SOGOAK
Grandmaster Brewer
I was snooping about Preston's site and one of the recipees said "frequent fermenter agitation"
As a Noob my Standard MO has been to put my beers down and wait.
Well I have this cranberry something or other. It was supposed to be a Lambic, But I didn't realize how critical BRETT is to that. Doh! So it'll be a Cranberrry Abbey as it is on Wyeast 1214.
So a few weeks ago I racked it onto 3lbs of cranberrys. The berries were fresh, washed, frozen, thawed, and carefully jammed into the carboy. (Bucket next time) My fermentation area has been colder than planed and I wonder if I need to agitate the fermenter or heat them up a bit or something. I'm thinking a heating pad between the two fermenters in the boxes (initially to fend off light) with some blankets or towels around them to keep the warmth in. Maybe do an hour or two on and off while i'm home.
I love glass because I can watch. So I see a lot of cranberrys floating, seemingly doing nothing. 1214 is a late starter. But I wonder if it is asleep.
Next to it is one of those nut brown kits. I bought that with my starter gear, shelved it as "too easy" but then realized it should be brewed instead of letting it go bad. I lieu of that wimpy muntons packet, I put US05 on it and it still hase krausen after over 3 weeks.
I'm actually excited about the later. I think a nice long ferment will be good. This is also my first experiment without a secondary. I was told over and over to skip that on simple beer.
So with that ramble the two questions are:
-Shake the berrys?
-would you mess with heat. Ambient temp is 54 now. The beer is in glass and in its box.
As a Noob my Standard MO has been to put my beers down and wait.
Well I have this cranberry something or other. It was supposed to be a Lambic, But I didn't realize how critical BRETT is to that. Doh! So it'll be a Cranberrry Abbey as it is on Wyeast 1214.
So a few weeks ago I racked it onto 3lbs of cranberrys. The berries were fresh, washed, frozen, thawed, and carefully jammed into the carboy. (Bucket next time) My fermentation area has been colder than planed and I wonder if I need to agitate the fermenter or heat them up a bit or something. I'm thinking a heating pad between the two fermenters in the boxes (initially to fend off light) with some blankets or towels around them to keep the warmth in. Maybe do an hour or two on and off while i'm home.
I love glass because I can watch. So I see a lot of cranberrys floating, seemingly doing nothing. 1214 is a late starter. But I wonder if it is asleep.
Next to it is one of those nut brown kits. I bought that with my starter gear, shelved it as "too easy" but then realized it should be brewed instead of letting it go bad. I lieu of that wimpy muntons packet, I put US05 on it and it still hase krausen after over 3 weeks.
I'm actually excited about the later. I think a nice long ferment will be good. This is also my first experiment without a secondary. I was told over and over to skip that on simple beer.
So with that ramble the two questions are:
-Shake the berrys?
-would you mess with heat. Ambient temp is 54 now. The beer is in glass and in its box.