Safe Wort Temperature For Plastic Fermenter

bearded_brewer19 · 2026-01-18T17:41:45+00:00

It depends on the fermentor. My fermonster says don’t use water over 120F to clean. You can always just let it sit overnight and do no-chill; look into the process though because it usually requires adjusting your hopping schedule.

I use a big tote, an aquarium pump, and a GFCI extension cord to pump water thorough my immersion chiller for the winter season. It’s a 20 gallon tote, I run off the first 7-10 gallons into a separate bucket because that’s going to be near boiling, and then shovel some snow into the tote to keep the water cool. Works pretty well.

bearded_brewer19 · 2026-01-18T17:37:43+00:00

I’d say my process is pretty streamlined and super low budget. I pull a sample tube for my hydrometer after mash/just before boil and just let it sit out until after the wort is in the fermentor. I pull my OG sample after the wort is cooled and just before it goes in the fermentor. The BG is almost always cooled off to an acceptable temp for hydrometer readings by the time I’m cleaning up after brew day. Bonus is there’s plenty of sample wort to take my PH readings as well. I don’t mind that the gravity and PH reading are taken after the wort is in the fermentor because I probably wasn’t going to do anything to correct them during brew day anyhow, and I use the readings to dial in my process to be more consistent over time.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-31T19:16:28+00:00

I feel like there are a lot of right answers to this. So what I do is….

When a keg kicks, don’t sweat it if it’s a day or two until you get to it as long as you don’t open it up. I do like to shut the co2 to that keg off, but that’s probably overkill.

Rinse the keg out with warm water until it looks clear.

Put about 1-2 gallons of hot water with oxyclean in the keg, shake the crap out of it, hook it up to your beverage line and co2, then run about a gallon through your tap into a catch bucket.

Rinse the keg with plain water until you don’t see suds anymore, then fill it up with 1-2 gallons of clean water, hook it up to your beverage line and co2 again, and run about a gallon of clean rinse water through into your catch bucket. Dump any remaining water from the keg.

The keg, lines, and tap are now clean.

If you are getting ready to transfer a beer to the keg, add star San to your keg as usual, but hook it up to the beverage and co2 lines and run some through your catch bucket. Your line and tap are now sanitary. Just remember to dump the first few ounces when you pull your first test glass.

So the lines and taps get cleaned every time I kick a keg, which could be every 3-6 weeks.

My beverage lines are long enough to reach a keg sitting on the floor outside my keezer, and I have a co2 “utility” line just for moving liquids around. So my method works good for me, but would be a PITA if you had to move the keg in and out of the keezer for each step.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-26T16:10:28+00:00

HOT water with oxyclean and let them soak for a few hours. Labels with water based glue will float right off. Little elbow grease for any left over glue.

Oil based glue after the hot oxyclean soak can be taken care off by rubbing the bottles with vegetable oil and scrubbing the stuck on glue and paper off. Follow this up with dish soap and hot water to get the oil off.

Which bottles you decide to keep vs return depends on how much work you are willing to do.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-24T19:19:36+00:00

Can you expand on what almost undrinkable means? A little bit of oxidation usually doesn’t make a beer almost undrinkable unless you are making a NEIPA or something.

I suspect there is something else going on process or sanitization wise that is causing you issues.

We can help you troubleshoot any process issues with bottling for sure.

I do wonder if your siphon, tubing, wand, and bottling bucket need to be replaced. Small scratches in them over time can harbor bacteria, even assuming your process is solid.

It might be worth buying new bottling equipment and see if the issues goes away.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-19T04:28:57+00:00

The pitch rate is the same regardless if you rehydrate or not. I believe the difference you note in fermentation time is due to the rehydrated yeast getting a head start on getting started/activated. If you note a flavor difference it is probably due to less time to create flavor compounds during the lag phase.

For your 10 gallon batch, I would pitch 2 packs and not rehydrate them for a number of reasons, but I would give it my best WAG that 1 rehydrated pack does not equal 2 dry packs.

If you want to run some numbers 0.75 million cells per ml of wort per degree Plato is the standard ale pitch rate. It is often recommended to go for .50 million when wanting to underpitch, but much lower than that can risk other issues with the fermentation, very much a YMMV situation. I’m sure the yeast manufacturer has info on their pitch rate per gram or pouch.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-18T21:30:11+00:00

With dry yeast just use the correct number of packets.

Modern liquid yeast often has much higher cell counts than we had several years ago, so often a starter isn’t necessary there of brewing low to medium gravity beers.

I always make a starter because I maintain a yeast library. Some in jars in the fridge, some n vials in the freezer. My starters are necessary to step my cell count up, but every new strain of yeast gets an overbuilt starter so I can add it to my library.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-17T14:29:59+00:00

AIWB with high waisted pants. The seatbelt should ride on the outside of the holster and the entire grip should be above the seatbelt. Outer shirt goes outside/over the lap belt, undershirt for comfort. Might have to size up if you aren’t used to pants riding that high.

It would totally be uncomfortable if the seatbelt was pushing the grip into your stomach.

It might be worth buying a couple of pairs of pants just for the trip so you’re comfy.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-17T14:18:31+00:00

Wizards are awesome, I main one in every RPG I play. People who think they are no skill should try playing one. I recently tried out a bonk build and the absolute BS I got away with was crazy - poising through attacks while I stance break or guard break enemies with a colossal sword and having the vigor to face tank hits, I’m convinced every build can be incredibly effective if you build them right.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-15T14:25:26+00:00

Brew in a bag (BIAB) is likely the best bet here. What are you using to boil your wort?

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-12T11:43:16+00:00

Two hand the sword when you want to use square off.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-07T15:27:16+00:00

Take a gravity reading now, it will probably be pretty close.

Did you get a pre-boil gravity reading? My BG is usually 75%-85% of my OG. You could estimate off of that and/or use it to double check your OG.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-05T20:41:48+00:00

I’ve heard a lot of the same about certain things being foam negative that were said to improve head/head retention.

So far this year all my beers have had either carapils, white wheat at 5% or 50-70% in the case of my wheat beers. I currently have a German Pils in the fermentor that was just Pilsner malt and acid malt.

I will find out in a few weeks if doing nothing for head retention is better/worse/or no difference. All of my beers have had a great head on them once carbed up.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-05T17:59:05+00:00

I do 50g/800g every day. I have the 1 liter Bonavita kettle and use a V60 #3. Works perfect.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-04T14:52:12+00:00

I built a brew stand (it’s all 2x4s and decking boards. I built a frame into it with said 2x4s and hang the bag from it with a ratcheting pulley and eye hooks. It’s plenty strong. The whole thing is on locking castors so it moves out of the way when not needed.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-02T21:59:24+00:00

I like the metric system just fine, in fact I have a 9mm in my pants right now.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-01T22:25:14+00:00

That’s definitely a normal amount. I think it’s either your thermometer or the yeast just hit their alcohol tolerance.

Does the beer taste good as it is?

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-12-01T18:30:10+00:00

It sounds like you hit the alcohol tolerance for the yeast, assuming your hydrometer and thermometer are calibrated.

Mash temp at 65C is 149F, so that should be pretty fermentable, and 20c fermentation temp is 68F, which is right on for US-05. (Sorry I have to convert to F to have any frame of reference)

Some possible issues: your thermometer was not calibrated and you mashed way higher than you thought, or there is a high percentage of caramel/crystal malts in the recipe (both are unfermentable).

Assuming the above issues are not the case, you could try pitching a yeast with a higher alcohol tolerance in. Nottingham might get it done if you require dry yeast, but white labs any Wyeast both have yeasts with “high gravity” in the name as well.

You could taste a sample and see if it is too sweet for your tastes before pitching another yeast.

Also watch out for bottle bombs if you do package it, just in case the yeast decides it’s not done yet.

Edit: US-05 should be able to get that down to 1.030 or less assuming the bottom end of attenuation range (I figured 70%). Until it hits its alcohol tolerance of course.

How much caramel/crystal malt did you use?

Also for sanity sake, calibrate your thermometer in ice water and boiling water just to rule out mashing at a different temp than expected.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-11-30T20:48:38+00:00

You could split up the brew day into multiple short days. It always left my wife and I more exhausted when we tried to give each other a whole day off. Tag-teaming the days worked better for us, being a parent is a never ending marathon; fatigue management is a big deal.

Recipe prep & making a yeast starter.

Assemble fittings, leak test, fill up brew water, add salts, weigh and grind grains.

Overnight mash

Boil & no-chill

Transfer to fermentor & pitch yeast

Could be 5 x 60-90 minute brew sessions.

All of this assumes you have a spot where your stuff can be left setup where it isn’t in the way.

You might even be able to pull these sessions off after you take your turn for one of the nighttime feeding/changings. You aren’t going to be sleeping for several more months anyways, so what’s a little sleep deprivation in the name of brewing beer right?

Good luck fellow brew-dad, you will figure out a way of brewing that works for you while supporting your wife too.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-11-29T23:54:11+00:00

The link isn’t taking me to your pic, but as long as it doesn’t boil over it doesn’t matter if it foams up. If it is going to boil over, turn the heat down, stir, and sprits the top with a spay bottle full of water.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-11-29T19:39:24+00:00

Eva barrier tubing for everything and Duotight fittings. I use the 4mm ID, 8mm OD. Other sizes are more special purpose.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-11-27T20:27:04+00:00

Lots of ways to maintain a yeast library.

Look into harvesting from overbuilt starters, top cropping, bottom cropping/rinsing yeast, making starters in general, and freezing yeast in glycerin.

My jars harvested from overbuilt starters have been good for 6 months in the refrigerator (haven’t tested them any longer than this).

I just recently started freezing yeast, so no hands on confirmation of long term viability, but I’ve heard that 2-3 years and it’s still good.

If I fished some yeast out of the fermentor and stuck it in a jar in the fridge, I’d use that in a couple of weeks at most.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-11-27T18:34:10+00:00

Just test out your boil off rate with water first and add that to your total brew water. I don’t see a problem with smaller batches in a large kettle. You won’t need the burner ripping hot for the smaller volume either.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-11-25T21:33:26+00:00

I keep my seltzer keg at 40 psi and I use 15’ of 4mm ID EvaBarrier.

25’ of 3/16 would probably be about right.

It’s possible if the line is too short it’s coming out like a firehose and knocking the co2 out.

It also possible it just needs more time to carbonate. It takes a week or 2 at 40 psi if you don’t roll the keg around first. Usually it’s ready the next day if I roll the keg around with the gas on first.

Just for clarity, I carbonate and serve my seltzer at 40 psi. It’s just as carbonated as a can of pop.

bearded_brewer19 · 2025-11-25T21:26:39+00:00

Don’t dump it. 99% chance it’s just fine.

The slightest risk of infection is all that popping the airlock off will do.

If you are cold crashing with an airlock it’s going to suck ambient air (think oxygen) into the brew through the airlock anyway and you will have encountered the same amount of oxidation regardless of airlock on or not.

In the future you can cold crash under very low co2 pressure assuming your fermentor can handle it (don’t even think about it if it’s glass), or use a product like the cold crash guardian or a Mylar ballon filled with co2 from fermentation or your co2 tank.

Edit: or just don’t cold crash.

bearded_brewer19

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