Finally hit my numbers

[Minbari]

I use rice hulls. Is that considered a fining agent? If not, what would be a fining agent? Thanks... Chip

No, that just helps flow when mashing

Cheapest one is plain gelatin. put it in when you cold crash. personally i like biofine clear. cost more, but works really well

 

[Minbari]

Seems with "overhead beer" you can't make your target SG. That's what I used to do was brew to "volume" and not SG. That didn't work to hit the ABV I was looking for. Am I missing something???? Chip

If you hit your OG and the yeast does the job, your abv should be right on point too.

 

[Craigerrr]

makes sense. do that and let it sit for an hour or so before draining to a bottling bucket?

If you can prop it up like that from the beginning that would be best, I doubt that the trub/yeast/hop cake will shift after the fact.
It especially won't if you have cold crashed for a period of time before packaging time.

 

[Bigbre04]

i have never needed to use fining agents. In my past life i used them on damn near every batch. At this point, i keg straight from the uni that i fermented and carbed the beer in. beer clears up fairly quickly on its own.

just my 2 cents

 

[Craigerrr]

The only finings I use are a 1/2 of a whirlfloc tablet late in the boil, and cold crashing before kegging.
That and recirculating the mash seem to result in clear beers.
Unless of course if I am brewing a hazy IPA.
Hazy IPA's don't get whirlfloc, or a cold crash, I do however reduce fermenter to 5C (serving temp) for a few days before kegging.

 

[Bigbre04]

The only finings I use are a 1/2 of a whirlfloc tablet late in the boil, and cold crashing before kegging.
That and recirculating the mash seem to result in clear beers.
Unless of course if I am brewing a hazy IPA.
Hazy IPA's don't get whirlfloc, or a cold crash, I do however reduce fermenter to 5C (serving temp) for a few days before kegging.

i actually throw WF BWS in all of my batches. For my hazy IPAs i lean on biotransformation via Voss(the boss) and a health dryhop during fermentation.

The haze formation from the bio transformation is far more stable then any wit or hefe yeast.

So interestingly enough. My session IPA(year around) is on its last keg(kegged on 2/25) and it still has some haze to it. The batch that is following it did not receive the dryhop(coworker had a rough day and forgot to dryhop). Fermentation finished in the same timeframe and the beer hit the same ABV and expected Attenuation, but after carbing it and letting it sit waiting for clean kegs(2-3 days) the voss had dropped mostly out and it is not a lovely session juicy pale ale. It is a very very different beer without that hop biotranformation. its only about 40 ibu and 5.1% but the haze and flavors are very different.

I may actually switch my session of year around and save the hops and roll the Juicy session pale ale, calling it Beach Bum Juicy Ale.

 

[BarbarianBrewer]

The only finings I use are a 1/2 of a whirlfloc tablet late in the boil, and cold crashing before kegging.
That and recirculating the mash seem to result in clear beers.

I do the same (except I vourlauf at the end of the mash and not during) and have pretty clear beer. I think the vourlauf and cold crashing are the biggest factors in clear beer. I also use @Dave Y 's "Overhead Beer" method as well. Once I see trub in the transfer hose I stop the transfer.

 

[Bigbre04]

I do the same (except I vourlauf at the end of the mash and not during) and have pretty clear beer. I think the vourlauf and cold crashing are the biggest factors in clear beer. I also use @Dave Y 's "Overhead Beer" method as well. Once I see trub in the transfer hose I stop the transfer.

my system requires that you vorlauf up through the grain tube for the whole time...its dumb.

 

[Craigerrr]

after carbing it and letting it sit waiting for clean kegs(2-3 days) the voss had dropped mostly out and it is not a lovely session juicy pale ale. It is a very very different beer without that hop biotranformation. its only about 40 ibu and 5.1% but the haze and flavors are very different.

I may actually switch my session of year around and save the hops and roll the Juicy session pale ale, calling it Beach Bum Juicy Ale.

Sorry, I am confused, is the mistake in missing the dry hop a good, ora bad beer?

 

[Craigerrr]

Boy! We sure are digressing from the subject of this thread...

 

[Bigbre04]

Sorry, I am confused, is the mistake in missing the dry hop a good, ora bad beer?

It's a really good beer. Had a distributor there randomly. He was asked me to make more of it for him

 

[Chip99]

I had a picture that showed how this worked, but can't find it. The trub settles level so the top of the cake will be below the spigot.
You can see here that the trub is below the spigot, sorry but I can't find the side shot.
I sold the speidels 3-4 few years ago.

View attachment 31615

I'm curious as to why you sold your Speidels? They work great for me. What works better at that price point? Chip

 

[west1m]

I had a picture that showed how this worked, but can't find it. The trub settles level so the top of the cake will be below the spigot.
You can see here that the trub is below the spigot, sorry but I can't find the side shot.
I sold the speidels 3-4 few years ago.

View attachment 31615

I also use a Spidel and rais up the front like that.

 

[Donoroto]

One question I have not seen addressed is ‘how fo I bump up temperature real fast?’

In a 5 gallon batch at, say, 140 F, adding 0.5 gallons of boiling water will raise the batch up to around 146. This could be enough, or yiu might not want to increase volume.

It is not harmful to mash low, and increase temperature over several tens of minutes. This is called a step mash, and some styles (like a hefeweitzen) do very well this way.

In an all in one, likely your best choice is to recirculate the wort from the bottom (where the heat is, and the temperature sensor) to the top, using a pump.

If you have a Brewzilla, be aware that you can tweak yhe calibration a bit so the sensor more vlosely matches the malt temperature. Mine is set to display -9 F lower, and the mash us always spot on. Then again, I also recirculate almost continuously.