Hey from Eastern Ontario, Canada!

[CUSTOM-441]

Hey everyone,

New to the forum and brand new to brewing! My dad used to brew wine and beer at home in the early/mid 90's and hasn't touched his gear since. He gave me all of his stuff a few years ago and I'm finally getting around to using it. I have a 5gal plastic pale, 2x 5gal glass carboys, a floating thermometer, siphon tube, a handful of airlocks, brushes, spoons etc. This week I purchased a new plastic pale, bottle caps, hydrometer with sample tube, some powdered sanitizer and a turkey baster for collecting FG samples from my carboy. Still need bottles, and still looking at what kind I want to go with.

Tomorrow is brew day and my dad is giving me a hand getting started. He's relearning and I'm green as can be. The carboys were pretty clean, but still a thin film of caked on gunk from god knows how long ago, so they're currently soaking in water/bleach and will be thoroughly scrubbed and rinsed. I'm starting off simple with a Coopers Brew A IPA can kit, using 500g of light dry malt and 500g of dextrose. After 4-5 days of primary fermentation I'm planning to transfer 1-2 times over 3 weeks or so to clarify the brew, then on to batch priming and bottling. I'm usually an attention to detail kind of guy and I feel like there's lots that I'm missing, so I'm a bit anxious to see how it all turns out. The folks at my local homebrew store gave me some pointers, but I still feel like I'm going in blind. Either way it's going to be a cool experience and I plan to stick with it! Any and all input is appreciated. Thanks for having me.. Cheers!

 

[homebrewer_99]

Greetings from south of your border.

Whereabouts are you?

If you're uncertain about a procedure it's best to list them by number to help take out any guess work. Do it in a WORD doc so you can cut and paste if you need to re-order any steps.

 

[CUSTOM-441]

Hey Bill,

I've actually written everything out like you suggested, I just hope I'm not missing anything.

I'm in Cornwall, Ontario.. where abouts are you?

 

[ProblemChild]

Hi Custom! Welcome to Homebrewtalk.

Make my way up to that neck of the woods quite a bit. A bit of family from there through St. Zotique.

Looks like you are starting off nice and simple. Good deal there. I would resist the temptation to rack - especially multiple times. While you may get a clearer beer out of it ,you also damaging the flavor as transfers easily introduce oxygen.

With an IPA, best to let it run out completely through Terminal Gravity in the same vessel. That should only take two to three weeks and the beer will be just fine sitting on the yeast cake for that long. With your ingredients, it will clear up just fine. Probably will not be crystal clear like a lager, but worry about that detail later as clarity is more of an appearance issue rather than one of flavor. Will still come out quite clear if done correctly and allowed to properly bottle condition

It is way to fun to do things with your brew, and too easy to believe that you are making progress when you do - but the less you handle it, the better off you are a lot of the time.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Hey Bill,

I've actually written everything out like you suggested, I just hope I'm not missing anything.

I'm in Cornwall, Ontario.. where abouts are you?

I'm in Atkinson, Illinois, about 140-150 miles from Chicago. I've driven through Cornwall on my way to Montreal and Quebec.

 

[CUSTOM-441]

With an IPA, best to let it run out completely through Terminal Gravity in the same vessel. That should only take two to three weeks and the beer will be just fine sitting on the yeast cake for that long. With your ingredients, it will clear up just fine. Probably will not be crystal clear like a lager, but worry about that detail later as clarity is more of an appearance issue rather than one of flavor. Will still come out quite clear if done correctly and allowed to properly bottle condition

Thanks for the advice! Would you suggest I transfer at least once for batch priming and bottling? If I bottle from the primary vessel after terminal gravity I'm assuming I'll still need to batch prime for carbonation?

 

[ProblemChild]

Thanks for the advice! Would you suggest I transfer at least once for batch priming and bottling? If I bottle from the primary vessel after terminal gravity I'm assuming I'll still need to batch prime for carbonation?

for sure - rack/transfer to bottle. You have to mix in the sugar and you don't want the trub getting swirled up. I rack on top of the priming sugar as that helps mix it. If you are careful, you will have very little trub sucked into the bottling bucket and the beer will be nice and clear.

Don't get me wrong from earlier - racking to secondary is not problematic in itself and you will probably not hurt anything, it is just an un-needed risk the first time out.

 

[MaxStout]

Welcome to the forum, from Minnesota!

I'm a long-time bottler, too. Pour your priming sugar solution into the bottling bucket, then CAREFULLY rack the beer on top of that. Be sure to run the tubing all the way to the bottom of the bottling bucket, don't let it splash. After it's racked, give it a very gentle stir for a few seconds to thoroughly mix the sugar, then bottle.

You don't really need to use a secondary fermenter, unless you plan to age the beer many months. Otherwise, you can do everything in the primary. Every time you rack, your beer picks up some O2. The fewer times you rack, the better.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Welcome to the forum, from Minnesota!

I'm a long-time bottler, too. Pour your priming sugar solution into the bottling bucket, then CAREFULLY rack the beer on top of that. Be sure to run the tubing all the way to the bottom of the bottling bucket, don't let it splash. After it's racked, give it a very gentle stir for a few seconds to thoroughly mix the sugar, then bottle.

Just to add something to the comments above: When I bottle, I will fill a bottle and SET a cap on it. IMO, this does 2 things...1) allows time for any out-gassing from the beer to push air out of the bottle, and 2) keeps it protected from anything you can't see that might get inside. Not crimped, just sitting on top. If you have to bottle in stages, say 15 at a time, give the beer in the primary a light stir ensure the priming sugar in the beer stays homogenized.

 

[CUSTOM-441]

Brew day is complete! Sanitized the crap out of everything, stuck to the plan and got the temp around 22C before I added the yeast. I ended up adding the malt/dextrose as I was topping up the water to temperature, just to let it mix thoroughly. The only hiccup was as I was putting the airlock on (added 2 drops of sanitizer to the airlock water) I pushed down a bit hard and it back splashed a little bit into the brew. Will have to be gentle next time and screw it on, instead of pushing; hopefully this won't affect the brew. My 00 reading was 1.034 and the room I have it stored in seems like a steady 21C. I don't have a thermometer sticker on the outside of my pale, so there will be a bit of guesswork as to the temperature during fermentation.

Thanks everyone for the racking advice! Still undecided what I want to do, but leaning more towards keeping it in primary until it's reached TG rather than transferring to clear. Will update..

 

[Dycksons]

Welcome aboard from Southern Ontario

 

[CUSTOM-441]

After doing a bit of reading.. 1.034 seems pretty low, especially for an IPA. I went 50/50 LDM and dextrose to 1kg. Should I have added more sugar?

 

[homebrewer_99]

Sorry, I can't help you with the recipe results.

I do have a tip if you use those pail therm strips. After you adhere it to the pail take a piece of 3" wide clear tape and cover it completely. Once they get wet they don't work anymore.

 

[ProblemChild]

probably need recipe details.

What was your total extract/grain additions?
What was your volume in the fermenter?

 

[Cyclman]

Welcome to the hobby, and the group, from Colorado

 

[SassyGlass]

Hey Bill,

I've actually written everything out like you suggested, I just hope I'm not missing anything.

I'm in Cornwall, Ontario.. where abouts are you?

Hail, Hail Cornwall! I'm new here too! My Aunt lives in Carlton Place! ;-) I wish you big brewing!

 

[CUSTOM-441]

probably need recipe details.

What was your total extract/grain additions?
What was your volume in the fermenter?

Unfortunately my kit didn't come with instructions and everything I found online was pretty vague so I'm not 100% sure where I should be at for OG. Total extract volume was 1.7kg, added 500g LDM and 500g dextrose. Thinking I could have added another 500g of sugar..

 

[ProblemChild]

Unfortunately my kit didn't come with instructions and everything I found online was pretty vague so I'm not 100% sure where I should be at for OG. Total extract volume was 1.7kg, added 500g LDM and 500g dextrose. Thinking I could have added another 500g of sugar..

I kind of said my piece poorly. How much liquid is in the fermenter?

 

[CUSTOM-441]

I kind of said my piece poorly. How much liquid is in the fermenter?

5gal total in the fermenter.

 

[ProblemChild]

I looked up the kit. Interesting. I interpret that the kit came with 1.7Kg of Cooper's extract, and you added 500g dextrose and 500g extract for 2.7KG. A conservative estimate is that your OG is 1.047 if you did 5 gallons. This will be just fine.

Taking a rough average of the sugars and extracts of 40 gravity units for 454g, you should come up with a 1.039 OG for 6 gallons and 1.047 for 5 gallons.

Since these were sugar additions instead of mashing, this approximation should be quite close. My guess is the hydrometer reading was incorrect. Now - it is a lot easier to get a bad reading than people think. If the sugar is not mixed well, or the hydrometer is out of cal, or the temperature the sample was incorrect, the reading will be off. Also a few other things, but these are the biggies

My thoughts are the reading is incorrect as opposed to the gravity being low. Extract and Dextrose are sugar. There is little chance that if you add 500g of sugar to a liter of water today and do it again tomorrow and get any difference in readings. It is basically an absolute - set quantity of sugar added to set quantity of water will yield just about a set gravity every time.

It looks like everything is fine based on what you have told me.

 

[CUSTOM-441]

Thanks for the reassurance!

The fermentation bucket I purchased doesn't have volume marks, but the woman at the store told me that the line on the inside of the pale is 5gal and this is what I topped up to when all was said and done, so I'm assuming she is correct. Once I've transferred the batch out of the fermenter I'm going to mark gallons on the outside of the pale for future reference. Knowing what I know right now I read an OG of 1.034 at a total volume of 5 gal. Seeing how this is my first batch I'm expecting mistakes, and I'm writing things down for next time as I go along! I really appreciate everyone's input..

 

[ProblemChild]

no problem. For sure, you made beer. First step in a long a really fun journey

 

[CUSTOM-441]

2 week update on my first batch.

Primary completed after 6 days (the brew was in my basement wrapped in a blanket and was between 19-21C). My FG is 1.003 (OG 1.034). Assuming I took my readings correctly I should be around 4.0% ABV. Tried a sample tonight, not bad! A bit weak for an IPA, but the proper notes are there, and alcohol is definitely present. I'm assuming the taste will change after priming and chilling in my beer fridge.

I've decided to heed everyones advice and NOT rack into secondary. I will keep it in primary for a total of 3 weeks, rack to batch prime, then bottle. I've also decided to pick up a second plastic pale so I can overlap my brews and age in a glass carboy if I haven't drank the bottles from my previous batch empty yet!

Once again, thanks everyone for your advice.. please keep it coming! This forum is a wealth of good, solid info..

 

[ProblemChild]

With IPA -

Get a capper and bottles. They fade. Aging an IPA lessens the enjoyment typically.........