What're you brewing right now?

icemachine · Post by **icemachine** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 12:02 pm

ercousin wrote:
atomeyes wrote:
grub wrote: There are always exceptions (some belgian yeast, lacto, etc), but it's easier to warm those up. So aim for a spot that keeps around that temperature and is either dark (like a closet) or you can cover the fermenter to keep light out .
i was thinking about this the other day.

clearly, you wouldn't leave a fermentor in direct sunlight.

but how much light is bad? ambient light? does the room need to be pitch dark?
wondering if anyone has data.
Before I started fermenting in a mini-fridge (that is always dark inside) I would put a dark t-shirt over my carboy. I don't have any data but better to be safe, especially when all it takes is a t-shirt.

I use a black garbage bag over glass carboys, pails I don't worry about

grub · Post by **grub** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 2:24 pm

for light, you're worried about it for skunking - you get no protection with a clear glass bottle or carboy. so if you'd be comfortable having a bunch of beer in clear glass bottles, you're fine.

lots of options other than the t-shirt suggestion. if i have the box from the carboy, I flip it upside down and use that. i use old tshirts that i don't care about. but most of my carboys (16+) are on a big rack that I built, and I have a giant sheet of cardboard that sits in front to shield it from the times when the light is on. Since I doubled it to its current size, I've been meaning to hit the local fabric store and create a giant curtain for it, since the carboard only covers about half.

obviously buckets and stainless are fine. I only worry about carboys, which is my long-term sours and the occasional small/experimental batch - the rest is in stainless.

chris_schryer · Post by **chris_schryer** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 4:46 pm

Hey all. Hmmm, I feel like I'm going mad, I just checked at the info at white labs seems to say WPL051 likes things in the 18-21 range, but I swear the label (which I've since peeled and tossed) said 19-23 At any rate, the temp has actually been bouncing from about 19.5-22 (mind you I hadn't factored in the warmer temp internally)., so hopefully it'll be okay. Assuming you could even taste any off flavours though the hops

I had considered brewing the next batch, just using a tiny amount of bitter hops, then blending them, but I'll wait and see how it comes out. It might not be awful.... maybe........

Because my bedroom is quite bright, I actually draped the carboy in a towel, which might have protected it from skunking, but also jacked the temp. I pitched the yeast Tuesday at about 4pm, and at this moment it's slowed to a bubble every 3 seconds or so (was going hard, though never blew krausen through the airlock).

In a few weeks, my crawlspace will be holding at like 18C and will be ready for beer. Might try my hand at some saison towards the end of March and have some summer sippers to hold me through the dog days.

lister · Post by **lister** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 4:53 pm

I've been using a towel on my one gallon glass carboys. It's worked well. Being in a condo the temperature is a little hard to get right short of doing any extremes like leaving all the windows open in the winter or blasting the A/C in the summer. I don't think that's affected my brews at all. Other things certainly have, particularly my last brew, but it's a learning experience.

Now I need to figure out what to use for covering of my 3 gallon PET Better Bottle once the mead is done and I start brewing beer in it.

atomeyes · Post by **atomeyes** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 5:38 pm

chris_schryer wrote:Hey all. Hmmm, I feel like I'm going mad, I just checked at the info at white labs seems to say WPL051 likes things in the 18-21 range, but I swear the label (which I've since peeled and tossed) said 19-23 At any rate, the temp has actually been bouncing from about 19.5-22 (mind you I hadn't factored in the warmer temp internally)., so hopefully it'll be okay. Assuming you could even taste any off flavours though the hops

I had considered brewing the next batch, just using a tiny amount of bitter hops, then blending them, but I'll wait and see how it comes out. It might not be awful.... maybe........

Because my bedroom is quite bright, I actually draped the carboy in a towel, which might have protected it from skunking, but also jacked the temp. I pitched the yeast Tuesday at about 4pm, and at this moment it's slowed to a bubble every 3 seconds or so (was going hard, though never blew krausen through the airlock).

In a few weeks, my crawlspace will be holding at like 18C and will be ready for beer. Might try my hand at some saison towards the end of March and have some summer sippers to hold me through the dog days.

in all likelihood, you will bottle this, drink it, and be superproud of it.
and in 1 year, you'll laugh that you didn't pour this down the drain.
doesn't hurt to drink it and, in all likelihood, it will taste ok. probably not your favourite beer ever, probably not the worst beer ever.

icemachine · Post by **icemachine** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 6:35 pm

chris_schryer wrote:
In a few weeks, my crawlspace will be holding at like 18C and will be ready for beer. Might try my hand at some saison towards the end of March and have some summer sippers to hold me through the dog days.

For a saison you'll want to ferment it quite warm at 25C or so

J343MY · Post by **J343MY** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 7:31 pm

icemachine wrote:For a saison you'll want to ferment it quite warm at 25C or so

Unless you are using Wyeast 3711

icemachine · Post by **icemachine** » Thu Feb 27, 2014 8:02 pm

J343MY wrote:
icemachine wrote:For a saison you'll want to ferment it quite warm at 25C or so
Unless you are using Wyeast 3711

French Yeast is for sissies :p

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 4:43 pm

Brewing 10 gallons of Kolsch on Sunday morning.

Overnight low is -33C (-47C with windchill), daytime high is -24C (-30C windchill). I'm thinking the garage door won't be open very wide...

Swampale · Post by **Swampale** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 6:45 am

You'll certainly be able to chill it in record time. That is so cold. You are braver than me, I wouldn't brew in that weather, even in a garage. Stay warm if possible.

J343MY · Post by **J343MY** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 2:05 pm

Just finished brewing an IPA with blood orange juice and zest. Calculates to 1000 ICUs...

markaberrant · Post by **markaberrant** » Sat Mar 01, 2014 8:38 pm

Swampale wrote:You'll certainly be able to chill it in record time. That is so cold. You are braver than me, I wouldn't brew in that weather, even in a garage. Stay warm if possible.

Looks like it will be about -33C (-43C with windchill) when we start at 9am tomorrow.

I actually brewed right outside in the elements onetime when it was -28C (-40C with windchill). That was damn cold, I had to put my propane tank in a tub with hot water, and had to keep adding hot water. It turned out to be an amazing Belgian Tripel, so it was well worth the effort.

Craig · Post by **Craig** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 10:00 am

I gave a couple of friends a glass of that coffee/chocolate/vanilla stout I did. I got another of those "Wait, you made this?" reactions. I love those.

The vanilla is basically gone, it's almost all coffee now with just a little chocolate for depth. I'm pleased. Next winter I'll try an imperial version.

atomeyes · Post by **atomeyes** » Sun Mar 09, 2014 1:14 pm

i have a few lbs of (likely) fuggle that my father in law picked and did not air dry.

thinking about using them to wet hop a beer.

anyone have any thoughts as to what i should brew with them? maybe a pale ale with fuggle and my cacao husks at flameout?

grub · Post by **grub** » Mon Mar 10, 2014 10:41 am

atomeyes wrote:i have a few lbs of (likely) fuggle that my father in law picked and did not air dry.

thinking about using them to wet hop a beer.

anyone have any thoughts as to what i should brew with them? maybe a pale ale with fuggle and my cacao husks at flameout?

chocolate in a hoppy english pale ale? sounds...odd... i'd skip the cacao entirely, or perhaps try for a med gravity hoppy english stout with both, but i'm still not sure how wet hop + chocolate would turn out.

how were they stored, just bagged and perhaps frozen? otherwise I'm confused how they'd still not be dry.