Straining? (and some other questions)

Correct!

DON'T STRAIN! You'll oxidize the beer and give it a "wet cardboard" flavor. Whatever is floating will either be left behind when you siphonm to glass or fall out as it sits in glass.

Not necessary....maybe they were referring to the corn sugar you use to prime the bottles. Malto dextrine is something different.

-------->Denny

That was me, I was referring to it because I use it in my stouts to get some good head/body (sounds kinda dirty), my recent incarnation Im using quite a bit, going for a "chewy" type of stout.

While I have your attention Denny, I recently experimented with liquid yeast (London Ale Yeast), made an IPA with it, it fermented very slow and weak ( OG 60 to 20 in 7 days), I moved the IPA to a secondary, then repitched the yeast in said Imperial Stout. While out at work today (pitched yesterday) the lid was blown clear off my bucket, knocking over and breaking a pint glass in the vicinty, blowing the airlock out, and getting jet black beer sprayed all over the wall. The gravity dropped from 86 to 32 in less than 24 hours. Theres no real temperature difference between the two (maybe 1 or 2 degrees colder), but holy cow did it take off in this imperial! Any ideas what happened? Oh, and since the IPA has been moved to the secondary the airlock started bubbling a little again, but the IPA is real cloudy.

Now, if I can find the fargin cable for the camera I'll have pictures of the disaster to post, the foam was 1 - 2 inches above the top of the bucket! And I just painted the wall last month!

Ouch! That sucks... but I'm curious, why was the lid blown off the bucket, if the airlock allows gas to escape and not accumulate too much pressure inside the bucket? (wanna make sure the same thing doesn't happen to my stout, hah, my parents would not be happy...)

Sounds like you had a sufficient amount of yeast for the Stout and maybe only pitched a vial or smack pack with the IPA?

_Randal

If I had to guess, I'd say you didn't make a starter for the IPA..correct? That would explain the slow, weak fermentation. So when you put the impy on the yeast from the IPA, you had a huge amount of yeast (like you _should_ have for the IPA).

------------>Denny

The lids blow off because the airlocks get clogged with "stuff" - hop residue and other stuff in the foam. That's why some folks use a large piece of tube inserted into water (a blowoff hose) for the early part of the primary and then go to an airlock later. Others ferment the early part with the lid off or loosely on, then tighten down after a couple days. Another solution is to use a bigger fermenter than your amount of beer, ie., a 7 gallon buck for 5 gallons of beer, a 6.5 gallon carboy for 5 gallons of beer, etc. (and cross your fingers).

Derric

I did make a starter for the IPA, but I think I pitched it too early (i.e. not at "high krausen"). This stout is still going unbelievably strong, my fear now is that I'm going to have too much of an alcohol smell/taste to it, but Im planning on dry hopping and hoping that helps. Im almost thinking it might be a good idea to repitch a little from the stout back to the IPA, altho the IPA is still working, quite weakly. My best guess also is that I pitched the yeast while the brew was too warm.

I'll send you some pics, I tried to post them to the group but apparently they didn't make it.

Wheter you pitch the starter at high krausen makes virtually no difference. Personally, I let mine ferment out so I can decant the spent wort and then pitch. How big of a starter did you make and how much did you aerate?

Thanks, but unnecessary...at least for me.

----------->Denny

I did roughly a half gallon starter, and could have had my amount of extract wrong (used about 1/2 lb wheat dme). I *think* I aerated if well, shook the hell out of it for a minute or two.

Well, I tried sending em before I read this, hope you don't mind. People just seem to get a kick out of seeing the stout sprayed all over the walls.

And an update. The stout is now at roughly 28-30 gravity I switched it to a carboy and the airlock is bubbling nicely, the IPA is at 18 and still fermenting (little to no bubbles), and both taste mighty fine.