Brew Day - 06 May 06

[Road Runner]

I have the same Brewpaks boiler. Mine came with a Brewpaks hop strainer when I bought it, as in DaaB's pic.



Just unscrew the chrome nut on the inside of the tap & screw on the replacement brass nut that comes with the hop strainer.

Don't know what H&G mean by it's not much cop. Mine is all copper, no poly tubing on it and works great. Tap doesn't bung up at all.

[eskimobob]

Cheers Guys,

Nice yeast head forming now

The black wire is my temp sensor suspended in the beer,

The yeast I've used is WhiteLabs liquid English Ale Yeast (WLP002) - not cheap hence the interest in freezing some when I rack this batch. Is there a good place to buy those test tubes that have screw on caps?

All in all, an enjoyable days brewing.
Things learnt today:
1) I need a hop strainer before the next brew
2) I could really do with a wort chiller (better make one)

[eskimobob]

Superb, thanks DaaB - that is just what I was looking for. I see they have their site up and running eatlier than expected...

[James]

QUOTE (eskimobob @ May 6 2006, 05:32 PM) hence the interest in freezing some when I rack this batch. 
Best not to freeze, as this will rupture the cells and drastically reduce vibility. Keep it in the fridge; you can get 3+ months without any problems.

How are you going to harvest your yeast? Skim of the top or from the bottom of the fermenting vessel?

JC

[eskimobob]

Hi James,

I take you point but there does appear to be some success possible:
http://www.forumforfree.com/forums/inde ... east&st=15

Graham Wheeler describes using Glycerol to act as an antifreeze to stop the rupturing that you mention.

I'm going to give it a try and will report on results in due course...

[James]

I didn’t say it would kill cells, just that you will reduce cell viability.

Iv’e done it myself a while ago, but yeast can keep for such a long time in the fridge, it’s much easier and you will ensure viability.

Are you taking yeast from the top or the bottom?

[tribs]

I have just successfully reused yeast that I scooped from the cake in a secondary fermenter on the 5th January. It has been stored in the back of the fridge all this time. It worked great from a 24hr litre starter. I gave it to my dad for his first AG brew. He says fermentation has finished after 4 days and the sample tastes really good.

I've got another two containers of that strain in the fridge that I will use on future brews. Its wyeast 1028 London Ale yeast. I store them in the vials you get from the doctors for urine samples .

[eskimobob]

Picked up my new hop filter from Hop and Grape today and thought you might be interested in a pic. It is very similar (if not identical) to the designs that you guys have been making to put in the bottom of your coolbox mash tuns:



I also bought a cheap coolbox from Wilco today to convert. Interestingly it is possible to detatch the inner plastic section from the outer section - the space in between has some thin polystyrene sheets - not sure how good it will be at holding temperature but might be able to improve it with some squirty expanding foam. At least it should be easy to fit the tap.

Based on comments here, I may well try some yeast in the fridge as well as some in the freezer.

[eskimobob]

There are slits cut into the copper tubing; you can just see some where the tube has rotated (bottom left of pic).

It would actually fit into my new coolbox - unfortunately I'd need it in the boiler when I run off the wort from the mash otherwise I could have made it do two jobs...

[tribs]

QUOTE You could always run off into a seperate collection vessel first 

I'd be quite tempted to that, personally.

[tribs]

With all this talk of hop strainers in the kettle, I thought I'd mention my approach.

I do not use a hop strainer in the kettle. Instead I add the hops in muslin bags. I have read that some people believe that you do not get full utilisation with this method but I can assure you that if it is true it is not noticeably so. I also reuse the bags (20p each) if I can be bothered rinsing them after use :rolleyes:

[eskimobob]

Ok guys, I think you are right; I'll run off the mash into the FV, swap the filter over to the boiler and then pour the wort into the boiler.

Now just need to get some tubing sorted out to connect my 15mm strainer to the back of the tap that I plan on fitting to the coolbox (a KingKeg tap). <_<

[bitter_dave]

QUOTE (tribs @ May 9 2006, 04:26 PM) With all this talk of hop strainers in the kettle, I thought I'd mention my approach.

I do not use a hop strainer in the kettle. Instead I add the hops in muslin bags. I have read that some people believe that you do not get full utilisation with this method but I can assure you that if it is true it is not noticeably so. I also reuse the bags (20p each) if I can be bothered rinsing them after use :rolleyes:
Tribs I guess there is no need to clean the bags before using them as the boil should sanitise them?

I may try this next time. At the moment I boil the hops loose, but because I have no hop strainer in my boiler I have to transfer the hot wort to my lauter/mashtun (2 fermenting bins), leave a while, then strain - which is a big faff at the end of a long brew day

[Jim]

A slight problem with hop bags is that you have no natural filter when you are running off the wort, so more trub is carried through into the fermentation vessel.

Also, the hops are reputed (ref David Line!) to assist in producing the hot break by giving the protein particles something to clump onto!

[eskimobob]

Just finished racking my Waggle Dance in to the King Keg for the secondary fermentation. The gravity is now 1008 which is slightly lower than I expected and there were still a few bubbles rising so it may go a little lower by the time I rack to corny.

I had a bit of a taster (as you do ) and am quite pleased but it obviously needs a while longer yet. The colour might be a little light but it is hard to tell until I get it in a pint glass next to some real Waggle Dance.

I also had a go at storing some of the yeast - following instructions from this esteemed forum. I'm storing one test tube in the fridge in case the glycerin does not protect the four tubes in the freezer.

Had to get it racked tonight as I'm brewing an Irish Stout tomorrow
Going to bed now so tomorrow gets here sooner