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[andylsun]

Yeah, still not really feasible.They're basically wedged in there and there's only a few inches between the top of the keg and the top of the fridge. The real solution is to just get another keg and have a beer ready to swap in as soon as one empties.

Someone online modded a digital scale to weigh kegs in a kegerator and provide a digital output to a ARM SoC (e.g. Raspberry Pi)

http://scanlime.org/2010/01/hacking-a-digital-bathroom-scale/

I think the actual sensors are very thin and you could easily fit them under a keg, and have the output somewhere else.

 

[MacGurcules]

Someone online modded a digital scale to weigh kegs in a kegerator and provide a digital output to a ARM SoC (e.g. Raspberry Pi)

http://scanlime.org/2010/01/hacking-a-digital-bathroom-scale/

I think the actual sensors are very thin and you could easily fit them under a keg, and have the output somewhere else.

I've pretty much read them all. There are a ton of people who have suggested options for continuous keg monitoring based on weight, but I've never seen a finished project. Calibration is a nightmare and sensor drift under continuous loading is something I've never seen properly addressed.

I'm kind of fiending for a new project, so I'd love to be able to put something like that together, but I don't have quite the low-level electronics knowhow to address the issues without someone paving the way for me.

 

[andylsun]

What about weighing the whole fridge! Horrid hack, but should do it?

Two full kegs have about 50kg of liquid in them

 

[andylsun]

First stout made today. Dry Stout from Brewing Classic Styles.

It recommends crushing the Black Roasted Barley really really fine, so I put it (1lb) in my wife's blender. Did a fantastic job and ended up with a dust like grind.

The colour of the stout in the hydrometer flask is a bit lighter than expected for a stout, but hopefully will darken as it ferments.

 

[MacGurcules]

Managed to pour some Heady Topper dregs off into a sanitized yeast tube while at Dark Lord Day. The can had already been poured several times, so I got a pretty thin sample, but after a few days in the fridge, there's a little bit of collecting in the bottom.

Anybody here have experience culturing yeast? I'm gonna try to hit up the Asian grocery some time this week and find some agar. See if I can't get a supply of Conan started up.

 

[FO-totality]

Just bottled my senior project/class project wine for my final undergrad lab class.

VERY dry cranberry-raspberry-cherry fruit wine. Used a headspace gas chromatograph and determined the ABV to be 8.6. Pretty happy with it. Smells great, really nice color. Kinda has a spicy after taste but still pretty nice.

 

[codswallop]

Anybody here have experience culturing yeast?

I don't, not at a specialist level. I've captured and used wild yeast, washed yeast, and have probably eight jars of yeast in the fridge (the wife hates it!), as well as having pitched commercial dregs (of a 2011 Gueuze Tilquin) into a Flanders Red to kickstart it.

I guess you'd want to step it up a few times to make sure it's healthy and viable before trying to put it into longer term storage (agar then freezing seems the most common way?). Before you bother, are you sure they bottle condition with the same yeast they ferment with, and that's the yeast you want to capture?

 

[GameplayWhore]

Our wine came out incredibly dry a month and change ago. We took a liter of it and made it sparkly with corn sugar and a flip-top bottle, which was an improvement, but overall I'm finding that to make it truly palatable a 1:1 mix with lemon/lime soda is needed. We've defaulted back to making meads, as they seem to always taste good. At some later point, we'll switch out our yeast (we're using Lalvin EC-1118) to something that isn't quite as ravenous. We also started a ginger wine (basically Fankhauser's recipe for ginger ale, since it works so well, but with twice as much sugar then scaled up to a gallon) a week ago, and it only took a few days to start bubbling like a just-opened bottle of soda.

The coffee mead was yummy, but the coffee was hard to detect. Maybe if we do it again, we'll use many more muslin bags of coffee. For now, I've upped my 1g jug count to six, and we're going to start a new batch of mead each week or two with the assumption that extra flavouring will infuse after primary fermentation. Going to definitely oddball the tastes, with things like coconut flakes and home-grown rhubarb.

edit: My girlfriend has taken to brewing kombucha. I find it a bit repulsive. I still put out regularly despite knowing that she makes a thing which may some day lead to the gooey end of all humankind.

 

[MacGurcules]

I don't, not at a specialist level. I've captured and used wild yeast, washed yeast, and have probably eight jars of yeast in the fridge (the wife hates it!), as well as having pitched commercial dregs (of a 2011 Gueuze Tilquin) into a Flanders Red to kickstart it.

I guess you'd want to step it up a few times to make sure it's healthy and viable before trying to put it into longer term storage (agar then freezing seems the most common way?). Before you bother, are you sure they bottle condition with the same yeast they ferment with, and that's the yeast you want to capture?

It's not in my market, so I'm not super familiar with the beer. But my understanding is that, yes, they just can it completely unfiltered. Supposedly, it's a fairly unique strain. Throws some mild Belgian aromas along with some peachy character like US-05 will make when cold.

Just checked the tube in the fridge and there's a rather small amount of settled sediment. I suspect I'll have to plate and isolate it before stepping it up. Not sure if I can expect results, but it'll be a fun experiment, I hope.

 

[MacGurcules]

So I finally got around to trying to plate that yeast. I did four plates. Only one of them grew anything at all. Just three little colonies bunched right up next to one another. It's pretty clearly yeast; round colonies, cream colored, clean margins. I'm just not sure if it's actually what I want or if it's just wild yeast that happened to contaminate it.

I couldn't isolate a single colony, so I just scraped up a bit of it to see what it would do. It's been chewing away at about forty mils of wort for the last couple of days. When I crack the lid, it smells bready. So that makes me a bit more confident. I'm going to step it up again tomorrow and maybe try to brew a gallon or so with it next week to see what it does.

 

[MacGurcules]

I kinda feel bad triple-posting like this, but I figure with weeks between, it's probably worth it for the thread bump.

I tried one of the bottles I brewed with that captured yeast. Starts fairly clean, slightly sweet, with a little bready yeast character. Not too unlike some British strains. But then comes an overwhelming flavor of buttered popcorn.

This yeast has a major diacetyl problem. I've got a few more bottles that I'll leave for a couple months to see if they clean themselves up but I'm not too optimistic.

Anybody Harry Potter fans interested in brewing up a Butterbeer? I've got the yeast for you.

 

[sharkmuncher]

I kinda feel bad triple-posting like this, but I figure with weeks between, it's probably worth it for the thread bump.

I tried one of the bottles I brewed with that captured yeast. Starts fairly clean, slightly sweet, with a little bready yeast character. Not too unlike some British strains. But then comes an overwhelming flavor of buttered popcorn.

This yeast has a major diacetyl problem. I've got a few more bottles that I'll leave for a couple months to see if they clean themselves up but I'm not too optimistic.

Anybody Harry Potter fans interested in brewing up a Butterbeer? I've got the yeast for you.

The one time I tried harvesting wild yeast, I had the same problem. Super heavy in butter and creamed corn. I only made a gallon batch with it, but it was seriously the worst beer I have ever made. After that, (and 5 years of working in a cancer bio lab) I have decided that unless I have the means to set up 50-100 single colonies as 100-250 ml starters, taste and propagate from there, wild yeast is not4 worth my time. Its such an awesome idea, making a really local beer with natural wild yeast, but there is a reason there are only a tiny fraction of the trillions + varieties of yeast out there.

 

[codswallop]

I tried one of the bottles I brewed with that captured yeast.

The one time I tried harvesting wild yeast, I had the same problem.

Well, a couple of weeks back after making a Belgian Strong Dark (the fermentation of which, using Wyeast 3787 is STILL going absolutely bonkers), I used the second runnings to make a 1.048ish "beer", into which I added a small amount of 2012 Saaz.

Left it out overnight beside a lemon tree, covered with a thin cloth, to cool without any attempt to chill it too much. After a few days it looks like it's on its way, so I'll give it a couple more weeks to see how it's going.

I guess we'll be three for three with results that are both a success and a failure.

Today I also checked on my Flanders Red which has been under the house of three months now, starting to get a bit of a pellicle on it, smells quite good, exciting times!

 

[codswallop]

Checked up the wild yeast beer I left out overnight three weeks ago. It's gone from 1.048 to 1.005 in that time, so it's safe to say yeast got hold and did what it normally does.

Unlike MacGurcules and sharkmuncher, my wild yeast has produced something I can only describe as nail polish. I don't believe the fermentation temperature was high (probably 16-18c most of the time), the fermenter is fine and I doubt much more got in that normal oxygen.

It actually tastes super bitter, sour like licking a lemon (or maybe taking a bite into a leaf from a lemon tree?), which is no surprise given where it was.

I think I'll probably put it in bottles, put them under the house and forget about it until next year. There's probably 17-18 bottles worth, so may as well.

 

[MacGurcules]

Checked up the wild yeast beer I left out overnight three weeks ago. It's gone from 1.048 to 1.005 in that time, so it's safe to say yeast got hold and did what it normally does.

Unlike MacGurcules and sharkmuncher, my wild yeast has produced something I can only describe as nail polish. I don't believe the fermentation temperature was high (probably 16-18c most of the time), the fermenter is fine and I doubt much more got in that normal oxygen.

It actually tastes super bitter, sour like licking a lemon (or maybe taking a bite into a leaf from a lemon tree?), which is no surprise given where it was.

I think I'll probably put it in bottles, put them under the house and forget about it until next year. There's probably 17-18 bottles worth, so may as well.

Sounds like maybe you got a good dose of lactic bacteria as well, eh? Too bad about the fusels. It'd be nice to have a tasty, local, sour strain on hand. Hopefully it ages out, though I'm not sure I'd have the patience to wait a year to find out.

 

[MacGurcules]

Anybody ever make beer out of sweet potatoes? I'm trying to do a gluten-free batch for a friend. After about a week in the fermenter, it seems to have stalled at about eight points high and it still has a ton of starch haze. I'm guessing I didn't get a full conversion on my potatoes.

I figure I'll toss in some powdered amylase this evening unless someone else has a suggestion.

 

[modernlifeisANDY]

Just ordered some new fittings so I can finally add in a wort return for my mash tun and kettle. I was sick of just running the hose into the lid and trying to clamp it down somehow. I'm also well on my way to my RIMS system build - will be working on the control panel soon! I'm looking forward to no longer worrying about mash temperatures.

 

[codswallop]

Sounds like maybe you got a good dose of lactic bacteria as well, eh? Too bad about the fusels. It'd be nice to have a tasty, local, sour strain on hand. Hopefully it ages out, though I'm not sure I'd have the patience to wait a year to find out.

I waited another few weeks (been in the fermenter, on the yeast for six or seven weeks now) and most of the harsh taste had dissipated and tastes pretty reasonable. I'm going to put it into a demijohn this weekend probably and try to forget about it until at least the end of the year. Pretty excited! Has gone from 1.048 to 1.004 so far.

Here it is at 4, 5, 6, 14, 35ish days:

Anybody ever make beer out of sweet potatoes?

I'm sure someone has done it solely out of sweet potatoes, but I can't think of any examples. I do know that the Coedo brewery made a beer (IIRC called 'Beniaka') with sweet potato, it was a dubbel from memory. Tastes pretty good.

 

[MacGurcules]

I waited another few weeks (been in the fermenter, on the yeast for six or seven weeks now) and most of the harsh taste had dissipated and tastes pretty reasonable. I'm going to put it into a demijohn this weekend probably and try to forget about it until at least the end of the year. Pretty excited! Has gone from 1.048 to 1.004 so far.

Here it is at 4, 5, 6, 14, 35ish days:

Looking good. I gotta say, those first couple of photos would have had me worried. The buttery flavor in mine has faded substantially with some time, but it's still pretty apparent. I don't feel too compelled to use the leftover yeast I have from that since it doesn't really have any other character to it.

I'm sure someone has done it solely out of sweet potatoes, but I can't think of any examples. I do know that the Coedo brewery made a beer (IIRC called 'Beniaka') with sweet potato, it was a dubbel from memory. Tastes pretty good.

So, I was trying to throw something a little fancier together than just sorghum syrup and hops and I'd read someplace that sweet potatoes are high in beta-amylase so they're reasonably easy to mash on their own. I thought I'd try to use them to supplement the sorghum I'd bought for the project, but I probably should have taken some more time with it.

I did throw a little powdered amylase in there when I racked it over onto a few pounds of apricots. It seemed to clear it up a bit. Not totally sure if it did anything substantial to the starch or if the extra simple sugar from the fruit just dried it out and the rest settled.

Either way, it's fairly drinkable. I shouldn't have much trouble passing it along.

 

[codswallop]

Looking good. I gotta say, those first couple of photos would have had me worried. The buttery flavor in mine has faded substantially with some time, but it's still pretty apparent. I don't feel too compelled to use the leftover yeast I have from that since it doesn't really have any other character to it.

Yeah, it definitely looked rather ordinary for a while there but picked up after I went away for a few days. The second last photo was also quite weird, as the brown stuff on top was a pretty thick 'skin', which I eventually broke up by giving it a good shake.

The beer is still quite harsh, but definitely can be drunk. It's really obvious that the yeast isn't a commercial yeast, and I'd love to know how to 'tame' it, or breed it to get a slightly different quality.

I racked it last night into a glass demijohn (5L) to age for as long as I can be bothered now:

 

[outunderthestars]

Figured I would try and revive this thread:

I won a Grainfather thanks to a local extract brewing competition!

A little nervous about making the jump to all grain brewing. Has anyone here tried one of these?

I am excited because I am currently living in a tiny third floor apt, so running a propane based system isn't feasible.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

I was hoping to find some guidance here on GAF for this. I recently purchased a Craftabrew Catalyst on Kickstarter, but I have never dived into craft brewing before.

This may seem like a stupidly obvious question, but to make a 5 gallon batch, what size of brewpot do I need?

 

[outunderthestars]

I was hoping to find some guidance here on GAF for this. I recently purchased a Craftabrew Catalyst on Kickstarter, but I have never dived into craft brewing before.

This may seem like a stupidly obvious question, but to make a 5 gallon batch, what size of brewpot do I need?

That is an awesome fermenter. Congrats! Are you brewing from extract or all-grain?

For Extract, I would go with a five gallon kettle to start if you plan on doing a partial boil. I find it is hard to get a boil of anything more than 3 gallons or so using a consumer grade range.

https://www.northernbrewer.com/connect/2011/08/choosing-a-brew-kettle/

 

[fenners]

I was hoping to find some guidance here on GAF for this. I recently purchased a Craftabrew Catalyst on Kickstarter, but I have never dived into craft brewing before.

This may seem like a stupidly obvious question, but to make a 5 gallon batch, what size of brewpot do I need?

Are you planning on doing partial mashes/extract? If so, a 5 gallon pot is fine, you'll top up with water when you put it into your fancy fermenter there. If you want to do 'whole boil' & all-grain or 'brew in a bag', you'll need a much bigger pot - I have a 10G one I use for my 5G batches.

 

[outunderthestars]

Are you planning on doing partial mashes/extract? If so, a 5 gallon pot is fine, you'll top up with water when you put it into your fancy fermenter there. If you want to do 'whole boil' & all-grain or 'brew in a bag', you'll need a much bigger pot - I have a 10G one I use for my 5G batches.

What are you using for a heat source?

 

[fenners]

What are you using for a heat source?

I've got a propane burner that I use on my porch. Nothing fancy, typical Banjo burner.

 

[fenners]

I've got a propane burner that I use on my porch. Nothing fancy, typical Banjo burner.

I just realised I was posting in this thread 3 years ago, doh. Have hardly brewed this past year, but definitely due a brew or two before Christmas. Thinking of ordering a couple of lbs of hops to avoid the ridiculous high prices locally for single oz. Anyone used the likes of Yakima Valley?

 

[Cybrwzrd]

Are you planning on doing partial mashes/extract? If so, a 5 gallon pot is fine, you'll top up with water when you put it into your fancy fermenter there. If you want to do 'whole boil' & all-grain or 'brew in a bag', you'll need a much bigger pot - I have a 10G one I use for my 5G batches.

That is an awesome fermenter. Congrats! Are you brewing from extract or all-grain?

For Extract, I would go with a five gallon kettle to start if you plan on doing a partial boil. I find it is hard to get a boil of anything more than 3 gallons or so using a consumer grade range.

https://www.northernbrewer.com/connect/2011/08/choosing-a-brew-kettle/

Thank you so much. I'm probably gonna do at least a few batches of extract first, to learn what I am doing. And I bought a few kits to go with my fermenter as part of the Kickstarter deal.

 

[modernlifeisANDY]

Figured I would try and revive this thread:

I won a Grainfather thanks to a local extract brewing competition!

A little nervous about making the jump to all grain brewing. Has anyone here tried one of these?

I am excited because I am currently living in a tiny third floor apt, so running a propane based system isn't feasible.

Haven't used one, but it's a solid system. I run an all electric RIMS system that's pretty similar for the mash. The great thing about a system like the Grainfather is repeatability. Check Homebrewtalk for their Grainfather threads

 

[outunderthestars]

Thank you so much. I'm probably gonna do at least a few batches of extract first, to learn what I am doing. And I bought a few kits to go with my fermenter as part of the Kickstarter deal.

Awesome! You can get great results with extract. My advice is this: layout and check all of your equipment and recipe ingredients first. Then double check them.

Also, clean. Clean clean clean.

Let's revive this thread. Post as you go!

 

[Cybrwzrd]

Awesome! You can get great results with extract. My advice is this: layout and check all of your equipment and recipe ingredients first. Then double check them.

Also, clean. Clean clean clean.

Let's revive this thread. Post as you go!

Anything special I will need? You know the little things that no one thinks about that an experienced brewer knows to have handy? I have the abv gauge thing, thermometers for the fermenter. Any disinfectant recommendations?

 

[outunderthestars]

Anything special I will need? You know the little things that no one thinks about that an experienced brewer knows to have handy? I have the abv gauge thing, thermometers for the fermenter. Any disinfectant recommendations?

I am a big fan of StarSan

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0064O7YFA/?tag=neogaf0e-20


Do you have a siphon to move the wort from the kettle to the fermenter?

 

[fenners]

My hops order arrived in two days across half the US from Yakima Valley. Big thumbs up.

 

[outunderthestars]

My hops order arrived in two days across half the US from Yakima Valley. Big thumbs up.

Awesome. What are you brewing?

 

[fenners]

Awesome. What are you brewing?

Hoppy dark IPA recipe that I haven't brewed in a couple of years. It won the only homebrew competition I've ever entered lol

Amt                   Name                                     Type          #        %/IBU         
9 lbs                 Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)           Grain         1        78.3 %        
1 lbs                 Munich Malt (9.0 SRM)                    Grain         2        8.7 %         
8.0 oz                Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM)             Grain         3        4.3 %         
8.0 oz                Carafa III (525.0 SRM)                   Grain         4        4.3 %         
8.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt - 75L (75.0 SRM)    Grain         5        4.3 %         
1.00 oz               Warrior [15.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min        Hop           6        52.0 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min         Hop           7        7.3 IBUs      
0.50 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 30. Hop           8        18.7 IBUs     
1.00 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins)        Fining        9        -             
0.50 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min         Hop           10       4.7 IBUs      
0.50 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 15. Hop           11       12.0 IBUs     
0.50 oz               Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 5.0 min          Hop           12       1.9 IBUs      
0.50 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 5.0 Hop           13       4.8 IBUs      
1.0 pkg               Safale American  (DCL/Fermentis #US-05)  Yeast         14       -             
1.00 tsp              Yeast Nutrient (Primary 3.0 days)        Other         15       -             
1.00 oz               Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Dry Hop  Hop           16       0.0 IBUs

 

[outunderthestars]

What will become a pineapple ipa is in the fermenter now!

Would anyone be up for some homebrew exchanges?

 

[Cybrwzrd]

So I just kegged my first (well second, my first brewing experiment was 10 yeast ago and was a bunch of bottle bombs and under attenuated sweetness) beer, and tasted the results. For flat, warm beer it tasted wonderful.

Now to wait for it to carbonate and cool.

I brewed the craftabrew cascade IPA kit that came with my catayist system. I'm gonna do another boil this weekend and get it fermenting again with carabou slobber I think.

 

[outunderthestars]

So I just kegged my first (well second, my first brewing experiment was 10 yeast ago and was a bunch of bottle bombs and under attenuated sweetness) beer, and tasted the results. For flat, warm beer it tasted wonderful.

Now to wait for it to carbonate and cool.

I brewed the craftabrew cascade IPA kit that came with my catayist system. I'm gonna do another boil this weekend and get it fermenting again with carabou slobber I think.

Congrats! How are you liking the catalyst?

 

[bucknuticus]

Ive had the catalyst in my cart no less then 3 times, would love to hear others thoughts on it

 

[Cybrwzrd]

Congrats! How are you liking the catalyst?

I have to say it was so easy. I still may get a carboy or two for other brews since I do want to make a few at a time eventually.

I learned a lot this time tho, as I made a few (maybe) mistakes. I wasn't careful when dumping my wort into it and basically dumped everything into the fermenter. So I ended up having to dump 2x 16oz mason jars and a 24 oz just to clear all the hops and trub out of the beer. i am going to whirlpool my next batch and I am adding a spigot to my brewkettle before my next brew.

I also went away for a day and came back to my airlock being on the ground next to it. But it didn't get infected, tho I will use a blowoff tube next time instead for those first few days of heavy fermentation.

But my beer settled very well, it is pretty darn clear. I also was able to harvest yeast for my next brew in a small mason jar. If anything, the ease of yeast harvesting may make it worth the expense. Those critters are expensive.

I can probably say the catalyst is probably a luxury, but it really makes things easy. I backed it when it was on Kickstarter tho, so I got it cheaper than retail and thus it wasn't much more than a normal setup.

 

[outunderthestars]

I have to say it was so easy. I still may get a carboy or two for other brews since I do want to make a few at a time eventually.

I learned a lot this time tho, as I made a few (maybe) mistakes. I wasn't careful when dumping my wort into it and basically dumped everything into the fermenter. So I ended up having to dump 2x 16oz mason jars and a 24 oz just to clear all the hops and trub out of the beer. i am going to whirlpool my next batch and I am adding a spigot to my brewkettle before my next brew.

I also went away for a day and came back to my airlock being on the ground next to it. But it didn't get infected, tho I will use a blowoff tube next time instead for those first few days of heavy fermentation.

But my beer settled very well, it is pretty darn clear. I also was able to harvest yeast for my next brew in a small mason jar.

I can probably say the catalyst is probably a luxury, but it really makes things easy. I backed it when it was on Kickstarter tho, so I got it cheaper than retail and thus it wasn't much more than a normal setup.

I always go blow-off tube during primary fermentation.

 

[Yaboosh]

I don't like the look of that catalyst fermenter very much at all.

Plastic 3" butterfly valve sounds like it is just waiting to break.

Attaching anything to the dump will likely result in a not-insignificant amount of oxygen going immediately into your beer. If you don't start with the mason jar attached already at the beginning of fermentation, attaching an empty one will send enough oxygen into your beer to cut the life of the resulting beer by 75%.


I am pretty heavily biased against complicating homebrewing though. I like to keep everything simple and every time I have ever brewed on a sculpture like a Morebeer 1550 or Blichmann monstrosity it just makes me miss my old homebrew system with a cooler/stainless braid mash tun, single kettle and any old fermenter I had hanging around.

 

[Cybrwzrd]

I don't like the look of that catalyst fermenter very much at all.

Plastic 3" butterfly valve sounds like it is just waiting to break.

Attaching anything to the dump will likely result in a not-insignificant amount of oxygen going immediately into your beer. If you don't start with the mason jar attached already at the beginning of fermentation, attaching an empty one will send enough oxygen into your beer to cut the life of the resulting beer by 75%.


I am pretty heavily biased against complicating homebrewing though. I like to keep everything simple and every time I have ever brewed on a sculpture like a Morebeer 1550 or Blichmann monstrosity it just makes me miss my old homebrew system with a cooler/stainless braid mash tun, single kettle and any old fermenter I had hanging around.

For one thing, the valve is built really well. That is probably the majority of the cost involved with it. Many durable items are built with plastic, and withstand greater forces than the valve has to deal with.

I don't think it will diffuse much air O2 into the beer though, or at least not any more than racking into a secondary would (unless you are purging the secondary with CO2). The air that burps through goes straight out through the airlock when changing jars. Just like CO2, diffusing O2 into beer is still a matter of exposed volume vs time. Fastferment also works the same way, and it seems to be a decent enough product as well.

Apparently there are some issues with the gasket on the lid that some other users are reporting. We will see what happens after a few more brew cycles.

 

[RMI]

I don't like the look of that catalyst fermenter very much at all.

i've used it for one brew so far and it seemed simple enough and sturdy, but my I'm afraid that after just like a week in the bottle my beer is starting to develop some kind of an off flavor.

beer tasted great at bottling

beer tasted great two weeks after bottling (basically the same as at bottling but carbonated)

beer seemed to be mellowing out 3 weeks after bottling (less hoppy flavor, less bitter)

4 weeks after bottling now and the last two I've opened have been a bit sour/tannic. They don't taste spoiled or off, and don't have an off aroma or anything. Bottles are stored at like 60 degrees.

I'm thinking the culprit could be that I didn't sanitize my bottles well enough (they are grolsch swing tops that I washed and then soaked in star-san for a few minutes before bottling.

any thoughts? Also I should have known there was a homebrew thread on GAF but never thought to look, so HI.

Apparently there are some issues with the gasket on the lid that some other users are reporting. We will see what happens after a few more brew cycles.

basically the issue if there is any kind of suction against the gasket when you pull the lid off, the gasket can come off. This happened to me when starting my current brew but luckily it was before dumping the wort into the container, so I just reseated the gasket and resanitized.

 

[fenners]

Oxidation maybe? What's the style of beer?

 

[RMI]

Oxidation maybe? What's the style of beer?

it's a hefeweizen made from the 5 gal recipe kit that came with the catalyst.

I don't know where oxygen would have gotten into the process after fermentation. I had constant activity in my blowoff tube so i know that the seal was tight. I never opened the fermenter except to add priming sugar before bottling. At bottling I used one of those bottling wands so I don't know that the beer would have seen a lot of oxygen at that step either.

I'm really hoping i just got two off bottles in a row, and am fighting the urge to just drink more bottles until I hit a good one again, haha. It's still totally drinkable, but definitely not as good as it was before.

 

[bucknuticus]

it's a hefeweizen made from the 5 gal recipe kit that came with the catalyst.

I don't know where oxygen would have gotten into the process after fermentation. I had constant activity in my blowoff tube so i know that the seal was tight. I never opened the fermenter except to add priming sugar before bottling. At bottling I used one of those bottling wands so I don't know that the beer would have seen a lot of oxygen at that step either.

I'm really hoping i just got two off bottles in a row, and am fighting the urge to just drink more bottles until I hit a good one again, haha. It's still totally drinkable, but definitely not as good as it was before.

Could just be due to it being a hefewezien. Hefes are best as young beers and get "worse" as time goes on.

 

[RMI]

Could just be due to it being a hefewezien. Hefes are best as young beers and get "worse" as time goes on.

hmm ok. I still have like 14 or so of the swingtops to drink so i'll be keeping track of it over the next two weeks or so. and by then i'll be ready to bottle the pale ale i've got going right now.

 

[outunderthestars]

hmm ok. I still have like 14 or so of the swingtops to drink so i'll be keeping track of it over the next two weeks or so. and by then i'll be ready to bottle the pale ale i've got going right now.

Are you part of a local homebrew club? Save a bottle for them to try. A trained person can usually identify the cause of off flavors.

 

[RMI]

Are you part of a local homebrew club? Save a bottle for them to try. A trained person can usually identify the cause of off flavors.

i'm not, but this sounds like a great thing to look into. I know a few guys in my department at work who are into homebrew so I can see if one of them is curious to try it out.

*UPDATE

So I think the issue may have been just improper sanitation of the swingtop bottles, because I had some mixed results throughout the time I was drinking the batch until it was gone, with some bottles being more or less sour, and some tasting great (including the very last one that I drank about 10 weeks after bottling. I stepped up my bottle cleaning game for my next batch and so far so good, but I just cracked the first one a few days ago so we'll see how it does over time.