masterfool101

Recipes 

You really don't have to worry about krauzen in the secondary. Secondary fermentation is not nearly as active as primary ... In fact, it wouldn't be unheard of to not get any foaming at all ... Also, you may not even notice bubbling in your airlock.

Good luck, and let us know how it turned out!

__________________
Nothing Beats a Fool's Luck . . . and I am the Master Fool.

Luzer

Recipes 

@jgaepi the directions says to use the corn sugar provided for the carbonation process and I used all the honey that came with the kit. Is there efficient way to use honey and sugar to see if there is a difference?

masterfool101

Recipes 

There are conversions for using honey as a priming sugar, but if the recipe called for using all the honey in the boil, and priming with corn sugar, that's probably what you should do. If you use honey to prime, you'll be using a lot more than the recipe called for, and it might be overpowering.

__________________
Nothing Beats a Fool's Luck . . . and I am the Master Fool.

Luzer

Recipes 

i've decided not to go to a secondary fermenter since i don't need the clarity in the porter and i'm going to let it sit for month. i check it last night and it takes about 1 minute for the airlock to bubble.

its going to be a long month!

masterfool101

Recipes 

I decided to give the recipe a try myself. Brewed last night ... Problem was that I let the steeping water get too warm ... Almost to 180 ... Hope I didn't extract too many bitter tannins ...

__________________
Nothing Beats a Fool's Luck . . . and I am the Master Fool.

Luzer

Recipes 

how long did you let it sit at 180? i think if it wasnt too long you should be ok.

masterfool101

Recipes 

I didn't let it sit there long . . . in fact, I killed the burner when it hit 175 . . . but got a slight increase in temperature from there (all depends on where your thermometer reads in the pot, I guess). I let the grains steep about 35 minutes with the burner off, during which time the temp dropped to about 160 (generally, I can control temperature better, but this time I failed).

Honestly, I'm not TOO worried . . . it's not like I boiled the grains . . . and as a few people on here are wont to say: Don't worry, You Made Beer!

Luzer

Recipes 

We bottled it last weekend without any issues. Midwest Supplies said that we should be at 1.010-1.016 and we were at 1.019 so I think we did ok for our first kit . If I had to critique it to a "T" I would say that we primed with all the sugar in the packet and not the right amount for the ~4.5gal that we had. I also put my whole had in the bottling bucket to get the plastic tube out. I realized it as soon as my hand was in up to my wrist. Needless to say I ordered an auto siphon.

It was surprisingly clear and tasted really good. I've attached some photos below.