Winter Ale

Got a Northern Brewers Winter Ale coming today, never brewed an Ale, any helpful hints out there from experience?

Oh I can tell this is going to be Tasty!

Here it is, nice and dark

Starting gravity is 1.053ish

Kinda afraid there's not enough room in there

Regarding room in your carboy: put a blowoff tube in there, especially if you're fermenting @ room temp. I noticed my first brew (which fermented way too hot) was the only one that actually blew krausen through the airlock.

the subsequent brews, @ 63ish Farenheit, haven't made it to the top of my buckets yet.

Yeah I have had it happen to me before, I'm keeping an eye on it, thanks

Made a blow off tube

Is your blowoff tube going into a full jug of water? If there's no space in the jug then you're going to have a mess if that water jug fills up. You need just an couple inches of sanitizer in there so when the carboy blows off there's some place for the kraussen to go. I've filled up 22 oz bomber bottles with yeast and stuff before during an active ferment.

It's actually narwhals semen. It evaporates any cruasen that might come through on contact

Just kiddin, thanks for the info, first time I needed a blowoff.

You were right! I came out to find this! So I did as you recommended...







New set up. Thanks

It's goin off

It's finally calmed down. Bubbling every now and then.

Transferred to secondary today and it smelled great. Now two more months

HAREEBROWNBEEST said:

Transferred to secondary today and it smelled great. Now two more months

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I'm sort of sorry that you didn't ask before you transferred to secondary because I don't think you will gain much from that. Most people that secondary do so to clear up the beer and there isn't any way you are going to clear up that winter ale, it's always going to be dark. I do approve of the 2 months but maybe not all in the secondary. Perhaps a week of secondary and then bottle or keg it to let it mature. JMHO

The instructions that came with the kit say transfer to secondary for 2 months. I know it's a dark beer, I'm not trying to clear up anything, just wanted to get it off the yeast sediment, it was 2 inches thick.

I mind as well bottle it then. I'll give it a week in the secondary. Thanks for the recommendation.

For your next brew session if you leave the beer in the fermenter longer the yeast sediment and hops (trub) will usually settle into a much more compact layer. That will leave you more beer on top of it that can be racked off for bottling.

You might want to leave it in that secondary for a couple of weeks before bottling. The extra time won't hurt a bit and will allow more dormant yeast to settle out so you don't have as much sediment in the bottles.

I had someone tell me that the air space in the carboy can lead to oxidation. I have about 3/4 of a 5 gallon filled. I've never had any issues with oxidation before and I don't plan on disturbing the carboy. Is there any truth to this?

I re-read the instructions and its only 1 month in the secondary. Couple weeks to go.

HAREEBROWNBEEST said:

I had someone tell me that the air space in the carboy can lead to oxidation. I have about 3/4 of a 5 gallon filled. I've never had any issues with oxidation before and I don't plan on disturbing the carboy. Is there any truth to this?

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Yes it's true BUT only if there is an air leak somewhere. As long as you have a good seal on your airlock, keep it filled, or have your blow off tube under water, then you should be great. You shouldn't have to worry about oxidation for your beer.

Cool thanks

I get to transfer to bottles today YES! I also got a new bottling wand to try out.

Bottled up some gifting brew



Got 40-12 ounce bottles out of my batch. I'm giving 17 beers as gifts, the remainder is MINE!

So a couple weeks bottled and here it is. Story goes...I gave a bunch away as gifts to neighbors and family etc, well I'm working on my dirtbike and my neighbor strolls over and says "hey jack of all trades, you made this?" I said "dude it's not ready man, give it a couple more days minimum!" he states that "BS dude try this, it's delicious!" I do and to my amazement it's great! I'm talking superb delicious beer! It wasn't even cold! I am not going to touch the remainder that I kept for myself for at least a month or two. Seriously amazing brew. Northern Brewers winter warmer. Get this extract kit now! Superb