And it al begins with an Irish Stout kit

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Pintjelager

wannabe
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Jan 18, 2017
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Hello beerlovers/brewers,

I recently began to develop an interest in beertasting and now i'd like to make a kit and see if this hobby is for me. And so this adventure begins.
I've already bought a basic starterset and i hope you can help me with some stuff. I searched for days around the web, but i just need some feedback and confirmation about a few things. And yes i will probably buy what you recommend, but it's low budget for now or i'ĺl save and wait a bit longer for better material. I am searching for a patience/quality/fast gratification balance in this project if you know what i mean. The kit i bought is from Muttons “Irish Stout” premium and it's is for 23 liter. Oops didn't thought about the amound of bottles. I just saw the 23 liter and ordered :smack: I saved bottles to fill up 10 liters now.

First topic, everywhere i search on the internet a minimum of 2 weeks fermentation is what everybody talks about. What happens when i just follow the instructions? Why is this good or bad? If i can do this botteling so soon, why can i not find a single person online who does that?
Muttons: “Fermentation will be complete when bubbles cease to rise (usually after 4-6 days), or if you use a hydrometer, when the gravity remains constant at a figure below 1008 Siphon the beer into strong bottles... ”.
I do not have a hydrometer yet. Planning to use 45 grolsch and 30,33,50cl deposit bottles.

Second, what do you recommend for a type of suger and the primingsugar in the bottles? Would you replace the yeast package for something else? (the reason i'm trying this stout is because i love guinness.:rockin:)

Third, do i wait and order a second bucket for better priming?
Can i use something else, like a big stainless steel cooking pot and calculate the suger in that. Can i get it clean enough, does it do something with the taste?
Can i just fill the bottles with my sugarspoons. Thats ½ teaspoon for a pint, 568 ml in my understanding. Is it oke to for example use (almost fill) ½ teaspoon in a grolsch bottle then (450ml/45cl) or should i take this priming as an exact bussiness? Are the bottles really gonna explode attempting to stout-tan my ceiling, with a tiny bit more sugar? If this all about carbonation. I don't mind if some beers are more or less carbonated. I'ts a chance for me to find out what i like best.

Thank you for reading all of the above. :mug:
 
Brewing is a hobby that requires patience and at least a reasonable degree of measurement precision. These things matter a LOT.

Experienced brewers do not bottle after a few days of fermentation because they know that fermentation is unpredictable, and you cannot look at a beer and know for a fact that it is finished fermenting. A couple of gravity points that are left unfermented, once bottled, have the potential to blow up the bottle. That will send glass flying at a high rate of speed into your walls, furniture, or your body. If you misjudge your priming sugar by more than a very small amount, the same thing can happen.

Is it worth doing that to rush the process by a week or two?

Best practice is to weigh the sugar on a gram scale after calculating how much to add using one of several reliable sources on the internet.

You can bulk-prime in any food grade or stainless steel container that will hold the volume of beer. Just consider how you will get the beer out of that container and into bottles. Buckets often have spigots for that reason. Otherwise you're stuck with a siphon, which is a pain at that stage of the process.

Finally, kit instructions are well known to be poor. For some reason, they rush users and reference fixed time milestones rather than teaching how to empirically judge the beer at various stages. They are not textbooks on the subject of brewing, so a lot gets left out. But it's a disservice to new brewers, because with a few extra bits of information, a much better product can easily be made. Hopefully that's why you have come here.
 
@McKnuckle, thank you for your information and good advice. That is very helpful. True, i am impatient, but that is more because i am very enthusiastic. Rushing the process is not an option when there is that kind of danger involved. I didn't take it that seriously about the exploding bottles so iḿ glad i asked. People make a lot of jokes about it online. That is why i am here. Gathering information and eventually be happy with my first kit brew and hopefully grow in this hobby.

But strange indeed about the kit instructions. Are their any kit brands that deliver good/safe instructions? This is a lawsuit waiting to happen if you ask me.
 
Thanks for helping me get started...Oke, I'm buying that bottling bucket, maybe a hydrometer too. wish i bought it altogether. when they say basic they do mean basic ;)
 
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