Brewers best, roasted porter question

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Honda76

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Ok, so first post!
I followed the box recipe brewed last week. Transferred to the secondary after 5 days.
The first 3 days after brewing I had serious action out of the air valve, then it stopped. I know, this does not mean that the yeast isn't working. I tasted a bit when I racked and got a hydro reading, not bad. Light brown and smooth.

Here is my Q
My starting gravity was 1.051 and my gravity on the day I racked was 1.022. According to the recipe I should be bottling a week from today... Should I wait longer, or keep with the box recipe?
Also, what should I be looking for in a FG with the starting and racking readings.

Sorry for the noob question, I have been doing a lot of reading and trying to immerse myself in the techniques here, but once Its in practice it's a little different. After a few more brews I'm sure I will be able to just go with my gut.

Oh, last Q... What's the best way to guess my ABV?
 
Your box kit has serious errors in the instructions as do most box kits. You never rack to secondary until the yeast have completed their work. The kit manufacturers forgot to consult the yeast about how they would follow the schedule. Most of the time the yeast take 2 to 3 weeks to do that, but if the kit manufacturers said that they wouldn't sell as many kits. Once the yeast has completed the ferment and cleanup, you could rack to secondary (better to have been called a settling tank or bright tank) to let the beer clarify but you will get pretty much the same thing by letting it clarify while in the bottle.

Many of the box mixes tell you the expected ABV right on the box, but it's a guess as they don't know how warm you fermented at or to what gravity it attenuated out to. As a quick guess, your beer will be between 4 and 5 % but the yeast are the ones that get to determine that.

Definitely wait longer than the box recipe before you bottle. If you have a hydrometer, that is the only sure way to tell if your beer is ready for the bottle. If you don't have on, you should get one.
 
The recipe should tell you what the FG will be. Yours is still high. In the future you can skip secondary. for an average brew you would be safe leaving it in primary for three weeks and then in the bottle for 3 weeks. Search the web for ABV calculator and it will be easy to determine yours.
 
Throw the box recipes in the fireplace or out the window, bottle when it is complete as told by the hydrometer with steady FG readings over appx. 3 days. Also be a little more patient with your fermentation, your beer shouldn't move from the primary for an ale at least until all fermentation is complete.
 
RM-MN said:
Your box kit has serious errors in the instructions as do most box kits. You never rack to secondary until the yeast have completed their work. The kit manufacturers forgot to consult the yeast about how they would follow the schedule. Most of the time the yeast take 2 to 3 weeks to do that, but if the kit manufacturers said that they wouldn't sell as many kits. Once the yeast has completed the ferment and cleanup, you could rack to secondary (better to have been called a settling tank or bright tank) to let the beer clarify but you will get pretty much the same thing by letting it clarify while in the bottle.

Many of the box mixes tell you the expected ABV right on the box, but it's a guess as they don't know how warm you fermented at or to what gravity it attenuated out to. As a quick guess, your beer will be between 4 and 5 % but the yeast are the ones that get to determine that.

Definitely wait longer than the box recipe before you bottle. If you have a hydrometer, that is the only sure way to tell if your beer is ready for the bottle. If you don't have on, you should get one.
Click to expand...

Well, that's about what I expected to hear... Hopefully there are enough yeast still working in the secondary to take care of business. I joined this site after I moved into that part of the process. Oh well... I've read and become verse on how to use, read the hydro to bottle.

Any guess what I should be looking for or is that pretty much up to the yeast?
Thanks for the quick reply.
 
My sister's boyfriend and I have brewed 5 of the Brewer's Best kits and the only one that wasn't in the primary for at least 3-4 weeks was the weizenbier. The Altbier was in the primary for 8 weeks and it came out fantastic after using White Labs WLP036 rather than the Nottingham dry yeast in the kit.

Start brewing enough that you don't need to worry about racking/bottling as early as possible and you'll get better beers. Give them plenty of time in the primary, then the bottles, then a couple days in the fridge.

It will blow your mind how much clearer a bottled beer is when it's been in the primary more than the minimum time on the recipe and then in the fridge for a few days rather than just a few hours.
 
I did something pretty similar with a BB irish stout kit early last month. Of course, I then went back and read about the extract 1.020 curse, plus other wild cards like how dark lme/dme doesn't ferment out as well as the lighter stuff and how malto dextrin wasn't counted as an unfermentable in the expected FG range. Whatever the reason, the clearing tank didn't bring it any lower after a couple more weeks.

That's just one instance, of course. But if the beer's already got a good flavor and will only get better, no big deal right?
 
Any guess what I should be looking for or is that pretty much up to the yeast?
Thanks for the quick reply.
Click to expand...

I think you should be looking for a pretty good beer but much later than you would want. Go ahead an taste a bottle a week after you bottle it up, just so you know what it tastes like before it matures. Then leave it alone for a month and taste one more bottle. Repeat until it has a really nice dense head and tastes smooth. I'll bet you are nearly 3 months down the road by this time.

In the meantime, brew up another kit, but this time make it a cream ale. Give it the 3 weeks in the fermenter and 2 weeks in the bottle. It will be pretty good by this time and all gone before the stout gets to its best.
 
RM-MN said:
I think you should be looking for a pretty good beer but much later than you would want. Go ahead an taste a bottle a week after you bottle it up, just so you know what it tastes like before it matures. Then leave it alone for a month and taste one more bottle. Repeat until it has a really nice dense head and tastes smooth. I'll bet you are nearly 3 months down the road by this time.

In the meantime, brew up another kit, but this time make it a cream ale. Give it the 3 weeks in the fermenter and 2 weeks in the bottle. It will be pretty good by this time and all gone before the stout gets to its best.
Click to expand...

Ha, good advice. I'm going to keep it a week or two in the secondary then let them mature in the basement. Im thinking about brewing up a Dunkel weizen Next. Hopefully it will bridge the gap between now and porter o'clock.
 

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