is it detrimental to open fermenter?

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jazzyeric

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Hi, my first brew is going as well as expected... pacing back and forth looking at bubbles... or i was, until they stopped after about a day and a half. From what im reading/hearing dry yeast works really fast. So im assuming its ok. But i took a peek in the ol' brew bucket to see what it looked like/what was going on (i wish i had a 6.5 carboy...) and the aroma hit me... it's smelling so damn good... anyways, is it bad to open that thing? i've read a lot about taking hyd readings so i would assume........not so bad?

it really did smell great... i could've swore i screwed it up about a billion different times... it looks like i need to relax and have a... store brew? only a couple more weeks......
 
Buy another fermenter and brew another beer. You are going to buy a second fermenter at some point anyway. Give yourself something to do to keep your mind off of the first bucket.

Opening the bucket won't hurt it. I fermented a beer that turned out great when I forgot to sanitize the bucket. I wouldn't open it every day but you are okay.
 
yeah, i already have a secondary, a 5 gallon carboy, i can see a 5 gal carboy being a bad idea for primary fermantation due to bubbling out... is this correct? the beer is an amber ale which i will secondary. I have a 6.5 bucket on order and will give the ol' college try at making a hefeweizen when that gets here. anyways, i enjoyed the process thoroughly on brew day.. was a BIT rushed for time, though next time it will move much smoother.
 
yeah, i already have a secondary, a 5 gallon carboy, i can see a 5 gal carboy being a bad idea for primary fermantation due to bubbling out... is this correct? the beer is an amber ale which i will secondary. I have a 6.5 bucket on order and will give the ol' college try at making a hefeweizen when that gets here. anyways, i enjoyed the process thoroughly on brew day.. was a BIT rushed for time, though next time it will move much smoother.

Correct. A 5 gallon carboy is really bad for fermenting 5 gallons of beer. I use a blow off tube for the first week on every single beer even with the 6.5g buckets I have. I have only used a secondary once in 15 batches. I typically ferment for 4 weeks on everything with a normalish gravity. Bottle and brew every other week. Pretty much pitch and forget for 4 weeks.

My first brew day was 6 hours, just the brewing part. Now the guy who I brew with and myself get on batch brewed and one bottled, including all cleanup, in 3 hours.(yeah I only extract brew) We bottle starting at about 15m into the boil, once it gets past the boil over stage. Takes about 15-20m to bottle and cap a batch.
 
man that sounds awesome. I was told the secondary would help with less sediment in the brew. how much yeast IS actually at the bottom of a bottle of homebrew? is it comparable to say a bottle of store bought hefeweizen or belgian wheat?
 
If you let the brew sit at least 3 weeks in primary,it'll clear to a slight haze. It'll be cleaned up after itself,with average gravity beers. Then bottle & condition at least 3 weeks. After some time in the fridge,you'll see a light dusting on the bottom of the bottle. Just enough to cover it very thinly.
 
man that sounds awesome. I was told the secondary would help with less sediment in the brew. how much yeast IS actually at the bottom of a bottle of homebrew? is it comparable to say a bottle of store bought hefeweizen or belgian wheat?

Yeah pretty comparable to a hefe depending on the yeast.

A secondary will help clear things up. How much is an ongoing debate. Many people don't bother with a secondary and claim they get very clear beer. Mine is pretty clear. It might be clearer if I used a secondary but I find my beer is good enough and I don't want to go through the hassle and possible introduction of infection from transferring the beer once more.
 
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