For your brewing pleasure.

Did an IPA today with a fellow brewer.

Manage to chill to about 26°C (69F). Wanted to pitch at 18°C (64.5C) so transferred and put the fermenter in my brewing fridge. In the interests of the new site being written, I also did some experiments of which most failed.

My final experiment was to line my fermenter with a completely boiled, washed and sanitised BIAB bag as we're dry hopping this one and I thought, "How cool would that be if you could use the BIAB bag as a dry hop sock as well!!!"

I also thought, "I'm going to aerate this wort overnight."

So before I started answering questions here, the wort was down to 18C, so I started to aerate. I had a blow-off tube; all was in order...

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What could possibly go wrong?

Well, I started answering questions here which, for me, always ends up taking ten times the amount of time I think. I also usually only aerate with a stone for about twenty minutes. But, with a blow-off tube, what's to worry? I also did not have the fermenter lid sealed but didn't stop to think more than, "That's fine, I'm aerating." Here's what I found after finishing answering questions on the forum ...

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Oh dear.

Another failed experiment!

But, you learn from them. The bag in fermenter idea has merit but needs a lot of modification, modification I wouldn't have even thought of until this 'accident'. The aeration for 12 hours, well, I think I'll leave that for now .

It's after midnight here now. I've pulled the fermenter out of the fridge already. Now I better go and clean/sanitise the fridge, pull that fermenter bag out, clean and sanitise the outside of the fermenter and then pitch the yeast.

As Obama would say, PP out.

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Lol! Too right Rick .

I now have everything put to bed...

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Except me!!!

STOP PRESS

Just previewing my post before hitting submit and I see my blow-off tube hanging in mid-air . Some days, it never ends. Fixed now with clamp .

One of those days .

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I see you have a hydro jar next to your fermentor for a fast ferment test?

Have you ever thought of just using a refractometer instead.

On a more serious note; do you always oxygenate with a cylinder and air stone?
I find other brewers methods and equipment intriguing.

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ShorePoints wrote:Putting the "Re" in Research. It is what happens.
The bag obviously overhangs the rim of the bucket in your first photo. What kind of seal does the lid provide, and if not airtight, why would a blow-off tube help reduce the mess? Even if the lid fits, doesn't the bag allow air to pass through? And if air could get in (or CO2 out) is that not the lowest point for liquid to escape, followed by capillary action?

Obviously you never brew drunk SP .

I did quite a few equipment experiments on Tuesday and the bag in the fermenter was just one. My original idea was not to have the bag overhanging the pail but I just wanted to try the idea out. My plan was to seal the lid down when pitching but the over-aeration put a stop to that plan, probably a good thing for several reasons - besides the capillary action, I think the sealing would have damaged the bag. Normally I just aerate for 20 mins or half hour using the process you mentioned. Never had it go anywhere near overflowing before but, then again, I'd never left it for three hours .

mally wrote:I see you have a hydro jar next to your fermentor for a fast ferment test?

The hydro jar serves a few purposes. Firstly, it is my OG sample. Secondly, it acts as a mini-version of the ferment (the jar is in the fermenting fridge beside the fermenter); as you can see in the pic below, what's happening in the jar reflects what is happening in the fermenter. Later in the fermentation, when I think it is finished, I'll sanitise my second hydro jar, pour the wort into that and add the hydro, after cleaning and sanitising it, to the jar. The first jar and hydro get really dirty, just like your main fermenter does, so, it's impossible to get readings without moving to a second jar.

Once in the second jar, I can leave it in a warmer place (covered, I'll add pics on that later) and that will tell me if the gravity is going to drop further.

Bear in mind, I'm usually much lazier than this. On a lot of beers, if I know them, I just leave them for a time I know they will be done. This beer though, I want to be a little more precise with my timings and will even use a secondary before kegging as it is a large hop bill, including about 140 grams (5 ozs) of dry hops.

I read that link on O2 before doing this brew. I must admit I didn't read it slowly, and, still haven't. From what I gathered on the fast read, I still think the aeration is the way to go but maybe I didn't read it well enough?


PP

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