Brew UK Forum | Extract Brewing
Amarillo Head
Gents, My first posting. I have started an extract brew using the Amarillo recipe and it took off like a bit of a rocket. I have not tried extract brewing before and have just really started to progress away from kits. I am quite excited about this one and moving over to Extract Brewing in general.
My question is more for the future as I have already passed this phase as I have now bottled but it may help me and others going forward. I have not used to the US-05 ale yeast strain before which by the way really impressed me. It formed a lovely liquid honeycomb head and it actually nearly fully fermented out in just three days - probably as I pitched at quite a high temerature then it hardly moved even though the head had reduced significantly. Anyway after giving it a further 4 days it was ready to bottle but it still had quite a thick top head. My actual question to you guys is should I have waited for this to drop through into the brew (would it even have done) before bottling or was I right to very gently and slowly folded it in to allow the head to drop to get it out of the way to help with the bottling as I did this and bottled 2 days later ?
I am sure that what I have done has not hurt it but I just wondered if I should or could have left it to drop and knowing what to do might help me for my next brew. Thanks guys.
Entirely likley to ask daft questions so apologies in advance....
Responses
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Hi Whoofman and welcome to the forum. US05 has a habit of retaining the yeast head after its finished and I've done the same as you on a few occasions without any problems as I got fed up waiting for it to disappear.
So I wouldn't worry it about to be honest, if its finished fermenting and the yeast has been left for a couple of days to clear up then it should be fine.
What are you planning to brew next?
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Ok, thanks very much for that. Its reassuring to know i've not done something too dodgy and I can keep doing this if it repeats itself.
Also on the Amarillo, do you think its normal for it to ferment out in just three days ? I took an accurate temp reading after it was made up and it was 26C and so borderline but took the risk to pitch as the yeast data said upto 27C although the recipe said max of 24C. Clearly it did not inhibit primary fermentation but I wonder if it made it stall a bit after the three days as I am used to my brews having a fairly consistent rate of fermentation lasting for about 5 days minimum?
In terms of my next brew ?....im not sure yet, as I actually prefer a hoppy tawney coloured ale (this ones for my brother who likes light colourd ales etc.) but I would particularly like something getting close to or exceeding that of Wells's Bombardier or Harveys or something like that. If I could find a suitable extract recipe that got me close to these I would be an extremely happy chap. I realise it's getting onto another topic but any suggestions on this would also be greatfully recieved !!
Entirely likley to ask daft questions so apologies in advance....
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Well 3 days is quite quick, especially for US05 but the high temp would have helped quite a lot.
As far as next beer, I would have a play around with steeping some crystal/cara malts in water then adding to the malt extract. The summer ale recipe on our site will give you a starting point and you could always add more malt extract at the end of the boil if you wanted something a bit stronger.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Cheers Greg - Will do just that.
Entirely likley to ask daft questions so apologies in advance....
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