Storage

[itsclinto]

Hi all,

A newbie question here for you all.  What is the best way to store the likes of yeast, grain, hops, additives, nutrients, clearings, etc?

The reason i ask is that i have a wine kit and an extract kit, with the wine kit been done first (to keep herself content).  It may be a while before i get my extract kit done due to lack of fermenters (only two buckets) so how is it best to store all the above, both long and short term?

Many thanks,

Niall

[Greg2013]

Yeast in the fridge but not in the coldest spot,maybe in the shelf on the door.Hops in a zip lock bag and into the freezer. All other additives if you have room in your fridge put them in there, if you have no room then a nice cool dark spot like where you would store your beer.

[Tom]

Wine will take two weeks in the fermenting bucket, beer will take one of those weeks. Get that beer done!

[itsclinto]

Thanks everyone.

So i have to demand a shelf in the fridge for my brew.  That should be fun!  I'll soon get the hang of this and will be properly annoying you! 

Wine will take two weeks in the fermenting bucket, beer will take one of those weeks. Get that beer done!

Ah i'm just in the process of making my boiler (cheap tesco kettles) and wort chiller so i need one to work on!

Another quick question, as i am doing an extract kit, do i have to prime/batch prime for bottling?  I got the homebrew company blonde ale with two cans of malt extract.

[Tom]

Ah, so you're using malt extract and hops, rather than a single can kit. Good man.

You'll need to prime, yes. Ales come out nice at a half teaspoon per pint bottle, lagers a tad more. I don't batch prime as I constantly mess it up, so I wait with anticipation for someone else to reply!

[Chris]

Batch priming is handy I use this calculator http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html
If buckets are at a premium I have done this before. Squeezey bottle of golden syrup blob in each bottle about the size of a 2cent coin.

[Dr Jacoby]

Hops are best stored at 0^oC to 5^oC, as recommended by the hop factors, so that precludes freezing them. Best kept in a cold fridge.

That's news to me. Do you have a source for that? I was always led to believe that freezing hops was perfectly ok; in fact, I've seen it recommended as best practice.

[Ciderhead]

It is best practice as long as your hops are dry and sealed.

http://morebeer.com/brewingtechniques/library/backissues/issue2.1/garetz.html

[itsclinto]

Thanks again lads.

Squeezey bottle of golden syrup blob in each bottle about the size of a 2cent coin.

I'll head down this road for now as i haven't got a notion of how to use that calculator yet.

More questions that i hope you don't mind answering.  Is the 2 cent amount for a 500ml bottle?  Does it have to be golden syrup or would any honey do?  Lastly, would the syrup be better than normal sugar for priming and what would be the best primer (or does it depend on the brew)?

[Dr Jacoby]

I've had an interesting time reading up on this. From what I can gather, Tube is right that the standard recommendation from hop merchants is to freeze pelletized hops at roughly 26F (-3C), but it would be wrong to infer from this that you should not store your hops at lower temperatures.

Large hop wholesalers will store hops at -3C because it is the most efficient temperature from an energy perspective. In other words, it is the highest temperature they can get away with while maintaining hop freshness. Storing hops at lower temperatures is not harmful to the hops in any way as far as I can see.

So for us homebrewers (and many, probably most, micros) there seems to be no reason not to store hops in a freezer at -18C (assuming they are packaged properly).     

There's an interesting discussion about all of this on probrewer.com.

[Dr Jacoby]

I haven't noticed any problem with hops stored in the freezer (you're actually the first person I've come across who says otherwise). And I don't think the thawing you refer to is a problem if you work quickly. What I normally do is take the hops out while I'm waiting for the hot break to happen and weigh out my additions. The left over hops are then repackaged and put straight back in the freezer. No thawing, no problem.

That said, I wouldn't argue anymore that hops should be stored in a freezer as opposed to a fridge. It seems like there's no difference in terms of hop quality. The only considerations are practical, and that comes down to what options you have in terms of storage. For me, it happens to be easier and more practical to store all my hops in the freezer, but for others a fridge might be a better choice.   

[Ciderhead]

Another reason to pack in usable quantities using a vac sealer.
For pellets at it's crudest it's vegetable matter that has had the crap already beaten out of it and apart from complex oils and less than 10% water, so minimal damage from ice crystals unlike lettuce or soft fruit.
Colder the better for me.

[Chris]

Thanks again lads.

Squeezey bottle of golden syrup blob in each bottle about the size of a 2cent coin.

I'll head down this road for now as i haven't got a notion of how to use that calculator yet.

More questions that i hope you don't mind answering.  Is the 2 cent amount for a 500ml bottle?  Does it have to be golden syrup or would any honey do?  Lastly, would the syrup be better than normal sugar for priming and what would be the best primer (or does it depend on the brew)?

It's for 500ml bottles the reason I used the golden syrup was I could put all the bottles on the counter and just squeeze a blob into each bottle in a matter of minutes. Golden syrup is just invert sugar so it ferments completely, honey would work but as it doesn't ferment out completely the amount would be different.

With the calculator just pick the style your doing from the drop down menu. This will show you the vols co2 for the style. Enter that in the box underneath. Enter the amount being bottled and the temp Press calculate and it will give you the amount of sugar etc needed. I always go middle to lower range for the style to allow for errors.

No difference between syrup and normal sugar just easier to get into the bottles

[Ciderhead]

What changed your mind, something you read on the internet?

[Dr Jacoby]

And I don't think the thawing you refer to is a problem if you work quickly.

No, it shouldn't be. But a lot of people wouldn't necessarily know that allowing them to thaw and then freezing again is not good! I didn't until a couple of years ago.

Well, if the real problem is temperature fluctuation, then allowing fridge cooled hops to rise up to room temperature is also risky. Either way you need to work fast to make sure left over hops are packaged and stored quickly.