation drops, and am happy to takes bets on whether or not it will explode before drinking in December!

Assuming that you left a reasonable headspace, I would be happy to bet that it will be OK (underhand dealings from undercover not-withstanding). Of course, my optimism is based in large part on the expected relative scarcity of warm days in Melbourne between now and then! You must be amongst the few actually looking forward to global warming

[Guest]

Secondly, having run out of carb drops, I tried my hand at priming with dextrose. Lost three bottles due to the huge foam rush that ensued every time I dosed, could not get caps on them quickly enough. Dissolved dextrose works well for bulk priming, but I ended up priming the rest of my bottles using standard white sugar.

Wasn't there a recent thread about the pros and cons of bulk priming? I think this would classify as one of the "issues".

Third, I started a batch of bitter. All as usual- can of mix, Cooper's BE2, a bit of extra light DME, stir well, top up to 23l at 20oC & pitch yeast. No action from the airlock 4 hours later, so I sat the fermenter on a heat pad & went to bed. In the morning- still nothing. No bubbles, no krausen, no airlock action. Pitched another sachet of yeast in and left it for two hours. Still nothing. In desperation I poured out a longneck of Cooper's Pale, added the sludge to a warm water & dextrose mix, stirred & waited an hour then pitched that in.

Isn't it a bit too cold to be doing Ales at the moment? I've been messing around with trying to make starters from Coopers Sparkling Ale, but have found that I got practically no action... and I'm assuming it is because it is just too cold.

Not particularly knowledgable about these things, but I would have thought a lager yeast would be acceptable in a bitter and would of course, suit winter temperaturs more.

[undercover1]

More assiduous combing of the pearls in this forum would have saved you three bottles. You can, of course, dissolve the dextrose in water and add it to each bottle individually, but this requires careful measurement, calculation and attention to detail: none of which are amongst my forte! (but I have non-the-less done it).

Not my forte either. As I say, I will save the dex for bulk priming. Which, of course, I should have done, but I was being lazy.

Isn't it a bit too cold to be doing Ales at the moment? I've been messing around with trying to make starters from Coopers Sparkling Ale, but have found that I got practically no action... and I'm assuming it is because it is just too cold.

Perhaps, but the heat pad evens things out. And I brew indoors, not in a shed etc, so the brews do not get too cold.

I have used those caps from Australian Winemakers (in nth melb) and not had that problem

Hmmm this was one of the most puzzling aspects of the whole weekend. The little buggers take twice the pressure to get sealed. I whacked a few of my standard gold tops on some empties to make sure that it wasn't a problem with the capper- no problem.

[undercover1]

Well, I went back to the brewery and checked this son of a bitch last night.
Slow bubbles from the airlock led me to believe it had sorted itself out, but the hydrometer only showed a drop from 1045 to 1040. This is after nearly a week! With three doses of yeast!
Turned the heat pad back on, gave it a swirl, swore at it again and left.

[undercover1]

And by Saturday morning it had all come good.
SG reading down to 1030. Krausen been & gone. Good consistent bubbling.
About time.

[Guest]

bloody long lagtime though undies. any signs of infection due to this?

[undercover1]

No, nothing. Fermenter was sanitised and only opened twice (briefly) after the initial pitching, so I would expect it to be OK.
One of the advantages of not brewing at home, in the shed or wherever is it reduces the opportunity and hence the temptation to fiddle with working brews. The brewery is a couple of kilometers from home, and I only go there once or twice a week, often just for 10 minutes or so, unless there is major bottling or cleaning to be done.
And it means there is plenty of undisturbed temperature-stable space for the brews, both working and bottled, to sit around in in peace and quiet.