I brewed a batch last Saturday, but it was unplanned; I was supposed to mow the grass, but it was raining and my wife and kids were gone for the day, so what's a guy to do?? -- BREW! But this was a last minute decision after I had finished a few other chores and had already had a few brewskis, so my judgment probably wasn't the best and I ended up combining too many variables with my experiment. Now if it turns out lousy, I won't really know the cause, but I'll share anyway.
First, I still haven't gotten off of my lazy ass to finish my all-grain equipment, so I'm still doing kits. My last IPA that I fermented in my Mr. Beer turned out pretty good -- probably due to the improved techniques that I learned here (thank you to all who have helped with great advice). Anyway, I decided to pick up another kit last week without any particular idea when I'd use it, along with a bit of DME (damned expensive stuff at the LHBS -- $3.95/lb or $10.95/3 lbs, so I just bought one pound). Besides that, on Friday I happened to pick up another free 5-gallon food-grade bucket and lid from the bakery section of Walmart.
So here is my experiment:
1.) I brewed another "Cooper's IPA" which has 1.7kg/3.75lbs of pre-hopped extract. The instructions say to add 1kg/2.2# of "brewing sugar", and that is for a 5 gallon batch. But since I decided to ferment in my new bucket which is only 5 gallons, I aimed for a 4 gallon batch to give it some headroom. PLUS, I decided to complicate my experiment by adding half DME and half table-sugar ('cause Denny Conn says it won't make much difference, I think, up to 20% fermentables), and a half-pound of sugar is pretty close to that, so I added it plus a half-pound of DME. That is just about the right _proportion_ of fermentables per the instructions, but of course the pre-added hops were intended for a 5 gallon batch and are now concentrated into a 4 gallon batch, so I expect that this will be noticeably hoppier.2.) A few minutes after the boil began, I took a small portion of the wort and cooled it off in a separate sanitized plastic bottle; I chilled it with some ice water to drop it to room temp. I then added an 8 gram packet of Cooper's yeast that came with the kit; this was to rehydrate it, and just about the time that I dumped it into the wort, a little voice in my head was questioning me: "Don't you remember reading something somewhere that said that dried yeast should be rehydrated only in water, because of the osmotic pressure of wort?" Anyway, it was too late then, so I didn't bother trying to find an answer and just hoped for the best. Anyway, I periodically shook the hell out of the starter until I eventually pitched it hours later, and it was gasing well, so I guess I didn't hurt it too much.
3.) I decided to try, for the first time, fermenting in a bucket instead of one of my carboys, so I just set the lid on the bucket, without snapping it in place. I was debating whether or not to skim the kraeusen later (I did, but only after most of it already dropped back into the beer, so I pretty much missed the boat on that one, but I digress). Anyway, I aerated by pouring the wort between buckets (which I have since read is not a very effective method, but it has always worked for me). Well, right before pitching I got the brainstorm (perhaps influenced by my drinking) that I should drop the temp of the beer to something below the ideal ferment temp of 65F/18C, and then let it gradually rise to that temp and the yeast could start doing their thing as soon as they feel warm enough. I therefore stuck the whole bucket inside my chest freezer for a couple of hours, and it felt nice and cold when I removed it (misplaced my thermometer, so I couldn't check the temp, but it was definitely colder than other objects at room temp -- I put my hand on the counter and then on the side of the bucket to check). Without giving a second thought to the yeast starter being at room temp, I dumped it into the cold wort, no doubt being unnecessarily cruel to my poor little yeasties. But despite the abuse, the next morning there was a small head of foam on top, so I guess I didn't kill them off.4.) At that point, I decided to try to maintain the temp by sitting the bucket down inside my ice-cube ice chest. It isn't quite deep enough to be able to shut the lid, so I removed the lid and covered it with a towel, but first I put some cool water and some ice cubes into the ice chest. Later, I finally skimmed a small amount of kraeusen off the top, but most of it had already settled and dissolved; I know this because I couldn't resist the temptation to peek under the lid a couple of times, and at one point the kraeusen was almost to the top of the bucket..
5.) On Tuesday I decided to rack to a carboy for secondary and/or to finish the very end of primary, and there was some trub in the bottom of the bucket. I realize that this was very early to rack, but I'm in a hurry to get this stuff into some bottles to begin carbonating because I have a picnic to go to in two weeks from this Saturday. I tasted it when racking, and there are no signs of any off flavors that I can detect, and no signs of any cidery flavor, either. I now notice some additional trub in the carboy, and no activity at all in the air lock, but I'll let it sit until Monday (only 6 days in secondary) when I'll check it with a hydrometer and then presumably bottle on that day. It will then be in the bottles for 12 days before we will drink them; in the past my bottles usually carbonate in just a week, but I'm allowing a little extra time to be sure.Assuming that I was sanitary enough, and didn't contaminate it when 'peeking', is there any chance that this will be reasonably drinkable? I know: only time will tell.
Cheers.
Bill Velek