Just started my first kit, need a little advice.

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

thrall

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2010
Messages
54
Reaction score
2
Location
Scotland
Hey,

At the weekend i bought the Youngs U-Brew Lager Kit. I know its nothing fancy but its a nice cheap starting point. I have 44 pint bottles saved up from some nice vintage cider ready to be filled.

On Monday I started the kit and followed the instructions, everything is going great, fermenting really fast as I used brewing sugar instead of general white sugar (that seemed to be something people recommend).

The problem is that so far it smells nothing like lager or beer, is this normal at this early stage? it smells nearly identical to when i made some turbo cider.

Any help would be great.
 
I'm sure it's fine. If it has been getting its ferment on then you're all good. I'm more curious about you doing a lager at room temp (I'm assuming). I've done one that I fermented at room temp and it was ok but I wouldn't make it again.
 
Are you keeping this at the correct temp for lager? Keeping it at room temp isn't the best but it will still come out as beer.

Typically lager will smell like sulfur for a little while so there is nothing to worry about
 
The kit suggests 18-22c and its in my cupboard at 20c and im keeping a damp towel wraped around it to keep it a little cooler.
 
The cooper's OS lager I did uses an ale yeast at those temps. Is yours something like that? It's got a ways to go yet,so don't sweat it...
 
The cooper's OS lager I did uses an ale yeast at those temps. Is yours something like that? It's got a ways to go yet,so don't sweat it...

The yeast was in a plain sachet with no ID on it so im not 100% sure. either way it does state 7 days in the bucket and then 14 days in the bottles.

From what i have read im thinking maybe 10-12 days in the container just to get it as clear as possible before bottling. Then the bottles will be stored in my hut to keep a little cooler.
 
The cooper's OS lager I did came with ale yeast,brewed at 70F (21C),after high pitch temp. cold water top off,my a$$! Took 12 days flat to ferment,& clean up. Cleared to a slight haze,witch I've found to be ideal. It leaves plenty of yeast for bottle carbonating,& less yeast trub when it's done that,& chilled for a few days.
So 12 days to clean up & settle well is def possible. Just make sure you have an FG stabilized over 2-3 days. The cooper's OS "lager" was good at 3-4 weeks in the bottle. 3 weeks is average time for an average gravity beer to condition.
 
Slight problem. the instructions didnt state I had to take a reading on my hydrometer before fermentation so i dont have a base line to see whats happening.

When i did put the hydrometer in its giving a reading of 1.006, I have never used one before so no idea what that actually means.
 
1.006? That's low... lower than I would've expected it to finish at. Try testing the hydrometer in room temperature water to see if it's at 1.000....
 
Ok well after another try these are the results

Water : 0.996
Lager : 1.006

does that sound like its getting there?
 
We can't tell without your Original Gravity which is the reading you take when all of your ingredients are mixed and ready to ferment. Your original is probably between 1.030 - 1.040 which is standard for beer/ale, whereas your Final Gravity will be somewhere between 0.996 - 1.010.

If you used a brew kit and threw all of the ingredients in, there's almost no reason you wouldn't have an original gravity that's close enough. Is your beer foaming, is the airlock bubbling? If it's got any of these signs, it's fermenting, and stop fiddling with it or you could ruin it!

My ciders always smell and taste like apple juice until they reach 1.010 or so, so don't sweat it, just relax - this is a hobby that requires time and patience. You'll understand properly when you take that first sip of a well-aged beer. :)
 
You got that last line right. From brewed wort to glass takes me nearly 2 months for an average gravity ale. But so worth it with a good process,hop schedule,& bulk priming.:mug:
 
I think home brewing is really a hobby where you have to find what level of commitment works for you. It ranges from those who just want to go from beer kit to bucket and keg, to those who like to build their own equipment and find real sources for real ingredients...in that sense, it caters for everybody really!

I personally like to have my beer ready in three weeks, and enjoy going from recipes using malt extracts and dried hops. That's creative enough for me - bottling 5 gallons seems unappealing, but I'm happy to do it for 1 gallon batches, and I only tend to age cider/wine...but each to their own! :)

Anyway, this might just be rambling, but what I'm saying here thrall, is you need patience in every aspect of the hobby. How patient is up to you - but relax, and don't open it and fiddle with it when it's unnecessary or you'll risk contamination. Good luck with the hobby! :)
 
Hey Thrall,

Did this kit recipe have you use like 1.8kg liquid malt extract and add a similar amount of sugar? If so, the FG (final specific gravity) will end up pretty low. Sugar attenuates (converts into EtOH) about 100%. Malt extract has some unfermentable starches that prevent it from attenuating so low. If this kit is a half and half (malt and sugar) it may be somewhat watery, as sugar, even brown sugar, does not impart much flavor and only boosts alcohol content.

If you want to continue home brewing, you can make immediate improvements by reducing (or eliminating) sugar additions to your wort. Make up the difference with dried or liquid malt extract. Also, if you can get your hands on some decent yeast like Danstar Nottingham or Safale, this may help, as I cannot find what yeast Young's includes with the kit.
 
You can't really judge a beer while it is still fermenting. The process is ugly and stinky and sometimes even tastes crappy...when everything is fine.

Your beer actually has a long journey to go from grain to glass and it one where there are a bunch of chemical processes happening, including nasty smells being given off initially (by products of fermentation) which if you give them ample time, the yeast will go back and clean up. Then you have carbonation and along with that MORE CLEANUP called bottle conditioning.

At the end, if you have patience, you will have great beer. It's almost magical, IF YOU LEAVE THE BEER ALONE.

First thing, ignore the instructions that say to rack to secondary or to bottle after a week, they're full of ****, most beers aren't ready in the timeframe, and your taking it off the yeast too soon can cause more harm than good, by preventing those yeast from doing their job.

You need to decide if you want to use a secondary or go long primary, either way your beer needs to sit undisturbed for a month. If you choose to secondary on day 12 after the day you pitched yeast take a hydro reading....it doesn't matter what the initial gravity was, just what it is now. Then on day 14 take another one, if the numbers are the same, go ahead and rack it.

ANd leave it for about 2 weeks.

If you opt for a long primary, which is growing more in favor over needless racking to secondary, then it's simple, walk away for a month, then bottle, and then leave the beer in a warm place (above 70) for a mnimum of 3 weeks gain.

Your beer will be awesome then. It will be carbed and amply conditioned.

Now as to initial gravity readings, if you fail to take one, don't sweat it, if you are doing an extract batch, what the gravity says in your recipe (or if you imput it in any software) it will match. Extract brewing is almost foolproof because the brewer isn't converting the starches to sugar himself, it's already done before you get the kit, so the numbers are already known, and if you've ended up topping off to the volume your recipe calls for (usually 5 or 5.5 gallons) then you've automatically hit your numbers.

Bottom line, this is a hobby about waiting. If you let the yeast do their thing, you're amply rewarded with great beer, if you don't, the beer's often not so great.

I know waiting is a hard thing to do, but it's worth it. One way to mitigate it is to buy another fermentaer (I have 9) and brew another batch, that way you start having beers at different stages of the process. You'll know that as one is being drunk or is fermenting, that you have another one just down the line...we call it having a pipeline.

And if you have multiple batches going, you'll be less tempted to futz or even worry about your beer.

Good luck and relax, it's really hard to screw this up.
 
If you want to continue home brewing, you can make immediate improvements by reducing (or eliminating) sugar additions to your wort. Make up the difference with dried or liquid malt extract. Also, if you can get your hands on some decent yeast like Danstar Nottingham or Safale, this may help, as I cannot find what yeast Young's includes with the kit.

Sugar additions are not the enemy....if a recipe calls for it, it should be use. It's not the same as a frat boy dumping a couple of pounds of sugar more of sugar to bump up the high. Many styles like Belgians are built on sugar additions to dry the higher grav beer out, and bump up the grav while thinning out the body.

If a recipe calls or kit calls for it, don't assume the person who wrote the recipe or made the kit is an idiot who doesn't know anything about what he's doing....assume the sugar has a place. Recipes are about balance and telling someone who knows nothing about recipe creation that all sugar is bad, and you should automatically swap it for malt is bad advice. It won't be the same beer if they arbitrarily swap sugar for malt.

There's plenty of beers that use various sugars in beers, including using darker ones that won't totally ferment out but leave lots of flavor notes to the beer. Other beers need the sugar to cut the body a little.

It's not a blanket "sugar is bad" idea, there's more times where sugar is welcome then where it's bad. And honestly cooper's kits are designed for sugar, not for malt. There not designed to have 5 pounds more indiscriminantly dumped in to make it stronger, but they were created and vetted not by idiots but by professional brewers, and those recipes have been vetted, and a corporation's rep at stake.

A sparkling ale, is sparkling partially because of the sugar added to it. It wouldn't be the same beer with malt added.
 
Ok well thats been 8 days, it has had a constant value of 0.996 for 3 days.

One thing i have noticed is that when i take a sample out to test its like the top 2" is clear but under that its cloudy and has little white/brown bubbles.

Should I wait a few more days?
 
Not being a smart***. I have found in this hobby that if I ask myself should I wIt another week it will probably pay off to wait two more. If you are itching to do something to get your beer closer to drinking you can start sanitizing bottles, looking for your next kit, read about brewing, anything really except playing with your fermentor. Its hard we have all been there. Just step away and let the yeast do what they have been doing for a long time.
 
Back
Top