re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

quote:

---

I typically cold crash for several days for an ale and a week or two for lagers. I then keg, add gelatin, put it at 30-40 psi, give it a good shake, and then wait about 24 hours. By then it's carbed and the gelatin has done what it needs to do. I bleed it back down to serving temp, blow out pint or two of gunk, and start drinking.

---

I do basically the same except I don't bother to rock or shake it anymore
and usually don't bother to add gelatin either

I never cold crash. I force carb at about 23 psi for 2 days and then is usually ready to drink. Higher gravity beers take longer to carb, maybe 3-4 days.

How short on the fermenting kegs? Just a couple inches to keep the tube out of the trub?

quote:

---

Do you guys shorten your dip tubes? I know some people like the floating dip tubes.

---

I cut off about 1/2" from my dip tubes. If i don't, when i'm screwing on the keg posts, the dip tube turns as well and ends up pointing towards the side of the keg.

any tips on kegging?

I think there are some pretty decent posts on that in the last few pages... Biggest thing in my opinion is to make sure you are getting the right line lengths and IDs. For me, and for most, that's about 10ft 3/16 ID. There are some calculators out there but the only thing that would make it much different is if you will have your taps well above or well below the top of your keg.

My sour beer aging room is getting crowded. Roughly 40 gallons of sour beer in various stages.



The one in the center is getting bottled next weekend. Once I do that I’ll have a fermented freed up to begin my sour base program.

So the way I started with sours initially, is i would brew a batch with low amounts of hops (3-6 IBUs) then add the microbes. After about a year of aging I’d bottle with Brett or champagne yeast. The beers were good, but man were they tart. After about a year in the bottle the acidity would calm down some, but they were still very sour.

Eventually i started messing around with blending. I’d take the same very sour beer, and blend it with a new beer, with more IBUs. I’d experiment with samples to determine the ratio, and when I got it how I wanted it, I’d then blend and bottle.

However, as I’m doing this, I’m still making long aged sours to keep a pipeline going. As I’m doing this, I’m adding more hops to restrain the acidity. The problem, now, is the beers with more hops (10-20 IBUs) are moderate levels of acidity, requiring more of the sour blend to the new beer ratio to get it how I like. Which is fine for taste, but I also lose some volume because rather than having sour base beers and blending with a 3/2 or 4/1 new beer to sour beer ratio, I have to use more of the higher IBUs sour beer to blend with the new beer.

So, my new plan of attack is to brew 2 or 3 base beer styles to be my sour house blends. They will be very low IBUs sours so they become very tart. And then I can more easily control the flavors of my blends. Base 1 - will be a golden saison base. Base 2 will be an Amber base, and I may try a base 3 of a darker stout base. And rather than using different microbe blends, I want to combine some of my older sour blends and develop a singular house sour base. On the picture you’ll see some 1 gallon demijohns. One is the dregs from my first ever sour. Not sure what generation it’s on, the other is my initial wicked weed built up dregs, again a later generation (4 or 5) from when I first made it.

Once these sour bases are up and running and I have some good quantity stock (I hope to have about 2 fermenters of each sour base going) I should be able to pump out sour blends much quicker. Currently I’m bottling 5 gallons every 2 or 3 months.

I’ll top off the fermenters periodically, likely with the blender batch. However, if the blender batch is higher in hops, I’ll have to brew some specific low ibu sour batches to maintain acidity. It will essentially be like a solera.

In addition to my sour base program I also have a solera in process. In the picture, it’s the 2nd fermented from the left. I’ll keep this going as well.

And then finally, in the winter I’ll be making a Lambic. Plan to make one once or twice a year. I’ll use Roselaire blend as my base incoculate, along with some gueuze dregs. And I’ll attempt some wild capture with some wort in some jars that I’ll place at my grandmas old house along the bayou bank and Indian mound. If what I capture is not awful, I’ll throw than in as well. If it turns out great, then I may brew up a special batch to use solely wild fermentation. In the end, these lambics will be blended into a gueuze. So the first beer to drink will be ready in 4-5 years.

I have a lot of plans for sour beer coming up. Sorry for the wall of text.

Well I brewed an all grain hacker pschorr clone Oktoberfest. SG came in really high at 1.071 instead of the listed 1.062. Using white labs liquid 820 Oktoberfest yeast. Glad i made a starter lol

Currently in fridge with inkbird temp controller on it. Pitched at 230 yesterday and got up this morning for work and checked. No activity yet. Hopefully this afternoon will see some.

Wonder how i came in so high on the gravity? I had a little more water than i wanted so had to boil a little longer. Think im going to use a little less sparge water. Oh and i batch sparge not fly sparge

I dont know how to sour it. With lactobacillus or lactic acid? Pitch lactobacillus or use good belly probiotics? I dont have a way to keep temps rock steady at 95 degrees, I thought about pitching lacto at around 100, putting the carboy in my garage in the afternoon and wrapping in a blanket. That should hold it pretty well for about 24 hours probably. I dont have a way to measure ph. what do you use?

Then boil for 15 minutes? Cool down and then pitch yeast? What yeast do you use? I imagine something really clean or really fruity. I also planned on pitching in some fruit puree. When should that be done? During fermentation?