Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

daryl wrote:The wort is ready for pickup.

thank you Daryl!


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Anybody take a gravity reading? Brewing tomorrow, so tossed mine in fridges and thought it easier to ask than to take a sample.

Alec gave me the gravity in Plato, which I'm not familiar with, so he "guesstimated" it to be about 1.056. I measured it myself when I got home and it was 13.2 Brix or 1.052, so he was "close enough for government work."

tony b wrote:Alec gave me the gravity in Plato, which I'm not familiar with, so he "guesstimated" it to be about 1.056. I measured it myself when I got home and it was 13.2 Brix or 1.052, so he was "close enough for government work."

1.054 here, close enough for horseshoes, hand grenades, homebrewing, and sometimes pregnancy. Brew on my friends!

It was a good brew day!

My 10 gallons was split boiled with Magnum for bittering and then split into three and each whirlpooled with a different hop: Chinook, Simcoe and Citra. Three wort rally APA are now fermenting merrily with WLP002.

Next year I should have more fermentor capacity and hope to sign up for 20 gallons.

karl wrote:It was a good brew day!

My 10 gallons was split boiled with Magnum for bittering and then split into three and each whirlpooled with a different hop: Chinook, Simcoe and Citra. Three wort rally APA are now fermenting merrily with WLP002.

Next year I should have more fermentor capacity and hope to sign up for 20 gallons.

Doing different stuff w/ wort rally, but I've done a few batches precisely that way. I use kegs for whirlpool & fermenting - but whatever works. I am looking forward to comparing and contrasting. It's a great way to understand different hops. With post-boil hopping, I've learned one good rule of thumb. More hops = more delicious. Prost!

karl wrote:It was a good brew day!

My 10 gallons was split boiled with Magnum for bittering and then split into three and each whirlpooled with a different hop: Chinook, Simcoe and Citra. Three wort rally APA are now fermenting merrily with WLP002.

Next year I should have more fermentor capacity and hope to sign up for 20 gallons.

This was a fun experience, definitely excited to try and hear about everyone else's renditions of the wort. Might consider the same ordering more next year And waiting to brew Saturday instead, a 2 hour boil Friday night almost did me in.

Schwerkraftbrauer wrote: This was a fun experience, definitely excited to try and hear about everyone else's renditions of the wort. Might consider the same ordering more next year And waiting to brew Saturday instead, a 2 hour boil Friday night almost did me in.

I did:
11 gallons of IPA (centennial, citra, Mosaic, amarillo, Apollo, 1.5lbs) with wlp644 fermented at 80F.

Diluted to 1.042 for:
5 gal no boil, l. Plantarum and neutral ale yeast, to be dry hoped with probably Mosaic or a new fruity variety
5 gal Margarita Gose, same biologicals (will add to taste sea salt, coriander, key lime, orange)

3gal leftover: pitched some old dregs of bastagone ale yeast, Brett C., and Perle hops.

Andrew, how are you managing your brewing that use only yeast, and brews that use bugs?

I am thinking of having separate equipment and separate locations, to keep them separate.

I really want to brew with some wild yeasts, but I want to make sure I control them so there is no cross-contamination.

Yes, that's a good question. I've avoided bringing bugs into my brewhouse due to the fear of not being able to get rid of them.

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daryl wrote:Andrew, how are you managing your brewing that use only yeast, and brews that use bugs?
I am thinking of having separate equipment and separate locations, to keep them separate.
I really want to brew with some wild yeasts, but I want to make sure I control them so there is no cross-contamination.

All of my stuff is stored in the same area (fermentation, equipment, yeasts, bacterias).

L. Plantarum is incredibly hop sensitive. Any normal level of hopping should stop it.

brett/pedio: plastic/rubber equipment gets red duct tape, generally keep it separate.

Glass: just clean /sanitize properly

Also, heat kills everything. HDPE buckets can be filled/submersed with boiling water if there is ever any doubt. I haven't put Brett/pedio on HDPE, but do use lacto sometimes in them. See note on hop tolerance.

PET carboys can only take 140F, but should not be an issue if you don't scratch the inside, and sanitize properly (if concerned, use iodophor also, as it is supposed to be better against yeasts then starsan).
I still put red tape on them if ever exposed to Brett, but have not had cross contamination issues. I also secondary sulfited wines for months in these, and no issues.

Remember, these are airborne ambient organisms. Every beer you ever made has wild sach, Brett, bacteria Etc in it.
You just have hops to help control bacteria, and a large enough saccharomyces pitch to massively out-compete anything that gets in from the air.

My only batch that ever had an identifiable wild yeast issue, was before I started making mixed fermentations

Happy with how my two beers turned out pre-ferment. I have 5 gallons fermenting with French saison yeast that I added local honey to the boil with Nelson Sauvin and Mandarina Bavaria late additions and 5 gallons that I steeped some rye in fermenting with Burlington Ale Yeast with a bunch of Dr Rudi, Simcoe and Chinook late additions. Looking forward to drinking these babies! Both were exactly 1.070 post boil.


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WLP802 Czech Budejovice Lager Yeast

I had two packages of WLP802, one I purchased about a month ago, the second one I purchased last week. Both had been stored in my fridge prior to use. The expiration days were the same for both packages, and no earlier than May 2018.

I left the packages out when I started brewing, so they could get to room temperature.

I brewed 10 gallons of the rally wort for a lager. Boiled, hopped, cooled, and then pumped the wort into to two-5 gallon buckets and I pitched the yeast.

It has been three days and nothing, the airlocks have not so much as moved; ambient temperature is nominally 65F, a little higher with these warm days. These buckets are stored right next to ones containing ales, that were pitched later...and they are in full krausen.

I am suspecting that the two lager packages were dead.

Thoughts.

daryl wrote:WLP802 Czech Budejovice Lager Yeast

I had two packages of WLP802, one I purchased about a month ago, the second one I purchased last week. Both had been stored in my fridge prior to use. The expiration days were the same for both packages, and no earlier than May 2018.

I left the packages out when I started brewing, so they could get to room temperature.

I brewed 10 gallons of the rally wort for a lager. Boiled, hopped, cooled, and then pumped the wort into to two-5 gallon buckets and I pitched the yeast.

It has been three days and nothing, the airlocks have not so much as moved; ambient temperature is nominally 65F, a little higher with these warm days. These buckets are stored right next to ones containing ales, that were pitched later...and they are in full krausen.

I am suspecting that the two lager packages were dead.

Thoughts.

Would it be too warm for a lager yeast? I haven't researched or seen that variety of yeast but isn't lager fermentation usually in the middle to low 50s? I know yeast that is close to expiration date they usually recommend making a starter just to build up viable yeast, perhaps they're just being sluggish conditioning to the wort and temperature to build up activity, but I would think after 3 days you would see some airlock activity and CO2 from the yeast.

It's ok to keep the lager yeast at a warmer temperature to get it started. All of my previous experiences, I started the lager yeast out warm, just to get it started. But when I see fermentation activity underway, that is the time I get it into the fermentation chamber and start bringing the temperature down. I use the fast lager technique too.

This process has yielded nice clean lagers for me.