Home brewing issues

I've had over-carbonation issues in the past and I learned from my mistakes and made corrections. I hope you have also.

I'm curious about your use of the word 'stable.' Are you saying your beer changes taste too much over time?

My biggest issue with homebrewing is the lack of time to do any brewing, and I'm retired! I haven't brewed in at least 5 years now, but it is really is a matter of priorities and my own choosing to do other things that leave little time for brewing. I'm really going to make an effort to brew at least one batch this year. But brewing does take take a lot of time.

 

You are 100% correct here. In life we all too frequently say "I didn't have enough time to do x". What we are really saying is that we would prefer to read a book, watch TV, go for a walk,... instead of doing x.

Later this week I will be brewing another batch of 1896 Michelob beer because I would prefer to do that vs. activities y & z.

Cheers!

 

One of my top homebrew issues is maintaining a constant temperature during mashing. I use a 10 gallon round Gott cooler, which is fine for 10 gallon batches. But whenever I use it for a 5 gallon mash, the temperature of the mash can drop as much as about 8 F over an hour and a half (I mostly brew lagers). This happens even when the cooler is preheated - it just loses that much temperature, likely because of the large empty space in the cooler. I also wrap several blankets around the cooler during mashing. I could add some boiling water and stir every 20 minutes, but just by opening the cooler, I will lose a lot of heat and will therefore need to add a lot of boiling water. Also, it's a nuisance to remove all the blankets each time. Another option is to float a lid inside and place a heating pad on top of that. It's just frustrating that there's no simple and effective solution.

 

For me, the trick to good carbonation for bottling:

First make sure fermentation is complete. Rushing can lead to gushing.
Measure the sugar by weight, boil in 3/4cup water. Place mixture in the sanitized bottling vessel.
Rack the wort into the mixture. Stir gently occasionally while bottling.

I also keep track of the fermentation temperature and attempt calculating CO2 volumes based on the beer style. So far I get pretty consistent and pleasant carbonation.

 

Back in the day when I brewed constantly heat loss from my converted keg mash tun was an issue and I resolved it by basically ignoring it. The temp would drop from 156 to 150 over the hour of mashing, but from a strictly homebrewing point of view I don't think it mattered as much as it would in a commercial brewery. Most of the conversion was completed by the time the temp drop became really significant. But I don't understand why your temps drop in a cooler-I used an old keg with zero insulation and only lost 6-8 degrees over an hour.

 

I'm with you. We moved, then I got pissed at my boss and quit, then I never looked for a new job so now I'm retired on social security. Health issues kept me from drinking more than a beer, sometimes 2 per day so brewing didn't really have any appeal. Since we moved I'm very active in a rockhounding club and now that my health issues are resolved and I can enjoy beer again I'm re-opening the brewery but on a much smaller and more creative scale.

 

Yeah, it's been a real mystery to me as well. I think it might be that the cooler is old (at least a couple of decades), and maybe the insulation has degenerated. Long ago I added boiling water to pre-heat it, and it caused the interior wall to "wrinkle" substantially. It might be time for a new cooler, but what stops me from purchasing one is that I'm undecided on whether or not I want to continue using coolers. Perhaps the investment might be better spent on a different system. But in the meantime, I hope to continue using the cooler.

 

Can you describe your process, starting with the first thing you put in your mash tun, up to and including that initial temperature check, with approximate times for each step?

 

Sure. I vary my process - sometimes I add the grain first and then underlet the mash water, other times I add the mash water first, let the water come to the estimated temperature and then add the grain, sometimes I mash for 75 minutes, other times for 90 (I mostly use pilsner malt, so prefer a longer mash). When I mash for 90 minutes I can lose as much as 8 F. When I mash for 75, I lose about 6 F. Here's an example of one I mashed for 75 minutes, and added the grain afterwards.

1. Heat 8.5 liters of water to 178 F. Add to 10 gallon Gott cooler (now called Rubbermaid Coolers) and let the water cool to the calculated temperature of 167.5 F (part of that cooling is coming from the cooler itself which is at room temperature).
2. About 20 minutes later, the water in the cooler has dropped to 167.5 F (this simultaneously pre-heats the cooler).
3. Add 11.5 pounds of grain at room temperature, stir gently. Temperature is at 154.8 F.
4. Close lid, add a pillow to the top of the cooler (the lid has no insulation), cover with three blankets.
5. Let sit undisturbed for 75 minutes.
6. After 75 minutes, remove coverings and lid, stir, and measure temperature.
7. Temperature is at 148.8 F. It has dropped 6.0 F in 75 minutes.

 

How soon after adding the grain are you measuring the temperature? I ask because it can take a while for the mixture's temperature to homogenize, and when you measure it quickly, it may be both higher than where it will settle to and also more variable from place to place in the mash.

If you're getting an unsettled (too high) reading, part of the later "drop" may not really be a drop at all (compared with the "settled" temp).

 

I measure the temperature about 5 minutes after adding the grain (often the temperature is still a little high, so I let it cool a little before closing the lid), and after re-stirring, making sure I move the bottom mash up around - in other words, it's well mixed and the temperature should be moderately constant throughout. I use a probe thermometer and move it all around the surface when taking the temperature.

 

Given your process, it sounds to me like your cooler is truly awful. I think you already had figured that out, but I was hoping there might be some other explanation/solution.

 

Yes, that's the conclusion I have come to. I could probably mash in my SS kettle, and lose the same amount of heat! I was actually looking for a temporary solution during the time I'm considering a new set-up. The coolers here are quite expensive ($130 - $173 including shipping, but before another 13% sales tax).

 

Sounds like a sanitation issue, perhaps with some oxidation on top of it.

One issue I have, like others, is that there are either things that I would rather do or don't want to, but need to get done. Fishing for the former, work/housework/yardwork(now) for the latter.

Currently, big issue is that after 20+ years living in small apartments, we've bought a house. So I've got to buy an outside burner instead of abusing the kitchen stovetop. Looking at an Anvil Forge burner, any thoughts? Also on the agenda, building a ledge into the deck to rest a cooler MLT on, so I can have a gravity-fed three tier system (previously, I was manually moving liquor and wort around the different vessels in my kitchen), and building a keezer.

 

Welcome back.

 

#1 problem for me is waiting for the bottles to carb up. I like fresh and am always sampling early.
#2 all the rabble that. Roll on over to the farm for a good time. Those folks will put a huge dent in the celler, hahahahhahaha

 

There will be some of the technical people here who disagree with me on this, but I don't think your temp drop matters at all. Your mash is done within 30 minutes at the longest-use iodine to test conversion every 10 minutes on your next brew. And pilsner malt doesn't need to be mashed longer, worts made with a high % of pilsner needs to be boiled longer, at least when I last read about it that was true. But I'm just an old homebrewer who learned to brew before all the absolute rules were put in place by experts, so you may want to do some research.

 

Corky, at NHC 2012 Greg Doss (of Wyeast at that time) presented a lab study he did on the topic of attenuation. One of the variables he studied was mash time.

For the case of:

· 100% Pils malt

· Standard Temperature (Avg. 151 degrees F)

· 45 – 90 minutes (every 15 minutes)

On page 45 of the presentation is a graph of attenuation vs. time.

The results of this lab study indicate that at 75 minutes of mashing attenuation is maximized.

Every year I brew a batch of Kolsch using 100% German Pilsner Malt and I desire that style of beer to be as dry as possible. I choose to mash for 75 minutes to maximize attenuation for that beer.

Cheers!

 

Not only do I use all pilsner malt, but I also often do a decoction before returning it back to the mash. That denatures a lot of enzymes, so I mash a little longer to be on the safe side (usually 75 or 90 minutes). As my avatar implies, I'm also an old homebrewer (30 years for beer this year, much longer for wine) and also brewed before the onslaught of rules. But I can definitely say that my beers have improved immensely since applying the rules. One or two rules might not make much difference, but IMO many of them together do make a difference, especially with the more subtle pilsners, On the other hand, darker, heavier beers, and especially IPAs are MUCH more forgiving.