Topic: my beer is gurgling

[Gordon]

Don't know what yeast you're using, but I don't ever bother with a secondary.. I think it's a good idea with bottles to make sure the yeast is COMPLETELY done, but with kegging it's never been a problem. Main thing is that you want to give it enough time for the diacetyl rest after the yeast has settled out, but you don't really want the beer to stay in contact with all of the hop detritus for too long.

I use white labs yeast when I have to, but get great live cultures from a local brewery (Laurelwood Brewing Co) which makes for great big ferment starts within hours. With that yeast, the beer is usually settled down and ready for the diacetyl rest in a week or so, and kegged and drank within 10 days to 2 weeks.

I love home brew geek talk!

[MidTNJasonF]

Brewed a batch of black IPA Monday before last. Moved it to the secondary Sunday evening. I only secondary when I have a ton of dry hops to add so I am not putting the hops onto a big cake of trub and yeast. Going to move it to the keg and get it off the hops tomorrow or Sunday. Should be drinking it Monday.

Gear setup and ready to go on the stool and an old burner since I have not finished welding my brewing stand.





Mashtun after the wort has been run off.



The boil going. I actually had a near boil over on this one.


All finished and transferring the black hop laden goodness over to the carboy.


Final gravity check with the refractometer.



This brew was planned to be a 5 gallon finished batch. The mash was to be done at 154º for 1 hour with a mash out of 172º. It was 14lbs of grain with a planned Original Gravity of 1.075 but due to a little miss in my volume and pre boil gravity I actually hit 1.068. Boil time was 90 minutes with four hop additions and the wort was chilled down to 65º with my immersion chiller. The final ABV should have been around 8 but now I am looking something close to 7.15 which should still be nice. Finished beer will be fairly hoppy at around 80 I.B.U. Currently I have the two dry hop additions added 1 oz of Citra and 1oz of Centennial .

[paulages]

Now you're talking beer nerd language! We'll have to start exchanging recipes.  My stout is a hit... I'd be happy to share the recipe. I brew in 10 gallon batches though..

I used to mash in the 154F range, but I like a drier beer these days and lean towards 140F. I'll look for pictures of my setup. I use sanke kegs cut and plumbed for brewing.

[seanbarney41]

so...anybody doing their own 'stillin?

[faux fiddy]

   My beer is gurgling too....only mine is gurgling because it's in my stomach.

When my beer gurgles overnight I wake up to some serious room full if stench.

The mass produced bubbles make me wish I had  my own worts.

[tramp]

wife and i are having a discussion on what will last longer
beer in bottles or beer in keg
i say long as both are chilled it doesn't matter

[MidTNJasonF]

Now you're talking beer nerd language! We'll have to start exchanging recipes.  My stout is a hit... I'd be happy to share the recipe. I brew in 10 gallon batches though..

I used to mash in the 154F range, but I like a drier beer these days and lean towards 140F. I'll look for pictures of my setup. I use sanke kegs cut and plumbed for brewing.

My mash temp changes with the beer style. 140º would have dried this out far too much for the hop level. You really need some residual sugar and malt sweetness to balance out the high hop level in this beer. 148º to 150º is a common range for me though on several styles, it strikes a balance.

I have been brewing for a number of years and can seriously geek out on it, Beta Amylase, Alpha Amylase, Limit Dextrinase, ect., ect. I am not as bad as some homebrewers I have meet though who sound like Chemistry Phd's.

I am building a new brew system as we speak and almost have everything drawn up in Solidworks. I have most of the cut list and a bit of the welding done on the new Brew Sculpture. I need to pick up a bit more cooper and I can finish the coils for the HERMS recirculating mash system. My current and future system is capable of 10 gallon batches but I normally do 5 gallon. I just do not go through enough beer to have 10 gallons of one kind on tap. It takes me a few weeks to get through 5 gallons.


And Seanbarney, no that is illegal. No one would ever do something illegal like that. 

[RatBikeRandy]

Just got started, but have had some pretty good brews so fa - really enjoying it.  Keep this thread going!
Really good Nut Brown Ale at the moment and a couple of others carbing or conditioning.

[Gordon]

wife and i are having a discussion on what will last longer
beer in bottles or beer in keg
i say long as both are chilled it doesn't matter

As long as you're pushing the kegged beer with CO2 it doesn't make much of a difference. 

One benefit you do miss out on when strictly kegging is letting a few bottles sit in a dark closet somewhere to condition extra long.  It's cool to do this and taste how your beer changes as it ages, but you can still do this if you just siphon off a few bottles before going to the keg.   

[paulages]

wife and i are having a discussion on what will last longer
beer in bottles or beer in keg
i say long as both are chilled it doesn't matter

As long as you're pushing the kegged beer with CO2 it doesn't make much of a difference. 

One benefit you do miss out on when strictly kegging is letting a few bottles sit in a dark closet somewhere to condition extra long.  It's cool to do this and taste how your beer changes as it ages, but you can still do this if you just siphon off a few bottles before going to the keg.   

What I do sometimes is just keg the beer, chill it, and draw off a few bottles worth out of the tap before carbonating. You can buy little sugar pills that you drop in each bottle that provide the right amount of food for the yeast to carbonate each bottle. It makes it easy to save a few while still kegging most of the beer.

[paulages]

Now you're talking beer nerd language! We'll have to start exchanging recipes.  My stout is a hit... I'd be happy to share the recipe. I brew in 10 gallon batches though..

I used to mash in the 154F range, but I like a drier beer these days and lean towards 140F. I'll look for pictures of my setup. I use sanke kegs cut and plumbed for brewing.

My mash temp changes with the beer style. 140º would have dried this out far too much for the hop level. You really need some residual sugar and malt sweetness to balance out the high hop level in this beer. 148º to 150º is a common range for me though on several styles, it strikes a balance.

I have been brewing for a number of years and can seriously geek out on it, Beta Amylase, Alpha Amylase, Limit Dextrinase, ect., ect. I am not as bad as some homebrewers I have meet though who sound like Chemistry Phd's.

I am building a new brew system as we speak and almost have everything drawn up in Solidworks. I have most of the cut list and a bit of the welding done on the new Brew Sculpture. I need to pick up a bit more cooper and I can finish the coils for the HERMS recirculating mash system. My current and future system is capable of 10 gallon batches but I normally do 5 gallon. I just do not go through enough beer to have 10 gallons of one kind on tap. It takes me a few weeks to get through 5 gallons.


And Seanbarney, no that is illegal. No one would ever do something illegal like that. 

I've NEVER been able to over-hop a beer, nor make one too dry for the hops.. I like it bitter! My IPA uses over 2# of hop cones for a 10 gallon batch. I usually use 2oz of whatever I can get with the highest Alpha acid (warrior, zeus, etc), a pound of Cascade, and a pound of Willamette. When it's hop season, I harvest the hops and put them straight into the boil, using as much as I possibly can without overflowing.

NO AMOUNT OF HOPS CAN BE TOO MUCH! 

[tramp]

just transfered to my secondary container

[tramp]

just cracked a bottle open
very good
needs to carbonate a little bit more
about a week

[MidTNJasonF]

My Black IPA turned out exceptionally well. It has been a huge hit and possibly the best beer I have brewed to date.

A few weeks later I drug my gear over to a friends house for a club group brew. I put a nice simple Irish Stout together an it is in the secondary now.

This is what Homebrewing is about. Friends gathering to brew and share some good beer.

[Duanob]

Nice post jason! You're making me thirsty even if it's only 11:42 in the AM. Can't wait for summer for ridin' and drinkin' and BBQin' (in that order of course). Too bad beer and bikes really don't mix because I love them both equally. But drinkin' and then riding'? Not for me!

[tramp]

just cracked open a bottle sunday
vey smooth
and the carbonation is starting to work well

[Radam]

I have a question that I think would best be answered here. I have a full size beer keg that was left at my house after a party about a year ago and I was thinking about cutting it in half to use each half as a planter. I also had though about cutting it closer to the top to use as a brew pot, but the wife was more into the planter idea. Anyway, what is the best way to depressurize the keg, and should I use a cut off wheel on a grinder or a torch to cut the keg once I depressurize it? Other suggestions are welcome. I have access between work, school, and friends to most cutting tools.

[MidTNJasonF]

Well there is a bit of an ethical issue with cutting up a keg. They cost a good bit more than the $50 or so deposit that someone put on it when they picked it up. With the current costs of stainless it is $200 to $300 for a new keg. Legally the keg should be returned to the brewery or distributor that sent it out. Sure the folks that own bud may not be hurting but keg thefts drive up the costs for smaller micro and craft brewers. Most craft and micro breweries get their kegs from a leasing company and do not own them outright like Bud/Miller/Coors. You can legally obtain a keg from those various suppliers when the keg gets toward the end of its useful life for pretty cheap money.


With that said for the kegs that I have obtained, legally, I drill a small hole (.250") near the tap outlet to depressurize. You can also if you are careful depressurize using the tap fitting itself and then disassemble that valve assembly. I never bother since keg pressures are low, maybe 15 psi. When the drill breaks through you will get a bit of a hiss for a moment. After that I use a sharpie to mark out my cutline on the top of the keg and work my way around with an angle grinder mounted cutoff wheel. Do not bother trying a dremel. The stainless is too thick for the dremel to be useful and you will go through dozens of those little cut off wheels. I clean up the edges of the cut with a flap disk followed with a deburring wheel mounted to the angle grinder.

You can see the edge I cut and the opening in my keg in the following photo.

[paulages]

Well there is a bit of an ethical issue with cutting up a keg. They cost a good bit more than the $50 or so deposit that someone put on it when they picked it up. With the current costs of stainless it is $200 to $300 for a new keg. Legally the keg should be returned to the brewery or distributor that sent it out. Sure the folks that own bud may not be hurting but keg thefts drive up the costs for smaller micro and craft brewers. Most craft and micro breweries get their kegs from a leasing company and do not own them outright like Bud/Miller/Coors. You can legally obtain a keg from those various suppliers when the keg gets toward the end of its useful life for pretty cheap money.


With that said for the kegs that I have obtained, legally, I drill a small hole (.250") near the tap outlet to depressurize. You can also if you are careful depressurize using the tap fitting itself and then disassemble that valve assembly. I never bother since keg pressures are low, maybe 15 psi. When the drill breaks through you will get a bit of a hiss for a moment. After that I use a sharpie to mark out my cutline on the top of the keg and work my way around with an angle grinder mounted cutoff wheel. Do not bother trying a dremel. The stainless is too thick for the dremel to be useful and you will go through dozens of those little cut off wheels. I clean up the edges of the cut with a flap disk followed with a deburring wheel mounted to the angle grinder.

You can see the edge I cut and the opening in my keg in the following photo.

I see your keg, but I'm wondering why such a small batch?? I always brew 10G batches in the Sanke kegs, unless I'm going for something high-gravity (which I almost never do anyway).

[MidTNJasonF]

I see your keg, but I'm wondering why such a small batch?? I always brew 10G batches in the Sanke kegs, unless I'm going for something high-gravity (which I almost never do anyway).

I like variety. I have done 10 gallon batches a number of times but with only two drinkers in the house an no family that likes the same styles of beer I do 10 gallons just takes to long to get through. If I brew something light like a cream ale I will brew 10 gallons because I can take a keg to work. All the guys in the shop are Rolling Rock and Bud Light drinkers so they will pass on my porters but kill a keg of Cream Ale in a few hours.

[paulages]

I see your keg, but I'm wondering why such a small batch?? I always brew 10G batches in the Sanke kegs, unless I'm going for something high-gravity (which I almost never do anyway).

I like variety. I have done 10 gallon batches a number of times but with only two drinkers in the house an no family that likes the same styles of beer I do 10 gallons just takes to long to get through. If I brew something light like a cream ale I will brew 10 gallons because I can take a keg to work. All the guys in the shop are Rolling Rock and Bud Light drinkers so they will pass on my porters but kill a keg of Cream Ale in a few hours.

Gotcha. Kind of a funny concept, having "too much" beer.  I figure I can have 2 different beers on at once, and if I have more than one style going, I can put one of each in the kegerator, and one of each in storage. At one point I have 8 different beers kegged. It was kind of fun to change them around and have different beers on tap all of the time.

[Radam]

You can drink beer at work?!

[MidTNJasonF]

You can drink beer at work?!

Any day I bring it and any other random day that someone feels like buying a case is "Cold Beer Day". We try to wait until after 2pm but the boss has been known to show up with a grocery bag full of T bones and a case of beer around lunch time.

Honestly I feel better about the beer than I do about the guys who go out for two or three 420 breaks a day and then come back in to run machinery.

[seanbarney41]

...whoa...can you get me a job?

[MidTNJasonF]

...whoa...can you get me a job?

If you can read a micrometer, understand Faunc CNC Controls, and manage ±0.001 tolerances in a production environment I might be able to. Oh and you would have to relocate to not quite BFE Middle Tennessee. Oh and if you are not comfortable around firearms you would probably not fit in.