Adding Sugar Once Fermentation's Started ....?

[Yeasty Rob]

To stop it happening the next time either take a small bit of beer out and bring it up to an almost boil and then dissolve the sugar in that and add the cup of beer syrup back to the beer in the fermenter.

This is how I've done it before although I didn't bother boiling it. Came out fine though and no eruption.

[EoinMag]

To stop it happening the next time either take a small bit of beer out and bring it up to an almost boil and then dissolve the sugar in that and add the cup of beer syrup back to the beer in the fermenter.

This is how I've done it before although I didn't bother boiling it. Came out fine though and no eruption.

Almost to the boil, I never like to boil anything that is going into my beer unless it's going into the main boil anyway and will have a break done on it and finings added, otherwise you might end up with hazes. I bring stuff to about 70c and then use it, enough to sterlise it.

[Yeasty Rob]

I bring stuff to about 70c and then use it, enough to sterlise it.

Oh no, you'll start the pedants off with the sanitise / sterilise argument again

[Ditch]

I think your approach is unsullied by the scientific, so why bother changing now

This is true. I rather take the approach that; If blokes living in mud huts could make it, a couple of thousand years ago? I reckon I should be able to muddle through!

Enjoying some absolutely cracking pints last night! FV four or five days, max. BK a couple of days. Tasted absolutely bloody superb! Ye know when ye have some in ye mouth and ye staring at the glass, thinking; 'Ooh, yeah!' Hard to know wether to hold what ye've got, or swallow that and gulp some more .....

[pablophoney]

Hi all,
I did this on my last brew, coz I had all sorts of problems with "clumping spray malt" , which in itself isn't a problem, but what happened was I found I could get the "clumps" to desolve if I gently rubbed them on the bottom of the sauce pan (with water in) with a wooden spatula, trouble was it was one of those shite cheap non-stick ones and the fecking coating started to come off and get stuck in the "clumps" which I then had to fish out and chuck.

So then I spent 24hrs thinking "It'll be alright, it'll be alright" , but by the next day the 60g spray malt I had probably lost turned into maybe 200g (in my tiny brain) and so fueled by fear, I thought in for a penny in for nugget, got me spatula and spare bag SM and dumped a goodly amount in and I quote "beat it until my skinny arms ached" . The ferment that was in full flow at the time, stopped briefly and started again for a further 4 days and turned out great, the sauce pan however made a satisfying clang as it bounced off the fence at the bottom of the garden !

[Ditch]

Pablophoney; Stop making hard work for yeself, man. Have a look at ~ it's either ~ the last page or two of my stuck thread, top of this board. Or Equipment. Either way; I explain how I have started using a Spreads Mixer (Plasterers Paddle, what ever they call them) for my entire FV process now.

In short; I chuck in the kit, dried malt, sugar and round about seven litres or so of cold water. Stick the mixer in, on a fast drill. Less than ten seconds of That treatment and I just set the FV aside for the foam to subside. Then I top up the water, pitch the yeast and get back on with my life.

Nothing remains. It acts like a Liquidiser. What's already liquid, it turns to froth

[Geezah]

Just got to be carefull with a plaster'ers paddle that you dont scratch up the insides of your FV too much and leave behind bacteria breeding grounds.

[Ditch]

Geezah; Has that happened to you then?

Mine has a rounded base. The 'Fins' don't reach beyond that. And I brace the drill against my knees to hold it steady.

Again ~ as I've said before, somewhere around here; Man was able to make beer K's of years ago. No " Star San " in them days. Probably used a cows bladder for a FV, rinsed out with hot water.

Seriously; I think we take it all too far, these days. Most of us, anyway. I mean, stop and think for a moment. Ye soak this in that. Spray one thing onto another. Wear a surgical mask ....? But: Who the hell ever " Sanitises " their Hands, for chrissake?! And yet; Nothing goes wrong!

When I first started making beer, we were told to 'Sanitise' (Though I'm sure it was " Sterilise ", in those days) with a quick slosh of bleachy water. Then sling a towel over the bucket we were fermenting in. Just to keep foreign bodies out of our beer.

Now people scramble and fight to pay out more and more money for 'better and better' chemical aids. They hammer 'air tight' lids onto their FV's and would cry themselves to sleep if they didn't have a chemical loaded Air Lock jammed in there.

Me? I just chill out and get on with it

[EliteEvil]

Don't you wash your hands when you brew? :O

I always assume that is the most important bit of cleaning, we carry far more bacteria than a scratched up FV. I also reckon airlocks are a pain in the arse, I jam my lid on as tight as it goes and put a saucepan lid on top of the air hole. I used an airlock once and just got soapy foam over the top of the bin

[EoinMag]

I think in reality Ditch, beer has come a long way since those soured farmers and caveman brews of which you speak. A lot of them would have been simlilar to Belgian lambics. But your point is taken and valid to some extent. I find the genius with star san is that when I am doing something with it I just dip my hands into the star san as I would a bottle or any other piece of "equipment" and it's job done.