First attempt

Hello,

This is my first attempt,... I've got an "easy brew" IPA kit from 7 Bridges which has liquid extract and pellet hops and some liquid yeast 1968 london esb from wyeast. Any experience with this kit?

A couple questions, I am sure I will have 90 more later.

1) I have access to both 2 glass carboys (not sure of size yet) and 2 40 quart (10 gallon) plastic NSF food safe bins with tops. Would it be easier for the newbie to use the plastic? How do you airlock the plastic, or is it not necessary?

2) As a first timer , should I bother with secondary fermenter ? (have seen both suggested....).

3) Instructions say, after bottling to store at room temp for 70F, then after "a few days" move to cool dark place 55-65F for 1-3 weeks. I have only access to either our home fridge or our basement (70F). Nothing 55-65F. What should I do there?

BTW my timing is pretty bad (or good) here... if all goes well with this first batch its going to be "ready" about the same time the baby is "ready" to come out!


Thanks..

What size glass? If you have a 6-gallon carboy, that's what I would use. A 10 gal. bin seems to big - too much headspace.

Skip the secondary fermentation - just leave the beer in the primary for 3 - 4 weeks. The bottles will need 3 weeks at room temperature (most kit instructions seem to compress the times involved - just tell the baby to wait). Then into the fridge 48 hours before serving.

Congrats to all involved BTW.

The kits at Seven Bridges are high quality and make very tasty beer. Their directions are a little strange if you ask me though. They like to sell liquid yeast with their kits but don't recommend the use of a starter (that is not to say that they recommend against it). I think that's why they want you to start the beer at a warmer temperature then drop to cooler temps to control the esters a little bit. Here is what I would do.

1. Go ahead and follow their brewing instructions. Those are solid. You should have some "steeping grains" with their easy brew kit. Hopefully you have a grain bag for them. That will make your life easier.

2. Make a starter for the yeast. This is an important step. If you don't know how, just click here. A starter isn't absolutely necessary but it will make your beer ferment faster and taste much better.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/how-make-yeast-starter-pictorial-76101/

3. Ferment in your basement. 70* is ok but 60-65 is ideal. You can create a "swamp cooler" by placing the carboy (yes, use the carboy) in a short tub of water. Place a t-shirt over the carboy and and have a fan going on low blowing at the setup. The water evaporation off the t-shirt will keep your beer at a perfect fermentation temp. 70* ambient will be fine if you don't want to rig up a swamp cooler but your beer may taste a little fruity or have a hot alcohol flavor without it.

4. Skip secondary an primary for 3 weeks. I would say a yeast starter would be 1000x more important than a secondary.

I'm pretty familiar with Seven Bridges. They are my local shop. Very fresh ingredients so your beer should turn out great. Good luck! Let us know if you have more questions!

Oh, another tip is to soak that bag of liquid malt extract in some hot tap water before you dump it into your boil kettle. That will make it a lot easier to get it all out of the bag and into the kettle.

SC_Ryan said:

Oh, another tip is to soak that bag of liquid malt extract in some hot tap water before you dump it into your boil kettle. That will make it a lot easier to get it all out of the bag and into the kettle.

Click to expand...

How did I never think to do this when I brewed with extract?

OK I got a 19 and 23 litre (5 and 6) glass carboy. Which should I use if I am only going to use 1 fermenter.

I've got an 30 litre pot - how many gallons of water should I start with?

Is it worth my while to get one of these drill attachment oxygenators?

7 Bridges says to smack the Wyeast Activator and give it 24 hours before using (since it is slightly over 1 month old). Do I let it swell at room temp or in the fridge? Should I still try to use a starter with this?

Finally, I have B-T-F iodophor and have read that you do not want to let it dry, but on the bottle it says to let sanitized items air dry... can I assume the latter is correct?

If it's a 5 gallon batch, you'll need to use the 6 gallon carboy. You'll need headspace for the foam (krausen) generated during fermentation (you'll see ). Using the 5 gallon carboy would be a disaster! If you were going to do a secondary (which I personally don't recommend in this case) the 5 gallon would be ideal.

According to my calculations 30 liters is 8 gallons, which would be big enough for a full boil, if you have a strong enough burner and a way to cool the large volume. If not, just boil as much as you think you'll be able to heat and cool effectively. If your boil volume differs a lot from the recipe, you might have to adjust your hops a little to get the bitterness right.

Oxygenator? You can aerate by sanitizing one of your buckets and pouring back and forth between the bucket and the kettle, but there are a couple of things to consider -- the bucket needs to be absolutely free of scratches to sanitize properly, and you need to make sure there's no breeze either from the wind or an air conditioner or anything while you do it. This is how I have always aerated. Or you could get the oxygenator. Maybe someone who has one can tell you if it's a lot better.

The Wyeast smack pack needs to expand at room temperature. In the refrigerator the yeast will remain mostly dormant. Yes, yes I would definitely do a starter for 5 gallons.

The iodophor does not need to be dry. But if for some reason you wanted it dry, don't use a towel because you might introduce bugs. Personally if something gets dry after I sanitize I re-wet it before using it just in case.

The other thing you can do for oxygenation is just put a sanitized piece of foil over the mouth of the carboy after the wort has been racked and cooled and just shake the crap out of it for a couple of minutes. I used to do it sitting in a sturdy chair with the carboy in my lap to make sure I didn't drop the damn thing. It'll be pretty heavy.

Otherwise I agree with everything HotBreakHotel spelled out.

How much head room do you need for fermentation. Since I am only using a secondary fermentation, can I make another batch in the smaller 5gallon carboy if I do not fill it all the way up?

You probably want about a gallon of headspace.

Thanks. I have 2 more newbie questions

1) if I am doing 1 longer fermentation in the same vessel, is there any reason to remove the blow off tube going into sanitized water and replace it with an airlock with vodka?

2) I did not mark 5 gallons in my 6 gallon fermenter. I looked at the pot and noted just under 20 litres after the boil, however in the fermenter it looks like much less than 5 gallons. The krausen did not come anywhere near to blowing out the blow off tube (may or may not be unrelated, I guess). Not sure if you can tell by the picture if I am low on volume, but if I am what will the effect be?

looks a little low but dont worry, it will just be a little stronger. congrats, you made beer

If you are going to let it sit in the carboy, I dont believe it makes a difference if you switch the blow-off for an airlock. If you do choose to switch to an airlock, wait a couple of weeks until the main fermentation has settled down, just to make sure you dont blow the airlock off.

volume looks a little low if thats a six gallon.. after you empty this carboy, take and empty gallon milk or water jug and add them one at a time, marking the level on the carboy as you go. This way you can see how much was boiled off after you put your wort into the carboy.

Looks good!

A few last questions and I should be good...

1) My measured OG was 1.070. The directions say it should have been 1.058 - 1.062. I think it is entirely possible the wort I measured was not well mixed. The other possibility was that there was not enough water volume (would that make the OG go up?). Should I go by the FG the directions say or by the FG when it stops changing over the course of several days?

Today's gravity is 1.02

2) Post-bottling directions say : Store beer at room temp for "few days" then cool dark place for 1-3 weeks. Again, I have only either 70F or my fridge (cold,.. not beer specific). Could you suggest how long I should leave it "out" until putting it in the fridge, and before opening one to drink?

1) You can shoot for the FG the directions call for, but I would just leave it in the primary for about three weeks (or longer if you'd like, it won't hurt at all) and start checking the SG towards the end of that three weeks. Take one reading, and then take another ater a few days. If it has not changed, bottle. If it has changed, leave in primary for a while longer until you get the same readings multiple times.

2) 70F is fine for bottle conditioning. Just make sure it's in a dark place. What I do is bottle 'em all, put 'em in cases, then put the cases in big black garbage bags (in case of exploders) then put the covered cases in a closet and forget about 'em. You'll want to leave them in the bottle for at least three weeks (or as long as you can hold out!!). I started drinking mine after about two weeks though. You can pop open a bottle every week too, to see the progress, but since it's a bigger beer it's going to take a while to get really good conditioning, possibly at least a month, so I would just wait at least three weeks just to be sure.

Good luck!

oh then after you get good carbonation, stick a sixer in the fridge for a few days. Then try it out; if it's good to you, start puttin the rest in the fridge for a while!

MetallHed said:

You'll want to leave them in the bottle for at least three weeks (or as long as you can hold out!!). I started drinking mine after about two weeks though.

Click to expand...

Sigh, I do this all the time. I just can't wait three weeks, it's such an awkward period of time.

OK thanks

It was in the primary for 3 full weeks. Things are about to get hectic here so we went ahead and bottled. Waiting will not be a problem.

here is the thing... In the rush of capping... I did not rinse the sanitizer off the caps in sterile water after sanitizing. Basically they were sitting in a tupperware full of 12.5ppm Iodophor (1/10 oz in1 gallon of water) sanitizer and I sort of shook off the extra sanitizer off, but did not rinse them. Am I OK there?

We ended up only getting about 4 gallons after I spilled a lot trying to figure out why the heck I could not get a siphon going (I was running the racking cane through the cork... which was sealing the air from entering the carboy.. DUH!).

Hi guys,

I would like some suggestions on how to improve this recipe and give it another try.

Here are the details of what this kit (http://www.breworganic.com/organicindiapalealeeasybrew.aspx) contains:
8.5 # organic pale barley M.E.
1/2# briess caramel 60 oL
1/2# briess caramel 20 oL

1/2 oz New Zealand pacific gem pellets (bittering) 27 IBU
3/4 oz New Zealand pacific gem pellets (flavor) 25 IBU
1/2 oz New Zealand hallertaur pellets (aroma)
1/2t irish moss

Wyeast #1968

8oz DME

First, I am sure I screwed up a few things.

my O.G. was 1.070 which I think was incorrect(?) . It seemed like I maybe did not stir it well enough before taking the reading - i think that may cause it to show higher than normal(?)

I fermented at a very high temp for an Ale but this was during the summer and didn't have much of a choice. I would say it spent most of its life close to 75F. If we do this again now, it will be more like 70F. I think that will be an improvement.

Did not use a starter and yeast seemed weak - so will use a starter next time.

Beer was brewed June 22 and Bottled July 13 when the F.G. was 1.02.
I did not evenly distribute the bottling sugar very well and ended up with some very flat and some decent carbonation.

Overall, beer was OK, but ended up NOT very IPA like at all more like an ale, and way too fruity/sweet.

I would like to add some more hops (I think?) to this recipe and try it again using the above changes (mainly lower temp fermentation and using a starter for the yeast) and any other suggestions you guys can offer.

Another thing I would like to do differently is use a real burner - we were doing this straddled on a 9k and 5k stove top burner and it took FOREVER to boil and hard a hard time actually staying in a rolling boil. For 5 gallons I am not sure if a 55k BTU bayou burner is enough or if I should go bigger. Will this just mean it takes less time, or actually improve flavor ?

For bottling, how do I evenly distribute the DME solution - or should I try forced carbonation?

Thanks!!