It's been three weeks since I started the Edmond Fitzgerald Porter. Since then, all I have done is racked the beer from my primary fermenter to my secondary fermenter. The main purpose of the secondary fermenter is that when you transfer the beer from the primary, you leave behind a lot of the yeasty gunk and it helps improve clarity and reduce sediment. It also frees up your primary so you can get another batch going, which is what I did because the porter has a longer conditioning time (wait for flavors to get better time) than some other types of beer. My original goal wasn't to have two beers going at once, but I have two kegs and I'm not incredibly patient. The second beer I started is supposed to be like a Fat Tire Amber.
As I'm going through my photos, I remember that the porter had somewhat of an aggressive fermentation the first couple days. A smarter person than myself could probably tell you exactly why it happened, but my guess is that it either had something to do with the temperature of my house or magic. As far as I know, that has no effect on the beer, it just made a sticky, beery mess on my floor.
After one week in the primary, I racked the beer into my secondary. (I also started the Fat Tire Amber.) I then let the porter continue fermenting in the secondary for two weeks, which brings us up to date. Kegging time.
There is nothing special about kegging beer, other than it is much less time consuming than bottling. Rather than cleaning and sanitizing over 50 bottles, I just clean and sanitize one keg. The kegs I use, and most other home brewers use, are called cornie kegs. They are just old soda kegs (before restaurants switched to the plastic bags) that hold five gallons, which is the same amount of a typical batch of beer.
The only thing to remember is to sanitize everything. I then put keg lube on all my o-rings and racked, or siphoned, the beer from my secondary fermenter into the keg. Keg lube is just a food grade Vaseline that preserves the o-rings. You don't have to apply it every time, but I hadn't done it since I got them, so I figured tonight was as good a night as any.
After I filled the keg, I put all my fittings in and closed it up. The next step is to put the keg in my freezer/kegerator and hook up the CO2 (that's two oxygens for every carbon). I set the regulator for around 20 psi. and just let it set for a while. The porter needs to set for a couple more weeks, but the amber should be ready to drink by the end of the week. I also might add, it helps to label the kegs or bottles so you remember which beer is which and when you bottled/kegged it. That's pretty much it, so if you want to come by the house, I have roughly 10 gallons of beer on tap.
"or magic..." Great post
ReplyDeletefuck my life. i just wrote a small novel response and then when i posted it erased it and didnt post. in summary. your shit is cool.
ReplyDeletei finished brewing and bottling an IPA. it tasted sub-par. I also just bottled my first hard apple cider. It ended up tasting like apple champagne which is cool but not what i wanted. If you have never had a jk skrumpys hard apple cider go to j clyde and get one now. it is awesome and you will want to brew it also.
I think your fermentation on your porter is going fast b ecause your temp is too high. that happened on my cider.
finally I mentioned that i saw online a good idea is to go to the grocery store and buy one of those big gallon glass jugs of cheap wine and use that jug as a small carboy. Your airlock bung will fit perfectly. It also lets you make small batches better that can fit in the fridge. Also lets you experiment more with diff recipes without making a full 5 gallons.
oh and also i noticed in your picture when you are siphoning you are not holding the siphon. are you just letting the siphon rest on the bottom of the bucket or do you have something that holds it in place? I hate holding that shit during the whole siphon.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping you would post about how your IPA was going. If it's not what you hoped, it may get a little better with time. If it doesn't get any better, at least it's still beer. I've never had the hard apple cider, but I think your apple champagne sounds pretty good.
ReplyDeleteI've thought about experimenting with smaller batches, but I kind of feel like if I have to wait two to three weeks, I might as well wait two to three weeks for a larger quantity. Since I bought the deep freezer and all the kegging equipment, I actually have the capabilities of doing a lager or at least controlling the fermenting temperature. It just didn't occur to me until I had a mess that it might be too warm in my house.
As for the siphon, I was just letting it rest on the bottom of the caroboy. If you don't have one yet, I highly suggest getting an auto-siphon. It's basically a pump that gets the siphon started rather than sucking on the tube. I don't remember exactly how much it cost, but I'm sure it was less than $20. In the picture, it was just resting on the bottom and the mouth of the carboy was holding it upright. I don't just set it in my primary and leave it though, because there is a lot more yeast and sediment at the bottom and I try to avoid as much of that as possible while racking.
If you have any left, I'd like to try some of your beer and/or cider next time you're in town. My porter should be ready to drink in a couple weeks and my amber should be drinkable this week. So whenever you're in town, I should have something for you to try too.