Midwest supplies autumn amber ale

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Captainfester

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Question about time frames.

The beer in question is the extract kit autumn amber ale from Midwest. They say primary 5-7 days. Secondary 7 days bottle for two weeks. Drink.

Anyone use this kit. I am primary for 7 days as of tomorrow moving to secondary to free up primary. Is one week good for secondary. Once fg is for 3 days the same is it good? Basically should I follow Midwest instructions or do something else for secondary and bottle times?
 
Question about time frames.

The beer in question is the extract kit autumn amber ale from Midwest. They say primary 5-7 days. Secondary 7 days bottle for two weeks. Drink.

Anyone use this kit. I am primary for 7 days as of tomorrow moving to secondary to free up primary. Is one week good for secondary. Once fg is for 3 days the same is it good? Basically should I follow Midwest instructions or do something else for secondary and bottle times?

I have not done the kit but:

Check the FG for 3 days before moving to secondary. You want the primary fermentation to finish while still on the yeast cake.

Most kit directions have short time frames. I always go longer.

I have also started skipping secondary entirely. 3-4 weeks in primary then bottle.

The beer may be ready after 2 weeks in bottles at about 70 degrees but may take 3 or more. High gravity beers may take months to fully carbonate
 
The kit instructions put a timeline on your beer but the yeast have their own ideas. I tend to think that longer is better. I'd leave that in the primary as moving it to the secondary really serves no useful purpose in my opinion. Be careful when you rack to the bottling bucket so you don't stir up too much yeast from the fermenter. Even if you do get some it usually settles out in the bottling bucket pretty quickly.

Two weeks in the bottle (after 3 weeks in the fermenter) will get you some good beer to drink. It will probably be even better with 2 more weeks.

Try to keep the temperature under 70 while it is fermenting and under 65 might be better.
 
The beer is ready to be transferred when it's ready to be transferred.

You can't rush a good beer into bending to your schedule.
 
I am brewing this kit right now. I asked around for lots of advice and many folks said to not even rack to secondary; just leave it in the primary. I am relatively new to brewing, so I am relying on experience from these threads. Do a search on the threads for no secondary fermentation. There are lots of discussions on the topic.
 
I'll be doing this kit in a few weeks. I'm going to let it sit for as long as possible, while I get my kegging stuff together.
 
I have this same kit brewing as we speak. I brewed on 15th, racked to secondary on the 22nd. Was hoping for superbowl brews but am going to bottle on Sunday and it won't be carbonated :(.

How did yours turnout?
 
I brewed this on the 2nd of Jan as my first brew. I did 7 for primary and secondary and let it sit for the 2 weeks as of today. FG was consistent but I am at work so I cant tell you my exact readings. Last Monday I couldnt wait to try it, so I cracked a test on and light carb and head. Going to wait till super bowl to introduce to my friends tho.
 
Brewed this on 1/14 I believe, primaried for 2 weeks because I had no secondary and bottled it. Should be finished in another week and a half to 2 weeks. Let me know how it tastes!
 
I bottled this exact kit yesterday (my first brew ever). I am interested in hearing how everyone's turned out. I hope to crack open my first bottle in two weeks with the understanding that longer in the bottle will produce a better beer. As this is my first I probably won't have the patience to wait longer!
 
cwsmitty said:
I bottled this exact kit yesterday (my first brew ever). I am interested in hearing how everyone's turned out. I hope to crack open my first bottle in two weeks with the understanding that longer in the bottle will produce a better beer. As this is my first I probably won't have the patience to wait longer!

I am planning on trying a bottle after one week and another after two. The waiting is the hardest part so I just brewed a blood orange hefeweizen all-grain recipe as my second attempt. I have 7.5 gallons in the pipeline and none in my fridge. Stay thirsty my friends.
 
I bottled mine a week ago and tried my first one today--surprisingly already a very drinkable beer! I can't wait to taste the difference another week in the bottle will bring.
 
This was my first brew a year ago, it was a kit my wife got me.
Changed my life for ever!
I secondary at the Time because I didn't know any better. Leave it in the primary until you keg or bottle it. 2-3 weeks. I kegged mine. It was a good beer at the time. Your hydrometer will tell you when it's done. I would only go to secondary if I was adding fruit, dry hop etc. or just need the space.
 
I've done both primary only and secondary.. both methods give you good beer.

For me, I like using a secondary because simply I want to keep my beer as "stuff" free as possible. My skill racking off the primary isn't as good as I hoped it would be compared to racking off the secondary. The secondary just has less "stuff" in it, so less ends up in the bottling bucket. Either way, the beer carbs up just fine. I just prefer a clearer finished product as the people I share with consider this to be "magic" ...

While I know the extra yeast isn't going to hurt me, it's just personal preference. That's really what it comes down to at a certain point, just personal preference. It all becomes good beer. There isn't a right way over others, just your way. I suggest trying both a few times and see what you like.
 
Captainfester said:
Tried one today. Surprised at how drinkable it is. Maybe on the verge of even good beer. Not very hoppy. Kind of a mellow flavor and smooth finsh.

Mine is much the same. A good beer, disappointed in the color though, it is quite dark even for an amber, brewed it before I knew about late extract additions.
 
as did i, im not well versed in the color scale but it is kind of dark. i have said a couple times i wish that austins or midwest would send you one bottle of the finished beer so you could compare yours to the "real thing"
 
also one more thing. how long did everyone carb this. i poured 1 after carbing for 2 weeks and fridge for 1 night. had a decent little head on her but i poured really slow in order to minimize any yeasty sediment
 
Both batches I brewed took 3 weeks before there was any real carbonation and if you can wait any longer it only gets better. Swirling the bottles did help out on the second batch. This is one of the best beers I have brewed, great flavor and have a third batch that I am brewing Wednesday.
 
This was the first kit I made a couple of years ago. I racked to a secondary after 7 days and left it in there 2 weeks. You can do it that way but I'm not convinced you need the secondary. Either way let it go three weeks total then bottle for 3 weeks. It's a good beer.
BTW, last weekend I noticed a bottle of this still in my closet. I need to chill it, I'll bet it's only gotten better after all this time.
 
The kit instructions put a timeline on your beer but the yeast have their own ideas. I tend to think that longer is better. I'd leave that in the primary as moving it to the secondary really serves no useful purpose in my opinion. Be careful when you rack to the bottling bucket so you don't stir up too much yeast from the fermenter. Even if you do get some it usually settles out in the bottling bucket pretty quickly.

Two weeks in the bottle (after 3 weeks in the fermenter) will get you some good beer to drink. It will probably be even better with 2 more weeks.

Try to keep the temperature under 70 while it is fermenting and under 65 might be better.

One of the guys at Midwest has posted that he is rewriting the instructions for the kits. I haven't seen what the changes are yet though.
 
how much head does this beer normally pour with? assuming a very slow pour down the side of a typical bar glass ( vshaped ) and a little direct pour for the last ounce or so.

i had a lot of little bubbles all over the sides of the glass and seemlingly lots of bubbles coming up through the beer. but maybe only 1/2 inch of head. also this was only have a 12 oz beer. i split between two glasses.
 
I just poured one (one day shy of three weeks in the bottle) and it is definitely better now than at weeks 1and 2. I only got about half an inch of head, and it didn't last very long, but it is nicely carbonated and much clearer than last week. Very pleased with this as my very first beer!
 
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