I'm screwed! Bottled a 1 gallon batch tonight and checked the gravity reading AFTER I bottled. OG was at about 1.054 and the reading I just took was 1.020! From what I understand that's still way too high. What's the worst that could happen now that I've already bottled? I won't get any bottle bombs will I?
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Last: 5 mo ago by Chipotlemonger
Well, it depends on a few factors:
1. What style of beer is it?
2. What was your planned OG/FG
3. What yeast did you use, how much did you pitch, temperature, and how much time did you give it?
4. How much priming sugar did you use to bottle it?
Each of those could have a factor in why the FG was so high, but you don't necessarily have bottle bombs yet. You get bombs when your fermentation stalls out for some reason and then jumps into high gear when you introduce more simple sugar for it to consume. With a 1 gallon batch, I'd lean towards there being a little more yeast still in suspension unless you cold crashed your carboy.
At this point, if your beer is a heavy style, or its FG was only supposed to be about 5 points lower, or if your fermentation went exactly as planned, or if you nailed your priming sugar addition, I'd just keep an eye on the bottles. Some crystal malts can leave a lot of unfermented sugars in the beer after primary, so it bumps up the FG a little. Wherever you have them sitting for conditioning, make sure it's not next to your mink coats and silk kimonos. What I've seen people do is put them in a rubbermaid large storage container with the top cracked just a little. That way if you do have an explosion, it's neatly contained and easily washable. Don't put the lid on all the way because there may be enough pressure to pop that sucker off, and then you're exactly where you would be without it.
1. What style of beer is it?
2. What was your planned OG/FG
3. What yeast did you use, how much did you pitch, temperature, and how much time did you give it?
4. How much priming sugar did you use to bottle it?
Each of those could have a factor in why the FG was so high, but you don't necessarily have bottle bombs yet. You get bombs when your fermentation stalls out for some reason and then jumps into high gear when you introduce more simple sugar for it to consume. With a 1 gallon batch, I'd lean towards there being a little more yeast still in suspension unless you cold crashed your carboy.
At this point, if your beer is a heavy style, or its FG was only supposed to be about 5 points lower, or if your fermentation went exactly as planned, or if you nailed your priming sugar addition, I'd just keep an eye on the bottles. Some crystal malts can leave a lot of unfermented sugars in the beer after primary, so it bumps up the FG a little. Wherever you have them sitting for conditioning, make sure it's not next to your mink coats and silk kimonos. What I've seen people do is put them in a rubbermaid large storage container with the top cracked just a little. That way if you do have an explosion, it's neatly contained and easily washable. Don't put the lid on all the way because there may be enough pressure to pop that sucker off, and then you're exactly where you would be without it.
Thanks so much for the info.
It was a pumpkin Amber ale.
Planned OG was 1.054. But I didn't actually take a reading. Along with the included steeping grains(not sure what they were), I steeped a lb of rahr 6 row and a 13 oz can of pure pumpkin. Added 1.5 lbs of gold malt lme and 3.5 grams of cascade. Boiled for 45 minutes. Another note, the planned OG specified by the recipe was not including the extra lb of 6 row and pumpkin. So is it safe to assume that the OG would be higher after those additions?
Pitched half a packet of safale us-05. Fermented for 13 days at 64-71ish. Fermented very vigorously and had to switch to a blowoff hose for 4 days during the 13 day time period.
For bottling, I used 1 fizz drop per 15 oz grolsch bottle.
It was a pumpkin Amber ale.
Planned OG was 1.054. But I didn't actually take a reading. Along with the included steeping grains(not sure what they were), I steeped a lb of rahr 6 row and a 13 oz can of pure pumpkin. Added 1.5 lbs of gold malt lme and 3.5 grams of cascade. Boiled for 45 minutes. Another note, the planned OG specified by the recipe was not including the extra lb of 6 row and pumpkin. So is it safe to assume that the OG would be higher after those additions?
Pitched half a packet of safale us-05. Fermented for 13 days at 64-71ish. Fermented very vigorously and had to switch to a blowoff hose for 4 days during the 13 day time period.
For bottling, I used 1 fizz drop per 15 oz grolsch bottle.
Just curious for those that may know, is it legal by TABC standards to donate homebrew for a church auction? What about donating some kegs and letting the church charge per serving?
quote:Not an expert so take this w/ a grain of salt. /disclaimer
Just curious for those that may know, is it legal by TABC standards to donate homebrew for a church auction? What about donating some kegs and letting the church charge per serving?
Donating beer to charge is almost certainly a no-no since a) the church likely doesn't have a beer/wine retail license and b) the brewer doesn't have a manufacturer's or brewpub permit. Also, even if serving it for free, technically the person(s) serving it should have a TABC server's permit (which is really easy to get...just an FYI).
My best guess is they would try and find some issue w/ it (depending on who you talk to since everybody at TABC seems to give a different answer regardless of the question); however, giving it away would definitely be the "safest". Letting people pour the beer themselves would also help w/ respect to requiring a server's permit.
Again not legal advice, just my best guesses based off my interpretation of the code.
My gut says no. Homebrew can only be shared and never used as part of a prize that involves cash. Why, because no taxes are being paid. That's all the TABC cares about, taxes.
Question. Is it possible to transfer to secondary with one fermenter? Would it be as easy as racking to a sanitized vessel such as a pot, cleaning the fermenter, and then racking back to the fermenter?
Sure, it's possible, but I wouldn't bother. And I say this as someone who does usually secondary my beers. You want to minimize oxygen exposure post-fermentation, which is why secondary carboys are smaller so there's minimal head space. A pot has huge surface area, plus you're transferring twice.
Just rack into your bottling bucket or keg. If you have the capability, cold crash it to 33F/1C for 24+ hours to make stuff settle out, then let it sit on the counter overnight so anything you disturbed in moving it settles back down.
There really isn't much fermentation going on in "secondary fermentation" anyway for most styles. I mainly do it for clarity, instead of adding clarifying agents or filtering. (I cold crash again at the end of secondary before transferring to keg/bottle.) Exception: strong beers which need several months to mature in secondary, e.g. barleywines, imperial stouts, strong Belgian ales, sour beers. For these you definitely want to secondary in a glass vessel of the appropriate size.
Just rack into your bottling bucket or keg. If you have the capability, cold crash it to 33F/1C for 24+ hours to make stuff settle out, then let it sit on the counter overnight so anything you disturbed in moving it settles back down.
There really isn't much fermentation going on in "secondary fermentation" anyway for most styles. I mainly do it for clarity, instead of adding clarifying agents or filtering. (I cold crash again at the end of secondary before transferring to keg/bottle.) Exception: strong beers which need several months to mature in secondary, e.g. barleywines, imperial stouts, strong Belgian ales, sour beers. For these you definitely want to secondary in a glass vessel of the appropriate size.
Cracked open a quad over the weekend. Flavor is spot on, but carbonation is still a little low. The competition I entered it into isn't until Nov 7th, so I'll let it carb up until the last minute. The keg for serving at the competition was also naturally carbonated, so I'll check on it about a week out. If it needs more, I'll hook it up to CO2 and force carb it.
The blonde turned out very nice. I'm not a huge fan of the style, but it's very drinkable. Hopefully everyone who comes to the shower enjoys it, so they drink it all, so I can put something else (thinking the saison again, since I didn't come home from Labor of Love with much) in it.
The blonde turned out very nice. I'm not a huge fan of the style, but it's very drinkable. Hopefully everyone who comes to the shower enjoys it, so they drink it all, so I can put something else (thinking the saison again, since I didn't come home from Labor of Love with much) in it.
Finally getting around to brewing again after going almost a year since the last brew. (Forgive me father, for I have sinned)
Since I've been craving it ever since draining the keg almost a year ago, I decided to brew the Black IPA from way back in this thread again, with minor adjustments to the hop bill:
13.25 lb 2-Row (88.3%)
1 lb De-bittered Black (6.7%)
.75 lb Crystal 70L (5%)
1 oz Apollo (17.5% AA) - 60 min
1 oz Centennial (10% AA) - 15 min
1 oz Summit (18.5% AA) - flame-out
US-05 @ ~ 65 degrees
1oz each of Summit and Apollo dry hopped for 5 days after primary fermentation is complete
Batch size: 5.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.079
Estimated FG: 1.014
Estimated ABV: 8.48%
Estimated IBU: 91.99
Estimated SRM: 40.34
I'm also planning to do a Belgian Wit using some mystery hops that have been in the freezer for a year for bittering. Should be interesting!
Since I've been craving it ever since draining the keg almost a year ago, I decided to brew the Black IPA from way back in this thread again, with minor adjustments to the hop bill:
13.25 lb 2-Row (88.3%)
1 lb De-bittered Black (6.7%)
.75 lb Crystal 70L (5%)
1 oz Apollo (17.5% AA) - 60 min
1 oz Centennial (10% AA) - 15 min
1 oz Summit (18.5% AA) - flame-out
US-05 @ ~ 65 degrees
1oz each of Summit and Apollo dry hopped for 5 days after primary fermentation is complete
Batch size: 5.25 gal
Estimated OG: 1.079
Estimated FG: 1.014
Estimated ABV: 8.48%
Estimated IBU: 91.99
Estimated SRM: 40.34
I'm also planning to do a Belgian Wit using some mystery hops that have been in the freezer for a year for bittering. Should be interesting!
Brewing my gold-medal winning saison again this weekend. Not changing anything up, going to see how well I can reproduce the original. I thought about switching to Mosaic or Amarillo on the hops, but in the end stuck with Cascade. Once I'm comfortable reproducing it, then I'll go crazy!
Hit all volumes and gravity readings yesterday on the nose with the second batch of my dry-hopped saison. Pitched my starter of 3711 at 65*F, so we'll see how it turns out. Going to follow the same fermentation schedule from before as close as I can.
The blonde I did a while back for my brother and sister-in-law's baby shower was a huge hit. The keg was just about empty after the party, and was finished off yesterday during brew day when some neighbors came over. I'm not a huge fan of the style, but it was pretty tasty, I will admit. Came out crystal-clear as well.
Entering my quad into Operation Bravo at Shannon Brewing Company in Keller this weekend. Should be a pretty fun event!
The blonde I did a while back for my brother and sister-in-law's baby shower was a huge hit. The keg was just about empty after the party, and was finished off yesterday during brew day when some neighbors came over. I'm not a huge fan of the style, but it was pretty tasty, I will admit. Came out crystal-clear as well.
Entering my quad into Operation Bravo at Shannon Brewing Company in Keller this weekend. Should be a pretty fun event!
Left a stout in a 5.5 gallon rye barrel for 6 months. Not the best of ideas but was distracted by house hunting and then home improvements. Anyway, wasn't that impressed and probably should have started sampling at month 2 on. 1st time using a barrel.
So, this quad was my first attempt at naturally carbonating in the keg. The beer is coming out very fizzy, and the head dissipates very quickly. It's carbonated more like a soda than a beer. I'm assuming this is because it's way overcarbonated. Is the lack of head retention due to it needing more conditioning time? It's been sitting at room temp for two months now. The over carbonated problem I can work on, the more conditioning time I'm just stuck, since the competition is this weekend!
A lot of the CO2 isn't in solution due to temp. Once you cool it down to serving temp it will behave differently.
quote:Cool, thanks. It's been in the fridge since Sunday evening. I'll let it ride, see what happens.
A lot of the CO2 isn't in solution due to temp. Once you cool it down to serving temp it will behave differently.
Another question. Is it a no no to dry hop or dry spice in your primary fermenter or is that considered okay? I'm wanting to brew a chocolate stout and the recipe calls for adding cocoa nibs to secondary for 14 days.
Im looking to brew during thanksgiving and I want to do 10 gal instead of 5 and do all grain for the first time. When I am looking at recipes most are 5 gal batches. is it as easy as doubling things or is there not a direct correlation. Wanting to do a red ale of some short so if anyone had recommendations im interested. Thanks.
fav13andac1)c, the main goal of secondary is to get the beer of the trub and yeast cake. Most people who regularly secondary do so for clarity reasons. I've never dry hopped in primary before simply because I've only made 2 hoppy beers before and haven't experimented with it. Maybe someone else on here has.
bbry81, recipes are directly scalable at our relatively small batch size. 10 gal recipe equals 5 gal times 2. Double check your IBU's, gravity etc. with brewing software like Beersmith or BrewersFriend.com to make sure, though.
bbry81, recipes are directly scalable at our relatively small batch size. 10 gal recipe equals 5 gal times 2. Double check your IBU's, gravity etc. with brewing software like Beersmith or BrewersFriend.com to make sure, though.
The only time I do a secondary in the carboy is if I'm dry hopping or adding fruit/nibs. Why? Because to get better contact I'd pick the whole thing up and swirl it around once a day. The pros will bubble co2 up through their fermenters to suspend hops or other additions. But don't do it in primary as you'll suspend the yeast cake and as everythingflocculates out it'll trap hops in the gunk.
Thanks a lot y'all for the info
No worries fav13. That's what the hobby is all about.
On another note, Kyle98 and I participated in another homebrew competition this weekend at the Shannon Brewery in Keller, TX. It was the Operation Bravo homebrew competition and Hero recognition event hosted by Homebrews for Heroes. Great organization, great people, and a great cause. Y'all should go check out their website with Veterans day coming up this week.
I'll let Kyle98 post about his experience, but as for me: my robust porter won best in show! I got some pretty cool swag like a 50 cal bottle opener/tap handle, a couple of stainless steel growlers with a free fill from Shannon's taproom, and I get to brew a Pro-Am beer with Shannon for sale locally and it will be entered into next years GABF Pro-Am competition!
I want to thank everyone on this board for the great info, tips, and conversation over the past couple of years. That has definitely helped me step up my brewing game, and I know I still have a lot more to learn from you fine folk. Special thanks to Kyle98 for letting me pour under his canopy yesterday, and thanks for the awesome Quad you shared. After your gold medal saison and that quad, I think it's safe to say you're a Belgian brewing badass!
On another note, Kyle98 and I participated in another homebrew competition this weekend at the Shannon Brewery in Keller, TX. It was the Operation Bravo homebrew competition and Hero recognition event hosted by Homebrews for Heroes. Great organization, great people, and a great cause. Y'all should go check out their website with Veterans day coming up this week.
I'll let Kyle98 post about his experience, but as for me: my robust porter won best in show! I got some pretty cool swag like a 50 cal bottle opener/tap handle, a couple of stainless steel growlers with a free fill from Shannon's taproom, and I get to brew a Pro-Am beer with Shannon for sale locally and it will be entered into next years GABF Pro-Am competition!
I want to thank everyone on this board for the great info, tips, and conversation over the past couple of years. That has definitely helped me step up my brewing game, and I know I still have a lot more to learn from you fine folk. Special thanks to Kyle98 for letting me pour under his canopy yesterday, and thanks for the awesome Quad you shared. After your gold medal saison and that quad, I think it's safe to say you're a Belgian brewing badass!
For those of you who
For those of you who brew ten gallons how do you cool it off. I used a cooler with ice water for five gallons but I know that won't work
While I didn't win anything like WorkBoots09 did, I had a blast out at Operation Bravo on Saturday. I was very pleased with how the quad came out. Unfortunately, I guess the bottles ended up being pretty overcarbonated, because they were all gushers and unable to be judges. The judges were all on hand for the festival, though, so I was able to get some good constructive comments on it from the keg. Really the only negative that I got was that at 3 months old, it really needs more conditioning time. I'll probably brew it again in the next couple of months, then let it condition until the competition next year.
I did get a lot of positive comments, and great word of mouth, from everyone who tried it. More than one person came up asking if I was the guy with the quad, because they heard they had to try it.
Hats off to WorkBoots, that robust porter was excellent, and the win was well deserved!
I did get a lot of positive comments, and great word of mouth, from everyone who tried it. More than one person came up asking if I was the guy with the quad, because they heard they had to try it.
Hats off to WorkBoots, that robust porter was excellent, and the win was well deserved!
quote:
For those of you who brew ten gallons how do you cool it off. I used a cooler with ice water for five gallons but I know that won't work
Wort chiller, either immersion or plate chiller. In either case with 10 gallons a pump will make your life much easier. If you use an immersion chiller and have a pump you can recirculation your wort and it'll make your chiller mic more efficient. I have both types but I prefer my immersion over the plate chiller. Even for 5 gallons I'd get a chiller and with tap water you can knock it down to 100F quickly and then run a recirculating ice bath (different pump) and you can get down to lager in temps pretty quickly.
For certain styles of beer: old ales, barelywine (other than american), wee heavy....malt driven strong ales, if putting them into competition you may want to enter bottles that are at least a year old. Alesmith enters those catagorizes and their bottles they enter are usually 2 years old, and they are pretty reliable to pick up medals on a consistent basis. The extra time allows sherry notes to develop from oxidization and really allows the complexity to develop. It's usually an X factor, you can't put your fiver directly on it but the age really allows the hops to pull back and the malt flavors to develop. Same with RIS. Just a thought if you have beer in a keg now, bottle it and enter it next year.
Congrats Workboots! That's awesome!
I brewed a Double Chocolate Oatmeal Stout yesterday and nailed the mash temp and OG, but really had trouble getting the wort down to pitching temp. I really need to invest in an immersion chiller!
On another note, I rehydrated the s-04 I used and noticed a great difference in how quickly the fermentation started. Within a few hours the airlock was bubbling away!
Here's the recipe From homebrewtalk
BBD Double Chocolate Oatmeal Snout
Brew Type: Partial Mash
Style: Stout
Brewer: BBD Brewing
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min]
1.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 12.43 %
1.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) (3.0 SRM) Grain 12.43 %
0.82 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.79 %
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6.21 %
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4.14 %
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 28.0 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
6-9oz fat free cocoa powder (see notes) [last 10 mins of boil]
1 Vanilla Bean [split and added to secondary]
Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.070 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Estimated Color: 37.7 SRM
Bitterness: 38.2 IBU (30.0-45.0 IBU)
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 6.80 %
I brewed a Double Chocolate Oatmeal Stout yesterday and nailed the mash temp and OG, but really had trouble getting the wort down to pitching temp. I really need to invest in an immersion chiller!
On another note, I rehydrated the s-04 I used and noticed a great difference in how quickly the fermentation started. Within a few hours the airlock was bubbling away!
Here's the recipe From homebrewtalk
BBD Double Chocolate Oatmeal Snout
Brew Type: Partial Mash
Style: Stout
Brewer: BBD Brewing
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Time: 60 min
Ingredients Amount Item Type % or IBU
7.00 lb Amber Liquid Extract [Boil for 15 min]
1.50 lb Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM) Grain 12.43 %
1.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) (3.0 SRM) Grain 12.43 %
0.82 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.79 %
0.75 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 6.21 %
0.50 lb Roasted Barley (300.0 SRM) Grain 4.14 %
2.00 oz Fuggles [4.50 %] (60 min) Hops 28.0 IBU
1 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale
6-9oz fat free cocoa powder (see notes) [last 10 mins of boil]
1 Vanilla Bean [split and added to secondary]
Beer Profile Estimated Original Gravity: 1.070 SG
Estimated Final Gravity: 1.018 SG
Estimated Color: 37.7 SRM
Bitterness: 38.2 IBU (30.0-45.0 IBU)
Estimated Alcohol by Volume: 6.80 %
What to brew next? I'm thinking maybe a nice Dunkelweizen, haven't done one of those before. Should have room in the fermentation chamber Thanksgiving weekend.
How does this look:
6lbs Wheat Malt
5lbs Munich
1/4lb Chocolate
1oz Tettnang @ 60
Wyeast 3068 - Weihenstaphan Weizen
Pretty simple, but I like simple
For 5.5 gallons, that gives me an OG of 1.050, and an estimated SRM of 17.
How does this look:
6lbs Wheat Malt
5lbs Munich
1/4lb Chocolate
1oz Tettnang @ 60
Wyeast 3068 - Weihenstaphan Weizen
Pretty simple, but I like simple
For 5.5 gallons, that gives me an OG of 1.050, and an estimated SRM of 17.
I highly recomend getting a wort chiller, ask for one for christmas. It's one of those brewing additions that'll make your brewday much faster and much more enjoyable.
Good idea! How will that work when the tap water gets warm in the summer months? Do I need to get an aquarium pump for ice water as well?
You can still use tap water to knock the temp down to 100 ish before using an aquarium pump. Couple of thoughts, you need a fairly strong sump pump or aquarium pump. I use a medium sized immersion aquarium pump, but I put the bucket of ice water at the same level as the boil kettle to reduce head height. If you don't have a brewing g pump to recirculate your wort you can use a sanitized spoon to swirl the wort around your immersion chiller. This makes it much more efficient. I use 2 small bags of ice, 14lbs, for a 10 gallon batch starting at 95F.
Just keep a bucket of sanitizer to out your spoon or paddle (plastic or stainless, not wood) in.
Just keep a bucket of sanitizer to out your spoon or paddle (plastic or stainless, not wood) in.
http://houston.craigslist.org/for/5307779227.html
Here's one in houston. If you have a sump pump you don't need a prechiller if you don't you'd submerge the smaller coil in an ice bath and dial down the flow rate. I prefer a closed pump superchiller as it uses less water. But if you have a house simply water your lawn.
Here's one in houston. If you have a sump pump you don't need a prechiller if you don't you'd submerge the smaller coil in an ice bath and dial down the flow rate. I prefer a closed pump superchiller as it uses less water. But if you have a house simply water your lawn.
Good call. I'll keep my eye out for one here in DFW. Also might consider making one. Thanks!
Btw, what's the GPH rating on the aquarium pump you have?
Btw, what's the GPH rating on the aquarium pump you have?
I really don't remember, it can't be that high. It came out of an old salt water reef tan I had and a 4' head height just kills it. So I put my cooler at the same height as my BK and it recirculate just fine. The bigger thing is I use a March pump to recirculate my wort and the movement across the chiller makes it super efficient. I have to be careful to not chill too far down.
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