Your Process After the Brewday

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Wez

Landlord.
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I'm interested to hear what people do after you've pitched the yeast, I'm hoping we can pick up some pointers off each other.

This is what I do:

Pitch Yeast
Leave to ferment out (this is usually within a week but I give it 10 - 14 days)
Transfer to King Kegs and add 50ml aux finings
Place KK in fridge at 4 degrees for 4 days
Add Issinglass finings and leave in fridge at 4 degrees for another 4 days
Remove from fridge and leave in the garage (around 18 degrees)
When I need to tap it move it to the keg-fridge (12 degrees) for 24 hours
Tap and drink
Served through a beer engine with a check-valve using a widget world gas system to top up the c02

(I think I listed it all :lol: )

How does that process sound? Anyone else use AF & Issinglass?

My brewlength is 50L so I fill 2x KK's at a time so keg 1 goes through the 8 days at 4 degrees process first then I do the same with the 2nd, the fridge can only hold 1x 25L KK at a time.
 
Wez said:
Served through a beer engine with a check-valve using a widget world gas system to top up the c02.

Hi Wez
Have you got a photo of that set up. I also use a beer engine with a check valve but use the s30 Hambledon Bard jobby. What is the difference with the widget world one? Does it inject gas when it get below a certain pressure?

Russ
 
Hi Russ, I use it because it means I don't have to take the keg out of the fridge to re gas it the Widget System has a screw on adaptor which goes on the s30 valve, previously because of head space in the fridge I couldn't get the cylider in.

I'll get some pics, but will probably be tomorrow :)
 
My approach is a touch more rustic shall we say.

Ferment beer
Lob in sachet of gelatine finings dissolved in water (if I remember)
Bung in Polypin in fridge at 12C in shed
Serve through an engine and check valve directly from fridge

Always comes out perfectly carbonated and lasts as long as I can keep my mitts of it. Simple but effective, much like me :lol:
 
Basically I have a small fridge which I replaced the thermostat in so that i can hold at 12 degrees but there isn't enough room above the keg to fit an s30 cylinder so I'd have to take the keg out re-gas and put it back in, a right PITA. So i ordered a midget widget system which is a lower pressure c02 cylinder this has a hose coming from it which goes to an S30 valve adaptor screwed into the cap, so now when I need to add c02 i just squeeze the handle on the widget system until I think there is enough. They used to do a regulator for it but discontinued it :roll: that would have been ideal. This way is guessing but it seems to work. You have to replace the inner rubber valve seal with a weaker one (they supply this) as the pressure is not as great in the WW system so it can't get past the stronger rubber., Here are some pics:

The cylinder with the gas line coming from it and disappearing through the fridge door seal.
04082008762.jpg


The Gas line going to the top of the keg:
04082008763.jpg


The beer line, attached to the sparkler tap with a jubliee clip, the beer line goes to a check valve mounted under the counter that the beer engine is attached to:
04082008764.jpg


Hope that helps :D
 
The only reason I got one was the head space issue :roll: It's an advantage if you have the same problem, I got mine from Hamstead Homebrew in Birmingham I got two cylinders so I can swap them and not have to rush about it. IIRC about £70 all in (not 100% sure on that though) :)
 
Mines an art i've perfected over the last 5 or so AG brews.

Ferment for 10 days on the dot. i left my first AG brew for 14 days and it caught something nasty, so i dont dare leave them that long anymore. i sometimes rack sooner if the ferment was rapid and left the hydrometer steady for 3 days before the 10 days are up. I suppose i do this because i reckon that the protective layer of CO2 doesn't last very long once the ferments stop, especially when you open the lid everyday to check the hydro reading.

i've stopped using finings as they dont ever seem to make a difference to the speed of clearing for any of my brews.I rack straight to corny now. I used to condition in my budget barrels then transfer the bright beer to cornie, but i dont bother as i've mastered the knack of sediment sucking :D, i'll explain as follows:

As soon as i've racked i stick the kegs under my bar so i dont have to move them to do what i do next. i dont want to kick the sediment up ;)

after a week i hook it up to the gas at 20PSI, and let it fill

Then i turn the flow valve on my tap right up to maximum and pour off a pint as quickly as i can... this does a nice job of sucking ALL the sediment from the bottom of my corny. i worked out that if you have the flow at pouring speed, you only suck up what's underneath the dip tube, and over the course of the next day, the rest slides down the bowl in the bottom back under the dip tube (i know cos i had a good nosy when i had a miss-positioned O ring around the lid :)). I then repeat this a week later, and i've got crystal clear, sediment free beer :cool:.

I considered snipping the dip tubes, but i figured i'd rather have all the **** out and not risk it getting sucked up (not to mention you'd lose more pints as opposed quickly pouring it off) especially when i've been known to carry a corny or two to a party.
 
I leave my FV's untill they are about 10-12 days in. I then rack of to cornie. I pressure cornie a bit and release, repeat a few times to get some C02 in the headspace. Then leave for 5 days in my fermenting room(18C) and then move outside to my garage where i pressurise them to 20psi. Then one gets put in my temp controlled fridge-only one fits, not enough room for two :( I plan to get a chest freezer so all my cornies can go straight in there. Controlled and set at 12C.

I bottle some beers. these stay in my fermenting room for 7 days and then get put in my friends walk in chiller for a month.
 
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