Head to head

[Toad]

So I tried a head to head comparison today and I would like some input from you beer gods.
Brew 1 is a coopers pale ale with be2, light dry malt and cascade hops in the fridge at 18 degrees us05 yeast.
Brew two is a coopers pale ale with dextrose, wheat malt, and Victoria secret hops sitting in my cupboard at 24 degrees coopers can yeast.
So far brew two's air lock is bubbling and brew ones isn't????
I was gonna dry hop each brew on day 11 again 20grams each before cold crash for 2 days then keg.
Please comment, flame, critique as you wish.
Cheers.

 

[Rocker1986]

Ignore the airlock for starters... does brew one have any foam on it, condensation on the inside of the lid etc.? This will tell you a lot more than an airlock will. Or you could take an SG reading and see if it's dropped any. When did you actually put these brews in their fermenters and pitch the yeast?

The brews themselves sound fine although 24 degrees is a bit on the high side for a nice clean ferment... you may end up with some additional esters in that brew compared to the other one.

 

[wobbly]

A more accurate way to tell what is going on is to take a pH reading of the wort if you have the correct instrumentation (quality pH meter)

The first thing the yeast will do is bring the wort pH down from pitch levels (what ever they are) to the the level it performs best at which is something less than 5.0 and until it achieves this it will not show signs of activity such as CO2 (air lock) production as it is too busy creating the environment that it requires/needs to perform its tasks

If you have (or access to) a pH meter if you take a pH reading of the wort when you first pitch the yeast and then again after say 24hrs that will tell you what is going on. Little or no change = issues, where as reduced pH will tell you the yeast is doing the right things and that patience is required

This/these revelations are not my own but facts that I have gleamed from my significant (of late) reading on water quality and pH control etc and authors such as Martin Brungard and AJ de Lange

Cheers

Wobbly

 

[Toad]

No foam yet but I only pitched this morning. Ph is way more technical than I wanna get wobbly but interesting none the less [emoji106]

 

[Rocker1986]

Sounds a trifle unnecessary for someone who appears to be a newbie...

Anyway, if you only pitched this morning then I wouldn't be expecting any real foam or anything yet, have a look at it tomorrow, chances are it'll be up and running by then.

 

[Toad]

Thanks rocker. [emoji106]

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

Of most concern would be to try and get the Brew 2 to under the 24 degree mark if you can now that it has kicked off. A tub of water with ice bricks, a wet towel and a fan - whatever you have got on hand - even if you can just drop it to 22 it would help a lot. I would not be worried about Brew 2 not frothing up as yet at 18 C with US 05 dry pitched just this morning.

There is some great info on making your own cheap fermentation chambers on this site - Grott, Mattrox, BribieG have all posted on this be sure to check it out because as a fellow Brassie brewer I had some shocking early efforts without temp control.

Let us know how they turned out as they both sound like fine brews.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

us05 is chronic for underwhelming krausen and fermentation signs but does ferment well. Don't let the airlock or even minimal krausen (or yeast ring) be your guide. Leave it a day or two and then look. Reading after a week and you'll find it'll be all but done.

 

[Toad]

Brew two is in my cupboard and I live in Brisbane. Best I can do is leave air cond on and keep it around the 23 to 24 degrees. Main reason I did this head to head was to have two beers on tap next to each other to taste any real differences. I will keep u posted how they go in a fortnight.

 

[Toad]

Also, I used us05 cos it seams the most popular ale yeast. Is there one people rate better?
I like 150 lashes type pale ales.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

The two main players in the dried yeast stakes for APA style beers are Us05 and Bry97.

US05 is low in signs of fermentation and not as flocculent as it says on the packet, but clean in fermenting, has a good range, doesn't scrub hops and is relatively tolerant of mistreatment.

Bry97 takes a long time to take off, slightly scrubs hops (in my experience, though it's anecdotal evidence I will say), seems to be darker and more estery above 18 degrees but ferments quickly, is more flocculent, produces more visible krausen, higher alcohol tolerance (again purely my opinion but judges did like the beer) and if you scrape krausen to inoculate immediately, 2nd generation takes off like a rocket.

Both have their pros and cons. As long as you're aware of them, you should be able to worry less.

 

[Toad]

Legend. I'll stick with us05

 

[Toad]

Both brews are bubbling nicely now. Brew 2 has a nice Vic secret aroma, brew 1 has surprisingly no smell from the cascade.

 

[Toad]

Both have slowed down so dry hopped 20g secret to brew 2. 10g cascade to brew 1.
Won't be home from work now until Tuesday for cold crash.

 

[Toad]

Rookie. Just worked out I used a kilo of ldm and the be2 has 250g of ldm in it.
Is this way too much malt? Do others prefer this or does it make it taste bad?
Recipe said a kilo.

 

[Rocker1986]

It will be fine mate. The 500g dextrose in the BE2 will probably even it out a bit anyway.

 

[Toad]

Thanks dude.

 

[Toad]

Ok brew 2 got racked into a keg today after sitting at 3 degrees for two days.
I think I made a rookie error when force carbing it though.
I never burped the keg before shaking it up so potentially there is oxygen in my beer?
It tasted pretty good flat can't wait to taste it caved but have I wrecked it?
Will let it sit for a day or two before pouring a beer.

 

[Rosscoe]

Not wrecked mate. I'd be surprised if you'd notice any difference to be honest.

 

[Toad]

Sweet