• Fermentation stall with US-05

    From Joerg@21:1/5 to All on Wed Oct 30 07:15:35 2019
    Two weeks ago I brewed a Barley Wine. At 1.100 OG it would count as a
    big beer. I used US-05 in the form of 1/4 of the trub from a Wheat Beer. Fermentation was vigorous, the first three days with a blow-off tube,
    then airlock and after a total of 7-8 days the airlock activity tapered off.

    Yesterday I transferred it to secondary and to my surprise the gravity
    still clocked in at 1.028. Normally my Barley Wine finishes a tad above
    1.020. Looks like the ABV that had developed so far may have killed the
    US-05 yeast cells even though it should be able to do >10%.

    Since I am brewing a light Belgian this morning I'll sprinkle in 1/10th
    oz (partial pack) of dry BE-256 for good measure. Hoping that gets it
    down another 0.010 to the 1.020 region. Any thoughts?

    Here's hoping the electricity for my electric burners will remain up
    today. This being Northern California with a rickety PG&E grid one never
    knows. We just got it back, for a while.

    --
    Regards, Joerg

    http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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  • From Baloonon@21:1/5 to Joerg on Fri Nov 1 03:31:49 2019
    Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com> wrote:

    Two weeks ago I brewed a Barley Wine. At 1.100 OG it would count as a
    big beer. I used US-05 in the form of 1/4 of the trub from a Wheat
    Beer. Fermentation was vigorous, the first three days with a blow-off
    tube, then airlock and after a total of 7-8 days the airlock activity
    tapered off.

    Yesterday I transferred it to secondary and to my surprise the gravity
    still clocked in at 1.028. Normally my Barley Wine finishes a tad
    above 1.020. Looks like the ABV that had developed so far may have
    killed the US-05 yeast cells even though it should be able to do >10%.

    Sometimes they're not killed, they've just flocced out.

    Since I am brewing a light Belgian this morning I'll sprinkle in
    1/10th oz (partial pack) of dry BE-256 for good measure. Hoping that
    gets it down another 0.010 to the 1.020 region. Any thoughts?

    I'm sure it will be fine. If nothing happens, a gentle stir that doesn't
    add O2 will often get the yeast distributed back into the beer and back
    into action. Or maybe it's just done.

    Here's hoping the electricity for my electric burners will remain up
    today. This being Northern California with a rickety PG&E grid one
    never knows. We just got it back, for a while.

    That is seriously scary stuff. I visited friends once in Colorado who had a wildfire come within about a half mile from their house, and it was still active about ten miles away. You could see the smoke and watch a steady
    stream of helicopters flying overhead carrying water.

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  • From Joerg@21:1/5 to Baloonon on Sun Nov 3 08:04:51 2019
    On 2019-10-31 20:31, Baloonon wrote:
    Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com> wrote:

    Two weeks ago I brewed a Barley Wine. At 1.100 OG it would count as a
    big beer. I used US-05 in the form of 1/4 of the trub from a Wheat
    Beer. Fermentation was vigorous, the first three days with a blow-off
    tube, then airlock and after a total of 7-8 days the airlock activity
    tapered off.

    Yesterday I transferred it to secondary and to my surprise the gravity
    still clocked in at 1.028. Normally my Barley Wine finishes a tad
    above 1.020. Looks like the ABV that had developed so far may have
    killed the US-05 yeast cells even though it should be able to do >10%.

    Sometimes they're not killed, they've just flocced out.


    I've tried shaking and rocking, no dice.


    Since I am brewing a light Belgian this morning I'll sprinkle in
    1/10th oz (partial pack) of dry BE-256 for good measure. Hoping that
    gets it down another 0.010 to the 1.020 region. Any thoughts?

    I'm sure it will be fine. If nothing happens, a gentle stir that doesn't
    add O2 will often get the yeast distributed back into the beer and back
    into action. Or maybe it's just done.


    Right, it's probably done. I sprinkled in some BE-256 dry yeast which is
    very high-ABV tolerant. It's been a few days now and not one lick of
    airlock activity has resulted.


    Here's hoping the electricity for my electric burners will remain up
    today. This being Northern California with a rickety PG&E grid one
    never knows. We just got it back, for a while.

    That is seriously scary stuff. I visited friends once in Colorado who had a wildfire come within about a half mile from their house, and it was still active about ten miles away. You could see the smoke and watch a steady stream of helicopters flying overhead carrying water.


    We had one 1/4mi away. Had to stay indoors in order not to become doused
    with the red fire retardant dropped from the plane. Another fire farther
    away was more scary. Debris from it fell from the sky and when it hit
    the pool it hissed. That was when we decided to plunk down serious money
    for a metal roof.

    Our house and property is quite well fire-proofed. Metal roof, manicured vegetation and all. My main worry would be the wooden deck, that has to
    be soaked when there is a fire. Also, a lot of neigbors are totally
    sloppy about fire safety, they just don't seem to care and the fire
    marshal doesn't give a hoot either. That is what makes disasters so much
    worse.

    --
    Regards, Joerg

    http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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  • From Baloonon@21:1/5 to Joerg on Sun Nov 3 18:30:42 2019
    Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com> wrote

    We had one 1/4mi away. Had to stay indoors in order not to become
    doused with the red fire retardant dropped from the plane. Another
    fire farther away was more scary. Debris from it fell from the sky and
    when it hit the pool it hissed. That was when we decided to plunk down serious money for a metal roof.

    I once was about a mile from where a lightning strike started a fire and
    had to hike fast to get to the car, at which point sizzling ash was
    falling. Later I could see the fire from some miles away and it had spread
    at that point to several hundred acres. It's scary how fast they can
    spread.

    Our house and property is quite well fire-proofed. Metal roof,
    manicured vegetation and all. My main worry would be the wooden deck,
    that has to be soaked when there is a fire. Also, a lot of neigbors
    are totally sloppy about fire safety, they just don't seem to care and
    the fire marshal doesn't give a hoot either. That is what makes
    disasters so much worse.

    It's definitely worth getting the community organized to push for more enforcement. It's pretty astonishing to me how many people can be in
    denial, but then a lot of people where hurricanes hit are in denial about flooding too.

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  • From Joerg@21:1/5 to Baloonon on Mon Nov 4 15:05:31 2019
    On 2019-11-03 10:30, Baloonon wrote:
    Joerg <news@analogconsultants.com> wrote

    We had one 1/4mi away. Had to stay indoors in order not to become
    doused with the red fire retardant dropped from the plane. Another
    fire farther away was more scary. Debris from it fell from the sky and
    when it hit the pool it hissed. That was when we decided to plunk down
    serious money for a metal roof.

    I once was about a mile from where a lightning strike started a fire and
    had to hike fast to get to the car, at which point sizzling ash was
    falling. Later I could see the fire from some miles away and it had spread
    at that point to several hundred acres. It's scary how fast they can
    spread.


    Yes, one has to be fast. Also a good idea to keep an eye out for large
    bodies of water to dive into or float down in. That is what I do when
    mountain biking in remote areas, keeping a mental note where that was so
    I can backtrack in case a fire approaches fast. In some canyons you
    wouldn't have a chance to get out in time.

    It's similar to large buildings, airplanes and the like where I try to
    keep a mental note where the emergency exits are.


    Our house and property is quite well fire-proofed. Metal roof,
    manicured vegetation and all. My main worry would be the wooden deck,
    that has to be soaked when there is a fire. Also, a lot of neigbors
    are totally sloppy about fire safety, they just don't seem to care and
    the fire marshal doesn't give a hoot either. That is what makes
    disasters so much worse.

    It's definitely worth getting the community organized to push for more enforcement. It's pretty astonishing to me how many people can be in
    denial, but then a lot of people where hurricanes hit are in denial about flooding too.


    Yup. Way back when a French expert had told the decision makers in New
    Orleans not to build anything that size so close to the water. They did
    anyhow. Then Katrina happened.

    In Japan there are signs chiseled in rock (!) way above sea level in the
    hills saying something like "Do not build anything below here or the sea
    will some day take it away". Obviously the forefathers didn't want those
    signs to become unreadable for a long time, and for a very good reason.
    Then people built stuff at sea level anyhow. Among other things the
    Fukushima nuclear power station ...

    Back to brewing, on transferring the Barley Wine I had a 1/3 of a gallon
    of overflow that didn't fit into the secondary. That went into a glass
    gallon jug. In a month or so I'll open that and take a sip, see how it
    tastes. Maybe two sips. Heck, maybe all of it. No driving that night
    since that had clocked in at 1.100 OG.

    --
    Regards, Joerg

    http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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