Cursed!

[markpeace]

So I've got this pale ale recipe that I've been trying to perfect for four brewdays. I've had a bad recipe version, an infected version and a version which fermented at too high a temperature with yukky alcoholy flavours.

This time, I was going to crack it. I built myself a fermentation fridge. I set aside a clear day, with perfect sanitisation, and slow and steady planned processes. The result tasted delicious out of the boiler.

Into a fermenter it went, and in to the fridge. At this point, I was ready for my dodgy electrical skills to cause a problem ... but no! within a .5 of a degree all the way through, and fermenting like a dream. Perfect. At this point it tastes good!

Into a secondary with some dry hops, maybe this is where it'll go wrong. Two days later, tasting better than I could have expected. This might be my best brew ever!

Tomorrow, I plan to cold crash. In preparation I nipped out to check the gravity one last time (see, being well behaved and following the processes properly). As I open the garage door, I note a black halo around my fridge . I tentatively approach, and touch the floor. Damp. Hmm, well maybe my crappy garage roof is leaking. I open the door of the fridge to find a pool of beer on the floor, and about 8 litres missing from the keg.

Moral of the story: Taps are bastards.

I've transferred to another vessel now, but only had ten minutes to do it, so I'm bound to have buggered up my sanitisation routine. On the plus side, the garage smells amazing.

 

[Vossy1]

Nooooooooo Drink what you have left quick :drink:
Was sort of tap is it, I've had issues with persistently leaking red ones :x
Look on the bright side, you'll have the next one nailed ....I shouldn't have said that :twisted:

 

[markpeace]

I'm sat in trepidation, waiting for the crashing sound of the Bowerfold Brewery/Horrible Garage slowly collapsing on itself in the garden.

 

[markpeace]

oops. didn't answer the question. It was a generic white one. I think its my fault for twisting the tap to an upright position - must have loosened the nut.

 

[Vossy1]

I'm sat in trepidation, waiting for the crashing sound of the Bowerfold Brewery/Horrible Garage slowly collapsing on itself in the garden.

:lol: ...look out for those ravenous fruit flies :shock:

oops. didn't answer the question. It was a generic white one. I think its my fault for twisting the tap to an upright position - must have loosened the nut.

I'm guilty of that too me lud

 

[TRXnMe]

Gutted for you.

I really hope your hurried sanitisation process was adequate and the remains are as good ass you hoped :)

 

[Andyhull]

I have just this weekend fitted a tap to my FV, however i didn't fit a plastic one as i have heared way too many horror storys of leakage.
I fitted a tank connector and a brass ball valve with a copper elbow for aproximately £7.50
The FV was filled up on Sunday and i have opened and closed the valve/tap probably over 100 times since fitting it and there is no leakage as with this type of valve you get a positive shut off.
I will be using this valve/tap for all my future FV's

Andy

 

[TRXnMe]

The absolute best type of valve to use for brewing would be a diaphragm valve, they'll guarantee a seal no matter what sort of crud is in the media passing through it.

You'd need a high temperature food grade diaphragm in it though, so you'd be looking at a tenner or so for a 1/2" valve

 

[Andyhull]

I've used diaphragm valves in the past at work.
They're good whilst the they're working but found that if they're not operated regularly the diaphragm becomes brittle and splits at the edge where it's clamped in position.
For the price and durability i personally think that a ball valve with a PTFE seat is the best for this aplication, it is also easily/cheaply replaceable when/if that day comes.

Andy

 

[orlando]

Not going to secondary would help cut down on potential problems. Doesn't add anything to the process other than more potential problems.

 

[Andyhull]

Not going to secondary would help cut down on potential problems. Doesn't add anything to the process other than more potential problems.

How about being able to dry hop, helps with clearing and also less sediment in the bottles!
So long as a strict steriliseing procedure is adhered to there is little to no possibility of infection (etc)

 

[orlando]

Not going to secondary would help cut down on potential problems. Doesn't add anything to the process other than more potential problems.

How about being able to dry hop, helps with clearing and also less sediment in the bottles!
So long as a strict steriliseing procedure is adhered to there is little to no possibility of infection (etc)

You can dry hop in the secondary, with a muslin bag if you don't want loose hops. As for clearing quicker er, no. "Transferring remixes the particles that were slowly drifting down through the beer. If anything, this slows the process of clearing beer. Also, keep in mind that the large surface at the bottom of the fermentor is not inert. It still has an impact on the maturation of beer flavour. Removing the beer from this yeast can slow the utilisation of compounds like acetaldehyde and diacetyl" (Source: Yeast, White & Zainasheff).

It also complicates harvesting yeast for reuse, as now you are effectively selecting for more flocculent yeast that are the least attenuating. If you dump that yeat and harvest from secondary you are reversing the problem.

If you want to clarify it is better to reduce temperature to 5c or below, which of course also helps with less sediment in the bottles. Reducing the risk of any airborne in fection and coming into contact with surfaces which have not been sanitised enough.

As far as I can see there are NO benefits of going to secondary.

 

[markpeace]

Basic Brewing radio did a series of experiments which suggested that using secondary does improve clarity (source). Having only just sorted out my fermentation control, this has been helpful to clarification in the past. I suspect, though, that crash cooling will have a bigger effect and I may abandon secondaries. At the moment, I'm brewing one-on-one-off using secondary to see for myself.

 

[ScottM]

Racking to secondary massively improved clarity in all my brews, lager & cider. I would never not do it now. In fact I transfer to a secondary for a few days and then into a bottling bucket. All of my brews are crystal whereas before they were very slightly misty. I also get far less sediment in the bottles.

I've never had any issues with infection or anything like that. It's horses for courses though so each to their own.

Having said that if I could crash cool my primary to a low temperature in order to drop the solids then I probably wouldn't need to rack to a secondary before the bottling bucket, I don't have that facility at the moment though.

 

[markpeace]

Just nipped for a sneaky taste. It's fine. Still lovely, and clearing nicely (has been crash cooling for two days, plan to keg on Saturday)

 

[graysalchemy]

Dropping to a secondry aids clearing, gets your beer out of a dirty FV into a nice clean one especially if you are aging for a few weeks, allows collection of the best yeast ie the stuff which has floculated which means you don't get genetic drift if you are reusing your yeast, allows you to dry hop and collect your yeast cake and reduces transfer of yeast sediment at bottling stage.

 

[orlando]

Dropping to a secondry aids clearing, gets your beer out of a dirty FV into a nice clean one especially if you are aging for a few weeks, allows collection of the best yeast ie the stuff which has floculated which means you don't get genetic drift if you are reusing your yeast, allows you to dry hop and collect your yeast cake and reduces transfer of yeast sediment at bottling stage.

This is counter to all the evidence I have encountered. Can you provide me with any independent source that has some scientific credibility for your claims?