Confession Time

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2 confessions: i always rinse the starsan foam out of the fermenter before adding the brew....that stuff just cant be 100% ok to leave in there.
Also i always add the starter after 12-18 hrs after brewing to get the temp stable. No issues yet so this technique cant be all bad, right?
 
E-Rodge said:
2 confessions: i always rinse the starsan foam out of the fermenter before adding the brew....that stuff just cant be 100% ok to leave in there.

Also i always add the starter after 12-18 hrs after brewing to get the temp stable. No issues yet so this technique cant be all bad, right?
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Vinnie Cilurzo from Russian River does, too whenever he homebrews, so I think you're in safe company (regarding starsan).
 
slym2none said:
OK, so "kroyzen" is correct, and I learned how wort is actually pronounced.

It's true, one learns something new every day...

:)
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au in German is pronounced like the vowel sound in "ouch" or "wow". It would only be pronounced kroyzen (boy, soy) if it were spelled with an Umlaut like this: kräusen.

The problem is that we are using a German word to mean something different than it does in Germany and seem to be misspelling it too. We use "krausen" to refer to the foamy head during fermentation, whereas in Germany kräusening is a traditional conditioning process where fresh wort is added to finished beer in a sealed container to carbonate it (according to English sources). Unfortunately, i can't find much reference to this word in German with a quick Google search. Germans refer to the foam on top as either Schaum (foam) or obergärige Hefe (top-fermenting yeast). The verb "krausen" in German seems to mean to fold ( http://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/krausen), and i can't find any reference to the word "kräusen" ( http://www.duden.de/suchen/dudenonline/kräusen).

TLDR: it doesn't really matter how you pronounce it because it seems to be a made-up word in this context. I'm an American speaker of German. Perhaps a native speaker could chime in with better information.
 
Auto-siphon plunger somehow totally shattered the bottom of the entire assembly into my fermenter just as I was getting started transferring to bottling bucket. I said "f**k it" and went the mouth suction method, instead.

Fingers crossed.:D
 
Dirt_McGirt said:
I said "f**k it" and went the mouth suction method, instead.

Fingers crossed.:D
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Us "old timers" did it for years. No infections from that in more than 5 years of brewing an average of 150 gallons a year (allegedly).

Now, I use a bottling bucket with those infection generating spigots...that I just rinse out with star san, then quick squirt just before transfer to the keg.
 
Finally got some new equipment after my recent move from Nunavut, and brewed an extract red ale this morning. This evening it's already bubbling away through the blowoff tube.

I confess I find the sound soothing and will be falling asleep to it.
 
slym2none said:
"Trub" rhymes with "boob".

:)

I have heard the word "krausen" said only once in my life, and the person pronounced it "kroyzen". IDK if that's right or wrong.

:(
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I was at a friends house a few weeks back(who didn't know at the time I home brewed) He was telling me about this 1 gallon batch a friend made him and left over and how he probably wont drink it because it looks "really weird". I asked him to see the bottle and he was scared of the kruasen b/c he had no idea what it was. I had to explain the whole thing and convince him to drink it...otherwise give it to me...but don't toss it!!

Whole point of that story its probably the only time ive ever been able to use the word krausen in a sentence b/c typically no one has a effing clue what that words means.
 
I once saved what I thought was a lager yeast for a year, grew a two step culture (decanted and removed a large portion of the first step simply to increase pitching rate) then pitched step 2 into wort and kept it at 55f for two days and saw no activity then increased temps to 68 and realized it's probably WLP007 because the starter ,"looking back...did show in technical terms" HELLA flocculation.




























If you are the from the west last you won't understand the technical term of hella. It means an excessive amount, a lot, a copious amount or any other word you can use to mean excessive where excessive doesn't fit
 
"Hella" invaded the east coast a year or so before South Park killed it, dude.

*pokepokepoke*
 
kombat said:
After reading about this story in the Diagnosis: In need of help thread, I must confess:

I've never once disassembled and cleaned the ball valve on my boil kettle. I've brewed 118 batches.
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If they get hot enough, its a non issue. might be gummy in there but nothing bad living. Not to say that they shouldn't be cleaned but in a lot of cases it wont hurt anything.
 
When you order by the ounce from the Internet, make sure you put 1 lb instead of 1 oz of Munich for your ingredient list because my Tripel is basically 100% Pilsner, which hey, whatevs, but seriously ADHD is a PITA, sometimes.
 
I might have a few too many and miss mash temps, addition times, temps, etc. Incredibly sanitary, but the details are lost on many a brew. I've pitched twice because I forgot the first one. All the hops at the 5 min mark. (Though that one turned out great)
 
I've never understood pitching a second yeast on stuck fermentation. I just did exactly that because my cry havoc was probably too old to begin with and only lowered my gravity 2% abv in a month.

I'm also considering dumping all my yeast and starting fresh but I'm being cheap.
 
I completely suck at taking notes and writing things down regarding my beers, in general.

Not just tasting notes, but process, too. I'm lucky if I remember to enter my OG readings in BeerSmith, half the time. Mostly I just go from memory, and it works alright.

Still, going forward it's something I need to make a concerted effort to do better on.
 
In my second batch, I used the european lager from coopers. It was during the summer so the temperature was like 30 celsius and I left my fermenter (GLASS carboy) in front of the window where it would get direct sunlight from the summer (didnt know anything about homebrewing by then). Left it there for 3 months. End result? Probably the only batch that everyone liked :sly: (I must suck at brewing) I am working on a blonde ale to see if I can get something similar to that lol
 
Am going to make a German Polaris/2-Row SmaSH tonight. Have read nothing but universal disdain about this hop. But have it in the freezer so gonna try it out.

Hey, what could possibly go wrong?
giphy.gif
 
I must confess that since brewing for over four years, I have used my hydrometer once and have never used it since. I really don't see the point in using it, as the beer will be the same regardless of what my readings are. Also, I never use a wort chiller. I simply place the pot in a large plastic tub (the ones with the rope handles) with cold water. I will change the water 3-4 times over a 2-3 hour period. It works just fine for me.
 
leidemann said:
I must confess that since brewing for over four years, I have used my hydrometer once and have never used it since.
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I'm spotty with my hydrometer use. I'll take a pre-boil reading but that's the only one pre-fermentation. I can extrapolate from there based on volume. If a recipe has elements that I know I can predict (my efficiency is largely dependent on grain weight) - I'll often just go with a predicted efficiency.

Once fermentation starts, if it's a beer that I want to drink fast I'll be monitoring the gravity daily when the airlock slows down so I know when to package. I end up knowing the abv of these beers. If it's a beer that's going to sit for a few weeks anyways, it probably won't see a hydrometer.

That all changes if I want to know the abv more precisely for some reason.
 
I have never done math for this hobby. I would rather it be like the art of cooking I so enjoy... With less hot sauce.
 
I transferred sparge water with a bucket previously used to soak bottles in oxyclean, which I forgot to give a good rinse... and continued as usual with the brewing procedure. It took 2 months but the soapy taste finally dissipated (kinda).
 
enokidaki said:
I have never done math for this hobby. I would rather it be like the art of cooking I so enjoy... With less hot sauce.
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On the opposite end of the scale I confess I figured out the thermal constant of my cooler mash tun in my differential equations class.
 
leidemann said:
.... Also, I never use a wort chiller. I simply place the pot in a large plastic tub (the ones with the rope handles) with cold water. I will change the water 3-4 times over a 2-3 hour period. It works just fine for me.
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^^ this^^

I do pour ice into tub though, to move things along a little.

Then, after transfer to the ferm bucket, I'll grab my 2 quart measuring cup out of the bucket of star san and just dip it into the wort to collect my OG sample

:eek:

Some day I'll regret doing that :D
 
I never take hydrometer readings till 2 weeks. I top up straight from the tap and sometimes dip a sanitized cup into the fermenter for a sneak taste. I've never had an infection (yet) I know I'm gambling though.
 
I never sanitize my bottle caps. I just rip a hole in the bag and pull them out. When I'm done bottling I stick the bag of caps in a ziplock so it won't spill all over and then later use the rest.
 
I've read a couple recent threads about using cups to take samples. Is that a bad thing? I mean, if the things is sanitized... it's not like I'm sticking my hand in there.

I do this all the time. Seemed perfectly safe to me. It's easier to sanitize a cup than a theif.
 
mclaughlindw4 said:
I've read a couple recent threads about using cups to take samples. Is that a bad thing? I mean, if the things is sanitized... it's not like I'm sticking my hand in there.

I do this all the time. Seemed perfectly safe to me. It's easier to sanitize a cup than a theif.
Click to expand...

I would never use a wine thief to take a sample from a bucket. But I can't fit a cup into my carboy.
 

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