Couple of hot days in Melbourne

[bobbiedigital]

Hi,

The last 3 days in melbourne my brew room has been about 30 degrees. I have a current fermentation of a pilsner ish ale going at the moment. Initial SG was about 1.058 and ow it's about 1.035ish so i think about 3%. On monday it tasted like a pilsner today it had a bit of bite. It's got a good smell but it's slightly fruity.

I used fermentis w34/70? Yeast and some reused yeast from a previous brew which was fermenting after getting back alive after being in the fridge for about a month.

The original bubble was quite vigorous but now it's stopped at 1.035 which is a bit too high. I think i boiled at too high a temp maybe about 80 c for an hour but i think it has some fermenting left. I've got an old pack of yeast that I've got in a sterilised mason with some sugar if i put that into the fermenter and leave it for another week would that help create some more less fruity alcohol amd mask the other? The SG has been stuck at 1.035ish since about monday.

Any help would be appreciated
Thanks heaps!

 

[wereprawn]

It's almost certainly ruined.

Water won't boil at 80c unless you're brewing on Mt Everest. Assuming you meant mash temp?

You could try adding a sterile sugar solution to the fermentor to dry it out a bit, and give the fermentor a gentle swirl to rouse the yeast, but because it's been fermenting at that temp initially ( again assuming ) it will be well and truly ******. Better off tipping it and starting again IMHO.

 

[mtb]

Mashing at 80 will do well to halt conversion. How long into the mash did it hit 80? What was its temp for the first ~30min? If it started at 80 and stayed there for at least 20min.. tip the batch.

If no to the above - and you have fermenter room to spare - you could let this ride to see how it turns out but it won't be crisp like a pilsner, nor absent of esters. Pitch some new yeast, and for gods sake, get some temperature control going. There are plenty of low cost methods to be found. I agree with prawn too, add a sterile sugar solution.

Fermenting any lager yeast at ambient temp in this climate, at this time of year, is asking for trouble though.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

Fermenting any lager yeast at ambient temp in this climate, at this time of year, is asking for trouble though.

I dunno, some people really like that flavour.

 

[mtb]

I dunno, some people really like that flavour.

Touche!

 

[bobbiedigital]

Yep. My next brew is going to be with a more appropriate yeast. I will add some sugar and some new yeast amd see how it goes.

I will try to salvage it vut as you say won't be too great. Can't afford temp control at the moment will be getting an inkbird soon.

To be fair it doesn't taste too much like banana! Though, i don't think even warney can spin this!

I will add some sugar and yeast and leave it till the weekend. FML.

 

[bobbiedigital]

The mash temp, because i usee a 15l stock pot at half gas power didn't get to a full boil just a slight bubble.

I'm a stubborn man though and like a parent who finds their kid smoking and makes them smoke the whole packet i will drink the whole brew. Serves me right. Maybe it the missus will like it if i make her a tropical shandy..

 

[mtb]

Hell, it'll taste fruity enough for a shandy.

I'm still not clear on whether that temp was mash or boil. Mash is grain IN the water, boil is after you've taken the grain OUT and done the hop additions - which one was it? I don't mean to be patronising - it just sounded earlier like you were referring to mash temp, but now it sounds like your temp during the boil phase.

 

[Lionman]

Do you mean you mashed at 80c for an hour? You can't boil at 80c unless you are on the top of a mountain, and you want to boil the wort at 100c if possible.

Mashing at 80c will not work as you will denature the enzymes that convert the starches in the grist to fermentable sugars. You need to mash below 72c to get a reasonably fermentable wort.

It could be that because the temp was high you have been left with very high percentage of unfermentable sugars, but I would be surprised you would get much conversion at all at that temp.

Could be the yeast is stressed due to high temps. Personally I think you are wasting time and money using lager yeasts at ambient temps in Australia, especially at this time of year. Get some yeast strains that produce decent beers at higher temps and brew beers appropriate to the strain.

I would get the temp down to under 20c if you can (still too warm for this yeast but it will be better). Stick the fermenter in the laundry sink, fill the sink around the fermenter with water. Freeze a few 1.25l bottles of water and rotate them between the sink and the freezer. You can keep a fermenter at quite low temps using this method. You can use a big esky too if you have one.

You can do a forced ferment test to determine what you final gravity should be

http://www.winning-homebrew.com/forced-fermentation-test.html

If its too high you can add enzymes to help breakdown the sugars in the wort.

http://www.brewmart.com.au/brewmart...ODE=11500&QOH=211&CATID=270&CLN=1&pageCount=2

Good luck.


Edit, returned to compute and forgot to refresh before replying so I only saw the first post sorry.

 

[Lionman]

You can get temp control for less than the cost of a batch of beer mate.

Old ****** free fridge of gumtree and a $10 STC-1000 from ebay and $10 worth of parts for an electronics store like Jaycar.

 

[koshari]

You can get temp control for less than the cost of a batch of beer mate.

Old ****** free fridge of gumtree and a $10 STC-1000 from ebay and $10 worth of parts for an electronics store like Jaycar.

Indeed. Or the poor mans way which is swapping frozen 3l milk bottles full of brine out of your fermenter every day. But i prefer your suggestion.

 

[bobbiedigital]

Thanks for all the responses. The limited alcohol volume would of been due to mashing at a high temp which I will be careful of in the future. I decided this time to steralise some sugar and add that with some activated yeast and it's now bubbling away.

Does the jaycar controller work like a inkbird? I'm not too good at the sparky gig so I may not be able to add the controller. I think I will go get one of those big plastic buckets from bunnings and add some ice and water to that to keep cool but my next batch is going to be a saison so I will just go for the appropriate yeast for this lot. The laundry sink is a good idea too but it's in direct sunlight in the morning. I think I will save up for a couple of months and try to get a kegerator, despite there being a shortage in australia at the moment, I would like to go this route so I can get a couple of cornys and have beer on tap.

For this brew I think I'll just keep it for ages and keep it for my 4L ikegger. It would be good if there are some 4L bottles around I can use for conditioning so I don't have to waste my valuable bottles!

Thanks for all the help.

 

[koshari]

Does the jaycar controller work like a inkbird?

Thanks for all the help.

the jaycar stuff referred to in a earlier post would be an enclosure/connectors etc for the stc-1000 controller which is effectively the guts of something like an inkbird, they do work dorectly with mains power so if your not comfortable with electrical theory i can understand your hesitance, possibly you may know someone with the skills to assemble one. otherwise the basic inkbird controller is really not to bad at round 50 bucks,

 

[Lionman]

I have built a few temp controllers now.

StC-1000 from ebay. (They are exactly like some inkbird models)

From Jaycar or similar
Project box/enclosure to suite
a few cable glands
some cable terminals

plus a couple of cheap extension leads from Bunnings.

I just cut and drilled holes in the box, fitted the temp controller and cable glands, cut the extension leads and wired it up using a diagram off a thread from here. You end up using 3/4 lead ends, one male to plug into the wall and two females, one for the heater, one for the fridge. I just used some of the wires from in the leads to do the internal wiring in the box.

They work excellent. No fires yet.

Disclaimer - The legality of these is highly questionable, but I cant fault the functionality. If you know a sparky, get them look over your wiring.

 

[earle]

Inkbird special on now as per their other thread.

I've got a few STC's but am looking to get the ITC310 which can be programmed for stepped fermentation profiles. Should be good for lagers and belgians.

 

[bobbiedigital]

Inkbird special on now as per their other thread.

I've got a few STC's but am looking to get the ITC310 which can be programmed for stepped fermentation profiles. Should be good for lagers and belgians.

Thanks heaps!

 

[Jordie_tackles]

I am having a very similar problem.

Tried my first Stout, 14 litre batch.

3.3 kilos golden promise

270g of

CaraAroma
Caramunich 1
Midnight wheat
Chocolate wheat
Flaked oats

Mashed at 67 degrees for an hour

Boiled for an hour

Starting gravity was only 1.046

Used US-05 yeast and airater as usual (stick blender)

I don't have a fermentation vessel so got hit by our hot weather in Victoria of the last 2 weeks till now.

Temperature of fermenter raised to 25 degrees.

Anyway left for 2 weeks and the final gravity only came down to 1.030.

Added a second packet of yeast left for another week for nothing (temp was still at 25 degrees).

Have shaken then fermentor for a minute or so and maybe lost another 2-3 points of gravity now maybe 1.028.

Doesn't smell or taste bad to me.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Lesson has been learned I am in the process of purchasing a fermentation vessel for summer, only stared brewing 4-5 months ago.

*** note my grain mill was crap that I bought on eBay so had to crush my grain bill in a nutrabullet (blender)

Thanks

 

[bobbiedigital]

I am having a very similar problem.

Tried my first Stout, 14 litre batch.

3.3 kilos golden promise

270g of

CaraAroma
Caramunich 1
Midnight wheat
Chocolate wheat
Flaked oats

Mashed at 67 degrees for an hour

Boiled for an hour

Starting gravity was only 1.046

Used US-05 yeast and airater as usual (stick blender)

I don't have a fermentation vessel so got hit by our hot weather in Victoria of the last 2 weeks till now.

Temperature of fermenter raised to 25 degrees.

Anyway left for 2 weeks and the final gravity only came down to 1.030.

Added a second packet of yeast left for another week for nothing (temp was still at 25 degrees).

Have shaken then fermentor for a minute or so and maybe lost another 2-3 points of gravity now maybe 1.028.

Doesn't smell or taste bad to me.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Lesson has been learned I am in the process of purchasing a fermentation vessel for summer, only stared brewing 4-5 months ago.

*** note my grain mill was crap that I bought on eBay so had to crush my grain bill in a nutrabullet (blender)

Thanks

Hey, mate. I'm no expert as I've only started in this business after long while out just recently. I reckon if it doesn't smell or taste too bad just bottle the stuff. In the end it's just a learning experience. You may even try to open a bottle a week and give it a taste and note if and how the tastes have mellowed.

US-05 generally has a tolerance upto 25C. Generally you'd like it lower but if you're like me sometimes the unpredictable melbourne weather just comes out of no where.

The final gravity seems a bit high but you can just say it's a mid-strength. Not sure how to get it going again. My brew above did a similar thing and stopped after it got too warm. I think the yeast might have cooked.

One thing I haven't tried and might work, which you will need to ask others about, is to transfer to a secondary, add more sugar and yeast and start the fermentation again.

Some here would recommend throwing the stuff away but I hate to waste good alcohol when so many people go without. If you can't stomach the stuff you could even bung it into a distilling machine and turn it to booze.

Sorry I couldn't help more.

 

[mtb]

I am having a very similar problem.

Tried my first Stout, 14 litre batch.

3.3 kilos golden promise

270g of

CaraAroma
Caramunich 1
Midnight wheat
Chocolate wheat
Flaked oats

Mashed at 67 degrees for an hour

Boiled for an hour

Starting gravity was only 1.046

Used US-05 yeast and airater as usual (stick blender)

I don't have a fermentation vessel so got hit by our hot weather in Victoria of the last 2 weeks till now.

Temperature of fermenter raised to 25 degrees.

Anyway left for 2 weeks and the final gravity only came down to 1.030.

Added a second packet of yeast left for another week for nothing (temp was still at 25 degrees).

Have shaken then fermentor for a minute or so and maybe lost another 2-3 points of gravity now maybe 1.028.

Doesn't smell or taste bad to me.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Lesson has been learned I am in the process of purchasing a fermentation vessel for summer, only stared brewing 4-5 months ago.

*** note my grain mill was crap that I bought on eBay so had to crush my grain bill in a nutrabullet (blender)

Thanks

Are you measuring gravity with a refractometer? If so - there are charts around to adjust your reading to compensate for the presence of alcohol. 1.025 = 1.01 IIRC.. It was Warra48 who taught me that I think

 

[Jordie_tackles]

Thanks might bottle it anyway.

Need to start a new brew anyway.