Winter Warmer?

[Richard]

I reckon get the bittering up a bit there... The "Old Ale" BJCP category (yeah, I went there) is the one for non-spiced winter warmers, and the bottom end for IBUs is about 30. The Pic's one tastes like 30-40 to me.

[Jake]

Alright, so I have it in the keg with the valve attached. I'll update you on the progress. I ended up using S05 Yeast (accidentally that is. I thought SO4 came in the red pouches, and once I realized, I already had it open and didn't want to waste it).

I used 2oz of 4.8% willamette at 60min, 1.75oz of 3.9% tettnanger at 15 and 1.5oz of 5.3% cascade at flameout.

Sterilized 2 kegs, attached a hose to the IN valve of the full keg, to the OUT valve of the empty keg, and attached the spunding valve to the IN of the empty keg. Hopefully I got his right lol.

There was no yeast activity this morning around the 8hr mark, but hoping to see some after work today. So should I take off the hose and shake it up to get the yeast going? I think John mentioned to do this. But it is OK to shake up throughout fermentation?

[Richard]

It's absolutely fine to rouse yeast during fermentation - you may not actually notice the ferment on this, since you can't see through steel (unless you have super-powers you didn't tell us about) and the "noisy" phase of the ferment seems to only take about 8 hours.

And I'm pretty sure you got those hoses right.

[Kyle]

For a future batch, I'd suggest something like:

Winter Warmer
14# base grain
.5# Crystal 240
.75# Crystal 60
.75# Chocolate
.5# Roasted Barley

Mash @ 155, Sparge @ 168

Batch Size = 4.5 gal

Hops: bitter with cascade, flavour with fuggles, no aroma hops, let that come from the malt.

2 packs of S-04 (or pitch onto yeast cake)

I'd also toss the following into a french press coffee maker, and then pour the tea in at 2 minutes left in the boil:

1.5 cups boiled water
1 tsp cinamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves.

[Jake]

Yea I was thinking about doing something along your suggestion, maybe next week. Right now it's about 20 hours in and the valve isn't hissing yet. The gauge still hasn't really moved. I quickly flipped the pressure relief valve and it did hiss, so I know there's something going on in there. If nothing by tomorrow morning, then I'll begin to worry

[Richard]

RDWHAHB; the spunding-valve stuff is flying blind to a larger degree than normal, just wait it out.

[JohnQ]

Hoses are right,

I'd put 10 psi in both of the kegs from your co2 bottle, then attach the spunding valve to the 2nd keg and open it until you start to hear the hiss, slowly bleed it down to 6 psi and turn it so it stops hissing.
When the ferment gets going, you'll hear it hissing.
I also put a gallon or so of water in the second keg and it was like hearing a big airlock burble every time the gas came from keg 1 into keg 2.  Just be careful to not have more pressure in keg 2 than 1 or you could force nonsterile water back into Keg 1.

JQ

[Jake]

So here's what I did. I hooked the valve up to an empty keg (to the OUT post), and hooked up the gas at 5-6psi. Closed the valve and opened it to where it started hissing.
Is there any benefit to carbing the kegs to 10 PSI and backing it off? Or can I just let that naturally happen, because I know (theoretically) that my valve is set to 5-6 psi already.

[Richard]

That's just to dial in the regulator, which is inaccurate as shit (but works). Mine thinks 6PSI (actual) is ~35PSI.

[Jake]

Hmmm. Well I hooked it up to a keg that was being regulated at 6psi, set the regulator and that's it. I figured that would be accurate. Should I try the that tonight when I get home? or should Ijust leave it be?

[Richard]

Use the dial rather than the marks on the regulator - the latter is hopeless. Once you've figured out where the marks relate to you'll be able to dial it in faster next time.

I just tried my first batch from spunding - a 9% IIPA; absolutely fantastic, will bring it tomorrow.

[Jake]

Yea I was going off the regulator attached to the CO2, which I know is relatively accurate. The regulator on the valve was reading under 5, but I went with the regulator on the CO2, so it should be dialed in I'm hoping.

[Richard]

Yeah a couple PSI either way won't hurt.

[Jake]

Woke up this morning and the valve was hissing. I could see some of the foam flowing from the full keg into the empty keg. Pretty exciting stuff.

I just let it self carb this time up to 5psi, but next time I'll maybe carb both kegs equally to 5psi, and perhaps I'll have yeast activity sooner. Do you know if there's any benefit to having both carbed in advance? Obviously you'll have the valve hissing earlier because you have two fully carbed kegs (whereas mine had to fill first), but do you think it has much of an effect on the yeast?

[JohnQ]

I don't think it makes any difference to the yeasties (but I'm perfectly willing to be proven wrong there), but I like knowing that they are working as soon as possible. That, and it ensures that the beer is in a CO2 only environment.
JQ