Back with a yak

[surly]

Hey folks,

I joined up here a few years back. Did 3 kit brews then moved house and had no room for brewing anymore.
After a recent move, I have now got the fermenter bubbling away for the first time since 2007 (I think). Am much more excited this time around than I was back then too, must be the brilliant smells of Nelson Sauvin and Cascade wafting from the airlock. So excited!

Anyway, partly using this to record my brew progress and to say hi.

Brew: Fat Yak style from brewcraft.

OG: 1.045

Started 18/3/13 @1800hrs
Need to add the second half of the cascade after 4 days.


Just a quick question, when I add the rest of the hops pellets, do I crumble them up? or just scatter on top?
Also, I would love to hear sugestions of good kit brews to try. Especially looking for something a bit darker than the yak, but still with some nice floral/fruity hops

Thanks for taking the time to read,

Tim.

 

[Rowy]

A small hop sock and a large marble inside do the trick for me. We used to call them stonkers at school. Cleaned and sanitised of course.

 

[GuyQLD]

Pellets will break up fairly readily. Just throw them in about 4 days before you bottle. If anything I'd leave it a bit longer before I tossed them in personally. But I usually primary for a minimum of 2 weeks and don't like to dry hop for more than a couple of days.

Just a personal preference. As long as primary is mostly over you're OK but I find this to be a fairly safe way of dry hopping with any hop; especially those styles known for going grassy.

 

[amcqueen]

Yeah I'd wait until at least 7 days... Or in your case until that airlock stops... Chuck em right in and leave for at least 5 days. No need to crush. Pellets will dissolve and sit on top. Usually these hops will drop to the bottom and your good to go

 

[Rowy]

Yeah I'd wait until at least 7 days... Or in your case until that airlock stops... Chuck em right in and leave for at least 5 days. No need to crush. Pellets will dissolve and sit on top. Usually these hops will drop to the bottom and your good to go

Airlock stopping means jack shit I'm sorry. Particularly if you are trying to infer that this means fermentation has stopped or for that matter started. You also contradict yourself............do they sit on top or drop to the bottom?

 

[technobabble66]

Hey surly
my first ever brew was in december a few months ago & it was the brewcraft Fat Yak clone (it was #1, are you doing this one or #2?). It worked fantastically - my mates thought it was as good as the original & said they'd happily pay for it (i'm working on that...).

OG = 1.042
FG = 1.012

Dry hopped at day 4. Just poured the pellets in the top. I was told the hops float at the top for a while & do their thing, then slowly drop to the bottom (along with the krausen i guess - about when its ready to bottle)
The airlock stopped bubbling after day 5.

The aroma was amazing on day 4-5 with the few bubbles coming out of the airlock. However, by bottling time (day 10) it seemed to lack the oomph of the original aroma.

I'd suggest dry hopping a few days later (as per QLDGuy) - say day 6-7 - so the last bit of bubbling fermentation doesn't scrub out your yummy hoppiness.


The other brew i've done a couple of months ago was brewcraft's Little Creatures Pale Ale - i modified it a fair bit though: added 25g Galaxy to dry hop, & steeped & added 150g medium Crystal malt. It's awesome, though the passionfruit from the Galaxy is quite prominent & rather different to the original. I'd definitely use some steeped speciality grains in any future brew to "fill out" the body of the brew kit beer. The LCPA is great if you don't mind the cost, especially if you like hops aroma.

 

[amcqueen]

Airlock stopping means jack shit I'm sorry. Particularly if you are trying to infer that this means fermentation has stopped or for that matter started. You also contradict yourself............do they sit on top or drop to the bottom?

I was assuming he's using a lid and airlock from what he posted. I think waiting a predetermined 4 days after pitching is asking for disappointment.... Correct me if I'm wrong..

Eventually the hops once disintegrated in the beer for a few days drop to the bottom if fermentation is finished and the temp is consistent - well whenever I dryhop this is the case....

 

[surly]

Thanks for all the pointers guys. Will follow the advice of technobabble66 since I am brewing the same beer (Fat Yak #1) and he seems to be agreeing with GuyQLD.
So far the smell is driving me a bit crazy, I have always been a complete sucker for the smell of hops.

Technobabble, Your LCPA brew sounds interesting. I really like the hops in a fresh batch of little creatures, but I would ideally like a bit more malt, sounds like you are producing something right down my alley
I have so much to learn though with regards to different malts and how they affect the beer, let alone variances in yeast and hops... I orginally thought brewing was a little complicated, am now realising I was only aware of the tip of the iceberg!
Should be fun

 

[technobabble66]

Yeah, the mod i did seemed to help it a lot in the malt department - v pleased w myself, THB ;-))
I'd stress the Galaxy was a personal choice that is definitely not in the original. But i was v pleased with the intoxicating passionfruit flavour - i'm not even a huge fan of passionfruit, but there's something about the Galaxy aroma/flavour that is very addictive.

Oh, i also should say i used the Danstar BRY-97 West Coast Ale (instead of the yeast that came w the kit). It was recommended by a guy at Brewcraft. THB, i don't know/remember exactly what it was meant to do that was different to safale US05 (sell more yeast?). But it seemed to work well. The beer was a bit cloudier than the FY - from the grain or the yeast? who knows? I read that it's meant to be a drier finishing yeast. If so, it may've helped balance the sweetness of the Crystal. As a noob, i dunno; but maybe one of the brew gurus can explain if it might've made a difference.

 

[surly]

Hey guys,

Just did a gravity check on my beer, noticed that it is VERY cloudy. So after a bit of searching here I came across the concept of "cold crashing". Is this something I should consider before bottling? Is there any issu with too much yeast dropping out for the bottle fermentation to be effective? Most references I found of it were in reference to kegging.

 

[technobabble66]

Hey surly

One of the more knowledgeable guys should be able to advise properly, but FWIW, i bottled mine ~day 10. It came out fairly crystal clear 3 weeks later. I think it was quite clear even when i bottled. Cloudy as hell at about day 5, though. So maybe you just need to wait a few more days, then bottle.

I think the yeast is kinda stirring itself around while it's in its most active bubbling phase (which i'm guessing for you probably finished 2-3 days ago). It's v v fine so it takes a while to settle out.

Also, even if it's completely clear, there'll still be plenty of yeast in it to convert your carbing sugar to carbonation in the bottle.

(Noob alert
Cold crashing is a kegging thing to help rapidly clear the beer, i believe. If you're going down the bottling route, a rapid chill after your boil is the only thing you'd bother with - it kinda does the same thing. The time spent in the bottle replaces the cold crashing a keg-meister does.
From what i can tell, you have 2 main stages to clarify the beer (ie: after the boil & after main fermentation) - either of which can be achieved via rapid chilling or time. (FWIW, lagers also use a "lagering" phase which helps do the same thing - again, time-based)

Hope that helps (& i haven't butchered the brewing concepts too heavily ;-)) )

PS: have you dry-hopped it yet?

 

[surly]

Hey techno, thanks for the reply. That all seems to make sense. I will leave the beer in the FV for an extra week or so. Hopefully it will settle out a bit.
Yeah, I added the hops on day 5. Almost ate one of the pellets, they smell so good

I did taste the beer I used for measuring the SG, was VERY bitter, but I suppose that will settle right down with time. Has gotten me a little nervous about the whole brew though (had some bad experiences with infected brews the first time around - suspect dodgy tank water at previous address).

 

[technobabble66]

Hopefully someone w more knowledge can clarify, but i'm not sure what is the optimum time to leave the beer in the primary fermenter.

I thought generally the longer the better, but came across an article or 2 (probably on this forum?) at the time suggesting that if you're not racking into a second fermentor, then you probably don't want to leave the beer in the primary for more than 10-14 days. So i bottled after 10 days.

Something along the lines of the benefits you get from extra conditioning in the fermenter can be offset by exposing the beer to the crud on the bottle of the primary fermentor for an extended period of time.


The bitterness was v strong in mine too, when i taste tested at the beer after the main fermentation had died down. You're right: the carbonation & weeks in the bottle seem to tone it down sufficiently.

My friends still rave about that beer, btw ... so i'm sure you'll love your results! ;-)

 

[givemeamash]

I now cold crash and it works for me, everything drops and the beer is clear. Just fridge it for a couple of days once fermentation is complete

 

[technobabble66]

Great to know - looking at grabbing a few 10L cubes from bunnings over the next couple of days & doing a new mini-brew. There's a slim chance i might be able to fit a 10L cube in my fridge at the end of the primary fermentation....

However, Givemeamash are you brewing from grain or a kit/extract? I'm under the impression that if you're brewing from grain you *need* to cold crash or cube overnight (or longer) after your boil. Whereas surly here is brewing from a kit... So if you're an AG brewer, do you know if the same also helps/applies to K&K brewing?

 

[surly]

Appreciate all your responses guys, helps put my mind at ease.

Technobabble, I read on here the other day that the negative effects from the cake at the bottom of the FV are only really a concern if leaving for a period of months. This might also be an AG thing.. Either way, I will bottle on Fri/Sat. That will be 13-14 days, so not too much concern I would think.

 

[wombil]

Hi Guys,
Nothing technical here but when I was doing cans and stuff I found that leaving the wort in the fermenter at least 10,preferably 14 days resulted in much less sediment in the bottle.What was there was firmer and stopped at the bottom of the bottle and the whole contents would pour clear.
Just a thought,
wombil

 

[Amber Fluid]

Just to clarify something here... Cold Crashing your beer does not only benefit people who keg but does bottlers too.

Think about it... you have cloudy beer in your fermenter that you want to bottle. You don't CC it so then it stays cloudy until time and cold help clear it. Whether you bottle or keg it is irrelevant and does not differ the outcome. If you CC your beer prior to bottling or kegging then it will clear your beer therefore you transfer clearer beer into whatever container you like, keg or bottle. Thus vola.... clearer beer than otherwise if you had not have CC'd it regardless of what container it is in.

 

[Blitzer]

Will you lose carbonation by cold crashing then bottling? As the point of the cold crash is to drop the yeast out.?

 

[Amber Fluid]

How do you lose carbonation when it isn't carbonated in the first place?... nothing to lose.

Nevertheless, obviously your question should be, will your bottles still carbonate considering a lot of yeast has dropped out during CCing?

Then the answer is yes... there is still plenty of yeast to carbonate your bottles to your liking. I sometimes naturally carb a keg after CCing the brew and have never had any problems. I CC for about 3-7 days, pending how lazy I am, and I get about 6-8 bottles + 1 keg and have never had any issues with the bottles not carbing up.