Mad Alchemist » fermentation

The Wonders of Fermentation

Hop — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 01:31:51 +0000

As you might have seen from my previous post, I thought I’d botched my entire last batch of beer. Well, I decided to pull it out of the fermentor after a week and anticipated throwing it out. Instead, I unexpectedly had a two-case bottling session.

Thank you, Belgian Schelde yeast. If you create an appropriate starter (I did) and aerate your wort properly (Also, check–I use an aquarium pump), you’ll get a nice vigorous fermentation. A wort that tasted quite bad (overly bitter, cloudy, chalky, low gravity) turned into a very tasty Belgian Pale. That, my friends, exemplifies the wonders of yeast.

Dear Better Bottle, I Love You

Hop — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 01:16:19 +0000

Strong words? Because it’s the best fermentor I’ve ever used. Until now, I’ve only ever used either plastic buckets or glass carboys. I finally grabbed a Better Bottle 6 Gallon Carboy and I love it. Not because it’s super durable and lighter than glass. Not because it’s easy to clean. Not because it can be used as a pretty sweet drum to annoy your wife.

I love it because it makes aeration easy. Because it is durable and light, I got my best aeration of any brew with the Irish Red I brewed yesterday. How’d I do it? Easy…

I filled it up with 5.5 gallons of my sweet Irish Red, then I stoppered it and put it on its side on my counter. I held the stopper and neck and shook the crap out of the big end by rolling/sliding it. I had wort sloshing around like mad in there for several minutes with very little effort.

Then, I added the yeast and rocked it for a bit to mix the yeast in well. By morning, a wonderful layer of krausen had formed at the top of my vigorously-fermenting wort. As I mentioned, this is the best I’ve seen when pitching at 65° and it took very little effort whatsoever.

I can’t believe it took me so long to shell out $25 for something that will save me from so many backaches (I know, someday I’ll say the same thing about an aquarium pump for aeration).

No Secondary: Myth or the Future?

Hop — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:00:30 +0000

Do you have to transfer your ale to a secondary fermentor? Will it impact the flavor or clarity of the beer? The short answer is, “no.” You really don’t have to transfer an ale to a secondary fermentor unless you plan to leave it there for more than 3-4 weeks (otherwise, you risk autolysis. You’re generally good to go up to a month. Experiment and decide what tastes best, but some people have gone a month without bottling and the beer tasted great.

Note the italicized word: ale. You should still transfer lagers (and high OG ales) to a secondary fermentor, because you will usually leave them in a fermentation vessel for 4+ weeks. Additionally, if you are putting anything crazy in after primary fermentation like cold-brewed coffee or fruit, I would still advise transferring to secondary.

What are the benefits of not transferring to secondary? Superficially, it’s less work. More importantly, you are increasing your chances of infection when you rack to secondary. So, as long as you are able to achieve the same clarity and taste using only a primary, there’s really no reason to rack to secondary.

If you are overly concerned about clarity, you can move your fermentor the day before you plan to bottle or keg so any disturbed trub will settle out.

Are the days of the secondary fermentor gone for ale brewers everywhere? Pretty much, yes.