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Tophat665 · 05-06-2003, 06:29 PM

GM,
Good tutorial, but two things to add -
1) If you're making a light colored beer and want better clarity, 1/2 tsp of irish moss (from your friendly homebrew supplier) in the boil 10 minutes before the end will help precipitate a bunch of haze causing crud (protiens) out of the wort.
2) Worry about liquid coming out of the airlock. Well, not worry, but keep an eye on it. If you've got a 5 galon batch in a 5 gallon carboy, f'rinstance, you have to rig a hose from the neck of the carboy to a container half full of water - making sure the end of the hose stays under the water. If you've got solids in your fermenter - whole hops, oak chips, raspberries - you have to be real careful about this. My brew buddy did an IPA that got an oak chip lodged across the blowoff hose and blew the cork out and jetted foam up and across a 7 1/2 foot ceiling. Nasty business that. I've also had an imperial stout pop the top off an airlock 4 feet straight up.

One other thing - if you decant your wort into icy cold water while it is over 170°, you can run it through a sparging bag to get 99% of the crud out of it without fear of contamination, since 170 is pasturization temperature. Takes longer to cool enough to pitch the yeast if you do it that way though.

I just got a Doppelbock and a Munich Helles Lager cooked and in the buckets on Sunday, and they're bubbling away like gangbusters in the spare fridge - kicking off a ton of sulphur and dicetyl too - smells like a fart at a taffy pull in there at the moment (not unexpectedly). I'll give 'em a week of that in buckets and 50 - 55°, rack 'em to glass, rest them at room temp for a couple of days to blow off the last of the dicetyl and sulphur, then back into the fridge for two weeks at 45 - 50, rack again, then into the fridge again for a month at 33°. These will be silky smooth after a month of lagering. Might leave the doppelbock in the cold for 2 months.

My recipes and comments and labels used to be at The Gamma Hootch Brewing Co., but the site exceeded it's bandwith. I have a recipe for 70/ Scottish Ale on <a href="http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?s=&postid=776137#post776137">this thread</a> and I may post some more there or here.

05-06-2003, 06:29 PM	#11 (permalink)
Tophat665 Minion of the scaléd ones Location: Northeast Jesusland	GM, Good tutorial, but two things to add - 1) If you're making a light colored beer and want better clarity, 1/2 tsp of irish moss (from your friendly homebrew supplier) in the boil 10 minutes before the end will help precipitate a bunch of haze causing crud (protiens) out of the wort. 2) Worry about liquid coming out of the airlock. Well, not worry, but keep an eye on it. If you've got a 5 galon batch in a 5 gallon carboy, f'rinstance, you have to rig a hose from the neck of the carboy to a container half full of water - making sure the end of the hose stays under the water. If you've got solids in your fermenter - whole hops, oak chips, raspberries - you have to be real careful about this. My brew buddy did an IPA that got an oak chip lodged across the blowoff hose and blew the cork out and jetted foam up and across a 7 1/2 foot ceiling. Nasty business that. I've also had an imperial stout pop the top off an airlock 4 feet straight up. One other thing - if you decant your wort into icy cold water while it is over 170°, you can run it through a sparging bag to get 99% of the crud out of it without fear of contamination, since 170 is pasturization temperature. Takes longer to cool enough to pitch the yeast if you do it that way though. I just got a Doppelbock and a Munich Helles Lager cooked and in the buckets on Sunday, and they're bubbling away like gangbusters in the spare fridge - kicking off a ton of sulphur and dicetyl too - smells like a fart at a taffy pull in there at the moment (not unexpectedly). I'll give 'em a week of that in buckets and 50 - 55°, rack 'em to glass, rest them at room temp for a couple of days to blow off the last of the dicetyl and sulphur, then back into the fridge for two weeks at 45 - 50, rack again, then into the fridge again for a month at 33°. These will be silky smooth after a month of lagering. Might leave the doppelbock in the cold for 2 months. My recipes and comments and labels used to be at The Gamma Hootch Brewing Co., but the site exceeded it's bandwith. I have a recipe for 70/ Scottish Ale on <a href="http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?s=&postid=776137#post776137">this thread</a> and I may post some more there or here. __________________ Light a man a fire, and he will be warm while it burns. Set a man on fire, and he will be warm for the rest of his life. Last edited by Tophat665; 11-12-2003 at 07:04 PM..