Fermentation Leftovers

[maestro]

I am going to be racking my beer from my primary fermenter this weekend.

I was just wondering if there is any use for the gunk at the bottom of the fermenter? I know most of the yeasties in there are probably still ok and it would have some residual flavours from the previous brew.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Chris]

You can put a new beer on top, make bread, or my personal favourite- give the garden a feed.

[Kevnlis]

It is great forthe compost bin/veggie patch, whatever you have. You can wash it with cooled boiled water if you feel confident in your sanitation, this will allow you to ferment another beer without bringing flavours along.

[maestro]

Righto then......garden chow it is!

[Chris]

It's also really good if you have a septic/envirocycle sytem. Keeps them happy apparently.

[dregs]

It's also really good if you have a septic/envirocycle sytem. Keeps them happy apparently.

Mine goes to the lemons trees and just to compliment it have a good slash on top.

Bit of a hijack, but does anyone know if worms in a worm farm would like the leftover steeped grains, or for that matter the used hops?

beers

[inark]

So you can just throw it right on the garden? wont kill the plants? awesome... will use it on my lemon and lemon mertyle tree.

[Brendo1]

When you add another beer on top of a previous yeast cake, and the fermentor is...well its still got the last beer in it so im fairly confident its sanitary, can you simply bottle your beer open the lid and put the next brew in?

[matr]

Yep.. You may get some flavour transfer to the next brew and some colour transfer if going from darker to lighter brews.

Otherwise keep a cup full of the slurry / clean fermenter / add new brew then pitch the yeast.

It is obviously quicker & easier to just pitch a new brew straight on the cake though.

[inark]

do any of the flavours get passed on if you used hops?

ie. i have a thomas coopers wheat beer down at the moment where i used fuggles and goldings pellets... so if i add a thomas coopers pils on top of it with the saaz pellets will the taste from the goldings and fuggles also be passed on?

[drsmurto]

The theory of infinite dilution suggest you will.

In reality, as long as you rack of almost all of the liquid you will be fine.

In saying that there are a few simple rules to follow.

Start with a lighter colour/flavoured beer and work your way progressively stronger/darker.

Not sure i would dump a subtle beer like a pilsner onto a wheat beer (and lets not even start with why you would add english hops to a wheat beer). I doubt the yeasts used for each kit is the same either. Doesnt the thomas coopers pilsner come with a lager yeast. I would use that yeast if thats the case rather than the generic hybrid or wheat yeast that comes with the wheat beer.

You would be better off starting with the pilsner, then make a simple ale and then move onto something bigger/hoppier.

The key is to make sure the yeast you are using is suited to the beer you are making.

Cheers
DrSmurto

apologies mods, my coffee plunger broke and i'm on the instant stuff and its not doing much for me....

[gregb]

Doesnt the thomas coopers pilsner come with a lager yeast.

Yes. See the sticky around here somewhere and also the blurb in the lid.

apologies mods, my coffee plunger broke and i'm on the instant stuff and its not doing much for me....

When the choice is no coffee, instant is forgivable, and plungers are reasonably cheap and available.

[Brendo1]

If you add a new beer onto the last beers yeast cake, would you expect some fermentation action straight away?

I did a blackrock EIPA with brewcraft #15 1kg and brewcraft ldm 500g, safale s04 yeast. SG 1080 FG 1011
After bottling that I added on top of it a CPA with 1kg brew enhancer 2 and 500g coopers ldm. SG 1041...>?

Firstly I thought it was strange that the second beer, using what I thought was identical ingredients came up with a much lower SG, I started looking around at my empty packets trying to work out if I had forgotten something. Then maybe the SG reading on the first brew was wrong...beats me. I would have thought a brew with 1.5kg of fermentables would end up around 7% or less, my caculations put my first brew at around 9.5...If thats possible.

Secondly my problem is the spring water I used was sitting out the front of my house in the sun and after everything was in the fermentor the temperature was close to 30 degrees I cranked up the a/c put some ice blocks on top of the fermentor next morning had it down to about 22 and dropping, aiming for 18. Would temperatures up around 30 kill safale s04? The packet said 16-24 degrees on it or something like that which I would guess is optimal fermentation temperature but again, I could be wrong...Reckon my yeasties are dead? I could just chuck the CPA kit yeast in there on top if I dont get any action...kinda defeats the purpose of using the safale s04 yeast cake though...

[drsmurto]

30C wont kill the yeast.

I like to keep my starters in the 27-30C range as thats the temp they prefer for breeding.

[svyturys]

apologies mods, my coffee plunger broke and i'm on the instant stuff and its not doing much for me....

Do what the some of the Europeans do...bypass the plunger...just drop your boiling water onto the coffee in the mug. The plunger's too much like racking as far as I'm concerned.http://homebrewandbeer.com/forum/postin ... f=2&t=8739#

I'm thinking of dropping a CPA + BE2 (hops undecided) onto CPA + BE2 slurry that will be finished with Glacier Hop pellets.
What do people think will happen?
What if I use Saaz hops...will the slurry have enough hop flavour to make any difference?
Cheers

[inark]

The theory of infinite dilution suggest you will.

In reality, as long as you rack of almost all of the liquid you will be fine.

In saying that there are a few simple rules to follow.

Start with a lighter colour/flavoured beer and work your way progressively stronger/darker.

Not sure i would dump a subtle beer like a pilsner onto a wheat beer (and lets not even start with why you would add english hops to a wheat beer). I doubt the yeasts used for each kit is the same either. Doesnt the thomas coopers pilsner come with a lager yeast. I would use that yeast if thats the case rather than the generic hybrid or wheat yeast that comes with the wheat beer.

You would be better off starting with the pilsner, then make a simple ale and then move onto something bigger/hoppier.

The key is to make sure the yeast you are using is suited to the beer you are making.

Cheers
DrSmurto

apologies mods, my coffee plunger broke and i'm on the instant stuff and its not doing much for me....

oh ok i understand now... not as simple as i thought it was.
the wheat beer with the english hops had a belgian style yeast... was a very basic attempt at a belgian beer... smells the goods... but had alot of weird stuff ive never seen before in the fermenter.

i think i will do what you said and wait until after ive made this Pils with the Saaz pellets and use that to make some sort of IPA if that will work.

[drsmurto]

oh ok i understand now... not as simple as i thought it was.
the wheat beer with the english hops had a belgian style yeast... was a very basic attempt at a belgian beer... smells the goods... but had alot of weird stuff ive never seen before in the fermenter.

i think i will do what you said and wait until after ive made this Pils with the Saaz pellets and use that to make some sort of IPA if that will work.

What were you smoking at the time?

Problem with using the yeast from a pilsner kit is that it may actually be a lager yeast (it does happen occasionally, more often than not its a generic ale yeast or a has a split personality in the case of the coopers yeasts) which isnt really what you want to use in an IPA.

If you are just using kit yeasts why would you bother saving the yeast? You get a new one with each kit!

Reusing yeast is meant for those spending money on a good yeast. Have a read of the the liquid yeast starters post if you are keen.

[inark]

lol it was a cut down version of a recipe i found on here which said to use a wheat beer extract and add those hops and corriander and some grains and other things but im not ready to do grains yet so i just added the hops and belgian yeast (WB06 or something from memory) as well as some crushed corriander and honey.

nah theyre not kit yeasts theyre ones i got from the brew shop... generally $5 a pack. I have safale in the fridge now for the pilsner extract i was going to make (only because i was told the yeast in the kit was what you said and as the weather was hotting up i thought it would be best to get an ale yeast) so i assume that would be ok for IPA if i brew right on top of the pilsner?

[drsmurto]

Pilsner wont taste anything like a pilsner brewed at ale temps with an ale yeast..... just in case you didnt know that already.

I have mates who still call there beers pilsners despite the fact they are actually using kit yeasts at ale temps........

Safale - S-04 or 05 are good yeasts for IPAs etc so yes, you can repitch onto the yeast cake in this case.

[inark]

Yeah well thats what i thought but when i was at the brew shop he told me that they basically have an ale yeast in em anyway so i thought why have a standard ale yeast when i can use a safale?

lol

obviously not the best of my ideas in hindsight... i might go back and get a proper Lager yeast unless i have some packets in my freezer already.