Not all HDPE containers are food safe because some may contain recycled materials. Food safe needs to be virgin HDPE and labeled as such. Having dabbled in the consumer product safety field you learn that there is no such thing as a “safe” plastic, just “safer” plastics. The “HD” means the molecules are more densely packed and leach much less into whatever is being contained, but it still leaches especially as containers age. It’s a personal choice and this is just my opinion, but I try and reduce the use of plastic containers where possible to store food items.
Totally agree with all of this, but I personally have no qualms using it. The dose makes the poison and there’s a much bigger poison in beer.
thank you for that post, i used a saw and cut off the top 1/8th of my carboys, opening them to the air to make Classic Czech Pilsners like the pros.
This is clearly a bucket of overcooked noodles.
Of course, one taste of beer soured in barrels tells us that the bacteria that live in beer (which we both love and hate, depending on the style) aren’t affected by wood and will grow in it. But the open fermentation isn’t the cause; these bacteria are introduced to sour beers on purpose, and over time come to inhabit the environment of the brewery. They also aren’t pitching a pure culture. Bacteria hopping a ride on some specs of dust are very unlikely to win out vs a healthy pitch of yeast.
The above photo was taken in the Pilsner Urquell Brewery. It is their traditional brewing method. And we drank the beer brewed in these barrels. Like my late father said…“That was the best beer I have ever had.”
Not filtered, not pasteurized. My dad was right. And it was not sour, had no off flavors at all.
The ~4000L barrels the beer is lagered in are lined with pitch, the beer never touches the wood.
The fermenters don’t appear to be lined, don’t know for sure.
Bell’s has some old Cypress fermenters the got from the Stroh family. Those are lined.
Generally a barrell will sour over time, especially if let to sit empty. For non sour beers, they clean and sanitize them.
First time for all this (starter, stepping up starter, open ferment, double drop)
- Shook 2-3 days in one gallon plastic jug. (1469 & Fast Pitch)
- Poured in flask, fridge 24 hours.
- Decanted
- After 30 min boiling today’s batch (before hops) removed/cooled 500ml fresh wort and added to flask.
- Swirled/shaked for a couple hours until batch being brewed was ready for yeast.
- Pitched into open fermenter, activity within several hours.
- Tomorrow morning skim yeast.
- Double drop into a closed/airlock fermenter.
it would be swell if you took a vid
It was nothing much to watch.
This morning skimmed off yeast, poured in speidel fermenter
from bucket ,put on lid and airlock. Placed fermenter in bathtub,
as a precaution from spills pouring from bucket to fermenter.
Airlock is bubbling away, now the wait.
All the wort (gunk and all) after boil/cool down was poured in bucket.
Only today when pouring into fermenter gunk was left behind.
A little more was left behind than I would liked. The swashing around
towards end of pour mixed gunk with some beer.
Fire Rooster, this is totally self promotional but if you want, you can check out podcast episode 73 and the show notes on the page over at HomebrewingDIY.beer. I contribute articles at the site and was the podcast guest talking about open fermentation. I’ve been open fermenting well over half my beers for a fe3w years now. I have an article coming out soon, but in the meantime the show notes and podcast are a start on some of the things to consider - yeast strain, how to keep the fermentation fully open without a clean room or defeating yourself by keeping it “open” in a closed chamber like a fridge or freezer, etc.
Feel free to hit me up with any specific Qs (I am active on the reddit homebrewing forum, but only visit very occasionally here).
Thanks, will check it out.
Next two batches will be with 1469 as well.
I don’t quite understand why some yeasts are considered true top cropping.
All my fermentation’s have krausen on top, so I guess that’s not it :>
Can you open ferment with non top cropping yeasts ?, and skim top off ?
Thanks
Any input welcomed !
“He who hesitates is lost”
Answered my own question.
Re-hydrated 2 packs of dry W-34/70 yeast for 30 min.
Continued as if a starter was being made with liquid yeast, as noted above.
Open fermented in bucket first day, covered with 5 gallon paint strainer bag. Next day skimmed off brown crust,
then dumped into closed fermenter, airlock is bubbling.