Stepping up from kit brewing

[Craigerrr]

I normally put my gravity sample in the fridge for a couple hours to settle out before tasting. Quite a bit of material drops out in a short period of time.

 

[kkourmousis]

Great idea, I will have that in mind for my next sample

 

[kkourmousis]

Hey there. Update from that bitter batch. To remind you guys, I ended up with 27% smaller batch size because of miscalculations and now the beer has aprox. 100IBU

I bottled the batch yesterday and I decided not to dilute it, as you proposed. It is tolerable for me and worst case scenario is I will drink it all on my own hehe. Something weird happened though. I ended up with even less beer! I lost another 20% somehow and I was unpleaseantly surprised by a very thick yeast layer in the bottom of my fermenter. Does anyone has any idea why would those things happen? It was my first experience with the US-04 yeast, is this normal?

I bottled the second batch I made (the BIAB one which went perfectly on track) a few minutes earlier and even though the batch size was spot on, again there was too much yeast at the bottom.

I attach a couple of photos

 

[Donoroto]

I get about a liter of yeast from a 5 gallon batch of S04. I try to recover 600 ml and forget about the rest. It's probably 3 cm thick of a layer?
All that yeast has liquid in it, so in a small batch it could account for a liter of lost liquid. If you dry-hopped, that absorbs water too.

 

[Craigerrr]

Ya, this is normal, all part of the water calculations.
This is a snapshot of a spreadsheet that I created to help me compensate for dry hop absorption.

You can see that I have the trub loss set at 0.50 gallons, which would be about 2 liters.
That is just the way it is when you are making beer, so you account for it.

 

[kkourmousis]

It's probably 3 cm thick of a layer?
....
If you dry-hopped, that absorbs water too.

Yes it is exactly like that

I see. That makes sense... Thanks guys

 

[Hawkbox]

Yup, in every step of the process you lose some water. For me to make a 21L batch of beer I usually start with around 30L of water and put 19L in the keg. Once you've done it a time or two you'll get a feel for how much you lose. Some yeasts settle more than others too so if you're avoiding pulling up yeast that will affect you too.

Sounds like you got yourself a successful beer if not a fantastic one. You're on the right track.

 

[Craigerrr]

That layer in the bottom of the fermenter is mostly "trub", that is the grayish brown grainy looking stuff. The yeast is the creamy off white stuff. Looks like you have some dry hops in there as well, which will also absorb some beer.

It's kind of like when you make coffee, to make 10 cups you need to add 10.5 to 11 cups of water to yield 10 cups of coffee. The coffee absorbs some water, and some boils off during the brewing process.

 

[kkourmousis]

Hey there. Update from that bitter batch. To remind you guys, I ended up with 27% smaller batch size because of miscalculations and now the beer has aprox. 100IBU

I bottled the batch yesterday and I decided not to dilute it, as you proposed. It is tolerable for me and worst case scenario is I will drink it all on my own hehe. Something weird happened though. I ended up with even less beer! I lost another 20% somehow and I was unpleaseantly surprised by a very thick yeast layer in the bottom of my fermenter. Does anyone has any idea why would those things happen? It was my first experience with the US-04 yeast, is this normal?

I bottled the second batch I made (the BIAB one which went perfectly on track) a few minutes earlier and even though the batch size was spot on, again there was too much yeast at the bottom.

I attach a couple of photos

Hey there, update from the bitter batch. After 1 month in the fridge, the beer is actually drinkable and enjoyable. Surely it is bitter but it is nowhere near to that torment I tested while bottling it. I will add some photos when I open up another bottle

 

[Craigerrr]

Hey there, update from the bitter batch. After 1 month in the fridge, the beer is actually drinkable and enjoyable. Surely it is bitter but it is nowhere near to that torment I tested while bottling it. I will add some photos when I open up another bottle

Great news!

 

[RichLews]

This is great!