Well, I finally registered for assimilation

[Bluejaye]

Do you happen to live near a parent or child that you could do 1 brew outside of your current residence? Would rule out any wild yeast/contaminant in your environment.

[JohnSant]

Vicki167

Just my 2 cents worth use a cooler for fermentation and use Ice jugs to control the high temps. Hit your LHBS or a pet shop and get a stick on temp thermo. with 1 deg. rise for your fermenter you want to control the temp in the fermenter not the ambient temp in the room which can help but fermenter is the key to good beer.

[FrozenInTime]

Welcome to the forum!

[mashani]

Do you happen to live near a parent or child that you could do 1 brew outside of your current residence? Would rule out any wild yeast/contaminant in your environment.

Welcome to the borg!

I think this is a good idea too. I have lots of wild yeast issues (Brett) in the summer, but in the late fall/winter/early spring it is suppressed. So I tend to brew beers that I don't mind getting funky in the summer (Belgians, Saisons) and others in cooler weather. It would be good for you to know for sure.

I can combat the issues to some extent in the summer for beers I really don't want funky by doing all sorts of things you aren't supposed to do like keeping a lid on the pot near the end of the boil and never removing it until I'm ready to dump it into a fermenter or brewing partial volume and not bother cooling the wort at all and pour it into ice water in the fermenters while still really freaking hot. It also helps when I pitch at commercial pitch rates, IE a full 11.5g pack of yeast in a 2.5 gallon batch. Note that these things you aren't supposed to do are supposed to give you what is called HSA or DMS, but I have *never* gotten either by doing this, I've aged some of the dump boiling hot wort beers for 18 months and had no oxidation or cooked corn flavors. So I think its safe, and it does help. Just throwing those things out there as "crazy ideas" if you do determine that's what it is - but I can verify they are safer then what you might read elsewhere suggest. Turning off my AC about an hour before I am going to brew also helps a lot, but how much that is possible depends on the temperature and family. You could try perhaps turning off your heat or at least the fan if you can, to try to "shut down the breeze" and see if that helps you.

I have no other way of combating my issues without tearing out all the ductwork in my house I'm afraid. Once wild yeast gets really established in your environment it's really hard to get rid of.

[vicki167]

All,

Thanks so much for the awesome replies. Great advice. Hopefully I'll get everyone in this response.

- That's a great idea to brew a batch at someone's house. My Dad would get a kick out of me brewing at his house and him being "in charge of it" so to speak. Father/Son bonding for the win!!
- I hadn't thought about the HVAC system moving air through the house. I could definitely turn it off before I brew.
- As far as cooler fermentation, I have thought about that. I was concerned that the temps might get too cool, but it sounds like that is not going to be a real concern if the yeast are producing heat anyway and I limit the ice packs that go in there.
- I read Yankeedag's article when I first started brewing, but it probably warrants a re-read now that I have a dozen batches under my belt and it might be more meaningful now.
- Avatar pic... no not on the job. Friends watched the movie "So I Married An Axe Murderer" in college and I got the nickname "vicki". it was from Phil Hartman's character, so I just threw his pic up as my avatar. The movie clip : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah7mS9H_TOM

I grabbed a reading of my cream ale that is a non-MB kit that has been in a 5 gallon bucket with an airlock. It had a good smell to it (beer-like) and did not taste acidic at all. It will probably be ready to bottle this weekend, so I am hopeful that it will turn out. I just need to avoid contamination while bottling now (obviously I'll sanitize everything retentively). If the two MB kits in glass carboys turn out similarly, I will go out on a limb and say I had a sanitation issue in my LBKs or a breakdown in the MB process as it relates to the environment in my house or me following instructions properly.

Thanks again. Awesome info. Glad to be here.

[vicki167]

I can combat the issues to some extent in the summer for beers I really don't want funky by doing all sorts of things you aren't supposed to do like keeping a lid on the pot near the end of the boil and never removing it until I'm ready to dump it into a fermenter or brewing partial volume and not bother cooling the wort at all and pour it into ice water in the fermenters while still really freaking hot. It also helps when I pitch at commercial pitch rates, IE a full 11.5g pack of yeast in a 2.5 gallon batch. Note that these things you aren't supposed to do are supposed to give you what is called HSA or DMS, but I have *never* gotten either by doing this, I've aged some of the dump boiling hot wort beers for 18 months and had no oxidation or cooked corn flavors. So I

Thanks for the advice. A lot of good ideas in here that I have thought about trying but wasn't sure how the beer would turn out. Sounds like you have been there done that and I can venture forth. A couple of questions...

1) Do you worry about sanitizing any of the water/ice in the ferementer. I was thinking of boiling, cooling with with the lid on, and then throwing in the freezer to get it nice and cold and then adding to the fermenter.
2) Pitching at commercial rates... Does that cause fermentation to complete more quickly? Can I pitch twice as much yeast and have a beer ready to bottle twice as quickly? I am assuming it just doesn't work like that. Are there drawbacks to this method? I would assume decreased aging would affect taste as well as an increase in the amount of trub.

[DaYooper]

Welcome aBorg!

I always turn the HCVAC system off, especially when bottling and things tend to sit uncovered a lot longer. It doesnt help that I decided to put my bottling station right under an air vent. Gotta remember NOT to do that when I move in a couple of weeks.

When I do full batch, full length boils I use filtered tap water and cool via a chiller. Anything that comes out of the faucet should be killed. For my MrB batches I use bottled spring water because the water is not boiled and I am paranoid that way. I figure the two dollars worth of water is cheap insurance to protect from infections.

There are issues with both under pitching and over pitching although not so much over pitching. If you are using dry yeast I have never had an issue with tossing in a full package with either 5 gallon batches nor LBK batches. If you are using liquid yeast you will want to check a yeast calculator to make sure you have enough and/or need to make a starter.

[mashani]

1) Do you worry about sanitizing any of the water/ice in the ferementer. I was thinking of boiling, cooling with with the lid on, and then throwing in the freezer to get it nice and cold and then adding to the fermenter.
2) Pitching at commercial rates... Does that cause fermentation to complete more quickly? Can I pitch twice as much yeast and have a beer ready to bottle twice as quickly? I am assuming it just doesn't work like that. Are there drawbacks to this method? I would assume decreased aging would affect taste as well as an increase in the amount of trub.

RE #1: For topping up, I use either unopened spring water from the store, or I re-use those jugs and fill them with carbon filtered tap water, and then use campden tablets/powder at a sterilization level, not just a chlorine/chloramine removal level. Whether that is an option depends on your water and what you brew as it changes your water chemistry (which can affect how your beers taste is perceived). It is ok for my water and much of what I brew.

RE #2: google "Mr. Malty Yeast Calculator" and you will find one that tells you how much yeast to pitch. You can trust that for most any kind of beer, the exceptions being Wheat beers and some Belgian styles where you want to pitch less then it suggests if you want to preserve fruity esters (like Banana in a wheat beer). But for everything else the rates suggested are safe. Commercial pitch rates can even be higher then Mr. Malty suggests for some types of beer.

RE: beer done twice as fast - Pitch rates vs. fermentation time isn't linear - the initial growth rate timing per generation is similar from generation to generation , but timing of each generation and how many generations of growth you will get depends on pitch rate, oxygen, nutrients, and temperature. Fermentation rate is also affected by temperature (but just raising temperature to speed things up in not generally a good idea). Ideally for ales you want to pitch enough yeast that you get around 3 generations of growth before active fermentation begins (in general that would work out to anywhere from 4-8 hours). The yeast calculator will get you in that ballpark. Most beers (with a reasonable OG) pitched at those rates will have fermentation completed in 7-10 days, sometimes even less. I've had beers "done" in 4 days. But there is a lot of off flavors in there at that point which the yeast will clean up over time, so even those beers I've left in the fermenter for a while afterword. You can't tell if it's done without a hydrometer, so even though it might be less, it's still safer to wait at least 14 days before you bottle it, and it doesn't cause any harm to leave it in your fermenter for that long. And bigger beers can take longer.

Note that it is possible to overpitch, so you don't want to go totally nuts there. Pitching so much yeast that there is less then 2-3 generations of growth can lead to off flavors, or a "flat boring" profile instead of a nice rounded ale profile. Pitching less yeast so you get more generations of growth creates a more phenolic/estery beer, which can be good for some beer styles (wheats/belgians) but maybe not so much an IPA where they would be considered "off flavors" as well... and especially not a clean lager style.

Hope that made sense.

[RickBeer]

Welcome!

I use 1 gallon milk jugs that formerly held water, I sanitize them with StarSan, empty them, fill with cold tap water (well, not public so no chlorine), and then refrigerate them. When brewing a Mr. Beer or Brewdemon refill, you don't have to cool the wort, the cold tap water (especially if refrigerated) lowers temps just fine. I brew 5 gallon extract recipes, and lower my ~ 2.5 gallons of wort to 100 degrees, which when mixed with refrigerated water brings the wort in the fermenter to around 60 - 62.

[Ibasterd]

Welcome. Vicki is definitely the best tour guide on Alcatraz!