Ogri
Well-Known Member
Now now boys,,,,play nice. We don't want anyone spittin' the dummy and throwing their toys out of the pram
So you know what a carboy airlock is right? You know that bubbles come up right? When fermentation slows down the bubbles slow down right? Do I have you at this point? The slow down tends to line up perfectly with the typical fermentation slow down or typical primary fermentation for particular styles.
A recent "Brew" magazine article essentially said you only need at most 10-14 days for carbonation. Yes, you can mature them longer but will not change the carbonation.
Fermentation is not always dynamic...just because you don't SEE anything happening doesn't mean that the yeast aren't happily chewing away at whatever fermentables are in there....the only way to know comes from gravity readings, and nothing else.........
I think so.... you're referring to the little vent that goes into the hole in the bung atop my carboy, right?
That's one of the many things that can cause a change in pressure inside the fermenter, resulting in a change in the rate of airlock bubbles. Some of the others are a change in temperature, barometric pressure, floorboards shifting, or as the OP of this Sticky likes to point out, the family cat rubbing up on the carboy. There's a laundry list of others, but I think you catch my drift.
Personally, I let the yeast determine when fermentation is complete. When I see that there's no activity in the carboy, I take an SG reading. ~72 hours later I'll take another. If those two readings coincide, I'll consider fermentation to be complete, and will take the appropriate next step.
Based on what? How does one's assumption of the end of fermentation influence the time bottle conditioning takes?
I agree, the bottle conditioning process takes longer than ten to 14 days.
Tell me Jeff, is all this wonderful information that you're sharing on this Sticky part of the education you received at UC Davis or where ever?
FWIW, if you haven't figured it out yet, I don't believe for a second that you have any sort of formal training in brewing, much less one from a well respected program like UC Davis. I base that solely on the fact that had you the education you claim to have, you would know better than to claim such education as a means to legitimize the things you've said on this and other threads over the last couple of days. I'm not gonna beat around the bush with sarcasm here, lets be real, it's f'n laughable that you think anyone would believe you're an alum of UC Davis' brewing sciences program when you're saying things like "airlock bubbles every 2-3 minutes means fermentation is complete" and "If you do everything else right, you don't need a yeast starter". The latter being something you claim to have heard "in your last class at Davis". In my best 'Boomer' voice, "C'MON MAN!"
NordeastBrewer77 said:I'd hardly say that I'm the one being ******-y here, man. As did others, I simply pointed out the flaw in what you'd posted. I'll give you this, I may have been quick here to call a spade a spade due to you and I conversing on another thread. As you can clearly see on that thread (I linked it several times above), I simply stated that I didn't agree with your assessment on tannin extraction. You then (your words) "went Papazian" on the thread, which I and others quickly pointed out might be inaccurate/dated advice. You then seemed to take great offense (based on your posts) and said you'd finished the Brewing Sciences program at UC Davis... which in and of itself is believable, I would have no reason to doubt that except for the rest of the sentence (something about yeast health/pitch rates). That, combined with your mention of airlock bubbles on this thread is why I question your honesty about that. (on a side note about "airlock bubbles": I brewed up a pale ale last night and used an "S' type lock for the first time in months, maybe a year. I noticed how little it bubbles compared to the 3 pieces I mainly use. When counting seconds between airlock bubbles, should I consider which type of airlock I'm using or is it just a general rule? )
See Jeff, what happens when you assume that you need to dumb down things for everyone, is that many people will take that as you being the dumb one for the way you say things. Personally, I prefer to give it to folks simple, straight, and well explained, but in a fashion that doesn't sound like talking down. I'm sorry if by disagreeing and pointing out my reasons for doing so is, by you, "shouting from a mountain" and somehow offensive but really, I'm just trying to point out flawed advice so that others don't make mistakes. If that's ******-y, so be it, but in my honest opinion, I think it's pretty ******-y to act like a child instead of saying, "Oh, maybe what I read in that book was wrong" when someone corrects what you've said.
I've got a quick question about the waiting 3 weeks for carb thing. I brewed a BDSA that ended up stronger than anticipate thanks to a boost in efficiency on my highest gravity brew. OG was 1.098 and fermented down to about 1.005 with 3711. I made a starter. I bottled after about a month (stable gravity), waited 3 weeks, and it was dead flat. waited another few weeks, and barely got a 'phst', but no carb detectable in the drinking, no head. After another few weeks it had just the slightest hint of residual carbonation, but no head and still tastes sweet. I've been rolling them every week or even more often, and it's been 3 months now. I made a 1.089-1.014 Imp Stout with the same yeast (3 week primary) and it was carbed after about 10 days, and pretty tasty. The only difference I remember was the use of oxygen absorbing caps on the BDSA. They seem fairly clear to the light with much smaller than usual yeast cake at the bottom of the bottles. Would the lack of oxygen not allow the yeast to reproduce in-bottle and fail to eat up the sugars? Would accidentally scorching the sugar solution make it unfermentable? I don't remember doing so, but that's the only other thing I can think of.
I've got a quick question about the waiting 3 weeks for carb thing. I brewed a BDSA that ended up stronger than anticipate thanks to a boost in efficiency on my highest gravity brew. OG was 1.098 and fermented down to about 1.005 with 3711. I made a starter. I bottled after about a month (stable gravity), waited 3 weeks, and it was dead flat. waited another few weeks, and barely got a 'phst', but no carb detectable in the drinking, no head. After another few weeks it had just the slightest hint of residual carbonation, but no head and still tastes sweet. I've been rolling them every week or even more often, and it's been 3 months now. I made a 1.089-1.014 Imp Stout with the same yeast (3 week primary) and it was carbed after about 10 days, and pretty tasty. The only difference I remember was the use of oxygen absorbing caps on the BDSA. They seem fairly clear to the light with much smaller than usual yeast cake at the bottom of the bottles. Would the lack of oxygen not allow the yeast to reproduce in-bottle and fail to eat up the sugars? Would accidentally scorching the sugar solution make it unfermentable? I don't remember doing so, but that's the only other thing I can think of.
You're overthinking it. Basically the yeast are tired.
It's more than likely simply the fact that it's a BIG BEER. Haven't you noticed the discussions in this thread on throughout the forum about how BIG BEERS can take MONTHS to finally carb up with out a little extra yeast help at bottling time?
You haven't seen where I've in just about EVERY bottling thread I answer, the little cut and paste about how my 1.090 Belgian Strong Ale took about 6 months to carb up?
You haven't seen this pretty famous picture from one of our old members?
Even now, if you want you can uncap add fresh yeast and recap (I'd use new caps) and that will help it along.
I recommend using a medicine eye dropper with graduations on it. Rehydrate some dry yeast in warm water, and using the sanitized eye dropper and squirt a couple mls of yeast into the bottles, cap, shake and leave them for a couple more weeks.
Or wait. But yeah it's probably not because you caramlized the priming sugar (have you EVER actually done it before?) Or not enough oxygen, it's just that those puppies in there did alot to make that Big Beligan into the boozy wonder that it probably is. An just like your fat uncle Joe on Thanksgiving day after 3 helpings of turkey and all the fixings, have undone their belts, taken one look at the Pumpkin Pie, and said, "No Mas."
Yeah, what he said. My BGSA (1.119 OG 1.019FG) took 8-9 MONTHS to carb after adding 5ML fresh yeast to each bottle. I did leave it in the fermentor for quite awhile though.
Yeah, what he said. My BGSA (1.119 OG 1.019FG) took 8-9 MONTHS to carb after adding 5ML fresh yeast to each bottle. I did leave it in the fermentor for quite awhile though.
You haven't seen where I've in just about EVERY bottling thread I answer...
zeg,
You could always "borrow" a pvc pipe cutter from the local hardware store.
Buy the cutter and pipe. Walk out to the car. Cut and fit pipe to bucket. Walk into store and return the cutter. Easy peasy.
Just a thought.
That'd probably work, but as a rule I don't like to exploit generous return policies. I make plenty of use of them since I am really bad at planning ahead, but I don't like to buy things planning to use and return.
I'll figure something out eventually, I think these are mostly excuses for not having a lot of energy to spend thinking about things. Tipping the bucket is working ok for me. Thanks for the suggestions, though!
Long before the advent of fancy pvc cutters plumbers just used a hacksaw, and then a pocket knife to clean the edges. If you are really cheap, just buy a hacksaw blade and wrap one end of the blade with duct tape.
I need to bottle my five gallon batch with a siphon and bottling wand, and i just tealized i dont know how to keep the siphon going thru the process(i would think it would stop everytime in between bottles) any help would b nice
It should hold the siphon between bottles. Keep the bottling wand below the level of the beer, that way if there are any leaks in the wand, you'll just get a slow leak instead of losing vacuum and eventually having to restart the siphon.
Edit: By the way, try this with a bucket of water first to make sure it's working and that you understand how to work with it before you risk your beer.
You're overthinking it. Basically the yeast are tired.
It's more than likely simply the fact that it's a BIG BEER. Haven't you noticed the discussions in this thread on throughout the forum about how BIG BEERS can take MONTHS to finally carb up with out a little extra yeast help at bottling time?
You haven't seen where I've in just about EVERY bottling thread I answer, the little cut and paste about how my 1.090 Belgian Strong Ale took about 6 months to carb up?
Even now, if you want you can uncap add fresh yeast and recap (I'd use new caps) and that will help it along.
I recommend using a medicine eye dropper with graduations on it. Rehydrate some dry yeast in warm water, and using the sanitized eye dropper and squirt a couple mls of yeast into the bottles, cap, shake and leave them for a couple more weeks.
Or wait. But yeah it's probably not because you caramlized the priming sugar (have you EVER actually done it before?) Or not enough oxygen, it's just that those puppies in there did alot to make that Big Beligan into the boozy wonder that it probably is. An just like your fat uncle Joe on Thanksgiving day after 3 helpings of turkey and all the fixings, have undone their belts, taken one look at the Pumpkin Pie, and said, "No Mas."
zeg,
You could always "borrow" a pvc pipe cutter from the local hardware store.
Buy the cutter and pipe. Walk out to the car. Cut and fit pipe to bucket. Walk into store and return the cutter. Easy peasy.
Just a thought.
Im a visual learner. I figure others may be as well. So here is my 90 degree pvc dip tube set up. Cost $0.43 at Ace.
The before
After:
view from top
bottom of bucket inside
That is just a bad idea. A hacksaw works just fine.
How did you connect the bottling wand to the bottling spigot? I have all my equipment from Midwest supplies and the two don't connect. I think your process makes a lot of sense, any ideas on how I can connect the two? Do I need to get a different bottling wand?
A piece of vinyl tubing about 2" long. Obviously this only works if your spigot and wand are the same diameter.
Im a visual learner. I figure others may be as well. So here is my 90 degree pvc dip tube set up. Cost $0.43 at Ace.
The before
After:
view from top
bottom of bucket inside
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