What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[denimglen]

Yeah mine initially leaked because of a bad seal. But I kept tightening it up real hard, which stopped it leaking, but it put too much stress on where the thread met the body of the tap, and it just twisted right off.

That fermenter is cursed. I'm not putting it anywhere near beer.

[James P]

Plug the whole and give to your your mum as a foot path for xmas.

[jt]

Don't throw it, get a new tap!

Or store grain in it

[Patrick]

That is gutting mate!

I have one of those fermenters - hope it lasts a few more brews.

I got a new hydrometer after work and took a sample to measure and it came out at 1040 which is great, just the sort of strength I was looking for after the last brew came out at 6% - not exactly the summer quaffer I was looking for! This should be a nice drop to sink in the sun over january. Cheers!

[Christian]

Man, I'm all paranoid about my Brewcraft tap now!

Just racked my single hopped Rakau ale. Had a sample on Saturday and it was pretty dissapointing but had another today and it's way better now that more yeast has settled - starting to display some of that nice Rakau character that I love (and lots of people seem to dislike).

Not quite sure how I'll turn out - hopefully it'll be a nice summer ale.

[Reviled]

That happened to me with my brewcraft fermenter, lucky it was only full of napisan allthough Nicole didnt see it that way when it was all over her kitchen floor ;o) lol

Its now my designated milling into bucket, I wont use it for fermenting if my life depended on it... I believe the same happened to Mike as well?

Ive also racked bourbon porter into a fermenter and then wondered why around a litre was pooling near the base before I found out the fermenter had a big crack down the side :o( So I had to rack back into primary and age an 8% odd beer with bourbon etc on the yeast cake, turned out ok tho, but man, I wish I had that litre now, thats two pints! lol

[Barry]

happened to me too. only with boiling hot wort. all over my foot. couldn't do anything but rush outside and let it go. and then I still had to clean up. and I had a burned foot. hows that for an end to a 4 hour brew session?

[Ron]

Help please.
Brewed IPA on the weekend and I am trying to find info on Dry hopping in the fermenter.
What I'm after is info on when to rack off the trub and when to add the dry hops?
The bubbling is beginning to slow down.
Thanks in advance.

[Barry]

Chuck em in after 7 - 10 days, once bubbling slows right down. Theory is that if the beer is still bubbling the precious hop aroma will bubble away with the co2.

No need to rack off the trub. Leave it in the primary.

[Martin Bridges]

I tend to rack to a secondary for dry-hopping (although not everyone does). I do this for 2 reasons:
- I often want to re-use the yeast and I'd prefer it wasn't contaminated with hop matter
- there is a theory that the hop oils are attracted to (and bind onto) the yeast cells so potentially not as much stays in solution, hence your aroma may be reduced

However, racking introduces another opportunity for contamination and loses you some beer, so it's a trade-off.

You need to wait until fermentation is essentially complete (7-10 days) if you don't want those volatile hop aroma compounds to blow away. You also want to watch your temperatures - apparently around 17 degrees is the optimum for hop oil extraction. It'll take longer if the beer is colder.

[denimglen]

My method is to let it ferment two weeks, then dry hop in the primary for another week. This way most of the yeast has fallen out. And you beer gets some additional time on the cake to clean up while it's dry hopping.

[Martin Bridges]

Just mashed in on this for another evening brew:

PacificAle
3.8kg Maris Otter
0.3kg Wheat malt
Mashing at 67 degrees

10g Southern Cross @ 60 mins
30g Pacifica @ 15, 5 & 0 mins

Aiming for 1.046 and 30 IBUs

Yeast will be trusty old US05