First Beer, Need help

[Sophocles]

Hi,

I've been reading up on this forum, on utube, on a few ebooks I found for free, etc.

Last night I attempted to make my own beer using the Cooper Micro Brewery. I sanitized everything and rinsed as the instructions on the sanitize said so I don't think anything is infected. I understand that as long as the sanitizer touches all surfaces then I'm good. I did that and also when it was in the fermenter, I gave it a good shake and turned it upside down and all around with 10ltr of sanitizer.

I proceeded to make the beer. The temp was high at around 32 degrees according to the Coopers strip thermometer and was probably so because of the boiling water. So I added cold water and several ice cubes. Temperature dropped to 26 degrees which is in the 21-27 range that Coopers says. I added more water, the yeast and closed it. I added some hot water (close to boiling in the airlock). I screwed that up a bit though, cause I wanted to test if bubbles could come out and when I pressed on the sides of the fermenter some water from the airlock went into the fermenter. Anyway, the airlock is now 1/2 filled as in all the pictures I've seen. I left the fermenter near the window and so the cool breeze would let the fermentation occur at around 20-22 degrees.

This morning, there are no bubbles. Everything appears to me air tight. I don't get it? Did I do anything wrong? I understand from what I have read that bubbles may escape from the lid and the airlock seal but they both seem pretty tight and setup ok...?!?!

Another problem I have is that I need to more the carboy. But if I move it the water in the airlock may drop into the beer. Should I take the airlock out, and then move it? Can I do that or is it too much risk with infections? Or shall I take the lid off and move it? Am I making too big of a deal with this? I just don't want to screw it up. Problem is that where carboy is, the temp will go up and so I will put wet towels but need to move to cooler location.

Thank you for your help!!!

 

[MrVagabond]

You should give it up to 72 hours to see if any activity starts. It could just be your yeast needs a little more time. The general consensus I've gotten from advice here and my LHBS is to wait it out. Don't worry after just 12-16 hours. It could take quite a bit more time.

 

[Sophocles]

Ok MrVaga, thanks.

Small update: I put wet towels around carboy and 2 sandwich bags of ice. It appears that the plastic lid got a little cloudy on the inside, so I'm wondering if that is a sign of something going on?

Also, would appreciate your thoughts on moving the carboy. remove lid, airlock, leave there or something else?

 

[ic3scrap3r]

If you read a bit further you'll see many people on here caution against using the bubbles (or lack of bubbles) in the airlock as an indication of fermentation.

I recently had one go five days before any airlock activity was present. I bottled it this weekend and it looked/smelled/tasted like everything went well!

I would say not to open the lid until you've gone 4 or 5 days with no visible airlock activity. I suspect if it comes to that and you do open it up, you'll see that some activity has been or is taking place.

So, RDWHAHB.

 

[RCCOLA]

Ok MrVaga, thanks.

Small update: I put wet towels around carboy and 2 sandwich bags of ice. It appears that the plastic lid got a little cloudy on the inside, so I'm wondering if that is a sign of something going on?

Also, would appreciate your thoughts on moving the carboy. remove lid, airlock, leave there or something else?

Leave the airlock on and move it.On your next batches buy some cheap vodka and use it in the airlock.If it accidentally gets in --it won't hurt a thing.
Oh yeah,keep that carboy away from direct sunlight.Window is a bad place for it during the day.

 

[eljefe]

I would leave it be. I kniow exactly where you are coming from as I did the same thing with my first few batches. If there is something wrong, interfering at this point most likely won't correct it. If there is nothing wrong, interfering at this point could ruin your batch. After a few of the episodes, you will stop looking at the airlock completely.

Let us know how it went.

 

[Sophocles]

Thanks for the replies!!! I moved it with a friend, and kept the airlock in. Since we were careful, the water staying in the airlock

Also, looks i got action as i can't see through the plastic lid. I'm excited!!! This is soo cool. Now for the wait.

 

[Sophocles]

AIRLOCK BLOW-OFF !!!!

I just checked on my fermenter and found the airlock full of wort and blowing off.

I took it out. Washed it, sanitized it, rinsed and put back. This time I put vodka instead of water.

Problem is that it is continuing to blow off!

What do I do?

Wait some more, then take it out again, clean it and put it back? (Please note: I don't have any other stuff like tubing I can use to channel the blow off to)

 

[ic3scrap3r]

Without a way to set up a blow off tube to a container of sanitizer it sounds like you are pretty much left with the airlock making a bit of a mess.

(I told you not to worry about not seeing any airlock activity!)

 

[Sophocles]

I've kept the lid shut and continuously took off the airlock, cleaned, sanitized, rinsed, put back on and added vodka.

After doing that about 5 times and once in the middle of the night, it looks like its calmed down.

Unfortunately, in Cyprus there are no home brew stores so next time I order malt I'll have to order some tubing too

Looks like my beer will turn out great with all that activity!

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

[Sophocles]

I have a question on the tap. Maybe I need to relax more but I thought I'd ask anyway

My Coopers kit has a plastic fermenter and the beer is sitting in there right now. Come bottling day, I am wondering about how clean the tap which is connected (basically screwed on) to the fermenter is.

When I put the kit together, I sanitized everything, including the tap and rinsed. I let water go through the tap too in order to rinse that too.

After I put the beer in the fermenter and before adding the yeast, I openned the tap and put some beer in my hydrometer cylinder. Then I closed the tap.

Can I assume that after 2 weeks the tap is still clean and to connect the 'little bottler' and bottle my beer? What do you guys think?

Concerning the bottles, I emailed the producers of Brupaks Bruclean. I told them I would be dipping the bottles entirely in a bucket, then rinsing with plenty of water and then bottling and they told me that would be ok.

 

[phatuna]

you should sanitize the tap again - it is no longer sanitized.

Check the brupaks bruclean package, if it says "no-rinse" then you should dip the bottles in the bucket of brupaks, empty, and bottle away (not rinsing with water).

 

[northernlad]

If you read a bit further you'll see many people on here caution against using the bubbles (or lack of bubbles) in the airlock as an indication of fermentation.

I recently had one go five days before any airlock activity was present. I bottled it this weekend and it looked/smelled/tasted like everything went well!

I would say not to open the lid until you've gone 4 or 5 days with no visible airlock activity. I suspect if it comes to that and you do open it up, you'll see that some activity has been or is taking place.

So, RDWHAHB.

I don't mean to be too picky here, but if bubbles in the airlock are a poor indication of fermentation then waiting for 4-5 days without activity is a little contrary.
Better to take gravity readings to determine if FG has been reached.

 

[houndhome1]

I started out with the same kit. I now brew all grain and have used the same plastic vessel for over 50 brews. Don't forget that the fementer has a lot of head space, that area has to fill up with gas before you will see any action in the airlock.

I don't use the spikot when transfering I use a siphon. I do unscrew the value during every cleaning. The one this I make sure of is that you only use a very soft cloth to clean the inside. If you put any type of scratches in the plastic infections may develop.

 

[shortyjacobs]

you should sanitize the tap again - it is no longer sanitized.

Check the brupaks bruclean package, if it says "no-rinse" then you should dip the bottles in the bucket of brupaks, empty, and bottle away (not rinsing with water).

Apparently: from here http://www.articlesbase.com/food-and-beverage-articles/how-to-brew-a-beer-kit-265286.html

Rinsing
The importance of rinsing your sterilised brewing equipment cannot be stressed enough. Any traces of sterilising solution finding it’s way into your beer may give a TCP taste to your beer, in some cases making your beer undrinkable.
Now that you have cleaned, sterilized and rinsed all your equipment you are ready to start brewing.

Looks like you need to rinse bruclean, which kinda sucks. I'm sure it will work fine, but in the future I'd try to get my hands on some Iodophor or Starsan, (not sure if you can get those there....)...

Glad the beer is coming along!

 

[Sophocles]

Guys the tap is screwed on to the fermenter. I can't take it off as the beer will spill out.

My question is, should I worry about the tap? should I try wiping it now with a cloth or something while it is closed and the beer is inside fermenting?

My question is about the tap. I don't have any problems any more with the airlock as I saw alot of activity and even had a blowup

 

[ic3scrap3r]

I don't mean to be too picky here, but if bubbles in the airlock are a poor indication of fermentation then waiting for 4-5 days without activity is a little contrary.
Better to take gravity readings to determine if FG has been reached.

I intended that to read that after 4-5 days with no activity you may want to take a reading to determine if fermentation has even started. Not to indicate that after 4 or 5 days you should consider it done.

 

[HomerJR]

My question is, should I worry about the tap? should I try wiping it now with a cloth or something while it is closed and the beer is inside fermenting?

If you can get a no-rinse sanitizer like StarSan, put some in a spray bottle and spray some on the outside of your tap.

And keep reading HBT! I've been an on-and-off brewer for the last few years, and since I stumbled across this site my beer IQ has improved greatly. I've now got more ideas bouncing around my head than I have money, time or space for, but it keeps me thinking and makes my beer better.

 

[hexmonkey]

Don't forget that the fementer has a lot of head space, that area has to fill up with gas before you will see any action in the airlock.

Unless Cooper's has come out with some kind of vacuum-sealed fermenting vessel, there's already something filling up all that headspace.

Where I come from, we call it "air". :fro:

LOL

 

[dpittard]

Unless Cooper's has come out with some kind of vacuum-sealed fermenting vessel, there's already something filling up all that headspace.

Where I come from, we call it "air". :fro:

LOL

LOL! But I think what he meant was that pressure has to build in the headspace before one see's activity in the airlock.

 

[northernlad]

I intended that to read that after 4-5 days with no activity you may want to take a reading to determine if fermentation has even started. Not to indicate that after 4 or 5 days you should consider it done.

Yes, I see that now.

 

[mrgstiffler]

I've kept the lid shut and continuously took off the airlock, cleaned, sanitized, rinsed, put back on and added vodka.

After doing that about 5 times and once in the middle of the night, it looks like its calmed down.

Unfortunately, in Cyprus there are no home brew stores so next time I order malt I'll have to order some tubing too

Looks like my beer will turn out great with all that activity!

Thanks for the replies guys!

You can get tubing from any hardware/plumbing store.

 

[shortyjacobs]

Guys the tap is screwed on to the fermenter. I can't take it off as the beer will spill out.

My question is, should I worry about the tap? should I try wiping it now with a cloth or something while it is closed and the beer is inside fermenting?

My question is about the tap. I don't have any problems any more with the airlock as I saw alot of activity and even had a blowup

Oh no, don't take it off.

If you can spray it or something with some of your bruclean, then spray it with water to rinse, that'd be better than nothing.

If you have time to wait until you can get some Starsan, Iodophor, or other no-rinse sanitizer, (which requires no rinsing), that would be better.

If you can't do either, your beer will PROBABLY be fine. It's already beer, so it's less "sensitive" to bacteria than wort. The key is, the cleaner, the better.

 

[Sophocles]

Its been 13 days. I put some in the hydrometer just now and got a reading of 1.012

The beer kit was the Coopers Lager (the one that came with the box). The colour looked really nice open blond, and some nice carbonation already! Tasted it and gave to the wife to taste too. She said it tasted like beer I tasted it and liked it and thought I would definitely serve it to friends. There may have been a slight off after taste but I am not sure if it was or if it was just me being paranoid.

I will take another reading tommorrow and probably bottle. Will let u guys know!

 

[memnosg9]

Hi Sophocles,
I am from Cyprus too, from where you order your supplies? Because no website i have tried ships to Cyprus beer kits or home brew supplies.