The Beer Nerd - what are you drinking / brewing thread

This one was really good. I’d drink another. And it’s a hazy so you know it must be good.

 

What has this world come to in quarantine....

 

It’s crazy right?

 

Just want I needed to try and find some new parts for the truck....

 

I am starting to believe that this might be my issue. I fermented this one in a closet as my ferm chamber was occupied. When I brewed this the weather was warm, but we ended up having a cold snap so I’d say average ambient was mid-low 60s. I used WLP-530

I used the same yeast on my recently brewed Single, but pitched at 72 and increased a degree every 12 hours until I hit 78 and let it ride there for a week or so. Plenty of Belgian character in that one.

The dubbel is still only a week in to bottle conditioning so I am going to give it plenty of time and see what happens.

 

Yeah, a belgian might not give off that much "Belgian" character at lower temps, they usually like it a tad warmer if I remember correctly. WL says 66-72, so that could be it.

 

Any brewers here from AK? I’m moving up there this summer and I’m wondering if I should buy stuff while I’m in the lower 48. I’m very interested in starting to home brew....

 

Brewing question. I there a science to oxygenating wort or is it as simple as placing a stone in primary and hitting it with the O2 for a minute?
Side note. Moved my hazy IPA to secondary this past weekend and tossed in a few cubes soaked in Cointreau just for fun.

 

Different people do it different ways. I've used a bottle of oxygen from home depot on a stainless stone for big beers and those that I really want to fully/over-attenuate. I've also just shaken the carboy a bit, or i spray the beer into the fermentor, or even just transferred and let it go. I can't say i've noticed a big difference myself, but i'm not very detailed and scientific. The science says it really helps to keep from stressing the yeast, which you generally want to do.

Curious, did you have a reason for transferring to a secondary? I stopped doing it for most every beer I make, just an extra step unless you transferring onto fruit or something. Maybe you did for the cubes?

 

On transferring, guessing I'm just following the school of thought that you want to get the beer off the trub because the continued break down of proteins can cause off flavors. But I don't have the personal experience to know how true that is. After 12 to 14 days in the primary I've been going another 5 to 8 weeks in the secondary in the hopes of getting better mouth feel. As far as the cubes, I really enjoy complexity and always look for ways to add to a recipe.

Just got the ingredients to do a spiced up Belgian Wit that I'm planing to add some tequila oaked extras to.

 

You're doing a hazy IPA with 5-8 weeks of secondary? When do you dry hop? I go grain to glass as fast as possible with an IPA of any kind. 2 weeks from pitching yeast to kegging usually, if not less. I'm not familiar with the longer secondary for mouthfeel aspect.

Unless you're aging something for 4+ months, I never see the point of transferring the beer off the cake, you risk more in oxygenation than you save by avoiding any autolysis or other types of concerns. From my research, those are more risks for commercial size operations than homebrew.

What does @Beer:30 have to say?

 

I'm firmly in the no secondary camp. My brews, including lagers, are typically kegged within 2 weeks. They're usually completely done fermenting in about 10 days, then I'll give it a few days for a cold crash before I transfer. I have a Hefeweizen in the fermenter now that is going on 3 weeks, but it has a bit of a sulfur problem that I'm giving time to dissipate. It's about there, so I will be kegging it on Friday, which will be exactly 3 weeks from brew day. If I bottled instead of kegged, I'd probably go long enough in the fermenter to include a week-long cold crash to minimize the sediment in the bottles. If I do need to age something, I'll do it in a keg (like the quad I brewed early last fall that I am aging for 12 months). I oak in the keg and I ferment fruit in primary after the initial fermentation has tapered off. My fermentation process is designed to move the beer from primary to keg in the shortest time possible while keeping O2 exposure to an absolute minimum.

 

I'm sure it is a science, but I think the effects are subjective to one's tastes and preferences. We know yeast need oxygen to reproduce. Less O2 for the yeast means more stress. Sometimes you want the yeast stressed, but usually you don't. My SOP is to give the yeast a 60 second dose of pure O2 right after pitching. Higher gravity wort could likely benefit from more, unless it's a Belgian style, in which you may not want more. A big quad, RIS, or barleywine might need a couple doses, one early and another 8-12 hours later to ensure that the yeast have the stamina to finish the job. And 60 seconds might be too much for a Hefeweizen, since stressed yeast produce more esters. But maybe you prefer more clove and less esters in your Hefe, so how much O2 is right for that? I don't know. For clean beers, 60 seconds is about right and I doubt there are any benefits to going longer and they could probably even do with less. The not-so-clean beers are where the uncertainty comes in and I believe commercial breweries who specialize in those kinds of styles usually will do a bit of trial and error testing to see the effects of different O2 saturation levels on the finished product and then whatever they settle on becomes part of the process for brewing a particular recipe. I admit that this is a grey area for me. I always do a 60 second dose of O2 and on bigger beers, maybe 90 seconds, but I've never done any Brulosopher-style ex-beer-imenting with side-by-side batches to evaluate the effects of different saturation levels.

 

For this IPA I dry hopped at days 7 and 10. I do notice that the transfer does seem to give the fermentation a boost as the activity in the air lock picks up pretty steady for the week following. I've been attempting bigger beers thus far with ABVs above 7%. Is it possible to get the higher ABVs with just 2 weeks of fermentation?
I'm not kegging at the moment, just bottling.
Was looking at ways to minimize the risk of oxygenation, saw and interesting set up for CO2 pressurized transfer.

 

If your hazy was shooting for that 5-8 week secondary, most all of your good and tasty delicate hop aromas and flavors will be gone before you bottle, leaving mostly whatever bittering hop flavors you used. Especially if you're bottling, get that thing drinkable as soon as possible! Id shoot to bottle no more than 5-7 days after your final dry hop to maximize hop extraction and not loose too much time carbonating.

Airlock activity isn't always the best indication of fermentation, gravity samples will be your best bet. Also, when you transfer, it could be doing some off-gassing in secondary, releasing some of that entrained C02 from fermentation.

I've done plenty of big 7-8% beers where if you pitch at appropriate levels and oxygenate, the beer can be done with the bulk of fermentation in 5 days. I think one of the best things for making good and consistent beers is adequate pitch levels, something I almost always overlook because i make the decision to brew the day before and I'm too cheap to buy extra yeast. A starter, even just a vitality starter, will go a long ways to getting you clean (no off flavors) beer in a decent amount of time.

A few pages back @Beer:30 gave some cool tips and tricks on his pressure transfers. He's MUCH better and more diligent about 02 ingress than I am.

 

I hear what you’re saying. And yes for someone like me who won’t go through 5 gallons of any homebrew in a short amount of time – hoppy beers aren’t a practical choice to brew. But I’ve enjoyed the learning process and all the great advice.
It makes more sense for me to stick to beers that age well and I cellar without too much concern.

I’ve liked bottling; being able to share with friends and co-workers has been a big part of the fun for me. Unfortunately many of them believe that bud light and Ultra are the only beers there are.

Went ahead and pushed the button on a O2 stone/wand/regulator. Slowing adding to the plastic bucket kit I bought last year.

Really appreciate all the feedback here.

 

I totally agree. I like drinking a nice pale or IPA as my go-to drinking beer, but for just one person drinking it, 5 gallons is a LOT for something that tastes better fresh, and I can definitely tell degrades, or at least changes over time. I feel this is where learning to be much better about 02 ingress would help, from what @Beer:30 has said.

Also agree on bottling, i've been sharing batches with my father-in-law, him bottling, me kegging. I've never minded bottling too much, and it is nice to be able to bring them places to share. I've had issues with carbonation on his beers, under-carbing, so we went heavy on the last one, and it's working better, especially for an IPA we want to drink soon.

I cheaped out (saved like $3) and bought one with a stone on the end of a thick plastic hose rather than the stainless rod, and man I wish I had got the rod, my hose one has a curve that won't straighten out and it just makes it annoying and more difficult.

 

Any good?

 

I thought it was! Definitely.