Lawn Darts...an in experiment sugars. how very scientific.
alright, alright...you guilted me into it, newbski.
let us suppose that by the time i had pitched the yeast and aerated the beer a second time, transported it to the brew den, sang it a new song of praise, spared my only son, sacrificed a fatted calf in its honor, and returned to the kitchen to clean up the mess that the wort in the hydrometer tube had cooled to say 74 or 75 F.
that would mean i need to add .002-.003 per 10 degrees above 60 F. we will make it 75 for ease of arithmetic and choose the easily-divisible-by-2 of .003 per 10 degrees. that means i need to add .0045 ot my OG giving me an adjusted OG (aOG) somewheres in the ball park of 1.070. FG = 1.001 (i mis-spoke in the preceeding post, that is the FG of another brew). yielding (1.070 - 1.001) = 8.9% ABV.
i can tell you it doesnt taste that high gravity. maybe i cant taste the alcohol because i am DROWNING IN BANANAS!
i'd say that so far the corn sugar was feremented to very-nealry-perfect-completion. your molasses finished at 1.010? interesting, we must compare notes, my dear watson. my fermentation temperatures ranged 68 - 70 F. how about you?
krausenator wrote:
i need to get a stick-on thermometer and paste it to my hydrometer tube, but i havent yet. why, you ask? i am lazy.
Slap head. Why didn't I think of that... great idea. I wonder if it will get ruined after a few washings of the tube though??? I usually drop my tube into a 3 gallon bucket of cleanser and sanitizer I keep open at all times when I am brewing. So a submersion might not be good for it long term.
There is only one way to find out...
a steady 68-70.
My brown sugar brew is chugging away just fine, its fermenting at 68-70 right now too. I use a fridge to help maintain temp.
I wouldn't say its violent or anything, but its pretty strong bubbling, almost constant. Chug chug chug chug.
Hey Krause. Do you think maybe lowering your ferment temp down to 60-65 would help??? Maybe you provided too much of the good things. Perhaps retarding the process a tad with a slight temp decrease will slow the yeast down and help provide a more complete ferment w/o the bananas.
I am still waiting on Fed Ex (2 days late #$@%@#@$%!%$@#@!@#!!!!!).
And Krause... go to wally world or your local pet place and get a fish tank sticker thermometer. Simple, small and el el el cheapo.
i guess next time i will do so, but it may not happen. i do not know if i will get that safale-04 again unless i am brewing something with a bit more body and hops to flavor it up some more.
do you have a tracking number for FedEx? i'd call and bitch and say you have something being shipped to you that had an expiration date and they have killed it and you want your money back! tell them they killed your precious beer yeast, a tragedy even the president would understand. dont mention it is dried yeast. leave that part out.
Fed Ex showed late yesterday. Bottled the Lawndarts brew today and brewing up my Spruce Goose ale as I type.
Not looking to active in the bottle but I'll give it a week before popin one in the fridge.
mine never carbonated right, i think it is the caps i used. i just didnt crank on them enough. so i re-primed the remaing bottles on saturday. they already feel 100% better. they are in plastic 1 litres so i can give them a friendly squeeze and track their progress.
my problem had been that they felt quasi-ok when i squeezed them at room temperature, but once chilled in the fridge, they were squishy as a rotten peach.
but now, things look good. i am hoping that the onslaught of banana esters will be partially abated by the crisp bite of the carbonation. here's hoping.
I find these results really wierd. I have used the safale-04 yeast quite a bit. I have used it for bog porters down to small ordinary bitters (1030OG). I have never experienced these banana like notes you describe.
I am bottling up the brown sugar brew later this week, I will report on the taste soon there after.
Fermentation has been somewhat unremarkable. No blow off or anything. As strong ferment, but nothing outrageous.
Although I have to admit I did a half batch (2lb DME, 1.5lb sugar), so when I pop open the fermentor we'll see how high the krausen line went.