First time brewing from extract - A few questions

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Tomerwt

Tomerwt

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About a week ago we (Tom & Erwin) started our first attempt to brew some beer. We used a can of extract (Lager from Brewferm, to be precise). It is now fermenting in a plastic fermenting-bucket. We think it's doing alright, but we have a few questions:

1. The can of extract we used contains an instruction for 12L of beer. The instructions told us to use 8L of water. Along with the extract, we are now left with aprox. 9.5L of liquid. But we don't understand how we'll get an end result of 12L. Does the beer expand to 12L? Do we need to add more water? Or is there something else we need to now?

2. When we prepared the mixture for fermenting, we boiled all of the water. Just now I found out we were only supposed to boil 2L of water, and use cold water for the other 6L. Did we damage the beer by adding only hot boiling water to the extract, or doesn't it make a difference?

3. During the first 2 days of fermenting, the airlock on the bucket bubbled a lot and whenever we stired the mixture, a huge layer of foam bubbled up. By now the airlock doesnt bubble anymore and when we stir the mixture, only a small layer of foam bubbles up. Does this mean there's something wrong? Or is it normal that the fermenting process slows down within the first week?

We hope someone can answer our questions!
 
Tomerwt said:
About a week ago we (Tom & Erwin) started our first attempt to brew some beer. We used a can of extract (Lager from Brewferm, to be precise). It is now fermenting in a plastic fermenting-bucket. We think it's doing alright, but we have a few questions:

1. The can of extract we used contains an instruction for 12L of beer. The instructions told us to use 8L of water. Along with the extract, we are now left with aprox. 9.5L of liquid. But we don't understand how we'll get an end result of 12L. Does the beer expand to 12L? Do we need to add more water? Or is there something else we need to now?

2. When we prepared the mixture for fermenting, we boiled all of the water. Just now I found out we were only supposed to boil 2L of water, and use cold water for the other 6L. Did we damage the beer by adding only hot boiling water to the extract, or doesn't it make a difference?

3. During the first 2 days of fermenting, the airlock on the bucket bubbled a lot and whenever we stired the mixture, a huge layer of foam bubbled up. By now the airlock doesnt bubble anymore and when we stir the mixture, only a small layer of foam bubbles up. Does this mean there's something wrong? Or is it normal that the fermenting process slows down within the first week?

We hope someone can answer our questions!
Click to expand...

You need to add water at the end in your fermentor to bring the volume up to 12 L (3 gallons). In extract brewing you are almost always going to top up your fermentor with water at the end.

Not sure on question 2- Are you saying that you added boiling water to your extract in the fermentor? If you added your heated water/extract mix to boiling water in the fermentor, you should still be OK, as long as you cooled everything down to proper yeast pitching temps (below 70 degree F)

Once you pitch your yeast and it starts fermenting, you should not open the fermentor for stirring. There is no reason to open the fermentor EVER after pitching your yeast unless you are taking a quick gravity sample. Every time you open up your fermentor you risk infection, and if you ares stirring it, your yeast is never going to settle and your beer won't clear up, so keep the lid closed and don't stir! Fermentation times can take from 3 days to a week and half or so, so it sounds like your fermentation is likely done. However you should take a hydrometer reading for a few days to make sure- if the hydrometer doesnt change for three days in a row, you are safe to rack to secondary or bottle.

Hope this helps
 
Tomerwt said:
About a week ago we (Tom & Erwin) started our first attempt to brew some beer. We used a can of extract (Lager from Brewferm, to be precise). It is now fermenting in a plastic fermenting-bucket. We think it's doing alright, but we have a few questions:

1. The can of extract we used contains an instruction for 12L of beer. The instructions told us to use 8L of water. Along with the extract, we are now left with aprox. 9.5L of liquid. But we don't understand how we'll get an end result of 12L. Does the beer expand to 12L? Do we need to add more water? Or is there something else we need to now?

2. When we prepared the mixture for fermenting, we boiled all of the water. Just now I found out we were only supposed to boil 2L of water, and use cold water for the other 6L. Did we damage the beer by adding only hot boiling water to the extract, or doesn't it make a difference?

3. During the first 2 days of fermenting, the airlock on the bucket bubbled a lot and whenever we stired the mixture, a huge layer of foam bubbled up. By now the airlock doesnt bubble anymore and when we stir the mixture, only a small layer of foam bubbles up. Does this mean there's something wrong? Or is it normal that the fermenting process slows down within the first week?

We hope someone can answer our questions!
Click to expand...

There is nothing wrong with boiling all the water. I would add cold water to the wort to bring it up to 12l. I use distilled water.

I wouldnt stir the mixture up while its fermenting you may get some off flavors from doing that. The only time you need to stir up the wort (add Oxygen) is right after you cool the wort from the boil. And yes its normal for fermentation to be finished in one week. Take your hydro readings to see if its finished. I would leave it set in the fermenter for another couple weeks at least to clean up itself. Happy brewing.
 
GroosBrewz said:
Once you pitch your yeast and it starts fermenting, you should not open the fermentor for stirring. There is no reason to open the fermentor EVER after pitching your yeast unless you are taking a quick gravity sample. Every time you open up your fermentor you risk infection, so keep it to a minimum. fermentation times can take from 3 days to a week and half or so, so it sounds like your fermentation is likely done.

Hope this helps
Click to expand...

Not to mention that everytime you opened the fermenter you released the excess co2, so of course your airlock wouldn't bubble, it didn't NEED to.

An airlock is a valve, a vent to release excess co2 to keep the lid from blowing off your fermenter. It is not a "magic fermentation gauge" in fact it is not a fermentation gauge at all. If an airlock isn't bubbling that just means there is not enough EXCESS co2 to need to be released. That is usually the case once fermentation slows down....there is less co2 being generated, and therefore less co2 that needs to be vented out. That doesn't mean that fermentation is done. Just that it is going slower......

This is something to remember in the future...After you pitch your yeast.

Stepaway_copy1.jpg
 
Thanks a lot both of you! We are a bit suprised, because the instructions told us to stir twice a day. We're going to read the hydrothing right now!
 
Alright, 1015 degrees. This is going much faster than we expected. We won't open it anymore until bottling time.
Is there anything we can do to repair the damage we did by opening it twice a day? Or will it be alright if we leave it now?
And by adding the remaining water at the end, you mean at bottling time?
 
No, if you need to top up with water, you do it before sealing the fermenter. At this point you should just bottle the volume you have instead of adding water at bottling time.

I don't know of a way to reverse the "damage" of oxidizing the beer. But depending on your luck and tolerance for off flavors it might be just fine anyway. The most common side effect is kind of a paper or cardboard taste. As long as you didn't get too much bacteria into the beer it should still be tasty. You'll know if it got infected with bacteria if it's sour.

Nothing that can make you sick can live in beer, FYI. The worst that can happen is it tastes bad.
 
also, lagers arent ideal to do as a beginning beer as temperatures need to be kept low and constant
 
It's probably not a big deal that you stirred the beer during fermentation IF you sanitized whatever it was you stirred with. As for topping up the mix before fermentation, tell us EXACTLY how many gallons (or liters) you have right now in your fermentation vessel. And Octo is correct.. If this is a lager recipe, you will need to ferment it at colder temperatures than a typical ale.. Have you planned for that? If you didn't, no worries, it will still make beer even if you have to ferment at room temps.
 

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