Kit and Kilo Real Ale low in alcohol. Any ideas?

[Grott]

Have a look at http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/81908-fermenter-temperature-control/, this method is easy, cheap and is still working well to this day, have 2 brews down, one sitting at 19.2 (week old), other at 16.2 ( put down yesterday and bubbling away).

With your brew as stated now leave for a few weeks, it will be better and a week in the fridge would be tops, if you can.
Cheers

 

[He-brew]

That's great! I'll check it out! I was just looking up some cheap stress free ways to keep the temp down!
Thanks Grott

 

[pablo_h]

I've got no fancy temp control, but working on it as it's the second most important thing about brewing (after sanitation)
I've got no large cooler bags, fridge or esky large enough to hold a standard or coopers fermenter.

1st solution, get a 25l pail/bucket style fermenter as they are smaller. With this I've found a 20l cooler bag - the type people buy for shopping/home delivery - fits even with tap.
It doesn't go all the way up but with a bucket fermenter there's enough room to fit 2x 1.25L bottles of ice and 2x blue ice bricks if you have them. The bag hold the ice containers and gives you a waterproof base. Put the whole lot in a inside out sleeping bag if you have one, or lots of blankets/doona wrap

2nd solution, if you have a 55l willow esky, a 20l cube just fits inside. Will have to do smaller batches and not have an airlock (cover with sanatized alfoil or gladwrap), fit's a few frozen 2-3l juice or milk bottles with ice in there to keep things cool.

3rd solution, if you only have a smaller 45-50L esky, two 10L springwater containers fit (without airlocks again), so either do 16L batches split between two containers, or two different brews in mini batches. E: you'll need a racking cane with these though as no lower tap.

I'd love to buy some "100 can cooler" bags to run full size fermenters even in hot weather, but I've been unable to find any. I'm just working with what I have (heaps of eskies, old sleeping bag), so no doubt you'll find a solutions to work with what you already have or for minimal outlay too.

Bonus is if you go the bag/esky route, then you have somewhere to put the bottles in while they are conditioning too.

I wish I had a half dead fridge or something. I used to be a fridgey, even had a home made controller (old dixell from a cafe, died because coffee spills ruin the compr relay). But the fan relay still worked and you could program that to cycle by temp and I just wired an external relay off that to run the 1960 fridge my 80 y/o neighbour gave me. Had to toss the fridge a couple of house moves ago though
E: also had a sleepout room with old kitchen cabinets from a reno, lined the cabinets with insulation for winter heated brewing (and all year round bottle conditioning).
But right now got nothing, starting again with almost $0 budget.

 

[Rocker1986]

Sucks about the old fridge mate, those things are bloody brilliant. I'm using a 1950s vintage as my ferment fridge, hasn't skipped a beat.

Lagerfrenzy, I guess that was my first mistake. Pitching at 27c. That won't happen again.

There's a difference between pitching at 27C and starting the fermentation at 27C. Bear in mind that this is only my personal experience so it's not a scientific fact or anything, but I regularly pitch ales in the mid 20s without any issues at all. Of course, they are immediately thrown in the ferment fridge and brought down to 18 ASAP but no cidery apple flavours in sight, I can only figure because they are brought down before the fermentation itself actually starts. Next one I'm gonna experiment with sticking the cube in the fridge to bring it down first, like I do with my lagers.

Of course without any temp control this is a lot more difficult to do.

 

[wynnum1]

Non working small chest freezer is good if you are capable of lifting fermenter out and co2 doesn't get you.Also good to use as a work bench.

 

[Mattrox]

Sucks about the old fridge mate, those things are bloody brilliant. I'm using a 1950s vintage as my ferment fridge, hasn't skipped a beat.


There's a difference between pitching at 27C and starting the fermentation at 27C. Bear in mind that this is only my personal experience so it's not a scientific fact or anything, but I regularly pitch ales in the mid 20s without any issues at all. Of course, they are immediately thrown in the ferment fridge and brought down to 18 ASAP but no cidery apple flavours in sight, I can only figure because they are brought down before the fermentation itself actually starts. Next one I'm gonna experiment with sticking the cube in the fridge to bring it down first, like I do with my lagers.

Of course without any temp control this is a lot more difficult to do.

I started rehydrating my yeast and the rehydrate temps are ~30. So after 15 mins rehydration its still like 30ish. I decided it was stupid to pitch 28 - 30 degree yeast into 18 degree wort so I use cold water to bring any boil I do down and it is often 26 or 27 when I pitch. The lowest was 24. Like you I have never had any trouble with off flavours and I fridge it straight away. Often I brew in the evening and it's late by the time I get it in the fridge, but it is always down to ferment temps by morning.

My 1st brew in the foam chamber I had the wort at 35, so I put it in the chamber with soft drink bottles of ice, it went down to 29 so I pitched. By morning it was 21. Swapped the ice bottles and it was slightly under 18 very promptly. If I was more organised and fridged my brew water the night before I would have been able to pitch in the 20's and all the ice I used up to pull 35 to 29 would still be there to start work in the high 20's, therefore quicker cooling to ideal ferment temps from say 27 or 28. It is possible without a fridge, but you still need good insulation. After I got the temp to 18, it has been 17.7 to 19.5, controlled only by ice, even on warm days in the low to mid 30's.

It will just be a matter of getting a container that the fermenter fits into, ie an old rubbish bin with lid etc, and wrapping with some sort of insulation and getting lots of frozen 1.25 and 2L bottles. The better the insulation the less ice needed.

 

[He-brew]

What exactly does rehydrating the yeast do?
Does it make it ferment faster? Or make the fermentation process more effective?
Does it improve the taste at all?

I'm looking into the temp control situation. Might find a dodgy fridge on gumtree.

As for priming, I'm suspicious about those carbonation drops. I'm starting to think that's what's making my brews fizzy rather than foamy.
Bulk prime my next batch for sure. Might need a little more research before I do.

 

[shacked]

What exactly does rehydrating the yeast do?
Does it make it ferment faster? Or make the fermentation process more effective?
Does it improve the taste at all?

Check this one out mate: https://youtu.be/SL92Bd4kfbQ

 

[Droopy Brew]

What exactly does rehydrating the yeast do?
Does it make it ferment faster? Or make the fermentation process more effective?
Does it improve the taste at all?

I'm looking into the temp control situation. Might find a dodgy fridge on gumtree.

As for priming, I'm suspicious about those carbonation drops. I'm starting to think that's what's making my brews fizzy rather than foamy.
Bulk prime my next batch for sure. Might need a little more research before I do.

I dont think it has anything to do with carb drops. I use them all the time becuase I keg and only bottle a few tallies per batch. They work fine. Bulk prime is usually used for 2 reasons- it is slightly cheaper (brewers are renowned tight arses) and it offers more control over the volume of CO2. Different styles are better at different volumes.
What I think you are experiencing is a lack of body in the beer. Next brew, see if you can get powdered corn starch from the brew shop and add 250g of that. Failing that, up the amount of malt and reduce the amount of dex. In fact your beer will probably be a lot better if you drop the dex completely and use only liquid and dry malts.

 

[He-brew]

Shacked, thank you. That video makes it look quite easy! I'll definitely try that next batch.

Droopy Brew, so I might as well stick with the carbonation drops just because it saves me buying another fermenter and stick with LME or DME?
I'm kinda glad you said that because I'm only using LME on this next brew. Maybe that'll make all the difference.

 

[Mattrox]

What exactly does rehydrating the yeast do?
Does it make it ferment faster? Or make the fermentation process more effective?
Does it improve the taste at all?

I'm looking into the temp control situation. Might find a dodgy fridge on gumtree.

As for priming, I'm suspicious about those carbonation drops. I'm starting to think that's what's making my brews fizzy rather than foamy.
Bulk prime my next batch for sure. Might need a little more research before I do.

Rehydrating according to the manufacturer's specifications gives the best chance for a clean ferment. A lot of people do sprinkle yeast on the wort and report good results. It's just that if you are trouble shooting, it eliminates 1 factor.

Sprinkling on work may kill up to 50% of the yeast and may result in underpitching. Underpitching does affect taste.

With regard to fizzy, sometimes a little longer in the bottle and a little longer at cold temperatures helps with fizzy. That is presuming it's not over carbonated.

 

[Rocker1986]

I should note that I forgot to mention in my other post that I make yeast starters for each batch. These are placed in the ferm fridge set to 0C for a day or two prior to pitching day, then removed that morning and allowed to rise to room temp. This way the yeast and wort are at the same temp when pitching. it works similarly when I do lagers, when I take the starter out I put the cube in to chill down, so again both should be pretty close to each other in temp.

 

[He-brew]

Found a bar fridge on gumtree for $15!
Apparently it ices up so it's not really functional anymore but for me, it's perfect.

I shifted the element so my fermenter would fit. It's snug, but still has room underneath for the drawer for ice packs if need be. Can't wait to test this bad boy out.

 

[Ben1]

Don't be too down about the beer, it will mellow over time and will tend to taste the better the more you have!

You should see some great improvements with the temp control. Soon you'll be making better beer than you can buy.

 

[He-brew]

Haha you're right! Second bottle in and it's the greatest thing I've ever tasted!

As soon as I get a free couple of hours I'll be testing this new set up out. Hopefully my faith in home brewing will be restored.