Aarkon

I have my fermenter exposed to rather significant temperature deltas, so airlock activity maybe is not the best indicator in my case as the air inside expands and contracts. It would suffice of course just to measure daily with the refractometer to see if there still is activity. Not having to though is a tempting idea to me. 😄

For everyone involved and/or curious: I took a regular hydrometer reading last evening, which gave me ~1.011/1.010. So while not too far off, that is still significantly lower than what the Pill sees. Also, when taking some more time to observe, I realized that there is indeed still airlock activity going on. Now that I was sure there was still CO2 being produced, I then peeked under the lid and saw that the Pill had collected quite some dried trub on its waterline. After seriously sanitizing everything, I took it out, cleaned it and pitched it back, though that didn't result in more realistic measurements. So I guess it's down to a calibration issue.
What a stupid situation: The only at least halfway reliable measuring instrument after fermentation start remains the saccharometer, which requires a sample of 100 - 200 ml for each measurement, so you can't do this every day for an elongated period of time without losing significant amounts of product for a batch if this size. Only alternative would be a transparent fermenter like the FermZilla and leave the saccharometer afloat the whole time. Not sure if I like that idea.

At least I got a taste sample this way and I'm happy to report that there is nothing weird going on. It's not the biggest beer in the world, but summer is coming anyway, so that's only a half bad thing. I'll report back with pictures in a few weeks after conditioning. Cheers!

@SpiderShoeCult@sopuli.xyz @plactagonic@sopuli.xyz @waldek@lemmy.86thumbs.net @drre@feddit.de

Forgot to mention my yeast, it's Fermentis S-04.

The temperature fluctuated from 20.2 to 17.7° C in 10 hours. I don't know, is that much? Doesn't look too bad for me, but I'm not yeast. :D

I'll try agitating the beer a little to see if that sets anything free. It will sit in the bucket for at at least two more days anyway, so I'm not afraid of trub. If that doesn't help, I'll also take a look at the hydrometer, thanks for the suggestion.

I've got a BrewZilla Gen 4 35L. I don't know what you'd consider low efficiency, but the unit's default profile in Brewfather is ~76%, whereas the software calculated roughly 65% efficiency for the batch in question. I've got no idea though how that compares to the Braumeister 20L other than the values in Brewfather are rather similar.
What was a first was crushing the grains myself, but mashing on itself went fine. Looking back, I might have wanted to check for starch with iodine, which I even had available. Might do next time. I also might want to add though that I used 13.5 liters of strike water and did what from my understanding is a batch sparge (raising & draining the mash tun, then adding hot water from a second vessel with a jug) with another 15 liters at 80° C. Not perfect for efficiency, I know, but as described my pre-boil gravity was fine. I must just have been to shy on the heat while boiling.

In the back of my head, I have the number of 10% boiloff being desirable, which would match with your 1 hour boil observation.

My last point is that I'm afraid the beer might be too thin as in too much liquid for too few sugars dissolved in it. I didn't boil off enough water, so I did not concentrate the wort far enough to reach the desired post boil gravity.

Well, that or go to court for a movie collection. I'd phrase my statement differently, but I can see the appeal of the settlement.

No pressure, just a plain plastic bucket. I'd be happy enough to know if my fermentation really stopped, it just seems way too early with just roughly one day of activity.

Airlock activity is so little that it might as well be expanding air (the bucket sits in my garage without extra heating or cooling, subject to the temperature cycles visible in the graph). There is nothing really in the bucket the hydrometer could be stuck against on my opinion, but I‘d have to open it to check - which I’m reluctant to do because of infection risk, obviously.

Taste testing I didn’t think of until now, good thinking. Will do tomorrow. If it’s completely dry, the calculations must be way off. If there is still sugar in it, I assume it's non-fermentable stuff. I always forget if that's maltose or dextrose.

Just to give an update on this: I bought the expensive posts as well as new lids from Ali Express. Now the kegs were way more expensive, but still a good deal I suppose.

Mein Großer hat kurz vor seinem dritten Geburtstag meine große Spiegellose in die Finger gekriegt, in die Linse geguckt, den Auslöser festgehalten und ungefähr eine Million Bilder gemacht, ca. die Hälfte davon Selfies. Mag bis heute keins davon löschen, weil's ja seine ersten eigenen Fotos sind. Macht zufällig generierte Fotorückblicke bisweilen etwas eintönig. :'D

Thanks for pointing that out.