Things can only get better....right?

[Tommy-Gun]

Hi All,
Im Tom and i have been having a go with all grain for around a year now. Im slowly starting to upgrade my kit and stick my finger in a few new beerpies. (pressure fermentation etc.) I have a hundred questions and am sick of spending hours online and still not find the answer. I look forward to bugging you all with my newbie queries . Seriously just happy to be joined up with people passionate about beer!

 

[Feldon]

And what is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good - need we ask anyone to tell us these things?
- Robert Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motor Cycle Maintenance

Welcome to the mysterious pursuit of quality in beer (and if pursued honestly, in life). Enjoy the ride.

 

[golfandbrew]

Hi Tom,

Welcome to the hobby. Before you get inundated with varying opinions from forums and other interweb resources might I suggest getting a copy of How to Brew by John Palmer.

Someone will jump in with another book that you should get and then you know you're really in this thing.

Which ever you choose. Enjoy the journey. Look forward to hearing more about what you're brewing.

Cheers

 

[An Ankoù]

Hi Tom.
Why not tell us a bit about what you've brewed and what were your successes and failures.
On the subject of kit, if you've got kit that makes decent beer, then spending a shedload of cash on more sophisticated kit isn't going to improve your beer by very much, if at all. Unless you need to transfer your beer anaerobically to prevent oxygen degradation in, say, NEIPA- type cloudy sort-of-beer things.
On the other hand, there's a range of passions in this game from those who concentrate on brewing the very best beer they can with a minimum of technology to those whose real interest is the bright, shiny fully-automated kit which brings home brewing as close as possible to an industrial process. Most of us fall some way between those extremes. It's probably a good idea to decide where your sentiments lie before you get sucked in to parting with more hard-earned cash than you need to.
For what it's worth, some of the most innovative low-tech techniques have come from Australian home-brewers (in my opinion).

 

[Tommy-Gun]

Thanks for the replies guys.

Bit more about my brewing then, I love IPA's, NEIPA (gotsta have that fuity hoppy goodness) but anything Ale is fine by me. Been using the 35l Brewzilla (Gen3) and had no dramas with that. Made some great batches IMHO and some pretty rough stuff. Undrinkable is a very strong word to me haha.

I did read John Palmers how to brew before i started but i definately think that would be worth a re read as back then i probably understood about 4 words in the whole thing. Cheers for the heads up Golfandbrew.

Consistency is my biggest problem right now. Brewing the same Hazy IPA multiple times and sometimes great, sometimes not so much. I do keep track of the full brewday in a diary and keep the process as close to identical as possible. I think my problems/variables lie in the cold side. I only use the placcy buckets right now and do the hop sock magnet trick for dry hopping, I have been getting way way too much trub when transferring to my kegs though to the point my drawtube in the keg will clog when trying to pour a pint, does anyone else have this problem? I dont really want to filter as that defeats the purpose of the hazy.

The reason I was thinking about getting a pressure cabable fermenter (would love some shiny stainless unitank but not happening $$$) like a fermentasaurus was to be able to close transfer to keg. Will the conical shape keep most of the solids/trub away as I am transferring? Also on the fermentasaurus do I want the drawtube with the float ball thingy to float at the top or weight it down? Seems to me like they are the worst parts to draw clean beer from.

Sorry for the rambling and any feedback is appreciated.

 

[TwoCrows]

G'day Tommy-Gun

I use the fermentasaurus Snub Nose Version 1. Pressure fermenting is great . So easy to clean as not so many parts.
The pick up tube I don't weigh down.
When it is finished fermenting, I crash chill and blow Co2 thru the tube to clean out any trub. After the crash chilling and under pressure the tube sits below the surface and hangs against the conical vessel. I can take clean beer all the way to the trub. Only leaving a cup or two behind.

 

[Tommy-Gun]

Awesome cheers for that TwoCrows, Im gunna pull the trigger and get me one!

 

[Ballaratguy]

I’ve got the second version with the dip tube going down the thermowell
Bloody awesome
The only thing I can say is to be careful bedding the top into the opening as it’s easy to not to get the o ring to seal with you loosing the gas
I put the back end in first and then ease the front down then screw the locking ring down (some food grade grease helps a lot too). This is because the seal it tight for the first few brews
I also scavenge the gas into a couple of kegs while fermenting. (None of that blowback rubbish when cold crashing)

 

[Tommy-Gun]

I’ve got the second version with the dip tube going down the thermowell
Bloody awesome
The only thing I can say is to be careful bedding the top into the opening as it’s easy to not to get the o ring to seal with you loosing the gas
I put the back end in first and then ease the front down then screw the locking ring down (some food grade grease helps a lot too). This is because the seal it tight for the first few brews
I also scavenge the gas into a couple of kegs while fermenting. (None of that blowback rubbish when cold crashing)

Cheers for that Ballaratguy,
When are you supposed to start under pressure? Do you use the spunding valve as soon as you have pitched or do you just use a bubbles for the first day or so then go to pressure after fermentation has started?

 

[Ballaratguy]

I’d also be very weary of any plastic pressure fermenters that are made in that country in Asia. They aren’t pressure checked. There have been a lot of failures here in oz (I haven’t seen many reports of late) but apparently there is a huge problem with failures in the US
Stick with the Aussie made ones

 

[Ballaratguy]

Cheers for that Ballaratguy,
When are you supposed to start under pressure? Do you use the spunding valve as soon as you have pitched or do you just use a bubbles for the first day or so then go to pressure after fermentation has started?

I usually pitch the yeast as in transferring into the fermenter usually lavish arvo and hook the gas out line to the liquid post of my first corny. Then go from gas to liquid of the second corny with the spunding valve on the gas of the second keg
When cold crash the pressure in the kegs drops a bit due to the suck back

 

[MHB]

I'm not the biggest fan of pressure fermentation. You can make decent beer pressure fermenting, but it will be different to the same beer brewed normally.

From what I can find the best process would be to allow the first half of the ferment to vent to air.
This will scrub out some undesirable volatiles and any oxygen that is in the wort or the head space in the fermenter.
Pressure applied early also reduces the yeasts ability to reproduce and increases the production of higher alcohols and a bunch of other off flavours/aromas.
The least change to the flavour of the beer appears to occur at a pressure of around 1 Bar (100kPa, 14PSI).

If I were making very highly hopped beers like NEIPA it would be worth having a go at pressure fermentation, but more for Oxygen exclusion as part of an extreme low DO process.
Mark

 

[yankinoz]

I’d also be very weary of any plastic pressure fermenters that are made in that country in Asia. They aren’t pressure checked. There have been a lot of failures here in oz (I haven’t seen many reports of late) but apparently there is a huge problem with failures in the US
Stick with the Aussie made ones

Their balloons hold up well.

 

[Tommy-Gun]

I'm not the biggest fan of pressure fermentation. You can make decent beer pressure fermenting, but it will be different to the same beer brewed normally.

From what I can find the best process would be to allow the first half of the ferment to vent to air.
This will scrub out some undesirable volatiles and any oxygen that is in the wort or the head space in the fermenter.
Pressure applied early also reduces the yeasts ability to reproduce and increases the production of higher alcohols and a bunch of other off flavours/aromas.
The least change to the flavour of the beer appears to occur at a pressure of around 1 Bar (100kPa, 14PSI).

If I were making very highly hopped beers like NEIPA it would be worth having a go at pressure fermentation, but more for Oxygen exclusion as part of an extreme low DO process.
Mark

Cheers Mark,

Thats what i was trying to ask. Gotcha. I usually only do really hoppy stuff so pressure for me will be mainly about oxy exlusion.

 

[Ballaratguy]

I usually pitch the yeast as in transferring into the fermenter usually lavish arvo and hook the gas out line to the liquid post of my first corny. Then go from gas to liquid of the second corny with the spunding valve on the gas of the second keg
When cold crash the pressure in the kegs drops a bit due to the suck back

I failed to mention that I only connect the gas out line onto the fermenter after fermentation has kicked off. I normally ferment at 20 psi
(I’ve also had quite a few professional brewers (and a couple of judges) praise my brews which are all pressure fermented)

 

[Tommy-Gun]

I failed to mention that I only connect the gas out line onto the fermenter after fermentation has kicked off. I normally ferment at 20 psi
(I’ve also had quite a few professional brewers (and a couple of judges) praise my brews which are all pressure fermented)

Nice one. What temp do you think I should go? the brew I normally do is at 20c but I heard you can go higher temp with pressure? It will be Llemand Verdant IPA dry yeast.

 

[Ballaratguy]

I normally ferment at 20 then ramp up to 22 (after fermentation has stalled) for a couple of days then CC for a couple

 

[Dave70]

pressure fermentation

Meh. Overrated. Like those other trendy trends such as wort aeration with O2. At best, another tool in the toolbox. Good for warm fermented fast lagers with the right yeast. And even that's debatable. As are all my opinions here.

 

[DucatiBoyStu]

Meh. Overrated. Like those other trendy trends such as wort aeration with O2. At best, another tool in the toolbox. Good for warm fermented fast lagers with the right yeast. And even that's debatable. As are all my opinions here.

Now what we need is one of them WilliamsWa........Remember that one