New Brewer, double check my brew and kegging/Siph steps?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

TheSlash

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2010
Messages
285
Reaction score
6
Location
Cereal City
Hi all, been reading here for quite a while, finally got into home brewing a few weeks ago. I'm getting close to the kegging time on my first batch and wanted to clarify a few things before continuing.

I brewed a kit of Oatmeal Stout with specialty grains from MidWest on November 20th. I made a starter 2 days prior and it made the primary bubble about 6 hours after brewing. It has been in my dark closet since. Saturday makes 3 weeks, I was thinking about doing the following...

Throw the primary bucket in the Kegerator at 40 degrees for a week to settle the yeast and gunk, (is this a cold crash?) and then siphon it to a corny and put it on 10-12psi, wait a week then drink... Or force carb if I get reaaaaal impatient.

I don't care about clarity, but I don't want a lot of suspended yeast, gives me horrid gas and all.

Will a primary bucket be ok in a 40 degree kegerator or would you just rack high into a corny and throw on air at 4 weeks for a little extra conditioning time?

There was only bittering hops added...

I don't want to use a secondary.

A week after the Oatmeal stout, I made an English Brown Ale, might leave this one in primary for 5 weeks, then either refridge/keg, or just keg depending on what you guys recommend above...

Thanks!
Brian
 
FWIW, I attempted to cold crash a beer a few weeks in a regular plastic fermentation bucket. Froze most of it, but damn near all of the yeast fell out of solution (beer is crystal clear). I wouldn't worry about 40* is the kegerator.
 
Thanks Doc! I had built a kegerator about 8 months ago to save money on beer, and just got tired of buying Micro brews at $65 a keg and dealing with $30 deposits, ordering etc. Figured since I had a 3 tap kegerator I may as well learn to make my own. Hopefully by months end I have 2 delicious home brews and a seltzer water for pop syrups on tap!
 
Maybe I'll bump it to 42 to be safe on the lower parts...

I don't think you have to worry about freezing it. My dumb ass took the temp controller off of the minifridge I was using as a fermentation chamber. Unfortunately the fridge cooled down to 5*... imagine my surprise when I found a 5 gallon beercicle when I wanted to keg it.
 
Oh lol. You shoulda put a broom stick in it and had the worlds largest beersickle record.

I've got a keezer actually with a johnson controller on it. I made a collar so the top gets warmer. I know the top is 40, but the bottom could be down to 35ish.. I do get some frost on the walls down there.

I'll keep an eye on it, thanks.
 
Back
Top