Home Brewing Tips and Techniques
Tips continued...
- The question about using buckets and carboys as primary and secondary has been asked so many times I have lost count. You can use EITHER for primary or secondary. Do you only have single stage? Fine. Use a bucket or carboy and leave it for 2-3 weeks. Two stage? You can use 2 buckets, 2 carboys, or one of each, in either order. What I mean is you can go primary-bucket, secondary-carboy, or the other way around. It does not matter. However, if you use buckets, you need food grade and you really should not let the beer sit in it more than one month. Plastic is more permeable than glass and can eventually give it bad flavors, but this takes MONTHS. If you brew the standard time frames, either will work.
- Interested in lagering but don't have the right conditions? Typically 46-56F. Look into White Labs San Francisco 810 yeast. It can ferment up to 65F. While I have not used it, a fellow brewed I know has and said it works quite well at typical ale temperatures.
- Bottle brushes are great for cleaning out blow off tubes. If the gunk is really caked on, let it soak overnight in a bucket with cleaner (Straight A, electrasol, or similar), then take your brush and clean it out.
- Freeze your hops until you are ready to use them. They last longer. Hops start losing their acidity from the time they are harvested, so by the time you use the package, the alpha acid content has gone done. How much is difficult to say without expensive lab equipment.
- Don't be afraid to mix hop varieties or use bittering for flavoring and vice versa. I have made beers using low AA hops for bittering, and high AA hops for the entire hop bill. Try adding 2 or 3 types of bittering or aroma hops and see how it works out. If you like a particular hop that is high in AA, but you don't want it so potent, use half or less of the quantity. Experiment with varieties and quantities.
RE: Brewing Tips, Page Three (Five Gallon Water Jugs From Target)
Hey Cubx,
I know I've seen this discussed in other places but it always interests me because I would use one in a heart beat except I've heard that they are not true food grade, or they are permeable to stuff, they scratch....etc, tell you the truth, I'm not that worried about it BUT, what about head space on 5 gallons? I'm not a full batch brewer as you may know and I'd spend the money tonight for two of these if you could point me to any further information that supports their use. Also, if I jump up to five gallon brewing, do these only hold exactley five gallons? I appreciate any elaboration you can give, thanks!
Larry
I have heard the same thing about these water jugs. I didn't flip it over to check the stamp on the bottom if it was HDPE 2 or not, I was looking for something else. I was researching food grade plastic a few months back and read that most HDPE 2 is food grade, but not all.
I found on the Target web site where they state these are made of polycarbonate. Here is the web site I found with loads of information about plastics: http://virtualweberbullet.com/plastics.html
Essentially, the web site states that if the product is sold at a kitchen or restaurant supply store, chances are food that it is food grade. Whether these are totally food grade is hard to say. That would come down to finding the manufacturer and asking them.
As for the headspace, every 5 gallon jug or bucket I have seen was never exactly 5 gallons. Carboys are usually a half gallon over what is stated. My buckets hold a little more as well. I don't know how they are all measured, but rarely is anything exactly the capacity as stated. One way to quickly find out is pour 5 gallons of water into the jug and see how much space is left. I really doubt they calculate the capacity right to the top, it is usually to the neck.
I dont know if this is the correct place to put this, but I have a tip...
Go to the paint section of any gigantic warehouse store (Lowes, Home Depot, et. al.) and ask the person for a plastic paint bucket lid remover tool. It looks like a giant claw style can opener, and makes getting the lids off of bucket fermenters really easy. (Hubby brought me one when I hurt my hand last month). They cost around a buck and I LOVE mine.
wow, thanks for all the tips, This thread really helped me out!
Excellent info for a newbie like myself. I didn't get the OG on my batch, so now I guess I will never know the true alcohol level or when I have proper fermintation. The can says get a specific gravity level that is consistant then your done. Wish I'd have read this BEFORE I made my first (ONLY) batch so far. The next batch will DEFINATELY have data to glean and use for my future beer making. I already bought the 3 ring binder and made a few entries on what NOT to forget!
Thanks to this forum and all involved,
chuck stardust
Tip #94
Allow any trub to settle out of your hydrometer sample.
This can sometimes skew your initial gravity reading a bit.
Doing this usually gets the wort in the tube closer to 60 for an accurate reading also while you wait.
andrew jensen wrote:
I've got a technique for dry hopping that I'd like to share with you guys.
Recently dry hopped a double IPA with 2 ounces of Amarillo (whole.) I'm sure like a lot of you guys I like to do my secondary fermentation in a glass carboy. This makes it a little tricky to dry hop. Originally I would just throw the hops loose in the bottom and rack onto them. I still think this is a good method and very easy to do but I just felt like the hops were absorbing a fair amount of liquid. So I then went to the bag method which isn't the easiest to cram two ounces of whole hops in a bag through the small carboy opening much less getting it out again. My problem with this method is the hop bag floats and a large amount of my hops are sitting above the liquid line. I understand that they have absorbed fluid but it didn't seem like a very effective way. So next I heard of sanitizing marbles and throwing them in the hop bag causing it to sink in the fermentor. Better but I didn't care for the idea of my hops buried in a layer of trub at the bottom so again back to the drawing board. Finally my brew buddy devised a great solution. We crammed the hops into the bag through the mouth of the carboy with the marbles in place but we used fishing line to tie up the hop bag and ran a length to the bottom of the airlock keeping the hop bag suspended in the middle of the carboy, fully submerged yet off of the trub! This is definitely not the easiest route but with a little practice gauging how many marbles (steelies work best) and how much fishing line you need this is a pretty effective way to dry hop. Not to mention when it's time to bottle you pop the airlock and the hop bag comes with it. No more trying to fish out a swollen bag of hops, getting it back out the carboy mouth still takes some finnese though.
That's a really solid idea. I've been just pouring the pellets right into the carboy. You get great flavor that way but you're right, the hops absorb a lot of liqid. Plus syphoning is a bitch with all of the hops just floating around in there. I've never used the bags because it didn't seem like the flavor would dispurse adiquately. Nice idea!!!
Extract vs. All-grain Recipe Equivalents
After you've brewed a few batches and are feeling confident enough as an extract brewer to start formulating your own recipes, I have this tip or advice to offer.
Make all your extract recipes with light extracts, regardless of LME or DME. Get your flavor and color from specialty grains. The best reason for this is because if you go all grain all you have to do is convert gravity points from light extract to gravity points from 2-row barley. Your color and flavor components can almost perfectly carry over from extract to AG.
Its much more difficult to make an all grain stout from an extract recipe that used amber extract and dark extract, and some roasted barley. Trying to get the right amount of specialty grains to mimic the amber and dark extract isn't impossible, but it'll take several brews to get it right.
I wish I had done this when I started with recipe formulation. Would have saved me several test batches.
[I know its been said before, but I thought it bears repeating, so I put it in this thread]
Brewchez - good to point this back out. I know it is some where on another thread. I do extract, but that is exactly how I formulate my recipes. I get the light/extra light LME & DME and use specialty grains for the rest. I think it will be some time before I can go all grain. It is more a time issue for me, I don't want to increase my brew time at the moment.
Plus right now if I am going to spend money on brewing I am buying ingredients. I am working on trying to get a bit of a backlog of brew so I can let some actually age more than 3 weeks in the bottle. 
So far the most informative posting I have read since being a member. Thank you.
Ok, I have a tip. I just learned this the hard way.
When walking barefoot, do not drop a 5 gal. glass carboy on your foot. Even when empty it hurts. A lot.
Yea, that's why I don't use Carboys. I'd love to use them, but I just don't trust myself walking up from the cellar bringing up a full Carboy to bottle in the kitchen. I'm sure it would end badly.
I haven't added to this message in over a year. Time for some more tips.
- Immediately after racking from a carboy, if you don't plan to clean it right away, at least fill it with water. Cleaning a filthy carboy weeks or months later is pure hell.
- Keep a spray bottle full of water near for kettle if you are brewing on the stove. As hot break is starting, you will get the foam from hell. Spray it down with your bottle to avoid boil over.
- Large rubbermaid tubs can be bought cheap and work great as large capacity cleaning tubs. I used to use 5 gallon plastic buckets, but not anymore. These work so much better and are cheap.
- If you use Straight A, PBW, or another powdered cleaner with a carboy, do your best to dissolve it in warm water before dumping it in. Both cleaners are horribly bad about leaving powder behind, and it takes serious effort to get it all out.
- Don't cover your brew kettle (or no more than half) during the boil. DMS (dimethyl sulfide), which is a byproduct of the malting process that gives cooked vegetables flavors off, are escaping during the boil, and you don't want those! If you leave the lid on, the condensate will fall back into the wort.
- Keep a bottle of Star San or another sanitizer in a spray bottle near your fermenters, kegs, or anything else you will be touching and drinking from later. This way you can sanitize on the fly.
- After you sparge a high gravity mash, such as 1.075 or higher, you can mash and sparge again to extract a little more sugar and make a saison (session, low alcohol) beer. I have done it before.
- Fruits, rum, whiskey, hops after boil and such, should always be added to the secondary fermenter, or possibly even keg. If you add these during the primary fermentation, the co2 is released from the airlock along with the flavor and aroma of these additives. Never add them during primary. That is evil.
- Beer improves considerably with age. If you can, bottle or keg a little extra and let it sit for 6+ months. Not only does it get stronger, but also smoothes out and flavors enhance.
- ALWAYS take good notes. How will you reproduce your kick ass ale if you don't take notes?
When to use a secondary fermenter, why, and when?
Most ales ferment 2-3 weeks before you bottle or keg it. First, does the yeast you are using floculate? This is when yeast cells clump together as they finish converting sugars to alcohol and CO2, and fall to the bottom of the fermenter, thus clarifying your beer.
Does having the yeast in suspension give bad flavors? It CAN, but very seldom does. A high floculating yeast makes the beer more clear (more clumps fall to the bottom), and low floculating means more cells stay in suspension (less fall to the bottom), and makes it hazy.
It is mostly just appearance.
Now that we have discussed yeast, why would you want to use a secondary fermenter?
Well, if you want to get your yeast off the trub (troob), which is dead yeast, proteins, and hops that are in the "yeast cake" at the bottom, then you will want to rack your beer off the trub and into a secondary fermenter. Why? Because if left long enough it can start getting bad flavors, although it does take a number of weeks, much more than 2 or 3. If you want to save that yeast for repitching, you also want to rack the beer off so you can pour your scavenged yeast into a container.
A main purpose is to get your beer off the yeast and allow it to clarify. So knowing this, why would you want to rack your beer if you are making something dark, such as a stout? Exactly. There is no benefit. Why would you want to clarify a DARK beer? However, if you are letting it age, then move it off the trub.
Given this, when should you move it from primary to secondary? After 10-14 days is good. There will probably still be fermentation. That is fine. Don't worry about it. Just rack it over. If you insist on leaving it in the primary, then you can let it go another week, but don't push it. When I brew in 2 stages, I almost always go 10-14 primary, 10-14 secondary. 3+ years worth of brewing and no problems.
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