PilgrimHudds Brewdays

[pilgrimhudd]

Flat flat flat flat flat..........


Gutted, had a bottle of my Golden Ale over the weekend, bit of a psshhht as I opened, poured, no head, tasted it, completely flat, tasted nice. Thought it might just be that plastic bottle, tried another, same again, tried another, same again. I'm not sure if i'll keep them to be honest, taste is good but almost undrinkable flat.

 

[samale]

Flat flat flat flat flat..........


Gutted, had a bottle of my Golden Ale over the weekend, bit of a psshhht as I opened, poured, no head, tasted it, completely flat, tasted nice. Thought it might just be that plastic bottle, tried another, same again, tried another, same again. I'm not sure if i'll keep them to be honest, taste is good but almost undrinkable flat.

That's not good. You normally prime above average. Where have you been storing them. My garage is too cold to prime I have to keep them indoors

 

[matt76]

That's not good. You normally prime above average. Where have you been storing them. My garage is too cold to prime I have to keep them indoors

I was gonna say the same thing, I preferred the good old days when you used to prime with minimum 100g sugar per bottle

But likewise, where are you keeping them and what was the yeast?

I've had lagers take longer than you'd expect to carbonate but that was a combination of lager yeast being slow and very little residual yeast in the bottle to begin with after a thorough cold crash.

If the taste is good and you're sure you primed them then maybe don't rush to get rid, just give them more time somewhere warm???

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I keep them in the utility room which is about 18c on average I suppose, maybe gets a little colder at night.

But you two make a good point maybe I'll bring a few out and hide them somewhere consistently warm for a week or so and see if it makes any difference.

Me too, I'm going back to 2kgs priming sugar in 200mls from next week.

I cold crashed this one, would that make any difference? Not that it made any difference in clarity.

 

[matt76]

I think the cold crash would make more of the residual yeast drop out of suspension, so fewer yeast cells make it in to the bottle.

That means there's a smaller initial population to start eating the sugar in the bottle and carbonate it.

But I'd be confident enough cells will still make it into the bottle to carbonate eventually, it might just take a little longer, especially if the bottles are a little cooler than normal.

The fact it made no difference to clarity - could be it needed a bit longer cold crash, or it could be chill haze.

(Case in point, I have all of the above going on right now with the Helles I bottled the other day)

 

[pilgrimhudd]

So you reckon then that if I bring a few out and warm them up for a bit they should be ok? I think you could be right about it taking longer after the cold crash, I didn't cold crash my weizenbock which is out in the utility and the bottles are rock hard.

 

[matt76]

Yeah, i would think so.

I looked at what you wrote about the amount of priming sugar you used. Working backwards this is exactly how much i would use in my bitter and porter - maybe a bit low for a Belgian but absolutely yes i would expect at least a modest amount of carbonation.

Temp range for CML Belgian is 15-28degC so you're down in the lower this of that range. I think you can safely go quite a lot warmer than this. You might also consider gently rising any yeast and sediment

First time i made a Helles i had trouble initially with carbonation - i tried several different things including putting a few in the airing cupboard (vs. adding some US05 vs. doing nothing at all). Despite using a proper low temp lager yeast they all carbonated properly with no off flavours, it just took a bit of patience.

So I would just sit tight, give your bottles a big hug to keep them warm and wait it out. Maybe think of it as an early Xmas present to yourself or an advent calendar!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Mammoth bottling session today, or at least it felt like it... the forum xmas brew, 3 weeks in the fv, all activity seemed to stop last week so bottled tonight, fg of 1022 making it a meaty 8.4%. 85g sugar boiled in 200mls, standard 5ml per bottle.

Slightly lighter than I thought, more a very dark brown than black, aroma chocolatey, quite full bodied with a bitter aftertaste initially but a few sips in that seems to dissipate. Nice but not blown away, early days yet though just need to leave it now for 6 weeks or so.

 

[foxbat]

It's going to be a very merry Christmas in your house!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

It's going to be a very merry Christmas in your house!

But not memorable!

 

[matt76]

But not memorable!

On the contrary, I reckon the hangovers resulting from a session of X x 500ml bottles of 8.4% will be legendary!

 

[pilgrimhudd]

So finally got some free time to brew up a bokkoe... heard of it? No me neither, or google, or any other search engine.

Anyway this is the recipe from the 'homebrew handbook' by david law.

3.5kg Pilsner
1.7kg Dark Munich
600g Dark Crystal
230g carapils
100g chocolate

30g Perle @60
28g tettnang @30
28g Hallertau & 2tsp carraway seeds @15

Cool to 10c pitch Bohemian Lager Yeast.

Og 1070 ibu 32 ebc 32 although looks darker to me.

 

[matt76]

Sounds good - I was about to say I'm surprised it's anything like that dark but I'm thinking in SRM instead of EBC

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Ha!

I have to admit the numbers mean nothing to me, I just include them as someone else might find them interesting.

 

[Gerryjo]

So finally got some free time to brew up a bokkoe... heard of it? No me neither, or google, or any other search engine.

Anyway this is the recipe from the 'homebrew handbook' by david law.

3.5kg Pilsner
1.7kg Dark Munich
600g Dark Crystal
230g carapils
100g chocolate

30g Perle @60
28g tettnang @30
28g Hallertau & 2tsp carraway seeds @15

Cool to 10c pitch Bohemian Lager Yeast.

Og 1070 ibu 32 ebc 32 although looks darker to me.

Have you tried pitching your yeast a little warmer @16° then letting it cool to 12° so as to give the yeast a faster start. I've found it much better getting fermenting underway with no I'll affects on a lager/pilsner.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Bloody kalrt

Have you tried pitching your yeast a little warmer @16° then letting it cool to 12° so as to give the yeast a faster start. I've found it much better getting fermenting underway with no I'll affects on a lager/pilsner.

Good point Gerry, I hadnt considered it, it will be only my 2nd time using lager yeast, the packet says good up to 15c. Maybe I'll try that?

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

Flat flat flat flat flat..........

Apologies if this is a daft idea, but could you empty the bottles into a corny and force carbonate it?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Apologies if this is a daft idea, but could you empty the bottles into a corny and force carbonate it?

I'm sure it's not a daft idea but I dont have any cornies.

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

I'd lend you one if you were closer mate :-) Any other brewers in Cornwall who might help you out in return for a bottle of the good stuff?

 

[pilgrimhudd]

So.... didnt quite work out as planned, had problems with the klarstein cutting out again, this time garage electrics I think due to the inclement weather.

As a result I didnt get as much boil off as i expected. Being that the garage has one tiny light I didnt see that before I decanted into fv, 2l more wort as a result and massively down on my og, which after temp correction is 1052. 21l in fv.

Still, it tasted lovely and it'll just be more sessionable than expected.