So is this right? Temps and Times

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suffocatefaster

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Ok, so I bought my first kit and my very first beer making utensils.

I am starting to understand the process but to make sure im going to place the levels of the process here, can anybody correct me if I got it wrong?

1. Pur ingredients, mix... blah blah blah (Leave it in the pail with garbage bag over top and elastic to hold it over the pail for 5 to 7 days until done foaming?)

2. After the foam stops and whatever settles to bottom, siphon to the jar and air lock it?) (How long do I keep it air locked and when do I know when to bottle it?

3. Siphon to bottles.

My one question is, I let it foam at room temp? Then I air lock it at what temp? My cold basement, room temp or what? Whats a good temp for the bottle stage when it carbonates?

PS: its an australian draft
 
First and foremost, read: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

On # 1, no you need to bring some water to a boil, add the malt extract, add the hops then cool it to at least 70*F then pitch the yeast. Then you need something better than a garbage sack. Maybe a lid with a whole and rubber around the whole with an airlock in it. Like this: http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_33_464&products_id=10716
Next, its more than it's just done foaming, you need to make sure it's reached within a few points of the final gravity.

2. To the jar..... if by jar you mean large glass container (6gallons or so) then yes siphon it to the carboy and put the rubber stopper and airlock on the carboy. Leave it alone for 2 weeks

3. Yes now around week 3 or 4 you will be filling the bottles, if siphoning works you for great. Most people use a bottling bucket and a bottle wand to make this easier.

Ales ferment best mid sixties to low seventies.

You might want to look into getting a good beginners kit.
 
You asked a doozey there, Suff (is it ok if I call you Suff?), and most of those questions would be better answered by someone more experienced than I. But you seem to have missed a key step there, which is the boil (aka the actual brewing). Did you purchase a no-boil kit? Because otherwise, you may find you have a problem.

As for your temperature question, different temperatures mean different things. In general, ale yeast works best between 10 and 25 degrees C. But different yeasts like different temperatures, and different temperatures give different flavours. For example, if you ferment too hot, you get banana and bubblegum esters. Too cold, and you'll end up with a slow fermentation, and a variety of other off-flavours. The easiest thing to do is google your yeast, find out what's recommended.

Always have your airlock on.

Don't forget to add priming sugar to your bottling bucket if you want carbonation. For bottle-conditioning, warmer is better, but not hot, because that creates (again) bad flavours from your yeast, plus you might end up with an oxidized beer.

Good luck.
 
Keeping your fermentation temps even is one key to a sucessful brew and another is to keep your fermentation tempertures at the lower end of your yeast recommended temps. I ferment ales in my basement at an ambient temp of 62f this time of the year.

So what you need to do is basicaly this.

Brew your beer, cool to fermenting temps, get some air into the brew by splashing/mixing air into the wort, add enough healthy yeast to brew with, cover your fermenter ( preferably with a hard cover ) and give the fermenter a way to vent the gas produced ( and make sure you have enough head room on top of the wort so that the foam don't block whatever you use to vent with ) put your fermenter in a place with a constant temperture that's right for your yeast.
After fermentation is done, wait a few extra days if racking and then rack to secondary. Leave it for a couple of weeks at cool temps and then rack to a bottling bucket with your priming sugar, mix well and bottle. Put bottles in a 20C area to carbonate for 3 weeks.

Voila.... beer.
 
I did boil, and I guess i did not explain myself.

These are the steps I have went through so far:

1. All ingredients in, without yeast and with 2L of boiling water.
2. Then I added 20L of luke warm/colder water.
3. Put yeast in, Mixed well.
4. Covered.
5 Currently has been sitting for 2 days.

And I have my beginers kit, thats how im making my first batch haha.
 
Only things are, covered... with a lid and airlock right? A garbage sack may work, but I'd go ahead and get a lid to the bucket.

After you added the water, did you make sure the temp was down below at least 80F..26.6C? 70 or colder is even more ideal. The yeast must be pitched below this temp. Even at 80, you're going to have esters and whatnot being made. Any warmer and you may kill the yeast and have no fermentation at all.
 
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