s23 lager - clearing it out

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Alex.Tas

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Hi,

I've got a lager made to the following:

  • 1.7kg can of Mangrove Jack Munich Lager
  • 1.5kg light dry malt
  • 200g of carahell steeped for around half an hour at 60 degrees
  • 10 grams of hallertauer mittelfruh boiled for 10 min
  • 10 grams of hallertauer mittelfruh boiled for 5 min
  • 10 grams of hallertauer mittelfruh dry hopped (loose pellets) added tonight (day 5)
  • made with re hydrated s23.
Spreadsheet predicted an og of 1056, but it came in at 1042...

plan is to put it into my beer fridge once i get a stable SG, then rack to a different barrel for bulk priming and the bottling.

I'm planning on having this beer ready for mid October - Oktoberfest!

My questions:
  1. Its been brewing at ambient temperature 18 degrees, so i'm guessing there is no need for a d rest?
  2. I'm keen to try and get as much sediment out as possible. should i try to add some gelatine? I dont really want gelatine in the bottles, so if I do go down this path, should i add the gelatine mix (1 tsp gelatine to 100ml of water) after ive got the brew down to 1-2 degrees? Bare in mind that I'll be racking this beer later into the bulk priming vessel prior to bottling.
  3. will adding gelatine significantly increase the time required to prime the bottles due to the lower number of yeast cells in the bottle?
I'm thinking that the brew will probably reach FG by this time next week (12th of sept) then give it 2 weeks or so in the fridge (till the 26th). rack to bulk priming vessel, then bottle. that way it has 3.5 weeks to prime before drinking. Am I gonna run out of time?

I had a read through all 11 pages of the gelatine how to page. its hard with so many conflicting opinions...

Cheers,
 
CCing or lagering at low temps will clear it up just fine. Now with bottling your going to get sediment so I feel its a waste of time doing anything more than CCing. Oh and no need to D rest.

Cheers.
 
I realise I'll be getting some sediment. My aim is to reduce it though. So would I be wasting my time using gelatine?
 
I would give it a small amount of time CC in the ferment vessel then get it in the bottle and carbed as soon as possible, then get the bottles in the fridge.
A longer period in the final vessel you will settle out any sediment and the longer time will allow this sediment to make a compact cake in the bottle thus leading to a clearer beer on pouring.
 
Thanks Stuchambers and roverfj1200.

I wont bother with gelatine this batch.
Im a little concerned about the OG of this brew.
As noted above, it was predicted to be 1056, and it came out 1042.
my brew procedure:

boil up around 1L of water then let cool to 60 degrees. Then steep the Carahell for 30-40 mins.
boil up another 6 or so litres and add about 900g of the 1.5kg in the water and dissolve fully. Add the liquid from the steeped grains. ( I dont squeeze the grains or rinse, i just use a clean sieve).
Add the hops according to the schedule above.
take off the heat
then add the remaining dme and the mangrove jack tin.
ensure its all dissolved.
Chill the pot in the laundry tub till its lukewarmish
add to fermenter and then top up to 20L.

Now as i took of the pouring tap so the barrel would fit into my fridge, i had to use a sanitised soup ladle to take out enough for a OG sample reading. I took this around half an hour after topping up the beer to make sure the temperature was okay for pitching.
When i topped the barrel, i made sure i was sloshing the water in to aerate and to mix.

Any ideas why i didn't hit the predicted OG?
 
Alex.Tas said:
( I dont squeeze the grains or rinse, i just use a clean sieve).


Any ideas why i didn't hit the predicted OG?
Because of this, most likely. You didn't extract all the available 'sugars' from the grain, hence your efficiency suffered. If you use a program like BrewMate, you can dial in your efficiency to counter this and give you a more accurate OG reading taking this into account.

I'm not sure of the figures, but I'd say you lost a few grav points by the sugars that remained in the grain. Probably not enough to make a massive difference in points, but it would have contributed in some way, small or large.
 
200g carahell unrinsed would not account for a 14 point deficit.
More likely a measurement issue (or data was entered incorrectly in brewmate).
 
slcmorro said:
I'd say you lost a few grav points by the sugars that remained in the grain. Probably not enough to make a massive difference in points
Edit: He's using Ianhs SS I think, not BrewMate.
 
yeah I'm using the spreadsheet.
I took the 200g of carahell out of the spreadsheet for comparison and it only dropped the predicted OG by .002 i think.
I tend to agree with manticle that is must have been a measurement issue. I'm pretty sure the reading was only 1.042 though. I was thinking that maybe because i sampled from the top, the wort may have stratified over the 30mins - giving me more wartery wort at the top? Its pretty unlikely i assume though.
 
Alex.Tas said:
yeah I'm using the spreadsheet. I took the 200g of carahell out of the spreadsheet for comparison and it only dropped the predicted OG by .002 i think. I tend to agree with manticle that is must have been a measurement issue. I'm pretty sure the reading was only 1.042 though. I was thinking that maybe because i sampled from the top, the wort may have stratified over the 30mins - giving me more wartery wort at the top? Its pretty unlikely i assume though.
Actually more than likely. Can happen in reverse when sampling from the tap. I'd believe the spreadsheet if everything was entered correctly.
 
Yeah I'm thinking the spreadsheet is more reliable. Its better to overestimate the ABV % than underestimate, especially if you are driving after a couple.
I've used this method for my last 5-6 batches and the beers come out tasting pretty consistent (I bottle rather than keg), leading me to believe that the stratification may not be a problem after primary fermentation - due to convection currents within the brew. Plus i always rack it into a bulk priming vessel which may help :D .
 
The yeast will find the sugar over the course of fermentation. Sugar will also diffuse in solution over time.
 
i've been lowering the temp of this brew over the last few days, trying to get it as close to 1 deg C as possible. The samples i've tasted from the hydrometer tube haven't tasted too good though. This was a few days ago so unfortunately cant describe the taste too well now. I should have written it down.
It tasted perhaps... "sharp"?
Could this be due to the fermentation temps being around 18 degrees with the s23?
Should i really worry about what the hydrometer sample tastes like (given that its gonna be kept at 1 or so degree for a week? then bottled and left for at least three weeks?

Too late now to make any changes i suppose.
Any thoughts?
 
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