Brewer’s Cache

After two weeks in the primary fermenter, I racked the Frozen Oak Brown Ale off to a glass carboy.

I gave myself quite a scare the night before racking when I burped the fermenter and thought I smelled something “off” from the airlock. I got myself all worked up expecting to find mold or something growning on my beer. I replayed my brewing process and any my yeast collection process over and over in my head–I was sure that I screwed up my santitation somewhere. But all was well the next day when I popped the lid off of the primary; all I could smell was good beer.

I maintained the primary fermentation temperature at 68 for the entire two weeks.  I did catch and correct some temperature swings during the primary, but the temperature was never more than 2 degrees from my target.   To ensure the proper temperature, I dropped the room temperature to 60 degrees during active fermentation.  After fermenation had subsided, I wrapped the fermenter with an electric blanket and attempted to regulate it by adjusting the dial on the blanket.   I checked the temperature about four times a day and made corrections when needed.  I hope all of that attention will pay off; I am sure it will.

The London Ale Wyeast really did its job! The yeast attinutated the beer down to 1.08 from 1.49, thats the lowest final gravity that I have had so far.  I collected two samples of this yeast for future propogation.   The first collection sample was gathered at 48 hours during peak fermentation; only a small sample was collected.   I then collected a larger sample from the bottom of the primary.  I will write up my collection processes if it turns out that I was successful and did not contaminate the yeast strain.

I will now give the brown ale another week or two in the secondary.

Popularity: unranked [?]