To drop or not to drop that is the question

[Muttley]

As a relatively inexperienced homebrewer I have always followed Graham Wheeler's recommendation to drop after about 36 - 48 hours from pitching. I wondered what other homebrewers do and whether or not this is necessary.

Also, I live in a hard water area and always do a boil and treatment with calcium sulphate - again is this necessary?

Does anyone use the Brupaks water treatments CRS and DLS? If so are they any good? Finally, is it recommended to sparge the spent hops after the boil or is this likey to result in a cloudy beer due to extracted proteins?

If anyone could help me with these questions I'd be very grateful. Thanks.

[Garth]

I used to drop my beers but after a while I realised it was doing this that was causing high FG and a couple of stuck fermentations, you are removing a lot of the yeast by doing this.

I simply do a secondary in my cornies now, once fermentation is completely finished. Then I bottle or serve from the cornie. The beer is just as bright.

[awalker]

I do the same as Garth
Because it gives better final fermentation SG and cos I'm lazy

[Muttley]

Thanks Garth and awalker.

I have found that occasionally I get a stuck fermentation as well and then I pitch in some fresh yeast to finish the job - probably not ideal! If you don't drop, do you bother to skim the trub off the head? I've thought about trying this but have been worried about skimming most of the yeast off too.

[mysterio]

I don't touch the beer until it has finished fermenting, leave it for few days then rack to secondary/keg. Some ale yeasts are 'bottom-fermenting' (S04, Nottingham), i.e. they gather underneath the beer instead of on top, so dropping mid-fermentation can remove most of the yeast resulting in high terminal gravities.

[Gurgeh]

ditto here.

I leave in FV under airlock for 10 days. then bottle/cornie. I harvest the yeast off the top after 48hrs.

SOme pretty damned experienced brewers I meet with will advocate dropping to get a cleaner tasting beer, but they are very very old and have a sweet tooth

I don't drop because i can't be arsed, don't want to add a further opportunity for oxidation/infection, like a low FG and am not convinced I can tell the difference in 'cleanness'.

I'm in a hardwater area too. I treat my water pre-mash with half a campden tablet. that is all, pre-strike. Then I put a couple of tea-spoons of 'PH 5.2' (available from H&G and other HBS's) in my mash and that's that.

CRS/DLS are very good, if you can be bothered to do the calculations and can reliably measure the small quantities involved. instructions are on the brupaks website for the calculations.

Few people as far as i know sparge hops. just account for the wort lost earlier in your process (hops suck up ~0.7L per 100g).
fwiw i sparged hops just the once. I got a bit more beer which was slightly weaker. some of the trub went into the fermentor. swings and roundabouts but pretty small ones. not really worth the bother.

[Aleman]

I wouldn't drop at all.

Having said that, If you have a true top working yeast, and, If you pitch a damn large qty of it into well aerated wort, and, If you can drop the wort before the first visible signs of fermentation, then you should have no problems at all by dropping

[delboy]

A bit of a related question im going to do a brew tonight (lager) i was planning on putting it into a fermenter in a fridge overnight to get it down to 8-10 C and also so a lot of the break material can drop out. Then i was going to transfer it to another fermenter hopefully leaving behind a lot of the break material and then pitch the yeast.
Is that the way to go about things? Is it worth the effort?

[Maltloaf]

Just to prove there's more than one hymn sheet:
I drop every time. From open bucket into airlocked fermenter. Never stalls.

Make sure you get it as soon as the yeast starts slowing down (when the head has stopped growing and is beginning to subside), this is generally 24-36 hours for me. Maybe 48 if it was a slow starter.

Whether this makes cleaner tasting beer or not I don't know, I do it so the beer is safe under an airlock and I can choose to keg/bottle any random time after it's finished.

Nothing to add to the other questions, apart from I live in a hard water area too and I've stuck to campden tablets and a hard boil for all the brewing water. It's worked ok so far, apart from one recent upcock where some chlorine got through somehow or other.


Cheers,
ML.

(Sorry Daab, you know I can't let this one lie!)

[prolix]

Muttley living in Grays, Essex the water is hard as, I boil my water to get rid of the carbonates then treat with 10g of CaSO4 and 10g CaCl for 50l (ales) and a campden tablet. It might be psychosomatic but it has improved them, used to used CRS and DLS but decided just adding stuff was probably not going to improve the water.

[prolix]

supose I could use CRS and half the CaSO4 and the CaCl but he boil time gives me time to mow the lawn before mashing

[Muttley]

Guys,
Thanks for all the advice and information. I'll not bother dropping on my next brew and I'll try the CRS and DLS treatment. One more thing, is using Protafloc tablets better than Irish moss or are they much the same?

Thanks again.

[Garth]

supposedly Whirlfloc is the better one, it seems to be the preferred one on here, followed by Protofloc then Irish moss.

[Aleman]

The problem comes indifferent suppliers calling the same things by different names . . . Brupaks Whirlfloc is what Murphy's call Protofloc (Which I use), Brupaks protafloc is (I suspect) the Murphy's protofloc powder mixed with an inert filler so that it can be measured easily to use in a standard HB brew length (Protofloc is used at a rate of 1-2 tablets per 100L, so in a 25L brew 1/2 a tablet is required . . .)

[Aleman]

Can you confirm that the stuff Hop and Grape sells as Whirlfloc is the same as Brupaks protofloc and therefore the same as Protofloc Tablets ?

I couldn't hand on heart say they are the same, however I have had some whirlfloc from H&G and they look and function exactly the same as the protofloc I have from Murphy's. Given the Kettle Finings that are available from Murphy's it is more than likely they are the same . . . unless the H&G ones are Koppacleer . . . . Which I may get to see in August. The Brupaks Protofloc certainly looks to be the protofloc powder mixed with some white inert powder