can we have more photos and an explanation of your setup? My beer brewing is still very much at the "throw a coopers kit in a big plastic tub and hope for the best" stage.
Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider
A community dedicated to homebrewing beer, mead, wine, cider and everything in between. If it ferments, bring it over here.
Share recipes, ideas, ask for feedback or just advice.
Some starting points for beginners:
Quick and diry guide to fermenting fruit - cider and wine
I can't speak to the steps outlined in the post, as much of that is also beyond anything I've done, but the kit pictured is a Fermzilla pressure fermenter with what looks like a hop bong upgrade attached to the top, though the hop bong looks closer to the one in the description video thumbnail than the picture in the product listing.
Not affiliated with the company or the products, just where i found the gear after a quick look around:
yep, Since I'm in Australia the kegland products are much more readily available and affordable than most other similar brands, so that's what most of my gear is.
I'll take some photos of the next brew and do a write up since I just got a new brewer (Brewzilla 35L Gen4.1) and will be trying a slightly different setup and plumbing arrangement for the first time.
This brew and the previous ones were in a Brewzilla 35L Gen3.1.1, counterflow chiller, no real care taken with trub management, I just get it all into the fermenter and let it drop out naturally. all grain, so no malt extracts in most recipes.
The fermenter is a Fermzilla 27L tri-conical, with a collection vessel at the bottom which I mostly dont use, I just let trub (all the gunk leftover) and hop matter collect there like a sump, I keep it attached cause I use the bottom port to pump some c02 through occasionally if I need to break things up or give it a stir. on top is a hop-bong which is a way to add hops or other additions under c02 pressure, without opening the fermenter, it acts as an airlock, add hops through the top, attach c02 (or loop through the fermentation gas to do it for free) to purge out the air and to match the pressure, then open the valve and the hops drop down. It was a quarter the price of a "proper" stainless conical FV, and does most of the same things, so for small scale brewing it's a good option, and you get to have a look at the brew while it's going, though it stays dark most of the time, too much light can affect the quality and flavour.
I have a fermentation fridge, I started with a cheap old fridge plugged into a separate controller, but "invested" in a proper fermentation chamber with is computer controlled and can adjust temperature in profiles and ramps as needed, either manually or based on gravity readings automatically. I get temperature and a rough gravity reading live during fermentation with a Pill, that connects to the fridge and to the internet so everything is logged, graphed, and I know exactly what is going on.
There are plenty of great videos on youtube about how to use an all-in-one style brewer, and they are a great way to upgrade from stovetop brew-in-a-bag all grain / partial mash or non-kit extract brewing, which is usually the next step after your current "throw the extract and water into a tub and wait" brewing.
If you are comfortable with coopers kits, try adding some extra hops, doing a grain steep with some crystal/caramel grains or small partial mash in a cheesecloth bag, or talk to a homebrew shop for some more interesting extracts to use (dry or liquid) to amp-up/tweak the kits.
Wow that’s some setup you have there!
Oh my god that fermenter is gorgeous.
they are fun to look at when fully active, you dont get that with a stainless FV. gotta keep it dark most of the time though, too much light aint good for the beer.
This is what it looks like when the yeast really gets going (immich share link).
Do you ferment under pressure?
usually at least a little bit. this one was pretty much open, tiny bit of pressure from the kegs attached to the gas port.
generally once the krausen starts to drop I ramp it up to 10-15psi.but this time I manually gassed the fermenter up to 20psi at cold crash to get some carbonation started.
I like using pressure cause I use fermentation c02 to purge and sanitise kegs, so it's great having the kegs not only c02 purged for free, they are pressurised too! I take the unrestricted gas from the fermenter, into a keg full of sanitizer (gas port) then the liquid port of that goes to the gas port of another keg so when it starts producing c02 the liquid gets pumped out to the next one, only thing I have to remember is the final keg in the chain needs to be hooked up the other way to avoid dumping that sanitiser everwhere.. which I have done.. twice now.
I've been meaning to do that but it's a bit of juggling with the timing to have everything ready at the exact same time.
I've read there are clear benefits to yeast metabolism up to about 10psi. Anything above that has diminishing returns. But another added benefit as you mentioned is, of course, self carbonating. It's so much easier this way, lol.
This quick throw together was actually so successful and popular that the next brew is a refined version of this, with a more fully flavoured base malt, slightly more of everything overall a tweaked water profile to be a bit sharper, using London Fog or another juicy yeast, rather than the Voss. a sharper water profile should make up some of the extra character voss gave it.
I quite like Voss for Neipas since the extra sweetness and body can round over and balance out the bitter orange pith flavour it tends to throw around but in a dryer pale it stands out a bit much.
I’d love to throw a bunch of monster and some yeast in there.
