Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

Remember that lack of airlock activity does not guarantee lack of fermentation.
Check for gravity changes to know for sure.
Some buckets have leaks at the lid seal, and some yeasts don't make much visible Krausen.

Those are really good and relevant points Andrew....and I have had several ales that I thought for sure were not fermenting, and the specific gravity proved otherwise. And I think those cases were due to leaky buckets.

I have used this yeast before, and if it were working I would smell the sulfur when it kicks in, as is the case with many (all?) other lager yeasts. If it doesn't kick in soon, I'll get some saflager and give it a kick in the pants on Wednesday. Why Wednesday? Because BIY isn't open on Monday's or Tuesday's .

Until then, I am hoping some bug doesn't set in and takeover.

Thanks Andrew,
D

I should listen to Charlie....."Don't worry, have a homebrew."

I came home today and one of the buckets is percolating away and the gas coming out of the top stinks of sulfur.

And the second one shows some movement, and it also stinks of sulfur.

It's time to fire up the fermentation chamber and lager these guys!

I always kick myself for NOT doing a proper yeast starter....do that and you won't have a 3-day lag to achieve solid fermentation.

daryl wrote: I always kick myself for NOT doing a proper yeast starter....do that and you won't have a 3-day lag to achieve solid fermentation.

This is why I started pressure canning Wort to have on hand, always have it for a starter when in need.

Yes, assuming you pitched one pack per 5 gallons, I think a starter would have helped. Lagers seem to take a lot more yeast or the lag takes a few days. Another thing, and one some people think is more important, is to oxygenate the wort. I'd wager they'll turn out fine though.

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I split my 5 gallons in half and am trying some new (for me) yeast and hops. One is a single hop with Cleopatra, pitched with Omega's Tropical IPA. I'm fermenting it in the high 70's as they suggest. The other is getting Meridian hops and Omega's Voss Kveik. That one I'm just letting go at ambient, currently around 70.

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carrisr wrote:I split my 5 gallons in half and am trying some new (for me) yeast and hops. One is a single hop with Cleopatra, pitched with Omega's Tropical IPA. I'm fermenting it in the high 70's as they suggest.

equivalent to WLP644 sach trios, I believe -- excellent choice. I'm using that at 82F for my IPAs

carrisr wrote:The other is getting Meridian hops and Omega's Voss Kveik. That one I'm just letting go at ambient, currently around 70.

Looking forward to tasting the kveik, haven't gotten to try one of those yet.

Schwerkraftbrauer wrote:

daryl wrote: I always kick myself for NOT doing a proper yeast starter....do that and you won't have a 3-day lag to achieve solid fermentation.

This is why I started pressure canning Wort to have on hand, always have it for a starter when in need.

I've started doing a final sparge of my mash - collect some pretty weak wort and boil down on the stove and can, so I always have wort available for starters. I don't have a pressure cooker, so I can it and keep it in the fridge.

Canning sterile wort in a hot bath (classical canning technique, where you get a vacuum when the jars cool) would seem very sufficient.

Refrigeration wouldn't hurt, but canned wort might just be shelf stable and would be ok stored in the dark at cellar temperatures.

karl wrote: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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It really is not too difficult to keep bugs from getting elsewhere. The only thing I keep separate from clean beers is I use different plastic tubing. Otherwise I use kegs, draft equipment, same fermenter (glass and PET), most everything interchanged. I have had bugs in the brewery for over 7 years and never had an accidental contamination. I clean everything very thoroughly in brewery though as part of my regular regime.

daryl wrote:Canning sterile wort in a hot bath (classical canning technique, where you get a vacuum when the jars cool) would seem very sufficient.

Refrigeration wouldn't hurt, but canned wort might just be shelf stable and would be ok stored in the dark at cellar temperatures.

I have collected Wort other ways as well, but I find getting a pound of DME is just easier. 2.3 Oz per quart will give you 1.040 gravity (abouts) wort, I usually add a pinch of yeast nutrient and one small hot pellet per quart. 1 pound gets you about 6 quart finish starter wort. And 15 lb of pressure for 15 minutes in a pressure canner. Throw the jars on the Shelf and I've used work that was 14 months old before with no problems.

daryl wrote:Canning sterile wort in a hot bath (classical canning technique, where you get a vacuum when the jars cool) would seem very sufficient.

Refrigeration wouldn't hurt, but canned wort might just be shelf stable and would be ok stored in the dark at cellar temperatures.

one would initially think that hot bath canning is ok, but, NO!

Pressure canning is required to kill sporulated botulinum bacteria -- which will kill you dead. pressure canning is required for non-acidic foods.

Freezing wort is an easy alternative to pressure canning.

for ongoing storage: <= 4.5 pH, or temperature <= 3 degrees C, or insanely high sugar concentration (like honey), is needed to prevent botulism bacteria from creating toxins.
when canning non-acidic foods, > 240F is needed to guarantee safety against botulism.

read this also: https://www.cdc.gov/features/homecanning/index.html
it has this link in it: http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/usda/ ... ev0715.pdf



I should note that no-chill brewers in australia get away with SHORT-term storage of merely boiled wort, but that's on the order of a couple days. Botulinum takes longer than that to do anything of note. They technically should be acidifying their wort to <4.5 before packaging it.

Yep, since I don't have a pressure cooker, that's why I refrigerate. Botulism is extremely rare, but better to be safe than dead.

Lately I've been making "vitality" starters. The goal is to just get the yeast actively propagating rather than growing up the cell counts so high. They are smaller, 200 ml or so for a 2.5 gallon batch, and are ready to pitch in as little as 4 hours. I usually make the it after my brew session has started and pitch the whole thing in the wort as soon as it reaches my target temp. Easy peasy.

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I just want to confirm that the people's choice tasting will be the June Happy Hour, June 24th, or 10 weeks from wort pickup.

Have we announced the judging turn-in date?

- Josh Peanasky