Triple Noob Brew

So my friends and I are making our first batches of beer today. They've never brewed anything in their lives so they look to me for advice and equipment.

My questions are...

1) I'm lending them 5 gallon carboys and we're doing 5 gallon kits. Do we just fill to the 5 gallon mark (very high up near the neck)? My concern is that even with a blow off tube it'll pop the plug and erupt everywhere. I don't want their first experience brewing to be a mess. All I've ever made is wine and cider so I have no experience with the vigorous, foamy, fermentation of beer.

2) We don't have a big enough pot to do a full boil so can we just reduce the water we add after? Make the final volume closer to 4.5gal? This would also make a bigger beer right? I don't want to *F* up a basic beginner noob extract kit on my first try though.

Thoughts?

If it matters... here's the kits we're doing:

http://morebeer.com/view_product/10801//Brown_Porter_-_Extract_Beer_Kit

http://morebeer.com/view_product/10814//Belgian_Pale_Ale_-_Extract_Beer_Kit

http://morebeer.com/view_product/9823//Sweet_Stout_-_Extract_Beer_Kit

*EDIT* Yeah just combined my second question into the original post.

You are going to need a larger fermenter (6.5 gal size) to do 5 gal batches. you can cut the batch down but it will increase the alcohol and bittering units. You will most likely still need to use a blow off with a 4.5 gal batch. I use a 6.5 gal with 5.5 gals in it and still need to use a blow off most off the time. My suggestion is go out and buy a large plastic fermenting pail.

I have two fermenting pails, but there's three of us. I'll see if I can get our one guy to get one.

So...
A) If I use a 6.5gal bucket, can we just do an airlock?

B) Does it matter if it has one of those spigots on it?

brazedowl said:

So...
A) If I use a 6.5gal bucket, can we just do an airlock?

B) Does it matter if it has one of those spigots on it?

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Yes use an airlock. Doesn't really matter if it has a spigot although I have never fermented in one with a spigot. Just don't accidentally turn it on during fermentation.

Technically the buckets with the spigots are for your bottling.

Gotcha. Ok getting one more bucket.

I'd use a blow off tube for at least the first few days no matter what vessel you are using. It's basically just a larger version of an airlock anyway and is cheap insurance against a big mess and potential off flavors in your beer if the airlock pops out. I don't even use those wimpy little airlocks; I just keep the blowoff tube in for the whole ferment.

As for your kettle size issue you've got the right idea. Boil what you can and top it up to desired volume with water. Getting that water nice and cold can make your chilling issues easier by the way...

PS- I highly recommend reading a good recent copyright homebrewing book. This forum is great but you need a solid foundation to get the most out of it...

Can we just ferment it to completion in a bucket or once the fermentation settles down should we transfer it to a secondary carboy?

Sorry for all the epic easy questions. I'm sure I could just search around the forum a bit.

Demus said:

PS- I highly recommend reading a good recent copyright homebrewing book. This forum is great but you need a solid foundation to get the most out of it...

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Solid use of the Barnes & Noble gift cards I got in my stocking.

Also, y'all are attempting 3- 5 gallon kits all at once first brew day ever? Ambitious!

Do you have multiple burners or are you attempting to do this on a range (going to be pressed for space with 5 gallon batches)??? Or are you planning one after another?

This is going to be one long day if the latter is the case!

brazedowl said:

Can we just ferment it to completion in a bucket or once the fermentation settles down should we transfer it to a secondary carboy?

Sorry for all the epic easy questions. I'm sure I could just search around the forum a bit.

Click to expand...

No real need to move to secondary unless you are going for other fermentables with a secondary yeast pitch.

All of my brews just stay in primary over the full fermentation period.

Hlmartin22 said:

No real need to move to secondary unless you are going for other fermentables with a secondary yeast pitch.

All of my brews just stay in primary over the full fermentation period.

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Ditto.. Many brewers still "secondary" for various reasons but as a matter of general technique, it's simply not necessary. Why that step is still on most recipe kit instructions is truly a mystery...

Demus said:

Ditto.. Many brewers still "secondary" for various reasons but as a matter of general technique, it's simply not necessary. Why that step is still on most recipe kit instructions is truly a mystery...

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No real mystery there. You can make money selling carboys to newbies.

RM-MN said:

No real mystery there. You can make money selling carboys to newbies.

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Unfortunately, you are probably right. It's a short sighted approach though. Set a new brewer up for success, and he'll be a repeat customer. Set him up for failure and/or overcomplicate things, and it's one and done!

Ok so I'd like to say we had success...

A) We brewed indoors on a range. We did two batches simultaneously and then we did the third.

B) We noted things throughout that we would improve upon on the next go. First off we're going to get some burners and do it outside. The kitchen was a hot, sticky mess by the time we were done. We want to construct a wort chiller and some other things for our next run. We're way fired up.

C) Somehow the sweet stout kit we made ended up being closer to 1.075 than 1.049 like the directions said. We didn't change anything so that's a mystery.

brazedowl said:

Ok so I'd like to say we had success...

A) We brewed indoors on a range. We did two batches simultaneously and then we did the third.

B) We noted things throughout that we would improve upon on the next go. First off we're going to get some burners and do it outside. The kitchen was a hot, sticky mess by the time we were done. We want to construct a wort chiller and some other things for our next run. We're way fired up.

C) Somehow the sweet stout kit we made ended up being closer to 1.075 than 1.049 like the directions said. We didn't change anything so that's a mystery.

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Congrats on partial success; especially using a range...
Sweet stout likely hit higher OG because your mash in/ or rather extract in temp was a little high (gave you more fermentable sugars in your wort).

That's okay if you had a healthy yeast pitch (it will just yield a higher ABV)... But if you had a low attenuating or infected yeast you will likely get some weird off flavors in this beer.

Make certain you give these a healthy time to mature in the fermenters and you should be content with the product

Congrats and best of luck!

Somehow the sweet stout kit we made ended up being closer to 1.075 than 1.049 like the directions said. We didn't change anything so that's a mystery.

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Since you were doing extract the likely scenario is that you sampled wort that wasn't mixed well and got a sample of the thicker wort. It's pretty hard to get that far off by any other means,

RM-MN said:

Since you were doing extract the likely scenario is that you sampled wort that wasn't mixed well and got a sample of the thicker wort. It's pretty hard to get that far off by any other means,

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I agree, there's not enough variablity to go from 1.049 to 1.075. Ether it was unmixed as you say or the measurement was misread or inaccurate in some other way...

RM-MN said:

Since you were doing extract the likely scenario is that you sampled wort that wasn't mixed well and got a sample of the thicker wort. It's pretty hard to get that far off by any other means,

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Actually we took it twice for just that reason. We took a reading, it was really high so we gave it a crazy stir with the paddle (it's in a fermenting bucket) and took another reading and got the same thing.

Ok so I just checked it and it's been sitting at 1.020 for two weeks. I tasted it and it's not sweet. So would I be good to prime and bottle?

I have two concerns:

1) with such a high gravity fermentation will start back up again and blow the bottles.

2) fermentation has stopped prematurely and it won't carb in the bottles.

Are my first-time-brewer fears justified?

There may be other things going on with your readings,or gravity. Remember, your OG was higher than it should have been all well, and you used extract so the OG should have been pretty controlled.

Extract tends to finish higher for some reason. And if it's a sweet stout there must be some unfermentable sugars in there somewhere to keep it sweet, which would raise the FG to some extent.

I would wager you're fine to bottle.

brazedowl said:

Ok so I'd like to say we had success...

A) We brewed indoors on a range. We did two batches simultaneously and then we did the third.

B) We noted things throughout that we would improve upon on the next go. First off we're going to get some burners and do it outside. The kitchen was a hot, sticky mess by the time we were done. We want to construct a wort chiller and some other things for our next run. We're way fired up.

C) Somehow the sweet stout kit we made ended up being closer to 1.075 than 1.049 like the directions said. We didn't change anything so that's a mystery.

Click to expand...

Checked the MB link above. Recope has lactose in it. Lactose is unfermentable and adds to sweetness and mouthfeel. And to FG. So yeah, you're good. Without the lactose you'd be in the happy sub 1.02 range.

The sweet stout has lactose in it. I did the Brown Porter. It didn't have any additional unfermentables and it has petered out at 1.020.

brazedowl said:

Ok so I just checked it and it's been sitting at 1.020 for two weeks. I tasted it and it's not sweet. So would I be good to prime and bottle?

I have two concerns:

1) with such a high gravity fermentation will start back up again and blow the bottles.

2) fermentation has stopped prematurely and it won't carb in the bottles.

Are my first-time-brewer fears justified?

Click to expand...

Assuming your readings are right, 1.075 down to 1.020 is 73.3% attenuation. That seems dead normal for a sweet stout to me. Bottle away without fear my firend...