Stainless Steel Carbonation Cap on a 2 liter in the kegerator
So I got a chance to try out the Stainless Steel Carbonation Cap by The Weekend Brewer on my setup. I am pretty impressed by it! Continue reading
So just about a year ago, I “brewed” up some speed cider. That time, I added some cinnamon and two types of hops, one immediately, and one dry hop. This time, I decided to have some variations to try. I am attempting different yeasts as well as different dry hops.
We interupt this primary fermentation for the following Public Service Announcement…. BAG YOUR HOPS!
Well, I am at about 36 hours since pitching my yeast starter into my maple rye imperial stout. I have had issues. At 6 hours post pitching, I removed the airlock parts and attached a blow-off tube to a growler. at 18 hours, my wife texted me and told me the growler had been put into a pot since it was bubbling over. At 19 hours, she noted that some beer was dripping out of the top of the fermenter – it popped the screw top off the big mouth bubbler enough to let some through. Not a ton of cleanup, but enough.
At 30 hours, I noticed the bubbling had stopped in the growler. I found out that all those loose hops have been pushed above the krausen level and made basically a big, wet, sticky stopper between the CO2 and the blow-off tube….hence stopping lots of escaping gas from that outlet. Poke a hole in said layer and the bubbling resumed.
Takeaways from this? DON’T BE LAZY and not CONTAIN YOUR HOPS. Use a muslin bag, a reusable bag, or a hop spider. Don’t just put a few ounces of whole hops in….it may make for more work for you in the long run.
We now return to our regularly scheduled fermentation.
Well, with the long weekend, I had to get a new brew in. Brewing day is always a fun day! I started my yeast starter, some White Labs 007 that I had done a overbuild starter of before. That stuff cranked up without a problem. Then I had to make the final decisions on just what I was going to use for my maple rye imperial stout. I had some maple syrup that a buddy made, and he told me I had to brew with it…so I accepted the challenge. Continue reading
