given a fairly complete set up

[perko8]

Cool, I'll leave it for a bit. Seems to be going ok. Didn't expect the colour change that has happened so far. Is this normal?

Couple of pics - when I pitched yeast:


Yeaterday:


And the yeast today; should I keep it or toss down the sink?

 

[perko8]

So here it is today. SG is 1.011

 

[shacked]

How does it taste mate?

 

[perko8]

How does it taste mate?

I've got a glass chilling to try settle the particles out a bit. Will taste shortly!

 

[perko8]

So it's pretty good! Not overly bitter, but not overly sweet either. Hard to describe though, never had flat beer really, so the sensation is a bit odd... it's got a hit of citrusyness though which is nice. I was hoping for more hop aroma - could I dry hop it now to achieve that? Have about 15g of cascade here. If so how should I go about that?

 

[perko8]

 

[TehCrucible]

could I dry hop it now to achieve that? Have about 15g of cascade here. If so how should I go about that?

You could, but I don't know if 15g will make a big difference. If you do, just throw em in and leave em for a few days. I use those stainless tea strainer balls to keep it all together but it's not essential.

 

[shacked]

You can throw the cascade in now and leave it for a few days. I find it's the later the better with dry hops.

Are you going to crash chill?

 

[perko8]

Thanks guys! So I weighed them and it's 22g. Just chucked them in in a sanitised hop bag.

I could crash chill, looking at the impact the fridge has on a glass it looks like a good idea.

To do this, do I chill for a few days then bottle them cold, then keep warm to carb?
or does crash chilling mean they have to stay cold forever?
I don't have heaps of space to store all of the bottles in a fridge long term, so they will have to be just stored at room temp.

 

[TehCrucible]

To do this, do I chill for a few days then bottle them cold, then keep warm to carb?

Yep. Chilling will help all the crap drop to the bottom before you bottle, leaving you with less sediment in the bottles. If you dry hop beforehand, some people say that you lose a bit of your hop aroma by doing this; I haven't made enough beer to have an opinion on that. You can definitely bottle cold (I do) but they will need to return to room temperature for a few weeks or they wont carbonate.

 

[shacked]

Agree with TehCrucible.

I crash for 3 days (or so) and then transfer straight to the bottling bucket (cold) to bulk prime and bottle. After bottling, I leave the bottles out at room temp to carb up.

If you are going to bulk prime and use an online calculator (like this: http://www.aussiehomebrewing.com/AlcoholChart/PrimingCalculator.html), make sure you put in the maximum temp that your brew hit during fermentation into the temp input in the calculator. Don't put the crash chill temp in. For your reference: I carb most of my ales to about 2.5 vols.

 

[perko8]

If the SG is the same tonight, could I crash it now, or is it too shortly after adding the hops?

 

[technobabble66]

I'd give it 1-2 more days.
You really want to make sure there's no fermentable sugars left prior to bottling, and once you drop the temp the yeast will go to sleep until warm again, at which point they'll consume any remaining fermentables in there from before. The amount of sugar to fully carb a 21L batch in bottles equates to only ~1-2 points of gravity. And the calculated FG is not always accurate. So you simply can never risk assuming it should be low enough to be at FG. You have to wait until it's definitely flat-lined.
Also, an extra few days is generally a good idea to encourage the yeast to "clean up after itself" - it means that during the fermentation the yeast will commonly produce a few unwanted by-products (maybe "off" flavours/aromas). As the fermentable sugars run out, the yeast gets around to chewing up these by-products and removing them. Ta-dah!! - clean beery awesomeness by the magic of Yeast!!
An extra day or 2 won't/shouldn't hurt the dry hopping aspect either.

FWIW, a study that was posted in a thread somewhere around here a few days ago indicated that for pellets, you've almost maximised your dry-hop extraction at ~48hrs, and even just 12hrs draws out most of the oils.
Just thought i'd throw it out there as something that's related and that might be of interest.

 

[perko8]

I downloaded the beer designer spreadsheet and had a fiddle.

It's come up with 1.045 is Initial Gravity, which it was when I pitched, and 1.011 FG, which its at, so if it stays there that's a good start to success!

Colour comes in at 23 though.
My chilled glasses look more like 50ebc...

 

[perko8]

Getting ready to bottle.

All bottles and lids sterilised, bottling bucket has steriliser in it, the bottling valve/tube and hose to transfer from primary are in the steriliser too.

Primary has been crash chilled for 3 days.

Dextrose dissolved in hot water and now cooling

Anything else i need to do?

 

[Mr B]

Sounds like you are all organised (and possibly bottling by now).

A good way to transfer to the bottling bucket is with the hose connected to both taps - but no biggie.

Put your priming sugar into the bottling bucket before transfer to help mix, I give it a gentle stir after anyway (sanitised spoon).

Line em up and fill.

You can rest a cap on each bottle as you go, wait till they are all filled before you start capping.

I'd say you knew the above, sound like you are all over it.

Have fun, its a little therapeutic I find.

 

[perko8]

Sounds like you are all organised (and possibly bottling by now.

Indeed, I was!
I'll give the hose between two taps a go next time.
Went ok.
The valve in the bottling tune didn't really shut off completely - slow drip. Is that normal or just cheap one from the kit?
Did some glass and some plastic just to see how it goes. and one clear bottle for visualising how it's going

 

[TehCrucible]

The valve in the bottling tune didn't really shut off completely - slow drip. Is that normal or just cheap one from the kit?

Completely normal with the kit bottling wand. All three of mine do it to some degree. Beer looks great. Good job.

 

[technobabble66]

^ same.
Try opening your FV tap fully - the extra flow/pressure can help to ensure the valve in the wand shuts off properly.

 

[shacked]

Nice brew mate. Now the waiting game starts!!

What's next??