questions with brewing..and such

Ok ..Im pretty new to this.. I started my first brew from a Bru-Mix can you can get in sobeys... I did everything it said.. but I never added anything to the mix.. I put it into a Carboy with the yeast.. then when it was done I filtered it and put it into 2 liter bottles.. now I tried some while I was bottling and it was right watery.. still smelt like beer.. and had a beer taste but it tasted watered down... so my first question is.. will this get stronger over time? I also added some sugar to it and it seemed to make it alittle better but i'd still like to know..

Now my 2nd question. When I bought my Filter Kit. The woman there told me that it would filter all my sugar out of my beer.. is that true?.. because I was going to mix up another brew and add a Kg of sugar to it .. but what would be the point if its just gonna be filtered out. or does this matter?.. thanks for any help guys.. wonderful site you have here..

If your beer was completly finished fermenting, then there shouldnt be to many sugars there to ferment out. Also depends on the size of the filter as well. Not to familiar with the brews in a can though.

yeah that makes sense... Im gonna say it was done.. there was no bubbles and all the yeast was at the bottom... the filter I have is pretty big
its a EuroFilter for beer and wine I can't find a pic of it but heres a picture of the box
http://www.winemakeri.com/v/vspfiles/photos/16436-2T.jpg

and heres a Pic of the bru can i used.. idk if it will help or not..

http://www.brewingcentres.ns.ca/beer-kits/images/bm-bru-mix.jpg

but all in all if I add Sugar to my brew it should dissolve i guess into my brew?..

More sugar should make a more alcoholic beer (up to a point), since that's what the yeasties use to make alcohol in the first place. The beer probably had ~3-4 pounds of extract per 5 gallons, which is a little weak. A kg (or two) of sugar should make it stronger, but might not make it 'better'.

An issue with filtering before bottling. You need yeast in the bottle to carbonate your beer. Read this. This will give you a big boost on your way to making excellent beer.

ok.. well.. that could be my problem...didn't add any sugar.. I took a reading and it was 1% alc.. so this brew I'll be adding a Kg of sugar and see how it turns out.. guess i'll have to try different things til I find somthing that works..lol... thanks for all your help

beerkrump said:

An issue with filtering before bottling. You need yeast in the bottle to carbonate your beer. Read this. This will give you a big boost on your way to making excellent beer.

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ok now im confused... The reason I bought a Filter was so I didn't have yeast in my beer.. now your saying i need that yeast so my beer will be any good?.. maybe im missing somthing here.. but what would be the point of a Filter system then?

To carbonate, you need the yeast to eat the priming sugar that's added when you bottle. Otherwise you would have flat beer.

I haven't filtered any beer that I've made thus far, but I would imagine it would work best if you were going to keg the beer instead of bottle. When you keg, you don't rely on the suspended yeast for carbonation, rather you force CO2 into the keg under pressure to carbonate.

ok..so do all of you pour ur beer into a glass before you drink or what?... I wanna try to avoid that and just drink out of the bottle.

Then you'll need to keg, and then bottle from the keg with a Counter Pressure Bottle filler.

SYKEKO said:

ok..so do all of you pour ur beer into a glass before you drink or what?... I wanna try to avoid that and just drink out of the bottle.

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Hmmm...I'm definitely not a fan of drinking homebrew directly out of the bottle, but if you wanted to do that, then kegging and then bottling is the only way I could see it going well.

Drinking directly from the bottle of a bottle conditioned ale is rarely a good idea. Unless you like fumigating the house.

so I need more gear... so those of you that leave the yeast in do you bottle it then filter it from the bottle to your glass and drink?

SYKEKO said:

so I need more gear... so those of you that leave the yeast in do you bottle it then filter it from the bottle to your glass and drink?

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When you let the beer bottle condition for 3-4 weeks the yeast and sediment will fall to the bottom of the bottle leaving you with a clear beer. You simple pour the beer into your glass and leave the last 1/8" of liquid in the bottle. You don't want to drink that. Trust me.

SmugMug said:

Hmmm...I'm definitely not a fan of drinking homebrew directly out of the bottle, but if you wanted to do that, then kegging and then bottling is the only way I could see it going well.

Drinking directly from the bottle of a bottle conditioned ale is rarely a good idea. Unless you like fumigating the house.

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ok so this brew im better off leaving the yeast in then dumping it into a bottle and going from there... is it much of a process to keg and add Co2?
and how long this it need to spend in there?.. week? month?...

as for Fumigating the house.. when I was bottling this brew the whole basement smelt like a a bar that had a few too many drunks..lol

but all in all thanks for the info.. i'll be leaving the yeast in this time and adding sugar... and see how that turns out.. later on i'll pick up a keg and do it that way...

I don't have the $$ or the space to keg, but I'm sure others here will be happy to give you more info. There are tons of threads on the forums discussing it. I simply rack the beer from my primary on top of the dextrose (boiled in a cup of water and cooled to fermenter temps) into my bottling bucket and bottle from there.

SYKEKO,

Take a look at this site-How to Brew. The first chapter should give you a lot of the information you need to make great beer.

beerkrump said:

SYKEKO,

Take a look at this site-How to Brew. The first chapter should give you a lot of the information you need to make great beer.

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yeah I read that site.. Im just gonna leave the yeast in the bottles until I have enough funds for a Keg/co2 system.. thanks for the help

This might be the best piece of equipment you'll ever buy. It's only 10.19 and will last your entire brewing career.

Amazon.com: The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition (Harperresource Book): Charles Papazian: Books

Seriously... It sounds like you're getting into this hobby a bit misdirected. Filtration isn't really something you want to deal with when you get started. Have a read and ask questions here, but you should really go through the basic process.

As the beer bottle conditions the yeast sediment settles to the bottom in a pretty compact layer. It's easy to pour it off into a glass and leave the sediment behind.

When I first started brewing, I wasn't as keen on always using a glass but over time I realized that I missed out on the head and a lot of the aroma of the beer when I drank out of the bottle.

As for "fumigating the house", the poster was referring to the effect that live yeast can have on the digestive tracts of some people. If you get that, your body will get used to it. It's a temporary condition for most folks.

ChshreCat said:

As the beer bottle conditions the yeast sediment settles to the bottom in a pretty compact layer. It's easy to pour it off into a glass and leave the sediment behind.

When I first started brewing, I wasn't as keen on always using a glass but over time I realized that I missed out on the head and a lot of the aroma of the beer when I drank out of the bottle.

As for "fumigating the house", the poster was referring to the effect that live yeast can have on the digestive tracts of some people. If you get that, your body will get used to it. It's a temporary condition for most folks.

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Define temporary. SWMBO might disagree with you on that generalization. She'll avoid me all night if I'm drinking a young beer.

SmugMug said:

Define temporary. SWMBO might disagree with you on that generalization. She'll avoid me all night if I'm drinking a young beer.

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Some of us might have less adaptive intestines than other folks do.

ChshreCat said:

Some of us might have less adaptive intestines than other folks do.

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True. Milk has similar effects on me as does anything in the cabbage family. Maybe I've only evolved far enough to digest meat, starches and non-yeast laden fermentables. But I keep trying anyway.

/pull my finger

thedigitale said:

This might be the best piece of equipment you'll ever buy. It's only 10.19 and will last your entire brewing career.

Amazon.com: The Complete Joy of Homebrewing Third Edition (Harperresource Book): Charles Papazian: Books

Seriously... It sounds like you're getting into this hobby a bit misdirected. Filtration isn't really something you want to deal with when you get started. Have a read and ask questions here, but you should really go through the basic process.

Click to expand...

This.

Charlie's book would be a good match for the OP who sounds a bit "off track" regarding Why, What & How...