Aarkon
@Aarkon@feddit.de
Will talk excessively about metal guitar and functional programming if not stopped
Also visit me at me on Mastodon
- Comment on Absuing a keg as a bung valve 3 months ago:
Update: Yeah, dang, it doesn’t work.
Observations: The lid bulges, but no movement of liquid. I have to press really hard on the lid for even the slightest flow towards the can. As this is probably going to be a rather light beer, I don’t expect much more CO2 buildup.
Theory: There is too much air in the system. The CO2 from the fermentation increases the pressure in the keg & lines, but not beyond the compressibility of the gases involved.Now I hope I have not spoiled my beer by exposing it to too much oxygen. I’ll probably get a bubbler ready tomorrow and just purge the keg with CO2 from my regular source.
Most of this setup sets me right on track though to do a oxygen free transfer though, so not all was in vain - given that I haven’t spoiled my brew. /o\ - Comment on Absuing a keg as a bung valve 4 months ago:
Uh, I haven’t even thought about the possibility of reverse siphoning. Maybe better I’d better leave the can where it is? To my understanding, siphoning “uphill” is way harder (if even possible at all, given a specific liquid, height, tube diameter etc). The possible pressure oscillation sounds less “threatening” to me right now.
- Comment on Absuing a keg as a bung valve 4 months ago:
Thanks for the calculation! It didn’t cross my mind to roll the numbers, that’s quite reassuring.
Thinking about everything now, I think I should elevate the can to the level of the liquid post of the keg, to avoid a siphoning effect where all the sanitiser goes through the line in one go once it gets into motion. 🤔
- Submitted 4 months ago to homebrewing@sopuli.xyz | 5 comments
- Comment on Using 3D printing to solve Homebrew Headaches. 4 months ago:
Not meaning to sound dismissive, but to me, most “apply 3D printing to $x” pieces, this one included, sound like looking for problems for a solution, not the other way around. Just look at how many “holders” people make with 3D printers.
That said, I’m not against the technology and I’m having an eye on the market myself. Also, I enjoyed the video. Great creativity, and I like the BruShow in general: The guy seems so damned friendly and while being well produced, his videos don’t put their production value before the actual content.
- Comment on Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow? 4 months ago:
A glass of beer, copper-ish brown/red
This is what we’ve got. I have no experience regarding what the style is supposed to be like, but it’s a really great beer with a fine balance between sweet and bitter components, excellent full mouthfeel and a decent amount of carbonation. It’s somewhat close to a Märzen, with a little less body I’d say. All in all, not too shabby for my first lager ever and the less ideal temperatures. W34/70 lives up to its reputation.
The head collapses quite quickly, which makes the beer go stale rather quickly as well, but it mostly doesn’t live long enough once I have it in my glass anyway. 🤤
- Comment on Stuck fermentation? 4 months ago:
I had made a starter (took a mason jar of wort after the boil, chilled it and pitched my yeast into it while the rest of the wort chilled overnight) and it went off really quickly, I had the impression it was all well.
But hell, maybe it really dropped out of solution faster than I thought. It’s sort of clear, even though I’m not storing it cool but only take from the keg what I’m about to drink that particular night and put that in a fridge.
- Comment on Stuck fermentation? 4 months ago:
A glass of beer, on a garden table. The color is copperish-brown, a head of fine foam atop.
So this is how we ended up. It’s a little thin as expected, but drinkable. Also it has become a little sweeter than anticipated, with some hop coming through. Had a commercial Kellerbier the other day and it was like this “done right”. Head is obviously good, its stability Ok.
All in all, it works surprisingly well as a summer beer.The secondary fermentation stalled as well, I had to shake the keg seriously in order for the yeast to carbonate and consume the priming sugar. So maybe my yeast just was a little weak to begin with.
- Comment on Stuck fermentation? 5 months ago:
I have my fermenter exposed to rather significant temperature deltas, so airlock activity maybe is not the best indicator in my case as the air inside expands and contracts. It would suffice of course just to measure daily with the refractometer to see if there still is activity. Not having to though is a tempting idea to me. 😄
- Comment on Stuck fermentation? 6 months ago:
For everyone involved and/or curious: I took a regular hydrometer reading last evening, which gave me ~1.011/1.010. So while not too far off, that is still significantly lower than what the Pill sees. Also, when taking some more time to observe, I realized that there is indeed still airlock activity going on. Now that I was sure there was still CO2 being produced, I then peeked under the lid and saw that the Pill had collected quite some dried trub on its waterline. After seriously sanitizing everything, I took it out, cleaned it and pitched it back, though that didn’t result in more realistic measurements. So I guess it’s down to a calibration issue.
What a stupid situation: The only at least halfway reliable measuring instrument after fermentation start remains the saccharometer, which requires a sample of 100 - 200 ml for each measurement, so you can’t do this every day for an elongated period of time without losing significant amounts of product for a batch if this size. Only alternative would be a transparent fermenter like the FermZilla and leave the saccharometer afloat the whole time. Not sure if I like that idea.At least I got a taste sample this way and I’m happy to report that there is nothing weird going on. It’s not the biggest beer in the world, but summer is coming anyway, so that’s only a half bad thing. I’ll report back with pictures in a few weeks after conditioning. Cheers!
@SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz @plactagonic@sopuli.xyz @waldek@lemmy.86thumbs.net @drre@feddit.de
- Comment on Stuck fermentation? 6 months ago:
Forgot to mention my yeast, it’s Fermentis S-04.
- Comment on Stuck fermentation? 6 months ago:
The temperature fluctuated from 20.2 to 17.7° C in 10 hours. I don’t know, is that much? Doesn’t look too bad for me, but I’m not yeast. :D
- Comment on Stuck fermentation? 6 months ago:
I’ll try agitating the beer a little to see if that sets anything free. It will sit in the bucket for at at least two more days anyway, so I’m not afraid of trub. If that doesn’t help, I’ll also take a look at the hydrometer, thanks for the suggestion.
- Comment on Stuck fermentation? 6 months ago:
I’ve got a BrewZilla Gen 4 35L. I don’t know what you’d consider low efficiency, but the unit’s default profile in Brewfather is ~76%, whereas the software calculated roughly 65% efficiency for the batch in question. I’ve got no idea though how that compares to the Braumeister 20L other than the values in Brewfather are rather similar.
What was a first was crushing the grains myself, but mashing on itself went fine. Looking back, I might have wanted to check for starch with iodine, which I even had available. Might do next time. I also might want to add though that I used 13.5 liters of strike water and did what from my understanding is a batch sparge (raising & draining the mash tun, then adding hot water from a second vessel with a jug) with another 15 liters at 80° C. Not perfect for efficiency, I know, but as described my pre-boil gravity was fine. I must just have been to shy on the heat while boiling.In the back of my head, I have the number of 10% boiloff being desirable, which would match with your 1 hour boil observation.
My last point is that I’m afraid the beer might be too thin as in too much liquid for too few sugars dissolved in it. I didn’t boil off enough water, so I did not concentrate the wort far enough to reach the desired post boil gravity.
- Comment on ‘My whole library is wiped out’: what it means to own movies and TV in the age of streaming services 6 months ago:
Well, that or go to court for a movie collection. I’d phrase my statement differently, but I can see the appeal of the settlement.
- Comment on Stuck fermentation? 6 months ago:
Airlock activity is so little that it might as well be expanding air (the bucket sits in my garage without extra heating or cooling, subject to the temperature cycles visible in the graph). There is nothing really in the bucket the hydrometer could be stuck against on my opinion, but I‘d have to open it to check - which I’m reluctant to do because of infection risk, obviously.
Taste testing I didn’t think of until now, good thinking. Will do tomorrow. If it’s completely dry, the calculations must be way off.
- Submitted 6 months ago to homebrewing@sopuli.xyz | 19 comments
- Comment on Making CC kegs into Jolly Kegs: No PRV on lid 6 months ago:
Just to give an update on this: I bought the expensive posts as well as new lids from Ali Express. Now the kegs were way more expensive, but still a good deal I suppose.
- Comment on Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow? 6 months ago:
Will come back with a picture once there’s something I can show off with ;)
- Comment on Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow? 6 months ago:
I left the bottles alone, zero blasts so far. I already had to try one out of curiosity just recently, and it was mildly carbonated but went stale pretty quickly and had very little head retention. So it seems to me that letting them sit for another week or so is the way to go.
- Comment on Is there much difference between Stellar and Star san? How's the StellarSan stuff so cheap? 6 months ago:
If you’re using chlorine based bleach and don’t rinse seriously, you risk introducing a serious off taste. Not saying you’re doing it wrong, and obviously, it works for you. I just wanted to leave this here for people who come by and feel compelled to do the same.
- Comment on Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow? 6 months ago:
Doesn’t alcohol lower the density of the liquid, so that a hydrometer reading should have to be corrected as well to some degree? You sure now better than I do, but that was my impression.
Other than that, do you have a source for the numbers you mentioned? Something were I can go look stuff up myself, e.g. when I’m about to brew something very different?
- Submitted 6 months ago to homebrewing@sopuli.xyz | 1 comment
- Comment on Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow? 6 months ago:
I’m not convinced the particular yeast strains make that much of a difference here. How did you measure your gravity though, what tool did you use & did you correct for alcohol? 4.5° is somewhere between my corrected and uncorrected readings. For the last three days, I read 5,9°Bx / 1.024 g with a refractometer, which Brewfather converted to 2.3° Bx / 1.009 final gravity when taking the fermentation into account. Your way, I’d have had to start secondary fermentation way earlier to leave some sugar behind. Doesn’t sound like a bad idea though, saves just another bit of work and only needs me to get the timing right (and have reliable measurements of course).
- Comment on Film over Melomel 6 months ago:
Late to the party, but you are/were most probably looking at Kahm. tldr; mostly harmless.
- Comment on Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow? 6 months ago:
That’s valuable information. Thanks!
- Comment on Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow? 6 months ago:
Classic: W-34/70 lager yeast. I waited quite some time though to assure primary fermentation was really over in order not to burst any bottles. So it’s also entirely possible that there is just very little yeast in the individual bottles to get secondary fermentation going.
Can’t wait to start kegging…
- Comment on Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow? 6 months ago:
That’s about it, 6 g/l. I ferment in my garage and the highest it went in primary was close to 20 degrees, just before it was done (nice coincidence that it did a diacetyl rest that way). When bottling last Tuesday, it was more like 10, and it’s somewhere in that ballpark since then, warming up slightly the last few days.
- Submitted 6 months ago to homebrewing@sopuli.xyz | 18 comments
- Comment on Will they still be good? 7 months ago:
That was what I came up with as a backup solution. Thanks for being reassuring 🙂
