BrewMasterBrad wrote:If you put too much liquid in there, you can create too much head pressure and the yeast don't like that.
I've heard this before, but several respected breweries I've been into use a white plastic bucket with a very large tube going in about 12" of liquid. A full 6" high jar would be half the pressure. Either that's bunk or these breweries don't like healthy yeast.
There are also well respected breweries that ferment in open fermenters with no head pressure. I guess it may be dependent on the yeast strain. Also, there may be a difference between the head pressure in a carboy versus a 15bbl+ fermenter.
While I agree, I think it's all relative. I don't think we want to subject our yeast to 2 ATM of pressure, I wonder if it makes that big of a difference. I've always tried to just submerge the end of my blow-off tube with about an inch of sanitizer.
I have noticed that during vigorous fermentation, just removing the airlock results in a noticeable "PPTTsssss" of gas.
I think it's likely yeast strain dependent to a degree. However, at a certain point I think you'll kill off any yeast.
Just recently I had a keg under 30psi full of a beer with The Bruery's yeast and that yeast seemed perfectly happy to keep fermenting the beer, which was already below 1.008 when it went into the keg.
I slight twist to the topic of this thread...
How long is too long on the yeast cake? I think Palmer said 4-6wks, but if you all have any opinions let me know. Sadly the reason I'm asking is because my brew/bottling day keeps getting pushed back as I'm finding it hard to have a secure 4-5 hours of my own to do it in. Today will be the 3rd week the Scotch is on the cake, and it most likely won't get done tomorrow so that means next weekend which will be 4 weeks. Heaven forbid I can't do it next weekend am I pushing it at all?
I'm assuming there shouldn't really be anything to worry about, but I'd feel better if someone confirmed it.
Palmer says "several months". I've gone about 5 months in primary without off flavors and I've heard of people going over a year on other boards. In fact, I've never heard of anyone who has had their homebrew ruined by autolysis, but I'm sure it can happen. Palmer does have an interesting story about his experience with autolysis in How To Brew, but it's not related to beer.
brahn wrote:Palmer says "several months". I've gone about 5 months in primary without off flavors and I've heard of people going over a year on other boards. In fact, I've never heard of anyone who has had their homebrew ruined by autolysis, but I'm sure it can happen. Palmer does have an interesting story about his experience with autolysis in How To Brew, but it's not related to beer.
I've got a wheat in primary that was brewed on Jan 1st. I STILL have not racked it but plan on it soon so we'll see how it turns out. I'll let you know if I detect any dead yeasty flavors.
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brahn wrote: In fact, I've never heard of anyone who has had their homebrew ruined by autolysis, but I'm sure it can happen.
If you really want to try an autolysized beer, I'll bring a bottle to the meeting on Tuesday. If you've ever walked into a tire shop that is what it smells like, and has a hint of in the flavor. The beer was a Blonde ale, I used US05, and left it in primary for almost 3 months.
lars wrote:
If you really want to try an autolysized beer, I'll bring a bottle to the meeting on Tuesday. If you've ever walked into a tire shop that is what it smells like, and has a hint of in the flavor. The beer was a Blonde ale, I used US05, and left it in primary for almost 3 months.
At least I now know someone who it's happened to. I'm not really excited to try/smell an autolysized beer, but it would probably be a good exercise just to see what it's like. From what I've heard, you'll really never forget it (kind of like butyric).
lars wrote:
If you really want to try an autolysized beer, I'll bring a bottle to the meeting on Tuesday. If you've ever walked into a tire shop that is what it smells like, and has a hint of in the flavor. The beer was a Blonde ale, I used US05, and left it in primary for almost 3 months.
At least I now know someone who it's happened to. I'm not really excited to try/smell an autolysized beer, but it would probably be a good exercise just to see what it's like. From what I've heard, you'll really never forget it (kind of like butyric).
I'm squirming since I just realized that if I CAN attend the meeting next week, I'd like to bring in the scotch for some comments, however this would mean bottling on a weekday and forgetting about brewing and pitching on the fresh cake.
If I were to save some of the yeast cake in a sanitized jar or something (not talking about canning) and put it in the fridge how long would it be good for?
Two weeks or you will need to start it up first. Yeah I know some guys are going to chime in and say they have used two month old slurry with good results, but don't take me there. There is no reason to ruin a perfectly good wort with bad yeast...
Alternatively I could probably get some London Ale yeast from the Red Car brewpub near my work, but I'm a noob and am not sure how London ale yeast will effect a beer, or specifically a red ale when compared to US-04.
Edit: FYI the Red Ale kit as listed on Steinfillers website (if you can goolge your way in since it's been broken for as long as I have known it):
Red Ale
First place winner - LA county Fair 2001
A smooth, lightly malty, slightly sweet ale with moderate caramel flavor and low bitterness.
OG: 1.052 FG: 1.014 SRM: 26 IBU: 17 ALCOHOL BY VOLUME: 5.2 %
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