| |
Main
Date: 08 Dec 2006 19:24:59
From: Scott P
Subject: Who's Fermenting in Their Brew Kettle?
|
Last weekend I brewed 10 gallons of pale ale and my brewing, er,
drinking assistant Clancy asked why not just ferment in the boiling
kettle. After a bit of discussion and quite a few more homebrews, the
die was cast and the yeast was pitched directly into the kettle.
I devised a pretty simple way to seal the kettle...seems to be working
well enough. The lid is a plastic bucket lid with a hole bored for an
airlock. The gasket is a bead of silicone calk around the edge of the
bucket, and the lid is held in place with a screw driven mechanism that
fits in my converted keg's handles, and puts downward force on the lid.
Here's a link to the full details on my blog and a photo of the
contraption to hold the lid on securely:
http://almostalwaysright.blogspot.com/2006/12/simplifying-your-brew-day-with-kettle.html
I sampled the brew last night, and, it tasted pretty good (but a little
green from the still active yeast). On Sunday it'll be moved into
secondary fermenters.
I'd be curious to hear from other brewers who have successfully kettle
fermented...or I'd like to hear why it's a horrible idea! Fermenting
in the kettle shaved time off my brew day and made more time for
swilling homebrew...seems like a winner idea to me!
Cheers!
Scott P.
Brewing (and looking for a new job) in Boise, Idaho
|
|
| |
Date: 09 Dec 2006 09:57:53
From: The Artist Formerly Known as Kap'n Salty
Subject: Re: Who's Fermenting in Their Brew Kettle?
|
Scott P wrote:
> Last weekend I brewed 10 gallons of pale ale and my brewing, er,
> drinking assistant Clancy asked why not just ferment in the boiling
> kettle. After a bit of discussion and quite a few more homebrews, the
> die was cast and the yeast was pitched directly into the kettle.
>
> I devised a pretty simple way to seal the kettle...seems to be working
> well enough. The lid is a plastic bucket lid with a hole bored for an
> airlock. The gasket is a bead of silicone calk around the edge of the
> bucket, and the lid is held in place with a screw driven mechanism that
> fits in my converted keg's handles, and puts downward force on the lid.
>
> Here's a link to the full details on my blog and a photo of the
> contraption to hold the lid on securely:
> http://almostalwaysright.blogspot.com/2006/12/simplifying-your-brew-day-with-kettle.html
>
There's actually no need to go to any special trouble to seal the
kettle. If it has a lid, you're good to go, or you could just cover it
with a few sheets of foil, a plastic garbage bag or whatever -- primary
fermentors don't need to be sealed.
The main problem with this is that you're fermenting on spent hops and a
bunch of hot break, but how much of a problem this will be is really up
to your tastebuds in the end.
--
(Replies: cleanse my address of the Mark of the Beast!)
Teleoperate a roving mobile robot from the web:
http://www.swampgas.com/robotics/rover.html
Coauthor with Dennis Clark of "Building Robot Drive Trains".
Buy several copies today!
|
| |
Date: 09 Dec 2006 05:25:05
From: Scott P
Subject: Re: Who's Fermenting in Their Brew Kettle?
|
Dick said "Does that mean you siphoned the primaries back into the
kettle and then pitched the yeast?"
No, I whirlpooled the wort in the brewing kettle, cooled the wort with
my chiller, then opened the ball valve at the bottom of the kettle to
draw of the accumulated break material. I pitched the yeast into the
brew kettle. No siphoning was required.
The big advantage is that I don't have to mess around with sanitizing
plastic buckets for primary fermentation, and I'll have only one vessel
to clean after fermentation instead of having a total of three to clean
(must just clean the kettle instead of the kettle and two buckets).
Hopes this clarifies things.
Cheers!
Scott P.
Brewing in Boise, Idaho
|
| | |
Date: 09 Dec 2006 15:28:03
From: Mark R
Subject: Re: Who's Fermenting in Their Brew Kettle?
|
"Scott P" <scottphillips1@hotmail.com > wrote in message
news:1165670534.361766.135710@j44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Dick said "Does that mean you siphoned the primaries back into the
> kettle and then pitched the yeast?"
>
> No, I whirlpooled the wort in the brewing kettle, cooled the wort with
> my chiller, then opened the ball valve at the bottom of the kettle to
> draw of the accumulated break material. I pitched the yeast into the
> brew kettle. No siphoning was required.
>
> The big advantage is that I don't have to mess around with sanitizing
> plastic buckets for primary fermentation, and I'll have only one vessel
> to clean after fermentation instead of having a total of three to clean
> (must just clean the kettle instead of the kettle and two buckets).
>
> Hopes this clarifies things.
For those of us that don't brew that frequently it sounds great. For those
that constantly have several batches fermenting away in the primary and
secondaries I could see where they wouldn't want to tie up their brew kettle
as a primary. Let us know how it turns out.
Mark R
|
| | |
Date: 11 Dec 2006 16:34:09
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Who's Fermenting in Their Brew Kettle?
|
On 9 Dec 2006 05:25:05 -0800, <scottphillips1@hotmail.com > wrote:
> The big advantage is that I don't have to mess around with sanitizing
> plastic buckets for primary fermentation, and I'll have only one vessel
> to clean after fermentation instead of having a total of three to clean
> (must just clean the kettle instead of the kettle and two buckets).
Personally, I don't view cleaning/sanitizing fermenters to be that big
of a deal. However, there are lots of ways to make beer. Do what you
like best.
John.
|
| |
Date: 09 Dec 2006 08:23:16
From: Dick Adams
Subject: Re: Who's Fermenting in Their Brew Kettle?
|
Scott P <scottphillips1@hotmail.com > wrote:
> Last weekend I brewed 10 gallons of pale ale and my brewing, er,
> drinking assistant Clancy asked why not just ferment in the boiling
> kettle. After a bit of discussion and quite a few more homebrews, the
> die was cast and the yeast was pitched directly into the kettle.
>
> I devised a pretty simple way to seal the kettle...seems to be working
> well enough. The lid is a plastic bucket lid with a hole bored for an
> airlock. The gasket is a bead of silicone calk around the edge of the
> bucket, and the lid is held in place with a screw driven mechanism that
> fits in my converted keg's handles, and puts downward force on the lid.
>
> Here's a link to the full details on my blog and a photo of the
> contraption to hold the lid on securely:
> http://almostalwaysright.blogspot.com/2006/12/simplifying-your-brew-day-with-kettle.html
> ....
You can also ues: http://tinyurl.com/yg5tu7
If I read your blog correctly, you drained the kettle and flushed it.
Does that mean you siphoned the primaries back into the kettle and
then pitched the yeast? If so, the only benefits I see are:
- you will get the same FG in both secondaries;
- you will have more head room avoiding feremntation overflows; and
- you need two fewer fermentation buckets per brew.
What benefits did I miss?
Don't misunderstand me. I think what you did was neat especially
the lid, the caulking, and the brace. I'd just like to know what
benefits I'm missing.
Dick
|
| |
Date: 08 Dec 2006 22:40:04
From: Washu
Subject: Re: Who's Fermenting in Their Brew Kettle?
|
> I'd be curious to hear from other brewers who have successfully kettle
> fermented...or I'd like to hear why it's a horrible idea! Fermenting
> in the kettle shaved time off my brew day and made more time for
> swilling homebrew...seems like a winner idea to me!
I asked the same question a few months ago and as I recall the
concensus was there was no reason it wouldn't work. After all, it's no
differant from dumping the entire contents of the kettle into the
primary and pitching and I'm sure I'm not the only one that has done
that on more than one occasion. Your method of sealing the kettle
sounds good, what I had intended to do was to put the lid on the kettle
and let the CO2 burp the lid as needed.
|
| |
Date: 10 Dec 2006 07:04:31
From: Scott P
Subject: Re: Who's Fermenting in Their Brew Kettle?
|
The Artist Formally Known as Kap'n Salty said: "The main problem with
this is that you're fermenting on spent hops and a bunch of hot break,
but how much of a problem this will be is really up to your tastebuds
in the end."
I brew with pellet hops, and by whirlpooling then opening the valve at
the bottom of my kettle I "think" I was able to remove most of the
undesirable break and pellet residue from the kettle...but your right,
the taste shall tell!
Being naturaly impatient, I stole a taste the other day during primary
fermentation, and it tasted as expected - pretty good! I'll rack to
secondaries today.
Cheers!
Scott P.
Brewing in Boise, Idaho
|
| |
Date: 11 Dec 2006 16:31:44
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Who's Fermenting in Their Brew Kettle?
|
On 8 Dec 2006 19:24:59 -0800, <scottphillips1@hotmail.com > wrote:
> Last weekend I brewed 10 gallons of pale ale and my brewing, er,
> drinking assistant Clancy asked why not just ferment in the boiling
> kettle. After a bit of discussion and quite a few more homebrews, the
> die was cast and the yeast was pitched directly into the kettle.
It should work OK, it's been discussed on here before. The biggest
disadvantage is that you don't have any way of seperating the beer
from all of the break material. That's pretty far down on my list of
things to get stressed out about though.
John.
|
|
