Pics of the open fermentation as promised

[pmanz]

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vi8 ... &y=-gupkym

The white rags I draped around it to try to insulate the fermentor and boost the temp a degree or two. It started at around 60˚ and has drifted as high as 65˚ with an average of 62˚/63˚.

The smudges on the fermentor are the idophor I swabbed the whole thing down with.

I harvested about 2L of krausen off of the top tonight about 48 hrs after pitching.

I guess the final test will be to see how it tastes.

*I just realized this added a post instead of staying under the old thread, for the rest of the story look at the open fermentation thread*

[meisterofpuppets]

Just one question: Why?

I mean why would you risk contamination with an open fermentation? What are you trying to accomplish by having an open ferment?

[BadRock]

Ask the English!


There is a great article in the July/August '06 issue of BYO

Here is another good link to answer that question...
http://hbd.org/brewery/library/OpenFerm.html

[baltobrewer]

Pretty cool!!! Gotta tell ya, that first pic is a bit nasty. Looks like week-old cow brains, but I bet you got some good top-croppers out of there.

Not to pry, but did you not have a more sanitary area to do it in? The corner you have it in looks a bit, um.....rustic, to say the least....

[Thirsty Mallard]

Just one question: Why?

C'mon meister... "why"?

Because we can.

Where is your homebrewing spirit??

[pmanz]

In Eric Warners German Wheat Beer book he says that the majority of German wheat beer breweries still believe in open fermentation (I've since found out that a lot of English breweries are big proponents of it as well). YouTube actually has video of the Schneider Weiß breweries open fermentation room.

One of the theories is that with a fermentation vessel with a shallower aspect ratio there is less pressure on the yeast and it performs better in regards to ester production. I probably butchered that but if you do a little looking around you'll find a better explanation of the benefits. I can easily harvest healthy yeast for the next batch (I've also read that you can go well over a hundred generations pulling yeast off of the top vs. no more than 10 pulling from the bottom of a conical). One of the other big advantages in my opinion is that with this yeast which usually goes ape-shit on me it's actually easier to manage since it all stayed in the vessel this time. I don't haver to throw out a blow-off tube that I can't properly clean every time I use it or clean blow off material out of my fermentation fridge every time I brew. I'm also a huge wheat beer fan and wanted to give it a try. I wouldn't ever try this with a lager.

As for the space, yeah I know. I was worried. I was going to sanitize my fermentation fridge but I decided to brew a Schwarz beer at the last minute and need to worry about the temp control on that one more, and the basement was hovering around 64˚ so the Weizen got bumped. I live in a 130 year old home that I'm currently renovating and the basement can be pretty creepy looking (think Silence of the Lambs) but I've been able to clean it well enough to brew in it. Like I said, I'll know in a day or two when it goes into a brite-corny whether or not to dump it. I took a gravity reading last night and it was around 1.030. It tasted pretty good as well.

I'll let you know how it turns out.

Prost!

[DannyW]

Don't Schneider Weiß and Anchor and probably even those grotty old English breweries that do open fermentation do them in clean rooms with filtered air and such? Even though Doc's brew room is so equipped, I'm guessing yours is not?

If you don't want to culture up whatever happens to be living in your basement, you might want to throw a freshly laundered towel or something over the top until the krausen forms.

[pmanz]

I know the room looks pretty skeevy but before I ever start a brew day down there I open the windows and use one of those chemical mixers you can put on a hose for weed killer and blast the walls and floor of the room with a mix of bleach and water. Then I hose it all down with 180˚ water out of my heating system. It all gets pumped out by my sump-pump. It works rather well. A coat of masonry paint will do wonders whenever I get around to it.

Part of the reason I pitched as much yeast as I could (200 ml of what sits at the bottom of a White Labs tube) was that I had also read that you need to to take off quickly to get the krausen on there for protection.

I'm going to try to brew weekly for 6 weeks or so to see if any problems develop stepping up from 2 batches each of Dunkle Weizen to a Weizen bock and then a Rauch Weizen Dopplebock. I think if it holds out for 6 weeks I will at least proved something to myself if nothing else.

Prost!