NE Craze Tips

I want to share with you all some secrets on how to make the best NE variant there is using old world tactics.

So on Saturday I brewed a NE pale ale

Went with

65% weyermann pale ale malt
15% weyermann wheat malt
15% instant Quaker Oats
5% carared.

Water was like...
100ca, 125 caso4, 150cl, 25na

I did a hop extract charge at 60 of like 15ibu

Then at 5 minutes remaining I did:
1oz Amarillo
1oz galaxy
1oz mosaic
1oz citra

Then I did a 30 minute whirlpool at 180f with:
1oz galaxy
1oz mosaic
1oz citra

Sunday I hopped at high Krausen with:
1oz galaxy
1oz mosaic
1oz citra

Then on monday
2oz galaxy
1oz mosaic
1oz citra

On the way to spund this morning I hopped with
10ml citra extract= to about 2oz
10ml of my special blend extract which is very tropical. = to about 4oz

Og 1.055
FG 1.010

Fermentation temp 66f.

So to reiterate this. The beer was brewed Saturday. Today, Tuesday almost 3 days to the dot the beer is at FG and carbed. How did I do that!??? I used very valid old(and new) world techniques. Namely spunding.

Tools needed for this beer:
A spunding valve.

Here is the process... A couple days back I posted a video of me using fermentation co2 to purge my keg, this comes in handy here.
With 4 gravity points remaining the beer was close transferred to this purge keg, the active yeast in the beer consumed any and all oxygen from the transfer and/or inadequate purging. Due to the rousing of the yeast, the yeast got invigorated and chomped the remaining sugar very fast. Since this was in a sealed keg the beer is now at final gravity and fully carbed. In 72hrs from yeast pitch the beer is at FG and fully carbed. Why does this matter? Well for one it’s the ONLY way we as homebrewers can transfer and carb a beer with nearly ZERO oxygen pick up. This means you have a NE style beer that will be as fresh as it is today 3 days later for out to 9+ months ( but of course it will be gone by then!). What often is also often overlooked is that yeast under pressure produce glycerin, which is not only a VERY foam positive compound it also adds a nice velvety mouthfeel.

So since this is a super long post I will get to some pictures.
Wort making:



The empty fermenter

Finally the money shot of the finished beer today.


Take the best NE pale ale\ipa you have ever had and add fresh lingering malt, and yummy glycerin richness from the spund and you have this beer.

 

Well with lagers usually less due to the nature of them, but with ales it’s more than ferment to final gravity and a crash cool, I won’t deny that. I use cask widges so it’s a moot point (cask widges float so they pull off the top of the keg). If you get that beer cool as soon as it’s done fermenting, I have yet to have a problem with autolysis or clarity.

 

The goal is certainly not to get from grain to glass in the shortest possible time. It’s literally just the natural progression. It will still go into cold conditioning for a week or so. Then it will get canned. It just goes to show you done have to “accelerate” and cut corners, when there are better ways to do it.

My fermentation cellar is a steady 65f so for this beer the spunding valve was set at 25psi.

 

Yessir.

 

Yup @VikeMan is completely correct. Desired carbonation level is temp+psi. The thing with spunding is that the billions of yeast peppered throughout the wort act as micro carbonation stones, almost instantly (well in the matter of hours) carbonating the beer beautifully and perfect. They also do it in an oxygen free environment (see other thread for co2 impurities)

 

Hrmm..Science would have to disagree here.

You are not only not oxidizing those precious hop polyphenols with traces of oxygen from transfer and carbonation with bottle co2. You have closed off the vessel from letting out all aromas. The declining hop aromas everyone seems to get at various timeframes is from that polyphenol oxidation.

 

Well when the keg is done fermenting, you are done with the spunding valve. The beer will cool and absorb all the co2 to be the proper carbonation at whatever level you carb at. Then you would just hook the keg up at your serving pressure.

You don’t have to cut the dip tube. When the beer is done fermenting and before you cool. Shake twist the keg a little and push out the yeast at the bottom a large part of this is to not have to transfer kegs as it basically then defeats the purpose and negates all the o2 mitigation you have done.

 

That’s correct, I see what you are getting at. If you transfer at 3-4 gravity pionts remaining there will be little to no off gas. If you are spunding way to early I guess you could possibly blow off those aromas. But then it would be just like a normal ferment where they are getting blown off as well, which kind of makes it a moot point.