Thanks for the encouraging words :) I guess this one is a goner though, it strangled a fourth pitch of a starter that was certified going strong when I put it in. Even if that stuff did eventually ferment, I’m not sure if I’d dare drink the cursed brew XD

I’ve been trying different temperatures, too – the setup is not super expensive per se, but it is versatile in that I have the fermenter insulated and can both cool and heat it with an automatic temperature controller (to heat it I borrow wife’s hair dryer, it’s there now holding 23 °C :D ). My usual fresh yeast is super easy in that regard, I’d normally allow a couple of hours after pitch at the ~25 °C that the wort tends to stand at at that time and then set the thermostat to 15 - 18 °C for the entire bubbly bit, so normally all I need is cooling against heat produced by the yeast.

That was a super inspiring read, thank you! I’ve been wary of keeping starters going for long, expecting them to foam their way out of the bottle before I have a place to put them. Next time I’ll make the starter first thing on brew day. Watching these processes is a great way to learn and get a feel for things, and I never get to see what happens in the steel fermenter. Made the birch sap cava in a plastic container and it was the first time I got to see what happens in the process.

As for the sugary starter solution, I can report that the basic fresh yeast from the grocery store (I’m sure you know Suomen Hiivan tuorehiiva) has thrived in even more saturated starters, I’ve been going with 1 dl of syrup in 1 litre water before. And the nutrient was just a pinch into the starter. I get that stuff in satchets made to serve 20 litres of wine juice.

Yesterday I made one last try at a starter with the fresh yeast. I kept it for five hours, and it was very much going and foaming when I pitched it. Also put a heater in to keep the insulated fermenter at 23 °C. It’s been 18 hours since pitch now and so far it looks like the Moloch in my brew has taken another victim. Oh well, weekend on the way and it looks like Saturday I’ll have the house to myself. Looks like a brew day :))

Yes, I’ve opened it a number of times now and absolutely no foam… Did one last pitch with a starter that I kept an eye on for five hours and it was very much going strong by that point. Yet that too succumbed to the void :[

The thing I like most about this kind of setup is how after the yeast is pitched and the pressure lid is closed, you don’t open it again until all the beer is gone… the peace of mind that the beer is kept hermetically in a steel vessel in a protective CO2 atmosphere. There have been a couple of second pitches in the past, and I’ve kind of branded those batches as second grade simply because I had to open the holy seal and re-pitch :D

I have a threshold valve on the gas breather line, so I can see on a meter if pressure has accumulated, plus a water lock after the meter to show the escaping gas. These have been my references regarding fermentation. No leaks there :)

Well, I’ve been brewing with a very settled process for a couple of years, and in my experience the fermentation will always have begun by the morning after setting it up. The primary reason I haven’t been taking gravity readings is because I don’t want to lose any of the good stuff (would not pour the OG sample back in), and since my brews tend to just work, I never needed analysis to troubleshoot either.

I have a threshold valve on the gas breather line, so I can see on a meter if pressure has accumulated, plus a water lock after the meter to show the escaping gas. These have been my references regarding fermentation.

Yeah, such a bummer… It might be the syrup in the starter that has gone bad, I ended up using leftovers there. The starter was 1,5 litres of filtered & boiled water with 1 dl of dark sugarcane syrup and some yeast nutrient dissolved in. It was at 26 °C when I let the yeast onboard. I only had the starter going for an hour, no activity was seen in that time but I wasn’t really looking either.

The grain was:

Simp Maris Otter Pale   3800 g
Viking Smoked Wheat     1400 g
Viking Black Malt       700 g
Viking Choc Light       1000 g

… two top lines are active. And I WILL brew this again :D

There’s 5 kilos of active malt (Simpson’s Maris Otter Pale and Viking smoked wheat which they say can be used like pilsner malt), 1,9 kilos of roasted non-active stuff. And it’s sticky sugary. Grain bill then is not a problem.

No, I don’t have means to measure that other than carrying the kettle and fermenter around :) Gotta get a meter one of these days.

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Nice content on etymology. I didn’t know sal ammoniacum before!

Pointsi tuolle repulle. Itellä on tuollainen rinkka, joka tosin on usein käytössäkin metsäleireille mentäessä. Kun metsärymyharrastus aikanaan alkoi, se todella purkasi perustukset sellaiselta ahdistukselta, että entäs jos joskus joutuu lähtemään kotoa syystä tai toisesta ja menettää kaiken. Luonnossa on oppinut, että mistään ei siellä ole pulaa. Kun on repussa leirikamat, kokkaustarpeet, vedenpuhdistin ja vähän kestotilpehööriä, voisi ihan oikeastikin tarpeen tullen lähteä hyvin pienellä varoitusajalla korpikuusen alle ja elellä varsin mukavasti.

Vähän käy kateeksi tuollainen toiminnantäyteinen unisisältö, mutta toisaalta pitää varmaan olla kiitollinen, ettei tää sodankäryinen aika ole uniin tullut. Itsekin luen kyllä RSS-uutisia monenmonta kertaa päivässä. Kauhun sijaan selkäydinreaktio taitaa olla lähinnä kiukku siitä, että kaunis maailma tahrataan turhalla kohkaamisella.

Unia on harvassa, mutta lähes aina ne muistiin jääneet puhuttelevat pitkään. Edellinen elämään jäänyt uni oli nostradaaminen. Tytär on siinä iässä, että auton hankinta kiinnostelee ja ollaan katseltu Mazdan RX-sarjalaisia. No tulipa sitten uni, jossa käytiin hakemassa hieno sininen RX-7. Auto oli sellaisessa kerrostalon kivijalassa olevassa isossa autotallissa, jonne mentiin alaspäin viettävää asfaltoitua liuskaa pitkin. Mulle jäi unesta se paikka erityisen hyvin mieleen, katselin että mites ton sadeveden kanssa, no ennen kynnystä on upotettu ränni jne. Ja mä kun auton sieltä ylös ajoin, niin liuskassa makustelin että onko kytkin terve. Uni feidasi siinä sitten pikkuhiljaa eikä muuta enää mieleen jäänyt.

Seuraavana päivänä päiväpuolen todellisuudessa tytär ja äiti kävivät kotiuttamassa Torista ostetun juoksumaton. Juttelivat sitten, että oli jännä paikka mistä hakivat – ajoivat liuskaa alas autotalliin ja siellä oli hyvin tilaa lastata juoksumatto kyytiin. Tajusin, että sehän oli se unen paikka viimeistä piirtoa myöten. Hissillä pääsi suoraan autotalliin jne. Kyselin oliko asfaltti tuore ja tumma, kaikki täsmäsi. On se ihmismielten matriisi ihmeellinen.

Kiitos kapteenille!

That was a quick one! The result is a dry, refreshing and probably low ABV product. The colour comes from added dark cane sugar. It only took a couple of days to get 6 L of sap out of three trees. And yes, there is a light, hard to describe, maybe citrus-like taste from the sap.

Delicious looking! Welcome back. I wonder what dark circumstances might cause a pause in the first place, but let’s not go there :E

Fiskars folding scissors master race represent 😄

Joka päivä on Mine Awareness Day jos asuu miinakentän naapurissa :P

I know it’s not going to be strong. However, having tasted birch sap before I’ve got a feeling there will still be a distinct taste there after the sugars have been fermented, and that’s why I wanted to try this. I have a forest industry book about all the things in trees apart from fiber and lignin, and from there I know that the sap has got all kinds of interesting constituents, so this could turn out to be a health cava :D Concentrating the sap would surely boost the taste, but that’s not in my interest for this experiment.

Great idea, thanks!

Very nice looking brew! Congratulations and welcome to the slippery slope XD