Basic brewing steps, principles and equipment selection of home brewed beer Part2
This is an ancient, energy-saving, but effective way. Stir the wort counterclockwise vigorously to form a vortex, and negative pressure will be generated in the middle of the vortex. The impurities in the wort will gradually concentrate in the center of the barrel and pile up into a small hill. Afterwards, collecting wort from the vicinity of the barrel wall can fully avoid the problem of impurities blocking the wort collection pipeline. The counterclockwise is because we are in the northern hemisphere, and the counterclockwise rotation will be more durable and energy-saving under the influence of the earth's rotation, which will be more obvious in large equipment.
Home brewing equipment selection: long handle (pay attention to disinfection)
In this step, we need to quickly reduce the wort temperature below 25°C. There are four reasons for cooling hot wort: first, high-temperature wort is easy to oxidize, which affects the flavor; second, hot wort within a certain temperature range is easy to be infected with bacteria; third, when yeast is added to high-temperature wort, the yeast will be directly scalded ; Fourth, the condensed solids will precipitate after the wort is cooled to further clarify the wine body and remove off-flavors.
Home brewing equipment options: cooling coils, plate heat exchangers, countercurrent coils
Advantages: cheap; easy to use, no risk of clogging; easy to clean; no filtering problems of condensate, because the coil can be cooled first and then spin down.
Disadvantages: long cooling time and poor effect. It takes at least 45 minutes to cool 20L wort with a coil tube. It needs to be used in combination with a frozen mineral water bottle, which increases the risk of bacteria and oxidation, and consumes energy.
Advantages: The cooling effect is excellent. If the cooling water is cooled in advance, the cooling time is basically the time for the wort to move from the boiling barrel to the fermentation barrel, which is estimated to be about 5 minutes.
Disadvantages: expensive; if the rotation is not complete, it will start to cool down and there will be a risk of clogging. Once clogged, it can only be soaked in hot alkali, and then washed with water; the cleaning after each use requires backwashing, which is expected to be more expensive than the coil Three to five minutes; there may be a problem of filtering condensate.
Principle: The hot wort and cooling water form countercurrent and full contact in a very, very thin and flat environment, which greatly increases the heat exchange area and improves the efficiency of heat exchange. Due to the countercurrent flow, the hot wort is getting colder and colder at the same time, the cooling water in contact with each other is getting colder and colder, so as to achieve the purpose of instantaneous cooling.
The lower the temperature of the cooling water and the faster the flow rate relative to the hot wort, the better the cooling effect.
Advantages: the cooling effect is very good, not much worse than the plate replacement; relatively speaking, it is not as easy to block as the plate replacement; cleaning is slightly easier than the plate replacement.
Disadvantages: large size, occupying space; high price, no advantage over plate replacement; also has some clogging risks; also requires backflushing when cleaning; there may also be condensate filtration problems.
8. Yeast inoculation and oxygenation
Yeast fermentation needs to go through a process of first aerobic and then anaerobic. The aerobic stage allows the yeast to multiply enough for fermentation, and the reproduction of the yeast requires the participation of a large amount of oxygen; the anaerobic stage is the stage where the yeast really plays the role of fermentation, in an anaerobic environment (anaerobic is due to the early reproduction The oxygen has been exhausted in the stage), the survival of yeast needs to consume sugar, and emit alcohol and carbon dioxide. These two metabolites of yeast are the main components of beer. The purpose of oxygenation is to increase the oxygen content of wort, which is more conducive to the rapid reproduction of yeast.
Home brewing equipment selection: flower, bird, fish and insect oxygenation pump (pay attention to disinfection when using)
This is the stage of real "beer production". It looks like you were making wine in the early stage, but in fact everything you do is to create a comfortable breeding environment for yeast. In a sense, yeast is the real brewer. If you don't serve the yeast well, your wine will not taste good. This link is actually very complicated, and changes in any factors such as time and temperature will affect the fermentation results. If you can talk about it in detail, you can say several books. If you want to understand the detailed principles of this link, please move to the relevant professional books. Any of them is more comprehensive and correct than what I said. I will only explain the homebrew process and equipment selection.
Depending on the beer style, the fermentation time varies. Generally, in the home brewing environment, the main fermentation time for wheat, IPA and other styles can be 1-2 weeks; for heavy flavor styles such as Porter, Stout, and barley spirits, it takes longer, possibly about 1 month. , The maturing time will be longer.
The fermentation stage is roughly divided into the high-speed yeast propagation period, the vigorous fermentation period, the stable fermentation period, the mature period and so on. During this period, at least it should be protected from light and oxygen, and it is best to achieve constant temperature fermentation if possible.
Home brewing equipment options: cones, glass or plastic fermentation barrels
a) Cone fermentation tank
Advantages: This is basically the fermentation tank in the professional brewing equipment, which can maintain pressure, adjust the temperature, and drain yeast, and has all the requirements for fermentation.
Disadvantages: expensive.
b) Glass fermentation tank
Advantages: good air tightness.
Disadvantages: heavy, expensive, fragile, can not be protected from light.
c) Plastic fermentation tank
Advantages: cost-effective; strong and durable.
Disadvantages: The air tightness is slightly worse than that of glass barrels. This is due to the large molecular gaps of plastic materials, and air molecules can pass through these gaps, which cannot be solved. Of course, if you are unlucky and come across a leaky barrel with a workmanship problem, it is not a problem with plastic barrels. It is a factory process problem. What you need to do is to switch suppliers, not to reject plastic fermentation barrels. .
Plastic fermentation barrels are the most common choice for brewers.
In the plastic fermentation barrel, a new concept of adopting a tapered design at the bottom has appeared. This design will make the yeast that complete the fermentation work downward and toward the center of the barrel, which is more convenient for later filling or pouring (inverted barrels). The issue of barrels is quite controversial, and I will explain in detail in the next paragraph), you can give it a try.
When choosing a plastic fermentation tank, it is recommended that you choose a model with a pagoda faucet, which is convenient to measure the concentration of wort at any time, and to facilitate the transfer of wine or wort. Of course, laziness comes at the cost of laziness. Fermentation barrels with faucets have two major shortcomings: one is that after all, a hole is opened, and more attention should be paid to disinfection and infection; second, if the barrel has an additional faucet Come out, the usual storage will be a bit more troublesome, because the bucket can't be covered. Even with these shortcomings, he still can't cover up his convenience. Anyway, I DIY a faucet for each of my fermentation barrels. It's so cool... You can choose according to your own situation.
Pouring the barrel refers to the transfer of the wine to another fermentation barrel during the maturation period after the main fermentation. Modern beer technology research shows that soaking yeast in the wine for a long time may cause the problem of yeast autolysis, or even if it is not as serious as autolysis, there is still a miscellaneous taste. This is why there is a step in the commercial brewing process to drain the yeast through the valve at the bottom of the conical fermentation tank. The biggest purpose of pouring barrels is to imitate the commercial brewing process as much as possible in the home brewing environment, to ensure the taste of wine, and to realize the separation of yeast and wine liquor after main fermentation.
The reason why there is controversy over the dumping of barrels is because many people think that it will greatly increase the risk of infection, but personally think that the infection is not that serious. As long as the workmanship is good and the disinfection is passed, this is not a problem. The prerequisite for me not to pour the bucket is that I have tried it, anyway, my tongue can't drink out the influence of the flavor on the flavor. And I think it’s a pleasure to make wine by yourself. When the wine is made, everyone thinks it tastes good, and it’s the most important thing to be happy. If you make it so troublesome, you might get a headache and laziness when you think about making a wine. Up!
This is an advanced equipment, mainly used to control the fermentation temperature.
Please ignore that ugly piece of cloth, it is only used for shading. If you use a freezer instead of a display cabinet, there is no problem.
Principle: The thermostat is also a power strip at the same time, and the power plug of the freezer is plugged into the thermostat. The temperature-controlled temperature probe is extended into the freezer to detect the temperature. When the temperature reaches a predetermined temperature range, the temperature control will automatically turn on or off the function of the power strip to realize the power on and off of the freezer, thereby achieving the temperature control effect.
10. Bottling & adding second sugar
This step is easy to understand. After the fermentation is complete, there must be something to hold a bar. This step is for this.
Few people in the home brewing environment pour mature wine into draft beer barrels, because this will involve a series of equipment purchase, safety and other issues. Even KEG barrels (Coke barrels) will involve pressure control, safety, and how to buy food grade. Carbon dioxide and other issues, so most people choose to preserve their wine by bottling before becoming a super self-brewed enthusiast.
The bottle should be brown as much as possible, which will greatly reduce the occurrence of photochemical reactions and avoid the formation of "sunlight smell" in beer. Since most home brews use plastic enzyme barrels, pressure-holding fermentation cannot be achieved. In order to make the beer in the bottle have a "killing taste", diferred sugar (usually glucose or other sugars that are easily used by yeast) can be added when bottling, so that the yeast in the bottle can use these sugars to continue fermentation in the bottle Thereby, carbon dioxide is generated and the taste is killing.
Home brewing equipment options: (bottle + bottle cap + capping machine) or (swing cap bottle); wine bottle drainer
Everyone has seen bottles and caps, so I won’t show the picture, just show the capping machine.
The one in Figure 2 has not been used. However, I feel that Figure 2 is more space-saving and more advanced than Figure 1, and the details are not clear, so I don't dare to talk nonsense.
This kind of good stuff needs to be known to everyone, which is very convenient. Everyone will understand the last picture in seconds.
It should be noted that the silicone ring on the swing cover may have aging problems for a long time, so don't use a batch of bottles for a lifetime, and change a batch when it is almost time. It is not enough to save that little money.
After the bottle is used to sterilize, the sterilizing water inside is dried.
11. Other small things that may be used in homebrew
These little things include but are not limited to:
1) Siphon tube or silicone tube (usually with inner diameter of 10mm/outer diameter of 14mm), ear suction ball. It is used in many places such as transferring wort or liquor;
2) 2L measuring cylinder (for holding water, washing lees, etc., many uses);
3) Filter head (used for wort filtration, the effect is very good, the filtration is very fine, but it is easy to block);
4) Filter (need to be equipped with a pagoda adapter. The effect is very good, the filter is very fine, but it is easy to block. It can be used for cold wort filtration, it must be turned first);
5) Various conversion heads (used to connect various equipment and pipelines, screws to connect various equipment, and pagoda heads to connect various silicone tubes, which require matching tape to use. It is extremely convenient. The most commonly used is 4 minutes to 10mm of);
6) Silicone tube fixing device (may be used when siphoning);
7) Grams (for weighing hops, Irish moss, difert sugar, various reagents);
8) Thermometer (used to monitor the temperature of saccharification, cooling, fermentation, etc. It is divided into three types: alcohol, mercury, and electronic. Electronic is divided into two types: long wire and probe. Mercury is the most accurate, but there is a risk of pollution; it is generally used A long-line electronic thermometer is enough, the temperature is relatively accurate, the key is easy to use);
9) Magnetic pump (used when transferring wine or wort);
Note: The magnetic pump has no self-priming function, so the pump must be placed under the fermentation tank so that the disinfectant in the fermentation tank can flow into the magnetic pump under the action of gravity.
10) Submersible pump (generally only used to pump water);
The pump can be placed directly under the water, and the whole machine needs to be under the water surface. To have a long lift, that is, a strong one.
11) Disinfectant, small watering can (iodine, Milton no-cleansing and disinfection tablets, and stansan are the three most common. After all, iodophors are not edible. Milton no-cleansing and disinfection tablets are said to be no-clean, but they actually have a smell. Strongly recommend stansan. No It is colorless, odorless and free of cleaning. If it is preserved well, it can be used for more than a month after preparing a large barrel. In theory, it can be used for a lifetime as long as the PH value is always less than 3.5. It is convenient and cheap, and it is sold at Duojie's house);
12) Triangular measuring cylinder and yeast collection bottle;
PS: Now many Taobao home brewing equipment sellers actually have packages of complete brewing equipment. It's about 1,000. Some advanced ones, such as equipped with a pair of rollers or even an electric pair of rollers or plate changers plus pumps, etc., the complete set of more than 2,000 will stop. When purchasing the equipment you want to use, you can refer to the seller’s package content and make corresponding adjustments if necessary.
For more detailed questions about equipment selection, please feel free to contact me, and I will tell you if I know.