Yeah, I'm a year late here but +1 for ALDC. 12yrs ago I switched from bottling to kegging and that's when 'hop creep' started occurring. About 4days after kegging diacetyl was noticed. Of course it didn't have a name back then. I use buckets so to avoid hop creep it's a combination of Ascorbic acid, ALDC and hop oils for "dry hopping" now-a-days. Makes life easy.
Regarding #3 - the general consensus I've read is that mash pH must be adjusted before you mash in. If you attempt to make an adjustment post mash in, so much conversion has already taken place (even at 10 minutes in) that's it basically pointless. This is why it's critical to know your starting water profile.
I think the conversion speed is going to have some significant variation depending on mash thickness but you are correct. I still believe you can significantly improve the pH by adjusting at 10 minutes regardless, but I agree its mostly for confirmation. This underscores the importance of using brewing software to predict the pH of the mash and design the water chemistry.
Amen on using dry yeast! When I started there was low quality "Ale" and "Lager" dry yeast and liquid was a big upgrade. I stuck with mostly liquid for a long time. These days I am 80% or more dry yeast. It is so convenient to store a pack in my fridge for a year, and pull it out of the fridge on brew day. As I type, I am boiling a Dubbel that will get Lallemand Abbaye (and hopefully it will be ready for NHC). While I do love WLP530/Westmalle, it is great that there are so many choices in dry yeast now.
Great content as ever. I started setting my "striking" pH at 4.4-4.8 before dough in. I do that for pale beers only. Always hit the 5.2-5.6 range as long as I use 13-10 Lbs of grain for a 6 gallon wort in the fermenter. BTW I use the Clawhammer Supply system, therefore the efficiency may be different for different setups.
Thanks for your video. I think a watershed point for brewing is the space you have available. Extract is great for low space. Allgrain needs a dedicated area and large amounts of extra equipment. Also regular brewing allows for yeast reuse. I get terrific results and haven't bought yeast for 5yrs
That point about thinking investments through is incredibly important. Watching videos on brewtube can give the impression that one cannot make decent beer without Clawhammer or Grainfather fully automated brewing systems and fancy pressurized fermenters. This channel being an exception, I think at some point it was explicitly mentioned that people with bucket fermenters and experience can make better beer than newbies with fancy equipment. And that's an important thing to consider. I am thinking about getting a fully automated Speidel Braumeister every now and then. And then I realize that my rickety single kettle BIAB and bucket fermenter brewing setup makes pretty good beer at a fifth of the cost. And I just love the fact that I have to put in some more manual labor and that I can modify the system easily for step mashes, open fermentations and oak aging. The manual labor and the tinkering are part of what makes the hobby interesting for me so investing into something fancier would not make sense to me. Other people might have a different point of "this is just money for shiny bling" but it is important to keep in mind that such a point exists. Also WOO! Lallemand Abbayé! Best dry abbey yeast out there, hands down :D
Thank you for the kind words. And yes, it is important to focus on that! Mastering the fundamentals will give you the best beer possible no matter the equipment!
As some friends from the electric bass community say: it's not about the arrow, it's always the archer that shot it. Brewed for 2 years in a plastic bucket until it broke mid -fermenting and lost it all. Gifted myself a SS brewtec for Christmas and the beer is only better because I've learnt more, not because of the fermenter...
For anyone looking at stainless steel fermenters on a budget, 6 gallon torpedo kegs can be gotten new for ~$140. Can pull double duty as a pressure capable fermenter as well as a keg. For those of us with limited funds and limited space, fermenting in a slightly larger keg is a good value imo.
I just bought one and intend to sell one of my Ss Brew Buckets. Kegs are nice because they can hold pressure and you don’t have to worry about suck-back or oxygen ingress! I have to say though, stainless buckets are awesome for normal beers, and easy to clean. For my non hoppy beers I just cold crash in the serving keg and use a floating dip tube.
Measuring pH hot might be fine as long as you calibrate at the same temperature, otherwise your calibration is going to be off. This is an entirely different issue than the measured pH changing as a function of temperature ala the Nernst equation. Bottom line is that your suggested way of compensating for temperature variations is likely to leave you with an error of 0.1 to 0.3 pH units depending on how far away you measure from your calibration temperature. Best practice is to calibrate and measure at around room temperature to avoid frying the delicate glass electrodes.
I like the fermenter recommendation! I love the Spike, but much harder to clean and it's a bit too big for the homebrew scale (I have the CF15). I still find myself going back to plastic buckets all the time! Agree as well with the lagers aren't hard! Cheers!
Hell yeah, the TCs valves and all the individual parts really start to add to the cleaning time. There's really very little you can't ferment in plastic buckets!
I love my modified Home Depot food grade bucket fermenters (and bottling buckets). For less than $20 CAD each, I can scale up to as many as I need. A few simple DIY modifications to add an airlock and spigot and they're good to go. I've been making (mostly) great brews with them for over a year now.
Lagers don't have to be hard, but they do hold a magnifying glass to your entire process, your ingredient quality (particularly if you're not using fresh malt), and whether you have the equipment an patience to produce a really healthy fermentation. But pseudo lager is a path of the dark side. This has been tested and there is a great MBAA episode on the magic of w34/70, no ale or kveik yeast needed. Just run it at 68 if you need to, it will come out very clean. That's the Weihenstephaner main strain.
I wish I had read pages 117-118 of John Palmer's "How to Brew" earlier on. He covers the science behind why one should rehydrate dry yeast prior to use, regardless of any manufacturer recommendations.
Great vid... guilty of shiny stainless purchasing... spent a few thousand $ more than I needed to on my brew setup... didn’t take into account how long it would take to clean, almost as long as a brew from start to finish. Could have saved a stack of cash and got an all on one for a third of the price... and less storage requirement too. This expensive lesson has turned me right off the bells and whistles fermentors for that very reason... got a stainless steel one but simple to use and quick to clean. Cheers for the great content 🍻
Time is the cure to all things even hop creep. If you dry hop during fermentation you need to take that into account and lengthen how long the beer sits on the hops before cold crashing and dropping them out. I typically dry hop only during active fermentation now. High krausen and at ~20 percent left to expected FG. This has helped against the hop creep a lot but the hops do need to sit on the beer longer. Does lead to some striking astringency in the beers early life but drops out week 2 in the keg which is a good maturation time anyways.
Another informative video. Maybe you should make a once a month video called “5 things I forget to mention last time that I wish someone told me when I started brewing.”
@@TheApartmentBrewer congrats! Now just avoid staff duty lol. I was a Captain on brigade staff. Said I would never run another range and then ran ever pistol range we had because I was the only MP
All good points. Stainless lasts, so think before you buy. It is hard to sell lagers to beer enthusiasts, they mostly think that lagers are only commercial and therefore bad. It is good to understand what ph does to mash, wort, and beer. Beer needs time, although you can rush it if you know what you are doing.
Here's one for your next video: sparge water pH (for those that do a sparge that is) no point in having a good mash pH if the beer is destroyed with too high a sparge pH.
I'm still waiting for somebody to make a pressure capable bucket fermenter that is actually the size of a brew bucket. Because that's the largest fermenter that fits in my Mini fridge.
Idk if I've just been lucky, but ive never measured ph or all the technical stuf, I just make my mash, boil, throw in the carboy, toss into the bottle with a little bit of honey, and I've gotten good carbonated beet every time.
I wondered how accurate my PH readings were using hot samples. But the clock is ticking on conversion at that point and there is no time to wait for the sample to cool down. I guess I'll just keep doing it the way I am. Thanks for the vid! Cheers!
So I've been thinking about doing some homebrewing. I've avoided drinking beer for many years actually because it would upset my stomach but this summer I decided on a whim to buy some beers. And I decided to try some DIPA, NEIPA and Hazy beers. Now the super fruity taste was very much to my liking and I actually had more beers in 2022 than I had in like the previous 4 years, not even kidding. Now this gave me the idea to research just how in the world do you make the NEIPA/Hazy beers. And I stumbled upon this channel and I think I've watched all your videos by now. All that being said here's where the gear-head get's involved. So if I where to brew then I now know that water chemistry and fermentation is very important, also making sure not to let the beer come in contact with oxygen once the fermentation has ended. So I've been looking at everything from putting stuff in a chest freezer, to winging it, to getting a glycol chilled system. I think the last one ain't gonna happen because it's just too much money. Then there's the part about storing the beer, which I've come to the conclusion that kegging would be the best way to do that which then brings the added cost of being able to do closed-loop-transfers and store them properly. Now all that said would you agree that the following shopping list would be a good start. 1x35L AIO Brewing kettle (brewzilla or similar) 1x35L Plastic conical fermenter (like the revised Fermzilla with triclamps rather than threads) + whatever I need to do dryhop. Cleaning fluid (starsan), PH tester, salts and other ingredients for water chem, hydrometer, kegg, co2 container, a fridge or chest-freezer + temp control. The way I see it is that the kettle, fermenter, kegg, fridge or freezer are all one time investments. So once the inital cost is dealt with then it's just a matter of buying ingredients as I use them up. Considering that I'm a bit picky and the super hoppy with a creamy mouthfeel beer is what I like and would want to brew, is this too much or would it honestly just be a good setup that will do the job (technically)? I see a lot of people use buckets but how does that not ruin something like a NEIPA once you are transfering it over to storage? Long post, jeez. Thanks for all the videos, looking forward to the next one. All the best, from Sweden.
Honestly, it really looks like you've done your research well. You are aware these are definitely among the trickier styles of beer, but they are still definitely within reach of a beginner. I would advise sticking with the fermzilla/chest freezer for fermentation, that way you can avoid the expensive glycol chiller. Yu are correct in that these are one-time investments and they will last you for years to come. I think you're definitely looking at things from the right lens and not getting suckered into buying exceptionally expensive equipment. Kegging is the way to go for these beers, and as long as you are careful about O2, they will turn out pretty good. In the next few months I have a hazy DIPA planned with dry yeast so hopefully that will contain some useful info for you!
@@TheApartmentBrewer I owe it all to channels like yours that put out such great information. One thing I'm not too sure of is this hole "force carbonation" bit. I understand the concept and how it works, I just don't know when or how much is enough. I guess the recipees on Brewfather might say if I'm supposed to force carbonate but it's just a little puzzling to me when exactly I need to do that or if it's just a matter of preference. Because for example I'd say 90% of the NEIPA/Hazy that I drink when I do drink, are not particularly carbonated. It's not like pouring a ice cold weise or lager for example, which has a billion bubbles up the sides. Again thanks for the encouraging words I might even make a video when I am done with my first brew, still planing things out. Take care. :)
Best of luck! And dont worry too much about the carb levels. With kegging, if you overdo it, you can always let the gas off and let the extra carbonation express out of the beer over some time until you get back down to the right levels. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Hey bro. Love the video. Question about dry yeast being as good. I would love to see a video of a 10 gallon mash. Half of it being done with a dry yeast and half being done with a liquid yeast and then a taste comparison. In my experience, there is a slight difference.
Thats a great idea for a video topic! I do really want to try this, but it will need to verified the same strain, which can be tough to do across manufacturers. Of course there is lutra and voss kveik, but they behave very differently than most yeasts, so I'd rather use a regular ale or lager yeast.
One of the biggest myths or waste of money is brewing in glass carboys, it seems to be a North American thing, unheard of down here in Australia but they are heavy, you cant clean them properly and if you drop them they smash, I think the glass carboy is a hangover effect from years ago when home brewing fgr started and those things were readily available but now days plastic is more available, specially the PET clear ones like the fermentasaurus which don't leave any residue smell when you clean them unlike the white plastic ones, there are some brewing channels on here who have been on on RU-vid for over 12 years I won't name them here but back in the day they used to say dry yeast was inferiors they always used liquid yeast and they still do to this day and make yeast starters with liquid yeast on all of their videos, dry yeast has come a long way, I am looking forward to Lallemand Novalager yeast which I was telling you about, you treat it as a ale yeast, I use my plastic fermentaurus to pressure ferment in all the time now, easy to clean and they are lite, the stainless steel ring they sit on is a pain though and dont waste your money on buying a few kg of grains at a time if you are a regular brewer, buy in bulk, huge savings in money
Solid information and great video! I just made a tripel and used abbaye yeast and it turned out great! I am bottle conditioning it currently to nail the carbonation, but I would like to keg a batch in the future. Any suggestions for nailing the style’s high carbonation while kegging without it being only foam coming out of the tap? I thank you for making content, because it has helped tremendously since I started brewing a year ago. Cheers 🍻!
It's a great yeast! Usually with kegged beers it's tough to increase the carbonation to the true belgian level without pouring loads of foam off the tap, but you can get close or just try to serve at such a low pressure that it doesn't all foam up immediately
@@TheApartmentBrewer thank you for taking the time to reply back! Its great to hear back from one of the many Brewtubers I have learned how to brew from. I thank you so much for the solid content! Cheers 🍻!
Further to point #1... you don't need tri clamps, especially on the hot side. Triclamps are heavier, take longer to clean and are much slower to connect/disconnect. Camlocks are much cheaper/easier to clean and faster to connect/disconnect. There are so many people now in homebrewing who expect to buy shiny turn key systems that have no idea what they are doing nor what to buy. Nevertheless, they spend $$$ on equipment. SMH.
Camlocks are cool, I've always wondered about using them, but my regular ball lock QD's have never given me an issue, despite definitely being a bit tougher to clean.
Bought my first all grain system thise year it's been fun, but my efficiency for my first few brews has been aweful. I normally use dry yeasts for wines and meads.
About dry yeast: I have heard that it's not necessary to aerate when using dry yeast. It can even be of disadvantage. Can somebody confirm? Great video!
I mainly use dry yeast, rarely use liquid. You don't necessarily need to aerate your wort wether you use liquid or dry, but in my experience the yeast is much happier when you do!
Im not trying to be critical- but your #1 about stainless steel bothers me. Why are you hauling your CF5 upstairs?! Get the CIP ball and use your pump, its SO simple, and there is almost NO need to move it anywhere. Its MEANT to be CIP’d. Even if you dont have a drain, easier to haul a bucket of 3-4 gallons of cleaner out than haul the fermenter up and down stairs….
I own the CIP ball and tried that. I need to buy a far more powerful pump to make that work, another $200. Plus that's two trips up two flights with buckets - pbw and rinsing water. Plus the same for sanitation. Sorry my situation bothers you but trust me, it is not as simple as it seems.
@@TheApartmentBrewer i get that, and I get your advice is specific to your experience, I guess it just seems VERY specific to your situation, and is leas of a generalizable “piece of advice” for new brewers. Just an observation.
Excellent content, thank you. I have just bought a Vevor 50 litre conical stainless steel fermenter, but not used it yet. I would recommend trying the iSpindle too.
