South Carolina SC midlands area brewers

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So im not really sure and cant find much info on what pressure to ferment at? Currently im keeping the ice bath the keg is sitting halfway in around 60-65. Which after some research people are saying they ferment at room temp or higher when under pressure. Hmm am i slowing fermentation down too much controlling temp and pressure fermenting? Idk. ive had it around 10 psi all day. My goals were to test this pressure fermentation and have a carbonated beer at end of ferment. so if i basically keep everything else the same then that would do both. I also need to figure out when would be the best time to dry hop. I cant wait a week for fermentation to slow to a crawl but if its going really slow anyway then it may need to wait till then. Im like afraid to open it just to look in there. I need a clear keg lid! How is it that nobody makes one?
 
SHAIV said:
So im not really sure and cant find much info on what pressure to ferment at? Currently im keeping the ice bath the keg is sitting halfway in around 60-65. Which after some research people are saying they ferment at room temp or higher when under pressure. Hmm am i slowing fermentation down too much controlling temp and pressure fermenting? Idk. ive had it around 10 psi all day. My goals were to test this pressure fermentation and have a carbonated beer at end of ferment. so if i basically keep everything else the same then that would do both. I also need to figure out when would be the best time to dry hop. I cant wait a week for fermentation to slow to a crawl but if its going really slow anyway then it may need to wait till then. Im like afraid to open it just to look in there. I need a clear keg lid! How is it that nobody makes one?
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I'm not the best authority on this because I've never fermented under pressure the whole time. But I do know my buddy Morrey (active in here sometimes) finishes his fermentations under pressure to have finished carbed beer. But he doesn't run the whole fermentation under pressure. He closes off the valve near the end of fermentation to let the final few points of the gravity carbonate the beer. I wonder if you're stressing the yeast too much by keeping it under pressure the whole fermentation?
 
So i just finished the beersmith podcast on pressure fermentation with Chris White and John Blichmann. Its actually very interesting. Its about an hour long though so i watched it in segments throughout the day. They did a 20 gallon batch of lager and split it 4 ways. One tradition lager fermented at lager temps. One fermented at room temp. Then one fermented at 15 psi room temp and one fermented at 30 psi room temp. Chris mentioned that pressure reduces growth of cells. Which can be good for keeping any other type of wild bacteria or yeast from growing. But basically most people from taste tests either preferred the traditional lager or the 15 psi beer that had less esters. The pressure allowed them to successfully make a lager in 2 weeks vs 8 weeks. There were some minor differences but the data didnt show much difference between the two different pressures.

I believe that ive successfully fermented a 1.071 ipa with very little headspace. As its 2 days in and still letting co2 out at the moment. I may be mistaken if krausen starts coming out of the spunding valve tomorrow but unless the beer turns out poorly i call this a win experiment. I still want a clear keg lid and a hop spider that can attach to the side of my kettle at the top and the bottom so i dont have to manually hold it to strain all the wort out of it. Who wants to start a manufacturing business?
 
SHAIV said:
I still want a clear keg lid and a hop spider that can attach to the side of my kettle at the top and the bottom so i dont have to manually hold it to strain all the wort out of it. Who wants to start a manufacturing business?
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What do you mean? I'm confused lol (happens a lot). How do you strain it out now? I put a baking rack over the top of my kettle, set the spider on it and let it drain into the wort while I am chilling.
 
Man the past couple brews i just been lifting up and man handling it. For like 10 minutes to drain it. I was like man i wish this thing had some more hangers on the bottom so it could hang on the side of the kettle. I guess im not as smart as you. Lol. Yeah i need to figure out a solution for that for next time i brew
 
SHAIV said:
Man the past couple brews i just been lifting up and man handling it. For like 10 minutes to drain it. I was like man i wish this thing had some more hangers on the bottom so it could hang on the side of the kettle. I guess im not as smart as you. Lol. Yeah i need to figure out a solution for that for next time i brew
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Haha nah I was just confused. Are you using a commercial hop spider, like the mesh cylinders? Or a DIY spider with a paint strainer bag?
 
IMG_2747.JPG

Stainless cylinder
 
Ah ok. Yeah i was like holding it up and thinking what could i use to hold this. Thats when i was like why couldnt it just have two more hangers at the bottom so it could just hang there. I didnt think about putting something over the top of the kettle to hold it. It would just need to be sanitized first right? I waited till my wort was around 100 deg to pull it out. I guess i could get like two rods to run across and rest it on that
 
SHAIV said:
Ah ok. Yeah i was like holding it up and thinking what could i use to hold this. Thats when i was like why couldnt it just have two more hangers at the bottom so it could just hang there. I didnt think about putting something over the top of the kettle to hold it. It would just need to be sanitized first right? I waited till my wort was around 100 deg to pull it out. I guess i could get like two rods to run across and rest it on that
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I don't sanitize mine. I pull it out as soon as my whirlpool/hopstand is done. Yeah, two rods could work, but I'd be worried about them rolling around, dropping the spider, and splashing wort. If you can keep them from rolling that would be best. This is basically what I use, but hell you could pull a rack out of your oven and use that!
26-1-2-interchangeable-wire-baking-rack.jpg
 
Yeah thats true. Its right there but idk how clean it is... lol
 
So i was cleaning up my sons closet and found our microwave grate. I was like score!
 
Hey all. I thought I would jump in here. I have been brewing for about 25 years this time doing all grain beer and mead, cider, and perry. I brewed a while in the mid 60's when we had Blue Ribbon malt (hopped and unhoped), sugar and water. It was illegal then. Bottling was done in soda bottles and returnable long neck beer bottles. We did have crown caps.

Latest brews are a best bitter and a Kolsch. Likely a CAP will be next but weizenbock for the fall is a possibility. Don't brew many high hop beers; like to taste the malt. Generally brew 3 gal batches these days. Enough for some to drink and a few for competition. Last couple have been BIA using a Sous Vide. Those things are nicceee! Hitting gravities dead on.

Reading through the treads it seems some folks are looking for a place to gather with other brewers and talk beer. Columbia has an AHA homebrew club the Palmetto State Brewers. It is on Facebook and meeting times etc are there. They will be hosting the 20th Annual Palmetto State Brewers Open the first Sat in December. There is still plenty of time to enter at beerscores.com. There will be lots of opportunity for anyone to participate. The club is second or third in the Southeastern Homebrew's Association (also on Facebook). A regional competition circuit of clubs in Georgia, South and North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

I am in Irmo.

Cheers to all
 
Fatcatthegreat said:
Hey all. I thought I would jump in here. I have been brewing for about 25 years this time doing all grain beer and mead, cider, and perry. I brewed a while in the mid 60's when we had Blue Ribbon malt (hopped and unhoped), sugar and water. It was illegal then. Bottling was done in soda bottles and returnable long neck beer bottles. We did have crown caps.

Latest brews are a best bitter and a Kolsch. Likely a CAP will be next but weizenbock for the fall is a possibility. Don't brew many high hop beers; like to taste the malt. Generally brew 3 gal batches these days. Enough for some to drink and a few for competition. Last couple have been BIA using a Sous Vide. Those things are nicceee! Hitting gravities dead on.

Reading through the treads it seems some folks are looking for a place to gather with other brewers and talk beer. Columbia has an AHA homebrew club the Palmetto State Brewers. It is on Facebook and meeting times etc are there. They will be hosting the 20th Annual Palmetto State Brewers Open the first Sat in December. There is still plenty of time to enter at beerscores.com. There will be lots of opportunity for anyone to participate. The club is second or third in the Southeastern Homebrew's Association (also on Facebook). A regional competition circuit of clubs in Georgia, South and North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

I am in Irmo.

Cheers to all
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Welcome, brother. Quite a few of us in this thread are PSB members. Are you a PSB'er?? See you tonight?
 
TravelingLight said:
Welcome, brother. Quite a few of us in this thread are PSB members. Are you a PSB'er?? See you tonight?
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I was one of the group hat came in just after the founding. Not active anymore but am a perpetual member (by special vote). Still come out for the comp (registrar for 17 years not this year). You guys/gals stll meeting at zorbas?
 
Yeah im not a member but i think theres only one, its on saint andrews
 
Fatcatthegreat said:
I was one of the group hat came in just after the founding. Not active anymore but am a perpetual member (by special vote). Still come out for the comp (registrar for 17 years not this year). You guys/gals stll meeting at zorbas?
Click to expand...

Benjamin Pitts said:
Y'all talking zorbas in Columbia ?
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Yep. Zorba's on Saint Andrews. Had a lighter crowd than usual last night, but still a good time and good beers were had. Hat tip to @Oceangrace24 for a damn good chocolate pumpkin porter (and I HATE all things pumpkin).
 
I have been by there but never stopped looked it up once online seen that they had chicken Parmesan and have been meaning to go ever since but never made it
 
Haven't been in a bit. I'm getting PCS'ed next summer, so I may not be able to brew until I get to the next assignment. I have too much damn beer to get through!
 
So i got some vic secret at betmar today. Has anyone used this hop? Its 21% AA in pellet form. I was like woah!
 
SHAIV said:
So i got some vic secret at betmar today. Has anyone used this hop? Its 21% AA in pellet form. I was like woah!
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It's one of my favorites right now. I keep ordering pound after pound of it. I have a NEIPA on right now with mosaic and vic secret. And I used vic secret in my last brut IPA as well. I get big pineapple from it. Fantastic hop. Just be easy with it, like you said the alpha acids are up there.
 
TravelingLight said:
It's one of my favorites right now. I keep ordering pound after pound of it. I have a NEIPA on right now with mosaic and vic secret. And I used vic secret in my last brut IPA as well. I get big pineapple from it. Fantastic hop. Just be easy with it, like you said the alpha acids are up there.
Click to expand...

Well the recipe i have it planned for ive always wanted more hoppiness in so, i got 2 oz to dry hop 5 gallons. So i think itll be all good. Its a apple recipe so thatll be the only hops in it. Ive heard its good for dry hopping and has some good flavors. Ive used simcoe and citra in the past and its been great but i wouldnt mind having some extra oomph
 
So i just transferred my black ipa to secondary serving keg with dry hops in the hop filter. It didnt go horribly wrong but it didnt go smoothly either. I had a foaming issue during transferring. I tried to use my spunding valve to keep some pressure on the beer as it was transferred, to minimize the foaming but it didnt work right for some reason. I guess there is only a certain amount of flow allowed through the valve so it kept like blowing and then sealing back up and eventually started spewing foam around the time it filled. I found out its easier to clean than i thought it would be. But anyway, I guess you should transfer fully carbed warm beer anyway, maybe? At least its getting dry hopped and will cold crash in a few days and then serve with dry hops in the keg. Heres a pic of my krausen ring in the fermenting keg
IMG_2811.JPG
 
SHAIV said:
So i just transferred my black ipa to secondary serving keg with dry hops in the hop filter. It didnt go horribly wrong but it didnt go smoothly either. I had a foaming issue during transferring. I tried to use my spunding valve to keep some pressure on the beer as it was transferred, to minimize the foaming but it didnt work right for some reason. I guess there is only a certain amount of flow allowed through the valve so it kept like blowing and then sealing back up and eventually started spewing foam around the time it filled. I found out its easier to clean than i thought it would be. But anyway, I guess you should transfer fully carbed warm beer anyway, maybe? At least its getting dry hopped and will cold crash in a few days and then serve with dry hops in the keg. Heres a pic of my krausen ring in the fermenting kegView attachment 592610
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When you were transferring from the fermenting keg to the serving keg, you still had the spunding valve on the fermenting keg, right? So were you just relying on the pressure in the fermenting keg to transfer, i.e., not adding any additional CO2? Just making sure I am thinking about this correctly as I try to figure out where it went wrong.
 
Well i did actually use the co2 tank pressure and used the spunding valve on the recieving keg to try to maintain some pressure on the liquid so it wouldnt foam but it ended up foaming anyway

I guess one problem was the spunding valve sounded like it kept blowing its seal then resealing. I think it was due to the flow restriction. I guess it can only let so much cfm out at a time and if it exceeds a certain amount then it would like break its seal or something.
 
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Hi guys new to brewing and to this site. I live in Gaston. I just started an IPA from a kit a week ago just dry hopped today we will see how it comes out
 
Whew. Helluva weekend moving. The boss is letting me use one of our new guest rooms for the keezer, barrel, ferm chamber, etc until the new shed is built. Man, it sure is nice working with kegs and doing beer stuff indoors without the bugs, spider webs, and dirt I dealt with in my old shed.

But, the movers had a helluva time getting the keezer through the bedroom door. Thankfully I never glued/attached my collar to my keezer, so I could take that off. But I still had to take the door off the hinges to get it through. I got my brother to help me move my solera barrel which was a huge *****. I still can't feel my forearms today.
 
Yep. Indoors is where its at! I like being closer to all my equipment too. The garage isnt far but my brew closet shares a wall with the kitchen so i love brewing on the stove
 
Trying a different fermenter with a modded lid (for closed transfers) for a NEIPA I've got going now. Thought I had plenty of head space. Looks like I thought like nelly...

6bfaWMJ.jpg
 
Whoaaaaa...nothing like an enthusiastic brew! How did you mount the keg connecter? How big is the "fermenter"? Just tried a corny for a fermenter. Nice. No *#&^%!(* siphon.
 
Fatcatthegreat said:
Whoaaaaa...nothing like an enthusiastic brew! How did you mount the keg connecter? How big is the "fermenter"? Just tried a corny for a fermenter. Nice. No *#&^%!(* siphon.
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It's just a gas ball lock post with a bulkhead I picked up from Brewhardware. I got a solid lid for the Fermonster and drilled the lid for it. So I can bubble in co2 as I'm racking out via the spigot on the bottom. It's a 7 gallon Fermonster (with a little more than 7 capacity), with just under 6.5 gal in the fermenter. I was fermenting all my hazies in a sanke, but with that capacity, plus loss due to dry hops and fermentation, I never got more than 4-4.25 gal in the serving keg which was a real pain in my ass. So I'm trying this out so I can get more in the fermenter but still maintain a closed system.

Yeah, I haven't used my siphon in probably a year lol. I either ferment in one of my Fermonsters which has a spigot, or a sanke keg with a racking cane/gas post setup, or a corny keg. But I usually use cornies just for dry hopping. Like this current beer, once it finishes out, I'll do a soft cold crash, then rack it to a sanitized/purged corny keg with my second dry hops already in the keg. Then ultimately push that over to the serving keg.
 
TravelingLight said:
Trying a different fermenter with a modded lid (for closed transfers) for a NEIPA I've got going now. Thought I had plenty of head space. Looks like I thought like nelly...

6bfaWMJ.jpg
Click to expand...

You needed some foam control man! Lol i didnt like adding it straight to the fermenter(maybe just me idk) but i love it when it works from the boil if you transfer all the liquid over.

Its been a while guys. Im drinking some of the apfelwein i made that was dry hopped with vic secret. I cant taste any hop flavor at all... so weird i even let it dry hop for like 10 days at room temp
 

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