Designing the perfect German beer homebrewing setup

Since I could jump the beer from a primary corny to a secondary corny, I'm thinking that I would spund in the primary (the corny that has shortened dip tube), then once terminal gravity is reached, jump it over to a secondary for a little cold conditioning...and maybe jump it a third time for serving (?).

 

If you ferment at lower/'normal' temperatures in the primary, then you shouldn't be producing unwanted esters or higher alcohols. Spunding throughout primary is a tricky business, as too much pressure can cause the yeast to go dormant or get stressed. Spunding also allows you to ferment at higher temps -- which speeds up process [and captures natural CO2 and retains SO2] -- while simultaneously reducing any unwanted esters.

 

The stage for esters and fusels is set very early.

Maybe it's just semantics, but it sounds like you're thinking of secondary as the last half of fermentation (i.e. attenuation). But most or all attenuation happens in primary.

 

Pressure decreases fusels to a lesser extent than esters. Increasing the temperature increases both. Finding the optimum balance is something that happens when you brew every day.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2050-0416.1992.tb01137.x/epdf

 

And natural CO2 capture

 

Most of my German style brewings used a single decoction to get a good malt character into the wort, but to keep from spending sooo much time in the brewhouse (heh, my kitchen). A proper dunkel required a double decoction to get what I wanted from the malt.

 

No! Didn't you look at the links, or your own picture of wheat beer fermenters? Those are open, as the yeast can lose the CO2. Wheat beer yeasts like open fermenters. Lagers yeast does pretty well open also.

You can do spunding on some lagers in primary, if you have a yeast that likes those conditions. There is one I know about.

See vault yeast #12.
https://www.whitelabs.com/yeast-vault

 

Most of the classic breweries in Franconia do open fermentation of their lagers. It depends on the yeast. One brewpub locally does the high pressure yeast, for quick turn around on lagers.That is their reason.

@herrburgess might have some thoughts.

 

Good beer comes from an understanding of fundamental brewing science, execution of those principles, and the artistry of creating unique sensory experiences through creativity and ingenuity.

As long as the equipment enables you to do that, you're set. I know this doesn't help, just saying world class beer can be made on dilapidated and ugly equipment just as easy as bad beer can be made on world class equipment. Cheers!

 

In a similar vein, I used the build here (option 2): http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2011/02/build-spunding-valve.html

I've used it on several traditional homebrewed German lagers and agree that the SO4 component makes a nice compliment depending on the beer. Also, carbonating using the naturally produced CO2 seems to have a different character than force-carbing. Finer bubbles, though I'm not sure why they would be any different chemically.

 

Andy, did you experience any issues hitting your target carbonation level?

Cheers!

 

Negative - it was super easy. Looking at the build I linked, you'll see that the hand-dial pressure regular is a cheap-o unit and not great for precise pressure reading. However, used in conjunction with a fine-tune gauge you can get very accurate pressure readings (for my purposes). To get to my desired carbonation I set the regulator much higher than my target (I think ~25 PSI), and I slowly backed off the pressure as it built up until I got where I wanted. It's easier to start with too much pressure and let it go vs letting out too much too early.

 

Many people do, even without spunding valves. I would just dump my sugar mixture into the keg, and then rack on top of that. Let that carbonate at 60-65F for a week or so.