Bring on the POM

After a few thoughts of doing so in the past, I have finally remembered to do another video for racking my beer to the secondary fermentation vessel.  This was in part as a thank you to Jeff Rushton for sending me the POM (that you will see added below) and also because I had a lovely assistant nearby for the occasion.  Though I think that I cover most of the specifics in the short video, I will still highlight the details of this batch in text to keep you up to date on the progress.

First take a look at the clip showing the 64 ounces of POM joining the party:

As mentioned the (soon to be) Pomegranate Hefeweizen came in with a specific gravity of about 1.0152 at the time of transfer.  That leaves it with a current ABV of approximately 4.05% though this reading was before adding the POM and I expect that the addition of so much sugar at the point in the process will bring that number up a bit by the time I go to bottle.

As always, the Director of Sanitation is nearby.

The sample (which did not yet have the POM added) had a bit of a yeasty aroma with a mild, sweet flavor.  I think that existing profile will accept the flavors of the POM pretty well.  As mentioned in the video, the POM went in right out of the bottles after allowing it to come to room temperature.  Since it was already pasteurized I did not see the need to add any more steps to the otherwise very simple process.

The color will surely be interesting.

So now I can share the part that quickly helped me remember something learned long ago.  Actually I suppose there were two options available, but did not go with either.

After adding that much fresh sugar to the mix, I knew that the remaining yeast would take off and active fermentation would be strong for at least the short term.  So, since I racked everything into a carboy without much headspace I should have capped it with a blow off tube to prevent a potential mess.  The other option was to rack everything into another bucket with plenty of extra space and just go with an airlock.  As mentioned, I did not go with either option and this is what happened within hours . . .

Lesson learned . . . . again.

That is at least part of the reason why my beer ferments in the bathtub!  Shortly after that I swapped the plug and airlock to a blow off tube until the action slowed significantly.  All is now well.

Until bottling . . .