1st Quarter Brew 2023

Zambezi Special said:
Lots of firsts for me in this brew...
First time hopstand, first time using BRY, first time short boil and first time dry hopping.
Now how should I do that? Dry hopping? Do I need to disinfect anything? Or just open fermenter, put in hops, close and hope for the best?

Temp is sitting nicely in the low 18 oC (65 F)
Need tp check today if I see any bubbles
Click to expand...
That is how I have always done it. The hops are frozen for weeks so not likely gonna have any bugs
 
This is an easy beer to make, and I enjoyed my brew day yesterday. The wort is clear with a nice amber hue, it smells great with the aromatic hops, and it tastes good, too. Since this morning, mine is happily bubbling along, with about a quarter inch thick Krausen that wasn’t present last night.
Going into this brew, I figured that I might outperform the projections of the recipe builder, where I set my brewhouse efficiency at 75%, and my OG at 1.046. As is the pattern over much of the past year, my conversion, brewhouse efficiency and OG all came in below projections, not by much, but still contrary to what I expected. I know I’ll have a good beer when I open the first bottle, but I really want to get back to hitting my targets, like I used to.
 
Zambezi Special said:
Lots of firsts for me in this brew...
First time hopstand, first time using BRY, first time short boil and first time dry hopping.
Now how should I do that? Dry hopping? Do I need to disinfect anything? Or just open fermenter, put in hops, close and hope for the best?

Temp is sitting nicely in the low 18 oC (65 F)
Need tp check today if I see any bubbles
Click to expand...
I have always done what you describe and have never had any issue with oxidization, or infection
 
Craigerrr said:
I have always done what you describe and have never had any issue with oxidization, or infection
Click to expand...
Great
I can put them in loose or in one of those hop thingy's. I want to re-use the trub, so maybe the thingy is better?
@Trialben: you said after 5 days... is that flexible? What should I look for to decide timing?
 
Zambezi Special said:
Lots of firsts for me in this brew...
First time hopstand, first time using BRY, first time short boil and first time dry hopping.
Now how should I do that? Dry hopping? Do I need to disinfect anything? Or just open fermenter, put in hops, close and hope for the best?
Click to expand...

When the fermentation starts to slow down, just dump the hops in and close it back up. Between the freezing while packaged and the alcohol in the fermenter at that point, there's little worry for critters spoiling... plus, the remaining fermentation will scrub out any oxygen produced by the dry hopping.
 
Zambezi Special said:
Great
I can put them in loose or in one of those hop thingy's. I want to re-use the trub, so maybe the thingy is better?
@Trialben: you said after 5 days... is that flexible? What should I look for to decide timing?
Click to expand...
You can add hops anytime, pre pitch, after signs of fermentation, at peak krausen, or towards the end of fermentation. It is common to have two or more dry additions. For this brew one addition towards the end of fermentation would probably be the best.
 
I'm slowly raising the temperature a bit.
I started at 17.5 +/- 1.5 oC (63.5 +/- 2.7 F) which initially kept it low 18 (65-ish)
Then yesterday, it was sitting lower. I assumed less heat gensrated by the yeast. Upped set point to 18.
This morning I tried reducing the bandwith to 1 oC (1.8 F,) I'll be checking if the fridge can handle this.

Then I think 0.5 oC (1 F) up every day till 20 oC (68 F)
 
Mine is going gangbusters. A still building Krausen has forced me to remove S-type airlock in favor of a blow off tube. Krausen has risen to bottom of fermenter lid. With blow off in place, it pushed bubbles in seconds. It is pushing multiple bubbles per second. It’s been a while since I’ve seen such an active fermentation. Closet temp remains at 59F.
 
Funny that, as mine is just bubbling quietly...
But... I'm used to Voss at 30+ oC (86+ F)
 
Zambezi Special said:
Great
I can put them in loose or in one of those hop thingy's. I want to re-use the trub, so maybe the thingy is better?
@Trialben: you said after 5 days... is that flexible? What should I look for to decide timing?
Click to expand...
I put em in when I see fermentation slowing down.
That way any introduced o2 should be driven out by fermentation.

With Voss that's day two lol:p
 
So, after seeing Herm's krausen I got a bit worried.
Took a little sample via the spigot.
Definitely bitter. Not sweet at all. Still some fizz.
Refracto reading is between 5 and 5.5, after putting it in the calculator I'm on an SG of 1.007, attenuation of 87 (!) Percent, ABV of round about 5.2
I
First time doing an in between sample ;)

I think it is time to dry hop, and keep upping the temperature a bit.
I hope the dry hop doesn't make it too bitter....
 
Zambezi Special said:
So, after seeing Herm's krausen I got a bit worried.
Took a little sample via the spigot.
Definitely bitter. Not sweet at all. Still some fizz.
Refracto reading is between 5 and 5.5, after putting it in the calculator I'm on an SG of 1.007, attenuation of 87 (!) Percent, ABV of round about 5.2
I
First time doing an in between sample ;)

I think it is time to dry hop, and keep upping the temperature a bit.
I hope the dry hop doesn't make it too bitter....
Click to expand...
Dry hoping shouldn't effect bitter at all. There is no isomerization. It will just add the earthy flavors that mosaic has
 
Zambezi Special said:
So, after seeing Herm's krausen I got a bit worried.
Took a little sample via the spigot.
Definitely bitter. Not sweet at all. Still some fizz.
Refracto reading is between 5 and 5.5, after putting it in the calculator I'm on an SG of 1.007, attenuation of 87 (!) Percent, ABV of round about 5.2
I
First time doing an in between sample ;)

I think it is time to dry hop, and keep upping the temperature a bit.
I hope the dry hop doesn't make it too bitter....
Click to expand...
Yup no worries with bitterness we'll harsh bitterness with dry hops Zambezi.

Man I hope it doesn't dry out on you any more this is supposed to have plenty of malt characters to combine with the hops.

Don't judge it just yet though you might be getting hop bite as well from everything in suspension just stay true to the course on this it'll be worth it fingers crossed ha!:D
 
Definitely!
As said: i've never taken an early sample before, so no comparison. It will change taste with more time.

What do you think: galena or cascade for dry hop?
They go in today.
 
Yesterday, the Krausen reached the base of the blow off tube, but stopped there. Last night, I put the S-type air lock back on the fermenter. This morning, there is still bubbling, but it is much slower than yesterday. It looks like I created a very fermentable wort.
 
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