After reading a bit here I see how everyone's beer takes weeks and months to finish fermentating and being ready but my amber beer says i can bottle in a week.
This confused the heck out of me when I started. It isn't just the just the fermenting that takes weeks and months but aging and clearing out as well. Fermentation itself will usually take about a week but can take as little as 4 or a long as 10. Then you *can* bottle it immediately and let it finish aging and clearing in the bottle at the same time it's carbonating. But why? If you bottle before the fermentation is done it is a catastrophe and the only way to *know* if fermentation is done is to verify that hydrometer readings are stable for three days. Notice what *that* means?; by the time you've got a stable reading after three days you've already let the beer age in the primary for three days. Also most of us have a feeling that beer ages and clears in bulk better than it will in bottles. This may or may not be true, probably isn't. Then there is sediment. If the beer isn't clear at bottling time there will be lots of sediment in the bottles and who wants that?
The "weeks and months" are usually heavy beers like stouts or barley wines. 10 days and 2weeks (to be certain) are good enough for most beers. Your kit says 1 week and that's possible (I guess they must have a special fast acting yeast) and even likely but that's rushed. Your beer *will* be better if you wait just to be sure and to allow a bit of aging and clearing to start.
What is the sugar that came in the kit for? It's obviously for bottling but I'm not bottling should I add it to the beer now or when it's going into the corny keg?
If you don't bottle, you don't use it. period.
So since I siphoned it out and it's in the carboy after three days I pretty much screwed it up? There is no yeast on the bottom.
Why did you transfer it after 3 days? Did the instructions say to? Or did you figure that if bottling was in a week and half the time should be in secondary then...?
You *probably* shouldn't have, but when you transfered you probably transfered the yeast that was in suspension. If fermentation was ending you maybe transferred less yeast but as fermentation was ending you'll need less yeast. My *instincts* say: this is all the more reason you should let this brew sit longer to let the yeast in the carboy "catch up".
In future if you secondary, you should wait for final gravity to stabilize before transfering. This *also* confused me when I started out. I thought it was 3 weeks before bottling and the choice was whether the 3 weeks was in the primary or split between the primary and secondary. I was wrong. It's actually 10 days to 2 weeks before final gravity is reached and the choice is whether to bottle as soon as final gravity is reached *AND* verified or whether to then transfer to secondary for an additional week or two *or* (third option) leave it in the primary for additional week or so.
I'm not a believer in secondary and I do a combination of option one and three. I forment and I look at it. I usually see and think that it is done fermenting after about a week but I figure there's no need to rush. If it's done fermenting I'm going to let it age. Then, depending upon my schedule, I'll check for final gravity maybe as early as after 10 days but usually after at least two weeks. Then I check it again 3 days later. Then I bottle. My thinking is "maybe the beer *just* fermenting and I'm bottling immediately which is okay; or maybe the beer finished fermenting a while ago and I let it age before bottling which is also okay" I then let the beer carbonate and/or age for either 3 weeks or until 6 weeks from brew day whichever is longer.
I sure hope so I really was excited about drinking my first glass. So basically I can have two beers fermentating at once. One in the bucket and one in the carboy.
Yes, and one advantage to not secodarying is that the schedule of one will not be dependent upon the other.
Do you guys buy kits that come with yeast malt and extract hops or do you put together your own ingredients?
I don't think those are as different as people make them out to be. I brew 2 gallon batches so I find a recipe and buy the ingredients and quite often the recipe I use comes from a kit. Occasionally I buy a kit and make 2 1/2 batches from it but mostly I gather my ingredients from a recipe.
Does it really make any difference?
Well, the pre-hopped kits (Mr. Beer and Coopers) where you just add water and yeast, I suppose are different. But if you are putting ingredients together, what does it matter if you packaged the ingredients or someone else packaged the ingredients. There are some kits where you have to provide the additional items such as dried orange peel or honey. So you can think of recipes as kits where you have to provide the grain, extract and hops.
