Long conditioning in a pressure barrell

[Jcdonnan]

Evening all, quick question, I done a 3 kit imperial stout as an experiment, 2 coopers stout and 1 coopers lager with 500g muscovado and 500g brown sugar and a tin of treacle to 22l, got an og of 1094. It's been fermenting about a month, was gonna put it in a youngs pressure barrel I have sitting around and leave for about 6 months. Question is is it ok to age in a pressure barrel and was thinking 90g sugar for carbing? Sound ok?

I no it may turn out ****, I moved to all grain and had the kits sitting in the shed, just out of date so thought why not stick it all in together.

 

[MyQul]

Dunno about the pressure barrel thing but the beer should turn out good as coopers have a RIS recipe very similar to what you have done on their reciepe page

http://store.coopers.com.au/recipes/index/view/id/49/

 

[Dutto]

WOW! With an OG of 1.094 you have the potential for a +11% beer; which is verging on "Barley Wine"!

With such a high OG there is a very good chance that the brew may:

1. Take well over 2 weeks to ferment out.

2. Stick due to a lack of oxygen.

3. Stress the yeast due to the high ABV.

Personally:

o I would leave it in the FV for at least three weeks before even checking the SG; and only then if there was no activity from the air-lock.

o I wouldn't transfer it to the PB if the SG was at or below 1.010 for at least three days.

o I wouldn't use more that 60g of sugar for carbonating a 23 litre brew. (Six months is a long time!)

If the yeast doesn't get stressed due to the high ABV, the end result should be a superb pint! :thumb:

Oh, and if you intend leaving it for six months to condition in a PB, I suggest that you double-check that the three seals (pressure relief, CO2 inlet and Cap "O" ring) and the tap are all sealing okay! :thumb:

 

[terrym]

I keep beer, particularly stouts, in a PB for a few months and it's fine.

 

[Jcdonnan]

Stuck it in the pressure barrell yesterday, got down to 1026 so not far off what coopers say and I expected it to finish quite high. About 9% in the end. Got about 18l in pressure barrell with 70g table sugar! It'll be tucked away now till Xmas. Hopefully will come out ok, just tasted of alcohol yesterday.

 

[terrym]

My suggestion is to draw off a small sample every month to see how it changes.

 

[Jcdonnan]

My suggestion is to draw off a small sample every month to see how it changes.

Yeah planning to do this, it's a brand new pressure barrell so hopefully it holds pressure ok

 

[Dutto]

Stuck it in the pressure barrell yesterday, got down to 1026 so not far off what coopers say and I expected it to finish quite high. About 9% in the end. Got about 18l in pressure barrell with 70g table sugar! It'll be tucked away now till Xmas. Hopefully will come out ok, just tasted of alcohol yesterday.

I don't know where you get an SG of 1.026 is "not so far off what coopers say" but here's a few Threads from the Forum about a variety of Coopers kits and none of them indicate that 1.026 is anywhere near being a Final Gravity.

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=40080

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14802

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14803

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17271

Enjoy. :thumb::thumb:

 

[Jcdonnan]

I don't know where you get an SG of 1.026 is "not so far off what coopers say" but here's a few Threads from the Forum about a variety of Coopers kits and none of them indicate that 1.026 is anywhere near being a Final Gravity.

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=40080

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14802

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=14803

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17271

Enjoy. :thumb::thumb:

The link myqul put up on second post where coopers say, expect final gravity to be quite high, around 1022, and that's with 1kg brewing sugar. I used 1kg brown sugar and a tin of black treacle so 1026 ain't far off it really.

All those links are 1 can kits, I used 3 cans in mine.

 

[Dutto]

The link myqul put up on second post where coopers say, expect final gravity to be quite high, around 1022, and that's with 1kg brewing sugar. I used 1kg brown sugar and a tin of black treacle so 1026 ain't far off it really.

All those links are 1 can kits, I used 3 cans in mine.

It's the final gravity that says the fermentable sugars have been completely used up so using more cans is immaterial.

Personally, I am unconvinced that an SG of 1.026 in any way indicates that this is the case with your own brew.

If a brew of mine stabilised for three days at 1.026 I would be more inclined to suspect that it was "stuck" rather than reaching its Final Gravity. (I take it that you did check the gravity over a period of three days. )

Of course, I may be wrong (it's happened on many occasions before) ...

... but if I happen to be right then the barrel over-pressure valve will see plenty of use when the brew starts or continues to ferment. :whistle:

 

[terrym]

OG 1.094 to FG 1.026 is an attenuation of about 73% which is about right for a Coopers yeast. And in any case they are not (as far as I am aware) known to be high alcohol yeasts, so by getting to 9% ABV the yeast has probably done more than it should have.
That said if it wakes up again the RV should lift as Dutto has said
If it's a new barrel hope all the seals were checked for tightness and lubed up accordingly

 

[Jcdonnan]

It's the final gravity that says the fermentable sugars have been completely used up so using more cans is immaterial.

Personally, I am unconvinced that an SG of 1.026 in any way indicates that this is the case with your own brew.

If a brew of mine stabilised for three days at 1.026 I would be more inclined to suspect that it was "stuck" rather than reaching its Final Gravity. (I take it that you did check the gravity over a period of three days. )

Of course, I may be wrong (it's happened on many occasions before) ...

... but if I happen to be right then the barrel over-pressure valve will see plenty of use when the brew starts or continues to ferment. :whistle:

Completely get what your saying but I'm aiming for a ris which should finish above 1.020. I brew a lot of big stouts all grain and my fg is usually around 1020 with no problems although I've never used a pressure barrell before. Bottled a brewdog tropic thunder clone yesterday aswell with a fg of 1018. In my experience big stouts should finish high. Hope I'm not wrong.

 

[Jcdonnan]

OG 1.094 to FG 1.026 is an attenuation of about 73% which is about right for a Coopers yeast. And in any case they are not (as far as I am aware) known to be high alcohol yeasts, so by getting to 9% ABV the yeast has probably done more than it should have.
That said if it wakes up again the RV should lift as Dutto has said
If it's a new barrel hope all the seals were checked for tightness and lubed up accordingly

Yeah seals all checked and lubed so hopefully ok, I'll soon see.

 

[terrym]

Yeah seals all checked and lubed so hopefully ok, I'll soon see.

Draw some off after 3/4 days. If there's some pressure its likely to be OK, if none you are likely to have a leak. Point being don't leave it too long to find out it's leaking. :thumb:

 

[stringybob]

I did that Coopers 3 can RIS and it finished at 1.025 (starting at about 1.100 IIRC). Mines been bottled for nearly 4 weeks with no bombs going off!. I'll try a small sample bottle this weekend