Making Homemade Wine and Beer

Ok, this is gonna’ be me ranting about why none of the beer books, web sites, or experts talk about open fermenting their beer. Basically, open fermentation was the way it was done in the beginning and is still being used in the Trappist Monasteries. So why the big mystery? Why, close the lid on your primary fermentor? Aren’t we suppose to be getting oxygen to the yeast so that it can chew up the wort and make our beer or wine?

And you know what really bugs me, is that you can’t find any sources for techniques on open fermenting.

I’ve been using open fermentation for the past three years with a lot of success. I usually achieve a high floccuation ratio (75 - 80%) on beer and almost 100% on wine using this method. The trick that I use is to take a large grain bag and tie it over the primary fermentor. Once the primary fermentation process is almost complete (beer usually 1 - 3 days, wine about a week) rack it over to a secondary fermentor and then close the lid. Try it with your next batch, the results are amazing.

Now, if I could only find hop utilization information when dry hopping.

Till next time, Slainte