Holding Cube - Jerry Can

[bigpaul]

A friend of mine at work whom I call my home brew guru advised me to stand my fermented wort in a jerry can to allow any further sediment to settle before transferring to kegs - in fact a few friends have advised this! The difference being the period of time! I only plan at this stage in brewing lager type beers so aging does not really come into it! One person has said one week and another 3 weeks...what do people advise? I also have another friend who doesn't bother with this process but he's an animal!! Also, bearing in mind the Queensland temperatures in both the winter and summer...can the beer 'go off' if left out the fridge allowing sediment to settle when in the jerry can?

Thanks again!

Paul

 

[Diesel80]

Paul,
there is a conflicting statement in your post.

This one:

I only plan at this stage in brewing lager type beers so aging does not really come into it!

In the case of a lager, particularly if an All Grain lager with a real lager yeast, then aging (lagering) most definitely is needed. The longer the better, but four weeks is good. This must be at cold temperatures for best results. 0-4 degrees is often cited.


It sounds like your friends are advocating the use of a secondary fermentation vessel, often referred to as "transferring to secondary" on this site. This normally happens when the wort is nearly finished fermenting, but not totally finished.

The idea is to reduce the amount of sedimentation in the bottom of the fermenter and it allows less off it to be transferred by accident to the kegs when kegging.

I personally don't follow this process. Instead I let my beers finish fermenting and then "cold crash" them in the primary vessel.
If an ale I will keg it after 4-5 days cold crashing. If a lager, my cold crashing doubles as my lagering an goes on for about 2 weeks, then is finished under gas in the kegs.

Cold crashing packs down the sediment and yeast into a cake like formation on the bottom of the fermenter. It can become very compact over time so I find I don't get much sediment into my kegs.

Your beer could well spoil if not kept cool. If naturally carbonating in a keg however it should be right if kept around 20 degrees for a couple of weeks. It can be treated as 1 big bottle in this instance.


Cheers,
D80

 

[bigpaul]

:blush: Thanks Diesel...I have used the malt etc. from a tin and my local homebrew shop gave me glucose mixed with malt etc,. (I think) and the hops to hopefully give me the desired taste of the beer I am looking for...for my first brew hopefully Grolsch! The fermenter was sat in the shed and fermented over 7 or so days. I then transferred the wort to a jerry can, as advised by some of my friends to allow as much of the remaining sediment to settle. This jerry can is sat next to my fermenter in the shed as I won't really have the space in my fridge for the jerry can - unless you say it is better then I WILL make room in the fridge!! The jerry can has now been sat there for 7 days...have I done this wrong???

Paul

PS Was told that aging lager didn't really improve the flavour in terms of the process I have followed, sounds like I have been advised wrong?????

 

[BeerNess]

If you're doing a Lager style beer then definitely a cold secondary time is advised, even with kit stuff it should be better than not.

Calling the style Lager comes from German language meaning "storage", so the whole style is about "aging" it cold - Lagering for a period of 2-4 weeks at least before packaging (either bottles or kegs). Using a kit, you will see benefit in doing this especially in relation to clarity of your beer as D80 explained above - I do a cold crash with all my brews.

The standard kit Lager yeast (497?) is pretty tolerant of varied conditions, but if you are enjoying brewing your own beer, I'd heartily recommend the best step in improving your nectar is a temperature controlled fermentation (especially in Queensland!) an old second hand fridge in your garage with a temp controller (look up STC1000 under gear & electronics) will be your best investment. can set it to keep your fermenting beer at the ideal temperature for the yeast - 18-20 for ale yeasts and 10-14 (?) for Lager yeasts so the yeasts produce the right compounds. then the cold time really does wonders for clarity and often flavour.

Good luck and hope your beer is a good one!!! :chug:

ed: spelling/grammar

ed: ed: PS as long as you like the taste of your beer you've not done anything "wrong" !!!