A very,very stupid question!

Make grain beers with the absolute minimum of equipment. Discuss here.
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Meatymc
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A very,very stupid question!

Post by Meatymc » Mon Jul 25, 2016 10:24 pm

I'm now on my 8th biab brew. It's sat in the pan waiting to cool to an acceptable temp to pitch the yeast. Not exactly the way it's done but I've been lucky so far with no infections - no wood to hand - bugger!

I've been adding a sparge to increase volume simply because I only have a 31L pan but one hell of a thirst!! It looks as though this latest brew is well over 24L and may only just fit my fermenter and therefore my brew fridge. So the stupid question is, if I were able to get an even higher volume than this - say by splitting the wort at some point, can you store the surplus to ferment later? If so how? I have 2 food grade containers but massively oversized for the expected surplus. Can you freeze it?

Sorry it's such a mad question but I need a way of upping production with the limited range of gear I have so I've a good ongoing supply whilst also trying to build up stock for Xmas/winter.

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Re: A very,very stupid question!

Post by jaroporter » Mon Jul 25, 2016 10:34 pm

yep, you can freeze it, though i'd give it a ten minute boil after thawing to be sure of sanitation.
i often have up to five or six litres over after the FV is filled, so will either freeze some for yeast starters or krausening, or just ferment it with a different yeast in a stockpot or DJ on the kitchen counter just for kicks. gets you a few extra bottles of something different/interesting. at that volume temp control isn't so important.
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Re: A very,very stupid question!

Post by Rookie » Mon Jul 25, 2016 10:52 pm

You could give high gravity brewing a shot.
Brew the size batch that your equipment will hold at a higher gravity and dilute it after fermentation, before bottling.
I've done that a couple of times to get a four gallon batch out of my three gallon capacity gear.
I'm just here for the beer.

Oakey22

Re: A very,very stupid question!

Post by Oakey22 » Mon Jul 25, 2016 11:11 pm

Rookie wrote:You could give high gravity brewing a shot.
Brew the size batch that your equipment will hold at a higher gravity and dilute it after fermentation, before bottling.
I've done that a couple of times to get a four gallon batch out of my three gallon capacity gear.
And introduce oxygen to the beer. Good call :)

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orlando
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Re: A very,very stupid question!

Post by orlando » Tue Jul 26, 2016 7:33 am

Oakey22 wrote:
Rookie wrote:You could give high gravity brewing a shot.
Brew the size batch that your equipment will hold at a higher gravity and dilute it after fermentation, before bottling.
I've done that a couple of times to get a four gallon batch out of my three gallon capacity gear.
And introduce oxygen to the beer. Good call :)
Must say Oakey has a point. You could get round this a little if you boil hard the water you will use to dilute as this will knock a lot of air out. It's why we re-aerate wort before pitching the yeast. Better to dilute before fermentation though.
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Bad 'Ed
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Re: A very,very stupid question!

Post by Bad 'Ed » Tue Jul 26, 2016 8:15 am

I wouldn't like to add wort that I'd saved to a fresh batch just in case there was any infection - then I'd be basically wasting a day's brewing. You can get larger FVs which are likely to fit in your fridge, or even get a DJ or two that can fit alongside. I've got a 25l FV which is thinner than most and I can fit two DJs in the corners of the beer fridge as well as this FV making a 35l total. It would probably be better to get a 30-40l fv from somewhere though. Most homebrew websites sell 33l ones which will almost definitely fit in your fridge.
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TheSumOfAllBeers
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Re: A very,very stupid question!

Post by TheSumOfAllBeers » Tue Jul 26, 2016 9:35 am

Look into no chill cubes, and no chill brewing in general.

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Re: A very,very stupid question!

Post by Fil » Tue Jul 26, 2016 2:31 pm

TheSumOfAllBeers wrote:Look into no chill cubes, and no chill brewing in general.
i agree with a clean hdpe container or similar material that can withstand close to 100c temps without deforming, you can add the surlpus close to boiling wort, and rely on its latent heat content to pasturise and sanitise the container insides to provide weeks or even months of shelf life.

select containers close to the total volume of wort u want to save as any empty volume in the container will form a partial vacuum as the liquid cools and the vapour that was filling the void condenses. too much headroom will compromise the vessels seal.
ist update for months n months..
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Meatymc
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Re: A very,very stupid question!

Post by Meatymc » Tue Jul 26, 2016 3:24 pm

Thanks for the replies guys.

I have a couple of hdpe containers which I bought thinking I'd need to store the whole wort to 'chill' - they're far too big for this task. And the fermenter fills my fridge with not a lot of space left over. However, never even occurred to me to use demi johns which at this time of year should ferment out OK - possibly an opportunity to try a couple of dry hop options. The sloe port is near to bottling as is the creme de cassis freeing up a couple of dj's so will give it a go on the next 'run'.

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Re: A very,very stupid question!

Post by BrannigansLove » Tue Jul 26, 2016 3:32 pm

I'd be wary of pouring hot wort into a glass demijohn.

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Re: A very,very stupid question!

Post by Rookie » Tue Jul 26, 2016 10:21 pm

Oakey22 wrote:
Rookie wrote:You could give high gravity brewing a shot.
Brew the size batch that your equipment will hold at a higher gravity and dilute it after fermentation, before bottling.
I've done that a couple of times to get a four gallon batch out of my three gallon capacity gear.
And introduce oxygen to the beer. Good call :)

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Very little if you're careful and the action of the yeast fermenting the priming sugar should scrounge up any small amounts of oxygen that get into the beer.
I'm just here for the beer.

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