Esb 3kg Pilsner

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redbeard

Sth Seas Pirate Brewery
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i put down a esb 3kg pilsner about 9 days ago with an og of 1052 using the supplied saflager dry yeast. the fridge temp was about 10c. i think it stopped at about 1030 after a couple of days, so swirled the fermentor & yeast started up again. i decided to take it out of the fridge at 1020 for the diacetyl rest. its on its 2nd day, temp is about 24-26 and its bubbling away about once every 5 secs. the gravity just now is 1013. i was guessing that it would finish about 1010 but is still going strong.

did i start to rest it too early ?
has anyone else brewed this & recorded the fg ?

thanks
 
Rule of thumb: FG will be about 1/4 of OG, so a 1052 beer will finish around the 1013 mark.

Jovial Monk
 
redbeard said:
has anyone else brewed this & recorded the fg ?

thanks
[post="49193"][/post]​

Yep. Currently in the middle of a batch. But I would have started with an og of 1042 or so. How did you bump it up to 1052? Extra fermentables or less water? If extra fermentables, what were they? Mine finished at just under 1010 IIRC. The other difference is that I used Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager, not the Saflager. Shouldn't make much difference. Anyway, you can expect an fg anywhere from 1008 to 1013. If you are bottling, just leave it alone until a good few days after it has finished bubbling. If you are racking to a lagering tank or if you are kegging, you can rack any time once you are at or under 1012. It won't have much left to go and is unlikely to be overly sweet.

Steve
 
I have just done this and I got an OG of 1.035 and FG of 1.012, I think I must have measured wrong.
 
Steve Lacey said:
How did you bump it up to 1052? Extra fermentables or less water?

[post="49202"][/post]​

just the 3kg + 22.5l of water. i rehydrated the saflager & added a tablespoon of dme to get it going but basically straight out of the can. the can had been in the fridge for a couple of weeks (bottom shelf support) but i dont see that making any difference.
 
It may not've been a homogenious mix, or a more concentrated portion was sitting in the tap just prior to taking a sample.
 
I get that sometimes. You gotta stir the fermenter, and maybe discard the first sample, as there is likely to be a concentration of wort in the tap.

U might stir the beer hard, but if there is a bit of the wort concentrate (extract) in the tap, it won't mix in the same, and U need to flush the tap.

U can have this opinion for just 2 cents.

Seth :p
 
thanks nrb / weizguy. sounds like a reasonable explanation. must remember to discard 1st 30ml of sample... :)
 
redbeard said:
thanks nrb / weizguy. sounds like a reasonable explanation. must remember to discard 1st 30ml of sample... :)
[post="49235"][/post]​
or taste it, rather than chuck it. You'll get an indication of the final beer, just a bit sweet.

Sethule the taster :p
 
fermentor had stopped bubbling tonight, so decided to rack it for cc. the fg was 1010. i had the idea of putting another pilsner down on top of the yeast cake. however, after racking, their was barely any trub. so just washed it out. is this normal for saflager w34/70 ? (all the ales ive done have left reasonable trub/cake)
 
redbeard said:
fermentor had stopped bubbling tonight, so decided to rack it for cc. the fg was 1010. i had the idea of putting another pilsner down on top of the yeast cake. however, after racking, their was barely any trub. so just washed it out. is this normal for saflager w34/70 ? (all the ales ive done have left reasonable trub/cake)
[post="49399"][/post]​

You don't really need much on the bottom to start another batch. As long as there was some evidence of a pasty yeast on the bottom of the fermenter you'd be right. The most likely case would be that the yeast was still in suspension. Was the racked beer quite cloudy?

Question though, Saflager yeasts aren't all that expensive to justify repitching (about $3). Wouldn't you do better by eliminating the risks and just using a new sachet?

Warren -
 
Good point WARREN. Just to add my 34/70 Saflager story. I did a All Grain BOCK a couple of weeks ago with an OG of 1.065. I put it in the fridge at 10 deg C and after 12 days the airlock had slowed right down to about 1 bubble per 30 seconds and the gravity was 1.020 so on the 12th day i pulled it out to rest and the thing has fired up again and is going nuts. So i will let it go for 2 or three days, until the krusen falls in, then rack & CC for 2 weeks (min). Also i pitched 2 packs of 34/70. So this sound pretty typical of other stories. Also there is about 1.5 inches of cake on the bottom of my fermenter from what i can see. Not that i would re-pitch on top of it.

STEPHEN
 
Sorry to come back in late, but yeah, you can't get 1052 from 22.5 L of water and 3 kg malt extract. I only ever make the ESB kits to 20 or, at most 21 L, and even then the OG is never much more than 1040 to 1042.

So, speaking of hydrometer technique, am I the only one in the world who just sanitizes the hydrometer and floats it in the top of the fermenter? There was discussion about taps the other day in another thread. I don't like taps and always plug mine and just use siphons for everything. It makes taking mid-fermentation samples a hassle, so I rarely take any. A wine-thief or turkey baster would be good if I could get my hands on one.

Steve
 
Steve I don't think you'll find many people doing it the same way. Even though the hydrometer is sanitised, there's a minor risk of infecting the entire brew. It also means opening the top, possibly breathing (or dribbling if you're like Homer SImpson!) on it etc... I prefer to take a sample to avoid unneccesary risks.
 
As Steve says, siphoning out small samples is a PITA. We have a couple of hydrometers, and usually leave one in the cider or whatever is being brewed in the demijohns. They are glass, so no need to open for a reading.
Though for beer in tapped fermenters we just run a sample out to test. Then drink it. Always.
 
when i test with my hydrometer i pour the first test tube full in to the sink then i take the second test tube as my sample just in case anything was in or near the tap,when i have finished with the tap sample i always spray some oneshot around the tap and then up the nosle of the tap just to kill any bugs that might decide to feed on any of the wert that is left in or around the tap.never had a problem with this method
cheers
fergi
 
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