Home Brewing

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Looks great Morkai! The grain absorption sounds about right, you might be able to get a bit back by suspending the bag over the pot after the mash and letting it drip in or giving it a bit of a squeeze.
The boil off sounds high but perhaps it is just the pot, it does look quite large diameter. Not that it's a problem, it might just be it is what it is and you can calculate for next time based off of your results!

With your strike temp ending up being so far off, have a check to see if your software is assuming thermal losses from the mashtun not being the same temperature as the strike water would be my first guess (i.e it thinks your putting hot water into a room temperature mash tun)
 
royalewithcheese said:
Looks great Morkai! The grain absorption sounds about right, you might be able to get a bit back by suspending the bag over the pot after the mash and letting it drip in or giving it a bit of a squeeze.
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I nicked the oven rack and put the bag on it for a while and squeezed a load out.

royalewithcheese said:
The boil off sounds high but perhaps it is just the pot, it does look quite large diameter. Not that it's a problem, it might just be it is what it is and you can calculate for next time based off of your results!
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It does have quite a large diameter, probably not unusual.

royalewithcheese said:
With your strike temp ending up being so far off, have a check to see if your software is assuming thermal losses from the mashtun not being the same temperature as the strike water would be my first guess (i.e it thinks your putting hot water into a room temperature mash tun)
Click to expand...

I was going off others saying they got a 10c drop when adding grain, thats not what I got but I'll know for next weekend and adjust it.

The setup is on gas, no electric setup or software. I was just using paper.

The wort tasted fine though, it doesnt have any off flavours.
 
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Ratten said:
a great thread to appear! I've just started back into the brewing

Put a masterpint Czech lager on last week. Have done a few before, but always had a bit of a yeasty homebrew tang to them....so being an engineer and having a problem to solve:
Cheap fridge, inkbird controller, heater pad and swap out the yeast for 34/70 saflager and use extra light spraymalt instead of sugar- bubbling away at exactly 10C
Will raise to 16C near the end of fermentation for a diactyl rest (gets rid of the odd flavours seemingly)
Then cold crash it for a couple of weeks (drop to 1 - 2 C)- makes the yeast clump and drop out of suspension)
Clear it with gelatine (pulls more yeast out of it)
Into a corny keg (Mall Miller setup)
Put under CO2 in the fridge for 3 months nice and cool....

but in the meantime throw on a Coopers Irish stout with extra dark spraymalt and that can happily sit at 18 degrees then follow the similar approach above, but drinkable much sooner. Will need to order a bottle of nitrogen / co2to give it the proper consistency - apparently this is called guiness mix

now if it all tastes like old socks i'll be mightily disappointed...but will have given it everything!

Also if it doesn't work there might be a load of kit going cheap in the classifieds!
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The 'yeasty tang' is generally yeast autolysis.

You need to get the beer off as much of the yeast as you can ASAP at EoF.

10c is a good start, nice slow fermentation.

16c for diacetyl removal seems fine. Might even be a touch cool, but depends what yeast you're using.

Cold crash will help get the yeast out, but you might want to cold crash, add gelatin, then drop the cone after 3-7 days, then leave it for the rest of the maturation after that. Maybe drop the cone a second time a week later.

Calcium level in the water will also aid flocculation. Your local water board will provide an analysis of all metals which can be found for free with a quick google. If Ca2+ level is very low (less than 20ppm), you might consider supplementing with a bit of CaCl2.

Either way, a couple weeks sat on the yeast whilst you wait for the last dregs to drop out is almost certainly going to produce that 'yeast bite', especially if your oxygenation is a bit shonky, or you've brewed with chlorinated tap water. You need to get the beer off the yeast and let it do maturation with a much, much lower cell count of just whatever yeast stayed in suspension through the cold crash.

For context, the big breweries I work at sees lagers with approx 120-150million cell / ml in suspension at T48, 40-60million cells / ml at Eof, then we're targeting 1.5-3 million cells / ml in maturation. Effectively, we're taking only 1-2% of the total yeast in the FV forwards into maturation.

We achieve that within 48 hours with a cold crash + cone removal, followed by a centrifuge and/or a primary filter on the way from FV to maturation tank. You obviously can't do that, so you have no real control, and should just aim to get 'as much yeast as you can' out, as quick as you can. Every additional cell above that is more 'yeasty off flavor' as it starts to autolyze.

If you can't drop the cone, then cold crash, gelatin, 2-5 days, rack the beer off the yeast into a new vessel and let it complete maturation in that, again nice and cool. 2 weeks total time is absolutely fine, but you can go longer if you like.

Then pack into corny keg from that, again leaving as much yeast behind as you can. You can then lager it for whatever time you think is appropriate.

At a pinch, I'd rather get it out of the FV and into the corny keg faster after cold crash I think. You'll be bringing more yeast into the corny keg than if you do the FV to Maturation tank to Corny keg option, but should still see less 'net' yeast cells in contact with beer per unit time, which should still be overall better. If you are carrying more yeast load during lagering than is ideal (and you are, you're a homebrewer with basic kit), I'd consider a slightly shorter lagering time if you can. Maybe try some at 30 days, then again at 60, again at 90. It might be nicer a bit younger, so long as it isn't too sulphury.
 
The wheat was finished by Thursday after fermenting since Saturday.

I took 3 bottles worth off to try as a plain wheat. Now thebfermenter has 1.7kg of raspberries added to it.

Hell of a colour.

20250411_103938(0).webp
 
I bottled my first brew last night, it stopped fermenting on Wednesday night with a hydrometer reading giving me 4.4% ABV. I am quite happy with it but the only thing I noticed was that it looks a little cloudy but tastes good - It puts me in mind of one of my old favourites "Wadworths SixX"! Now that it is bottled it might be a bit too late but can anyone offer any tips for clearing a slightly cloudy brew when bottling home brewed beer please. I know I can use gelatine if barrelling home brew but for future reference what (If anything) can be done for bottling please?
Any suggestions please Guys?
 
Irish moss in the last 15 minutes of the boil can help although it's never had a huge effect for me.
You can still use gelatin when bottling, just add it to some warm water (boil it first so it's sterile and leave it to cool for 10 minx) and mix into your fermented beer just before bottling.
Storing the bottles in the fridge once they've completed the bottle fermentation will help some of it drop out into the bottom, you've just got to be careful not to disturb the sediment when pouring into a glass. When I used to bottle I'd just do one gentle pour into the glass and leave the last little bit behind if I wanted to keep it clear.
 
You can use finings like gelatin or isinglass, putting that into the fermenter and letting it settle and clear before you bottle, or you can "cold crash" which clears the beer by dropping the temperature in a fridge for example, then bottling. Now you have it in the bottle, you could try putting the bottles in the fridge as @royalewithcheese suggests.
 
Many thanks guys. With this batch I will try putting the bottles in the fridge for a few days before drinking and in future try Gelatine when bottling.
When using Gelatine what sort of amounts would you suggest please - i.e. Amount of Gelatine to Water and what quantity of the liquid Gelatine mix per 750ml bottle please or is it better to put the gelatine mix in the brewing bucket with the brew and how long to leave it for before bottling?
 
I bottled the Raspberry Wheat this morning after a particularly heavy night on the ale. 30 bottles in total.

20250413_122154.webp

20250413_122716.webp
 
FrenchieBoy said:
Many thanks guys. With this batch I will try putting the bottles in the fridge for a few days before drinking and in future try Gelatine when bottling.
When using Gelatine what sort of amounts would you suggest please - i.e. Amount of Gelatine to Water and what quantity of the liquid Gelatine mix per 750ml bottle please or is it better to put the gelatine mix in the brewing bucket with the brew and how long to leave it for before bottling?
Click to expand...

Dont put them in the fridge yet, give them a week or so sitting in the warm to carbonate, they will settle snd clear a bit duringbthat stage. Once that is done, a week in the fridge should help a bit more.
 
FrenchieBoy said:
I bottled my first brew last night, it stopped fermenting on Wednesday night with a hydrometer reading giving me 4.4% ABV. I am quite happy with it but the only thing I noticed was that it looks a little cloudy but tastes good - It puts me in mind of one of my old favourites "Wadworths SixX"! Now that it is bottled it might be a bit too late but can anyone offer any tips for clearing a slightly cloudy brew when bottling home brewed beer please. I know I can use gelatine if barrelling home brew but for future reference what (If anything) can be done for bottling please?
Any suggestions please Guys?
Click to expand...
Cold crash or just patience another week in the fermenter and a lot will drop out. Cooler place the better.
 
FrenchieBoy said:
Many thanks guys. With this batch I will try putting the bottles in the fridge for a few days before drinking and in future try Gelatine when bottling.
When using Gelatine what sort of amounts would you suggest please - i.e. Amount of Gelatine to Water and what quantity of the liquid Gelatine mix per 750ml bottle please or is it better to put the gelatine mix in the brewing bucket with the brew and how long to leave it for before bottling?
Click to expand...
Have a look at this thread, useful info around how much gelatine to use and how to do it.

How to... Use Gelatin Finings
 
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