I think if you are making bread its supposed to be about 1 cup in an existing recipe (supposed to be very good).
There must be some goodness left in the grains for birdies i doubt we wring every last starch molecule out of them, also there is got to be a fair amount of proteins and some lipids in there.
Mine go in the brown composting bin so the local council compost them (must look into buying/making a compost bin myself.)
Brewday 13/05/07 - First attempt at AG
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Exextractor
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kinnockthecat
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Ianb
Somone sent me a leaflet at work the other day for a development board that connected to a pc usb port, and read temperature sensors.
I'll try and find it if it didn't go in the bin. It can be done quite cheaply if your into electronic construction and can write computer software....but then again so can a lot of things.
It also depends on your budget. One option is to buy one of these
http://www.etiltd.co.uk/prod_tdatalogger_TDC.html
You can use it is a digital thermometer, but buying the programing lead and software, you turn it into a datalogger. Set it up to take a reading every 10 seconds and you can log an entire brew length.
(Added five minutes later)...that is a nicely packaged unit, but if you want cheap and cheerful, I've trawled this up
http://www.quasarelectronics.com/3145.htm
I've not tried one, but £26 buys you the board, built, and one sensor. Further sensors are £4, the board support four, and the software is downloadable from the link. I don't know if the sensors are waterproof, probably not actually, but you could always use some waterproof heatshrink. I'll keep looking, but this is a pretty cheap solution.
I'll try and find it if it didn't go in the bin. It can be done quite cheaply if your into electronic construction and can write computer software....but then again so can a lot of things.
It also depends on your budget. One option is to buy one of these
http://www.etiltd.co.uk/prod_tdatalogger_TDC.html
You can use it is a digital thermometer, but buying the programing lead and software, you turn it into a datalogger. Set it up to take a reading every 10 seconds and you can log an entire brew length.
(Added five minutes later)...that is a nicely packaged unit, but if you want cheap and cheerful, I've trawled this up
http://www.quasarelectronics.com/3145.htm
I've not tried one, but £26 buys you the board, built, and one sensor. Further sensors are £4, the board support four, and the software is downloadable from the link. I don't know if the sensors are waterproof, probably not actually, but you could always use some waterproof heatshrink. I'll keep looking, but this is a pretty cheap solution.
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BarryNL
True - this can be quite easily done with a DS1620 temperature sensor, a PIC microcontroller and 5V to RS232 level converter. If anyone particularly wants it, I wrote some code for a PIC16F628 to read the temperature (full floating point accuracy) and send it out to a COM port.Ianb wrote: I'll try and find it if it didn't go in the bin. It can be done quite cheaply if your into electronic construction and can write computer software....but then again so can a lot of things.
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Ianb
Well, gents, I was browsing another post this evening, and noticed that from a brewday on sunday, fermentation was complete by tuesday, so I thought "Hmmm, lets see what's happening".
Mrs B bought me a turkey baster yesterday, which I cleaned and sterilised. I popped an airlock out of the FV lid and drew a trial jar full.
G is now 1014. Strangely enough, that was the figure I was thinking would be about right.
Lovely colour, obviously cloudy, but I couldn't resist drinking the trial jar (it would be rude not to
)
Wow. Still a bit (and I mean a fraction) sweet, but another day or so in the fermenter should sort that out, but WOW!!!! Beautiful fruity aromatic hoppy flavour, with a nicely rounded bitter aftertaste. Good Grief!! I hope it just looses a tad of the sweetness and keeps the flavour spot on because to my palette, it's effin' gorgeous!!!!
Cracked open one of the bottles of summer lightning I was going to culture the yeast from, to celebrate. I'd rather drink the contents of the FV.
So now the tricky bit.
Lets assume that by tomorrow night it has reached the perfect point. How do I arrest fermentation??
I know that the plastic plastic interface of tightly wrapping the FV with coils of hosepipe and then pumping water from the python cooler through it is stunningly inefficient, but with lots of lagging it will drop the temperature in the FV, which, and tell me if I'm wrong here, should cause the yeast to drop out of suspension and go dormant, then in a couple of days rack to the pressure barrel. Leave to fall bright for a few weeks then sit in the garden with a smug grin and drink the entire lot to myself.
I'm hoping I've devised a way of pulling from a pressure barrel with a beer engine, without subjecting the beer to air, and I'll let you know if it works.
Ian
Mrs B bought me a turkey baster yesterday, which I cleaned and sterilised. I popped an airlock out of the FV lid and drew a trial jar full.
G is now 1014. Strangely enough, that was the figure I was thinking would be about right.
Lovely colour, obviously cloudy, but I couldn't resist drinking the trial jar (it would be rude not to
)Wow. Still a bit (and I mean a fraction) sweet, but another day or so in the fermenter should sort that out, but WOW!!!! Beautiful fruity aromatic hoppy flavour, with a nicely rounded bitter aftertaste. Good Grief!! I hope it just looses a tad of the sweetness and keeps the flavour spot on because to my palette, it's effin' gorgeous!!!!
Cracked open one of the bottles of summer lightning I was going to culture the yeast from, to celebrate. I'd rather drink the contents of the FV.
So now the tricky bit.
Lets assume that by tomorrow night it has reached the perfect point. How do I arrest fermentation??
I know that the plastic plastic interface of tightly wrapping the FV with coils of hosepipe and then pumping water from the python cooler through it is stunningly inefficient, but with lots of lagging it will drop the temperature in the FV, which, and tell me if I'm wrong here, should cause the yeast to drop out of suspension and go dormant, then in a couple of days rack to the pressure barrel. Leave to fall bright for a few weeks then sit in the garden with a smug grin and drink the entire lot to myself.
I'm hoping I've devised a way of pulling from a pressure barrel with a beer engine, without subjecting the beer to air, and I'll let you know if it works.
Ian
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Vossy1
Great news IB, it's all going to plan
10 days in primary is a good guide, normally. By arresting fermentation your stopping the yeast from mopping up undesirable compounds that are formed as a bi product of fermentation like diactyl (spelling).
Yeast drops the gravity rapidly in the first few days then slowly for the rest of the fermentation period, depending of yeast used obviously
Why would you want to? What's the target FG for your brew?How do I arrest fermentation??
10 days in primary is a good guide, normally. By arresting fermentation your stopping the yeast from mopping up undesirable compounds that are formed as a bi product of fermentation like diactyl (spelling).
Yeast drops the gravity rapidly in the first few days then slowly for the rest of the fermentation period, depending of yeast used obviously
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BarryNL
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Ianb
Hi Vossy
I'd assumed that once i'd reached the 25% figure, the majority of the work would be done, and that would be that. Stop the fermentation, get it in the cask, get it drunk.
If it will benefit from being in the FV longer, I'm happy to leave it alone. I've got a few gallons of kits to get through yet!!!
I'll see how things look on sunday.
Ian
I'd assumed that once i'd reached the 25% figure, the majority of the work would be done, and that would be that. Stop the fermentation, get it in the cask, get it drunk.
If it will benefit from being in the FV longer, I'm happy to leave it alone. I've got a few gallons of kits to get through yet!!!
I'll see how things look on sunday.
Ian
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Vossy1
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Ianb
Well, Gentlemen, An update.
I left the ale in the fermenter until late saturday night, when I turned the cooler on. By mid morning sunday the ale was down to 2 degC, and I racked it to the pressure barrel, adding no finings.
This left me sunday for a bit of fun, and a double brewday. Mmmmm. 10 gallons of lovely beer, all fermenting, and all for me....although one is a Boston lager, so that'll be a few weeks ( I reckon two months) before it's ready.....Anyway, I digress.
So this evening, the father in law came round, and I poured him a taster. Imagine my shock when I pulled half a pint of bright beer from the pressure barrel!
Once settled a very slight haze, which I presume will fall out with time was present, but on the whole it was bl**dy good, and it suprised me again when I tasted it.
Slightly too bitter (as I said, I thought I overdid it with the challenger boil hops) but an almost perfect summer lightning copy. F.i.L, who is a SL lover couldn't believe it. I can't believe it.
Woo Hooo!!!
To say I'm happy is an understatement. This much fun, and great beer as the end result!!!
FG is about 1011, giving about 5.5%.
I know it will improve with age, but to be honest, I don't care, it's so drinkable when you're sat out on the decking in the evening sunshine, looking out over the Yorkshire Moors....... There'll be another batch going on this weekend for sure.
I only hope the Boston Lager and Dark Mild brewed this weekend come out half as well.
So now back to work. I need to build my "zero pressure" CO2 system so I can pull the beer through the beer engine without getting air in, hopefully extending the shelf life to a period where I can drink it all. I can manage 5 gallons in a fortnight, but.......
Cheers All
Ian
I left the ale in the fermenter until late saturday night, when I turned the cooler on. By mid morning sunday the ale was down to 2 degC, and I racked it to the pressure barrel, adding no finings.
This left me sunday for a bit of fun, and a double brewday. Mmmmm. 10 gallons of lovely beer, all fermenting, and all for me....although one is a Boston lager, so that'll be a few weeks ( I reckon two months) before it's ready.....Anyway, I digress.
So this evening, the father in law came round, and I poured him a taster. Imagine my shock when I pulled half a pint of bright beer from the pressure barrel!
Once settled a very slight haze, which I presume will fall out with time was present, but on the whole it was bl**dy good, and it suprised me again when I tasted it.
Slightly too bitter (as I said, I thought I overdid it with the challenger boil hops) but an almost perfect summer lightning copy. F.i.L, who is a SL lover couldn't believe it. I can't believe it.
Woo Hooo!!!
To say I'm happy is an understatement. This much fun, and great beer as the end result!!!
FG is about 1011, giving about 5.5%.
I know it will improve with age, but to be honest, I don't care, it's so drinkable when you're sat out on the decking in the evening sunshine, looking out over the Yorkshire Moors....... There'll be another batch going on this weekend for sure.
I only hope the Boston Lager and Dark Mild brewed this weekend come out half as well.
So now back to work. I need to build my "zero pressure" CO2 system so I can pull the beer through the beer engine without getting air in, hopefully extending the shelf life to a period where I can drink it all. I can manage 5 gallons in a fortnight, but.......
Cheers All
Ian
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Vossy1
Welcome to Ag IB 
The problems start when every brew you do is so good your not sure whether to make a new one or stick with one you've done
The answer, more storage units be them Corny's or whatever
I must order some more corny's
The problems start when every brew you do is so good your not sure whether to make a new one or stick with one you've done
The answer, more storage units be them Corny's or whatever
That's where the problems start IMO, how do you keep upI know it will improve with age, but to be honest, I don't care, it's so drinkable when you're sat out on the decking in the evening sunshine, looking out over the Yorkshire Moors....... There'll be another batch going on this weekend for sure.
I must order some more corny's