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Post #1 made 11 years ago
by onkeltuka
It was time for the Schwarzbier today. Or Black Ale, actually, I guess. We had our new two-ring 11,4 kW burner, and everything went quite smoothly. Only at strike-in the temps fell all the way to 61, but we got over that quickly.

I tweaked the recipe so that we would end up with 27 liters into the fermenter, but probably because of the more vigorous boil we ended up losing so much liquid to evaporation, that we got just a little under 26 liters. I measured the OG at flame-out, and it was 1.044, the recipe said 1.048. We didn't do a mash-out this time, that would have given us couple of more points.

This time we aerated by shaking the hell out of the fermenter for ten minutes. The wort was 26C at pitching and the yeast 21C; is that an acceptable ratio? I also hydrated the US-05 properly, we used about 0,7 grams per liter, that's 19 grams, but with the less amount that went to the fermenter, the ratio is a bit higher.

A nice day, stuff really is easier the second time around.
"The rules for making hop additions during the boil are about as well defined as those for a knife fight." -Stan Hieronymus

Post #2 made 11 years ago
by BobBrews
A nice day, stuff really is easier the second time around.
Easier each and every time. The problem is that we get lazy when we get comfortable. This is when we start forgetting our basic rules! Keep brewing and brewing like it's the first time! :thumbs:
Last edited by BobBrews on 31 Aug 2014, 05:37, edited 1 time in total.
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tap 2 Bourbon Barrel Porter
tap 3 Czech Pilsner
tap 4 Triple IPA 11% ABV
Pipeline: Mulled Cider 10% ABV

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Post #3 made 11 years ago
by onkeltuka
btw, if I only calculate the boil time to the evaporation rate, I get a hefty ~12 liters per hour. Our kettle is quite wide so it's probably possible?

What about the efficiency in general,what can I do to get a better efficiency? This time around the BIABicus gave me a low 66.8% as EIF, but what does that number stand for?
"The rules for making hop additions during the boil are about as well defined as those for a knife fight." -Stan Hieronymus

Post #5 made 11 years ago
by PistolPatch
As MS said, post your file onke. You can post it in this thread if you like as I think we have given up trying to keep all the pre-release BIABacus files in just a few threads :roll: :smoke: :whistle:. (Thanks MS for your ongoing attempts to make that so :salute:)

Kettle and Fermentor Efficiency

Before you post your file, do an advanced search of my posts for the word 'cousin'. This will hopefully lead you to a few posts that explain the difference between kettle and fermentor efficiency. Start with the oldest post first.

Hopefully these will explain why there are only two relevant questions...

Q1. Was my kettle efficiency too low?
Q2 Was my kettle trub too high?

(Asking about fermentor efficiency merges the above two questions into one and basically creates mud - seethis 'cousin' post and the posts after.)

Pitching Temperature

This is a super robust recipe so don't be worried about the following...

Schwarzbier is a lager style so be aware that when you use an ale yeast for a brew like this, you should be favouring the lowest fermentation temperature of that ale yeast (which must also be a clean yeast.) When I do this recipe with US-05, I pitch it and keep it at 15-16 C (59 - 61 F) until well after high krausen.

As a general rule, I would recommend that you cool your wort to a few degrees below the desired fermentation temperature before pitching assuming you can do this within 24 hours. Like flying an aeroplane, most fermentation problems (off-flavours) occur at take-off and landing.

:)
PP

P.S.Yep, a wide kettle will definitely give you a big evaporation rate.
Last edited by PistolPatch on 03 Sep 2014, 18:34, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #6 made 11 years ago
by onkeltuka
hmm.. maybe it would be better if I just gather more data from a couple of more brews before jumping to any conclusions? And there's that I really didn't measure the trub left in the kettle, I could just approximate how much it was etc.

About taking gravity readings: when it's said that you pull a sample, let it cool and then stir it before taking the reading, do you mean that the break material that's floating around in the sample (and which settles a bit during the chill), should be mixed in the wort when taking the reading? Because I didn't do that, so maybe that would have given a bit higher reading? Or not... but I'll try to get my head around to taking all the needed measures from the next couple of batches, and then I'll harass you again with this ;) But thanks again!

And as we still don't have that fridge for fermentations, the bucket's been sitting in the coolest room of our house, which has been between 18-20C's during the fermentation. I also covered the fermenter with a black plastic bag, to keep the light out. I figured that if you don't want the beer in the bottles exposed to light, then why would the fermenting stuff be any different?
"The rules for making hop additions during the boil are about as well defined as those for a knife fight." -Stan Hieronymus

Post #7 made 11 years ago
by PistolPatch
onkeltuka wrote:About taking gravity readings: when it's said that you pull a sample, let it cool and then stir it before taking the reading, do you mean that the....
Nopey, nope no :).

Stir your wort in the kettle/fermentor before[/b] drawing a sample.

Post back here to let me know I have not misinterpreted your post. In other words, write a detailed step by step post of how you are are taking your gravity reading. This might seem stupid but taking a good gravity reading is not easy for a new brewer and also of experienced brewers get it wrong as well.

I'm short on time but I am guessing that a well-written instruction on how to take a proper gravity reading might take around ten steps, probably more so write what yo are doing step by step please onke.

:peace:
PP
Last edited by PistolPatch on 04 Sep 2014, 21:09, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #8 made 11 years ago
by onkeltuka
Ok. Just before flame-out I filled the metering glass with wort which I just scooped from the kettle surface. I would think that the quite vigorous boil would have stirred the wort, but now that I think of it, maybe not enough? Then I let it sit for something like 30 minutes, after which I just took a temperature reading (was 44C), put in the meter and took the reading. Used an online converter to convert the temp to 20c.
"The rules for making hop additions during the boil are about as well defined as those for a knife fight." -Stan Hieronymus

Post #9 made 11 years ago
by PistolPatch
PistolPatch wrote:I'm short on time but I am guessing that a well-written instruction on how to take a proper gravity reading might take around ten steps, probably more so write what you are doing step by step please onke.

:peace:
PP
Atm, sorry, I can't spend the time on thinking/writing this through in full. There are enough members here though that should be able to do it so maybe you'll gt lucky!

A few quick tips.... double checks must be employed, temp correction is extremely unreliable.
Last edited by PistolPatch on 06 Sep 2014, 23:29, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #10 made 11 years ago
by onkeltuka
I pulled a sample today, and took a gravity reading. It said about 1.013. Could we bottle it in maybe 3 days? It has now been 8 days since brewing. There's no bubbles coming out anymore,and the krauesen was almost gone.The taste was excellent,very nice and malty.
"The rules for making hop additions during the boil are about as well defined as those for a knife fight." -Stan Hieronymus

Post #11 made 11 years ago
by DaveDoran
Should be pretty close to done if not already finished.
I leave mine for 10 days and then bottle or crash chill.

What PP is getting at above is some brewers will take the 1st reading as the absolute measurement. This is either arrogant or clumsy generally. Most times i take 3 measurements at least. If i get 3 readings within +/- 1 of each other im confident the measurement is where it is reading. Sometimes my measurements are +/- 5 or 6. Take this into consideration on a mash temp. World of difference between mashing at 66deg c and 71deg c. Between 66 and 67 i deg mash i personally wouldnt pick up much of a difference.

Post #12 made 11 years ago
by onkeltuka
Yep, it's bottled. Got a FG of 1.012, that's 4.3% ABV, and 72% apparent attenuation; I understand US-05 should give a bit more? Anyways, it tasted really nice, malty and strong, but without any "porterish" or "stoutish" heaviness. Hoppiness was also surprisingly forward, although not too much by any means. We got fifty 0.5 liter bottles, although we aimed for 27 liters bottled, but that was probably because of the excessive evaporation during boiling.
"The rules for making hop additions during the boil are about as well defined as those for a knife fight." -Stan Hieronymus
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