Brew House Kits

I recently bought a brew house Kit (Honey Blonde Ale) I put it in the fermenter Sunday evening and I was wondering how long should I keep it in the primary fermenter? Also Should I transfer it over to a secondary and for how long? This is my third batch of homebrew 1st one was 10,000 Lakes light lager (Which is going through bottling conditioning and in the secondary right now is a Ocktoberfest. Both are from Windriver brewing company. Any thoughts from anyone?? Thanks

Leave that bad boy in the fermenter for 4 or 5 weeks. Let them yeasties clean up after themselves. I would skip the secondary al together. It is unnecessary for this style. Congratulations on your batches, the addiction has got you now
-Chris

I started off with a Festa Brew kit, which is very similar to Brew House and my research about these types of kits suggested that they produce a superior product to canned kits with less effort. Good start!

I had some questions about mine while I nervously awaited primary fermentation to end and the overwhelming response was to leave it in the primary for 3+ weeks. At that point I had no option to do a 3 week primary (couldn't install an airlock while it was fermenting), so I racked into the secondary after 8 days.

I'm on my second kit now, this one is a canned kit and I don't intend to rack it to a secondary at all. Once fermentation starts (only pitched the yeast 6 hours ago) I'm going to leave it in the bucket for 4 weeks then cold crash it and bottle the mutha'. Combining a Brew House kit with a procedure like this would make it so, so, so easy to make good beer. I think I'm done fussing with canned kits...

Being a newbie what does cold crashing mean? How do you do that???

I'm still a newbie myself but I'll try to answer your question to the best of my abilities before someone knowledgeable beats me to it

Cold crashing is chilling the beer to below its regular fermenting temperature prior to bottling in order to further clarify the beer. I have a friend with a beer fridge that he's willing to let me use a large portion of so it's no hassle. Without an extra chest freezer, fridge or cold storage room in your house I'm not sure how you'd do it. I've read a lot of responses that said it isn't worth doing, I'm only doing it to try it out.

anyone else have any input??

For cold crashing you could try submerging the fermentor into some cold water and letting it sit for a while. Fill up a plastic storage bin or something to that effect (maybe a big plastic trash can, etc..) and set the fermentor in it. I would say put enough water in so that when you put you fermentor in the water, the water level is about halfway up the sides of the fermentor. This was suggested earlier to me for controlling fermentation temps, its called a "Swamp Cooler". You might even throw some ice in the water depending on how cold you want it to get.

I'm a certified n00b, but i thought i'd put my 2 cents in.

I have done 2 brew house kits - the pale ale and the pilsner. 1 week in primary, 2 or 3 weeks secondary worked nicely. They finish fermenting in 2 or 3 days.

I did the Brew House stout, and it turned out fantastic. I left it for around 3.5 weeks in the primary. Very drinkable after a week in the bottles, and now, at 3 weeks in bottle, it just keeps getting better!

My advise would be exactly the same as Hoosier's, leave it 4 or 5 weeks and bottle it up. Leaving it that long allows the yeast to finish it's job of cleaning up the flavors and clearing the beer.

Cold Crashing is quickly reducing the temp of the fermentor to drop the yeast (and other particulate matter). Fridge temp is good. If you're using a chest freezer better have a temp control on it. You don't want to freeze it. 50 F is usually sufficent. A few days at that temp for a regular ale is sufficient, but longer can be better.

Cold Crashing = Cold Conditioning = Cold Stabalization = Lagering (more or less.) Actually the last three usually are longer. A couple of weeks to a month to drop any chill haze too.

BrewHouse kits are great in my opinion and brew great beer. However their instructions to leave it in the primary for 3 to 5 days is just cracked. You should leave it in the primary for at least one week and so long as you are using a closed fermentation chamber (brew bucket or carboy sealed with an airlock) I'd skip the secondary and let it go two to three weeks in the primary, cold crash for four days and then keg or bottle. If you're using an open primary fermentor (like they say to in their instructions) I'd rack to the secondary after a week.

Rudeboy

Thanks to all. I have a 6.5 gal ale pail so I should be ok to leave it in there for 3 weeks right? I wont pick up any off flavors from the trub on the bottom? Thanks

the trub is good for it! Am I right guys? I think that's why so many home brewers advocate leaving your beer in the primary for longer than the instructions specify.

Drew_101 said:

Thanks to all. I have a 6.5 gal ale pail so I should be ok to leave it in there for 3 weeks right? I wont pick up any off flavors from the trub on the bottom? Thanks

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Would we lie to you about beer? Heck no! Leaving your beer for 3 weeks in the primary will only help it.

Drew_101 said:

Thanks to all. I have a 6.5 gal ale pail so I should be ok to leave it in there for 3 weeks right? I wont pick up any off flavors from the trub on the bottom? Thanks

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No it won't pickup any off flavours. The off flavour people worry about is autolysis which is caused by the dead yeast coughing up bad stuff. It will not happen in any detectable level in 3 weeks.

And your ale pail seals with a airlock, right? If so you're fine.

The requirement for a secondary although thought to be neccessary/benificial even up to a few years ago is now generally considered to be unneccesary. Leaving it on the yeast cake means a greater cell mass to clean up stuff. Racking it to a secondary is another vector for infection. (there are exceptions Lagers, beers you're going to leave in the fermentor for months/years).

Although you will find people who swear by secondaries. The other fun discussion is brewing in aluminium kettles or using plastic carboys. (He says tossing in the hand grenade and ducking)

Rudeboy