Drink Belgian or nothing at all!!!!

[sirgiovanni]

I think I'm going to just start taking all my favorite English and Americn recipes and just throw in an extra 7 or 8 lbs of wheat with trappist yeast and see what happens.

[sirgiovanni]

Week 6 for the Dark Strong 10%. I'm keeping it warm and it's still fermenting in the kegs.

The Blond clone slowed to 1 hit a minute so I dumped the yeast and added the Brett and dry hops. Fermentation is back up on it again.

[sirgiovanni]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wD_49kfVJeE


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_yUqrqV ... re=related

[Chris Norrick]

Excellent videos! Thanks for sharing.

[sirgiovanni]

I'm doing an 8% Cherry this weekend.

[sirgiovanni]

Status update on the Belgians. I seriously have been through enough changes now on my brewing process to be able to give a high fermentation presentation if you want it sometime. I'll just need some notice to get the slides together.

There are a lot of things I took for granted with my brewing, making 5.5% beers that just didn't matter as much then. But going to the high alcohols really pushed the limits of my procedures. The first blond just didn't seem stable to me with the flavor and esters so I started doing a bit of initial cask conditioning in the kegs. While you get a couple beers of mud from it first off, I have to say the last blond proved very stable in flavors and aromas. But then again, temperature controls started taking place also. I never worried about temperatures with clean fermenting american yeasts or even english yeasts. But with the Belgians, you don't want fussels early on, but then you just about need some heat in stages as it trails out of primary and through the secondary.

In regards to aerating the wort, I used to be all splashy and all was well. Well, It's clear now that the oxygen tank for 60 seconds with a stone is the way to go. I've even adjusted my mash temps and times and seen drastic improvements along with learning a lesson about carmelizing my wort on the 10%.

Lastly, the yeast starter. I have migrated to smaller and smaller yeast starters, then doubling them or tripling them over the years. Researching this lately I've found out about shocking yeast with too large of a starter and I kinda understand why I migrated this direction over time. Also, I'm watching Ebay like a mofo right now for a magnetic stirrer. The research I looked at in regards to yeast growth with a vortex verses shaking it around is just rediculous. Hopefully that will be one last big improvement. I know I can visually see an amazing difference with the last 8%. I'm now on day 10 and the airlock is still hitting in less than 2 seconds. It's been the smoothest, longest lasting primary yet. My next 2 beers I believe will be a belgian IPA at 7.5% and then a stout at around 7.5 to 8% as well. The next time I try the big beer, I'm going to back it down to 9% and implement all these changes I've done. Reason being..........it's still fermenting. lol I went ahead and carbonated one of them at about 1.039 even though it wasn't done. I left one of the kegs fermenting but I need to move on and clear a keg up. I gots too much I want to brew to wait around. Hopefully, the better processes will speed that booger up next time.

[Chris Norrick]

It's great when the theories work out in practice right before your eyes!

If you are interested in building your own stir plate I can bring mine to the meeting. I've built two. One with an AC muffin fan that uses a ceiling fan dial switch for speed control, and one with a DC muffin fan (computer fan) and a small wall wort transformer with a rheostat for speed control. If you have a dead computer hard drive you can tear apart, the rare earth magnets in there are glued to the top of the fan to make the stir plate. If you use two magnets, they are strong enough to turn a stir bar on the convex bottom of a 1/2 or 1 gallon glass cider jug.

Here's the link to the AC version construction: http://chris.norrick.com/norrickenbier/ ... 12D52.html

[sirgiovanni]

Sweet, but I already ordered one day before I read your post. I saw some plans but I'd of probably done it on your guidance. When I was just reading the plans from a stranger over the internet, the voice in the back of my head (not the one that says never brew under 7%) said this doesn't sound UL rated and you will not be home a lot of the time this thing is running. I chickened out.

[sirgiovanni]

Well the 8% beat the airlock about ever 1.5 seconds or so for 17 straight days. Last night it started showing signs of weakening and by this morning it was down to 4 seconds. I guess I can kick in the 10 lbs of cherries now and start it up again.

I got the new stirrer and I was thinking of dumping the 8% yeast tonight and doing a starter on it to try and give some more life to the last 5 gallons of 10% that is still creaping slowly forward. That yeast sure tore this batch a new hole.

[sirgiovanni]

Down to every 6 seconds on the airlock when I got home. Dumping 10 lbs of cherries in on a finising 8%, definately one of the coolest things I've ever done. God I'm a nerd. It was like a 10 gallon alkaceltzer. This beer is now officially known as Supernova.

It's going freakin nuts again. I really wish I had kept it to 9.5 gallons originally because of the juice.

I also dropped some yeast out the bottom for a starter on the new stirrer which had it bubbling within an hour. Beer toys rock.

[Chris Norrick]

Yes they do. Now if I just has some power to run them.

[Chris Alvey]

Damnit all if that doesn't sound delicious...

[sirgiovanni]

Yeah electricity screwed my excitement at some point as well.

Well if it sounds good.............couple weeks, on tap. ;)

[sirgiovanni]

Redneck temp control.

10 gallons in the conical fermenter. I decided since this one was an IPA, I didn't want to allow the temp to rise as much on this one.

About a month ago I went to Harp's and got an aquariam themometer that you stick on the glass. Works real well apparantly on the stainless conical and I've been adjusting heat with it through secondaries. Sunday when I woke up fermentation was going nuts and the temp was rising quickly. I watched it move through 76 and quickly was getting up to 78. (I'd say the oxygen stone and magnetic stirrer was a powerful improvement)

Bungie chords and gel ice packs. I thought, well this might help. Holy crap man! I dropped down to 70 degrees within 2 hours! It worked great all day, I just rotated packs. It's already slowing down just enough now that I don't need them and it's holding a steady temp again. Anyway, I don't know why I didn't think about it before but it's a lot cheaper alternative to an ice box. You pretty much can just decide how many packs to use and how long to get you there.

[sirgiovanni]

Went back to the a step mash this weekend. Single stepping at 149-150, I have not gotten better than 74%. I estimated 1.077 at 78% efficiency for the stout this week, did a step mash and hit 1.080.

I'm kind of wondering why I ever switched to a single but I guess I had to find out for myself. Also inverted the sugar for this batch myself with citric acid. Works like a charm and it's easy to do.