Noob question on 1st brew

[Mickeymoose]

I just got a kit for my bithday. It is a 6gal x2 plastic bucket kit with all the accessories. Only thing i had to get was a brew pot. I decided with trepidation that I would use a turkey fryer, aluminum. My first choice was a Muntons Irish stout, not sure if that was a good choice. I sanitized the starting equipment, spoons and primary and such, and began by boiling water in the fryer to oxidize?? it. That went smooth and I started the boil. While boiling I thought i would sanitize the hydrometer but, it was broken in the package. LHBS was closed so I did not get a SG (starting gravity?). Is that a big deal? The aluminum pot worked great and it has been one week in the primary so far. There is very little activity in the air lock, where as on the 2nd and 3rd day it burped every 2 seconds, so I was thinking of bottling or going to a secondary. Is either of these wise, or should I wait longer in the primary? I ask because I am leaving for 5 more days and could leave it alone in the primary rather easily. Are there any other tips, bottling or next step that apply to the stout? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[prpromin]

I bet your beer is fine. I vote leave it alone. Get a new hydrometer and take a reading several days in a row to make sure your gravity is steady before thinking of bottling. You should feel free to leave it in primary for 3-4 weeks before bottling.

Good Luck!

 

[Wolfhound180]

If the kit was extract, then getting the first reading isn't that important. And there would be no problem leaving it in primary for 5 more days. I'd rather do that than risk bottling too soon. Take a gravity reading once a day for three days and if they are all the same, it is done.

 

[Pappers_]

^^^^^^ what they said about leaving it for a while

 

[Gunrunner]

i bet your beer is fine. I vote leave it alone. Get a new hydrometer and take a reading several days in a row to make sure your gravity is steady before thinking of bottling. You should feel free to leave it in primary for 3-4 weeks before bottling.

Good luck!

+1

 

[TipsyDragon]

i say leave it till you come back. your beer will be better and you can get a hydrometer to check that you are actually done fermenting.

an airlock is not a fermentation indicator its a pressure release valve only. Buckets are notorious for leaking around the lid and not through the airlock. This is nothing to worry about at all.

It is recommended that you leave your beer on the yeast for 3 weeks minimum anyway. A secondary fermenter is optional and is typically only used for dry hopping and adding fruit to your brew.

 

[elaeace]

It sounds like you did everything fine. As Revvy has said, your OG will probably get where it needs to be regardless. So the FG reading with a new hydrometer will probably give you a very close to accurate ABV reading. Another week in the fermenter will only help age the flavor, so forget about it for the week you're gone and keg or bottle when back, secondary or Carboy transfer seems to be a thing of the past, from what I've read on these forums...so good luck and RDWHAHB!!!

 

[mikelikesit2000]

I bet your beer is fine. I vote leave it alone. Get a new hydrometer and take a reading several days in a row to make sure your gravity is steady before thinking of bottling. You should feel free to leave it in primary for 3-4 weeks before bottling.

Good Luck!

+1.... Its fine. Leave it. It can sit there for 4-5 weeks with out any ill effects.

 

[BOBrob]

i say leave it till you come back. your beer will be better and you can get a hydrometer to check that you are actually done fermenting.

an airlock is not a fermentation indicator its a pressure release valve only. Buckets are notorious for leaking around the lid and not through the airlock. This is nothing to worry about at all.

It is recommended that you leave your beer on the yeast for 3 weeks minimum anyway. A secondary fermenter is optional and is typically only used for dry hopping and adding fruit to your brew.

^^^^^^^^^+2^^^^^I primary only 3-4 weeks. With kits the OG is nice to know, but not necessary. Take a FG reading in a couple of weeks 2 days apart and if they match you can move on to bottling. Welcome aboard & cheers

 

[Hang Glider]

One more thing - you don't usually need to sanitize the hydrometer - you pull a sanitary sample from your wort. (wine thief or turkey baster - which you sanitized). Your hydro probably came in a plastic tube which you can use for your sample, or get a cheap ($4) hydro test jar.

oh, and welcome to HBT.

 

[TheWeeb]

You just had a birthday? You are not by chance some 2,011 years old, are you? If so, why not just turn the water into beer....

Seriously, welcome to the forum, tons of good information here. The things that I have learned above all else are cleanliness, patience, and process. If you are careful with sanitizing everything the wort touches from boil forward and have a decent sealed fermentation vessel with airlock, then infection does not come into play. Patience, as in leave it alone, regardless of perceived airlock activity or anything else you might observe, for at least 3 weeks, and perhaps longer (I had a wheat beer once that continued to ferment, however slowly, for nearly six weeks). Process, well, once you have a few brews behind you and you have refined your process, there is little left to chance. My hydrometer broke two batches ago, and I really am not concerned at this point what the OG and FG are. Once the process is down and you are brewing according to established parameters, the beer will end up very close to what was calculated.

Enjoy this foamy journey!

 

[unionrdr]

As was said,it'll be fine for 5 days,since it's been in there only 3 days or so. I don't check mine till 2 weeks from pitch day. So get another hydrometer,& check it then. I use the tube it comes in for testing. Welcome & good luck!

 

[Mickeymoose]

Thanks for all of the replies! I just left in in the primary during the entire vacation and decided to see how it would go.

In the meantime, I hosted a Poker night where I told everyone to only bring beer with non twist off caps. It worked great, almost. I have a double winged capper?? the kind that you push down on two handles. Some of the poker guys brought Red Stripe and some brought Stella. Neither of those bottles will work with that capper! So after all of the labor of delabeling and cleansing of my bottles, I had to throw away 12 of them. bummer because then I didn't have enought bottles and ended up unceremoniously dumping beer down the drain.
I was able to bottle just over two cases and a 22oz bottle. My plan is to let it sit as long as I can hold out, minimum of 3 weeks, before trying one. My final gravity stabilized at 1.008 shich was right on target with the kit.

Now I am itching to brew my next one, which will be a wheat with hopefully some orange peel and coriander, I will be scouring the forum for advice on that.

Thanks again!


PS Weeb, good stuff on the birthday, alas, I am not quite that old.

 

[RM-MN]

My plan is to let it sit as long as I can hold out, minimum of 3 weeks, before trying one. My final gravity stabilized at 1.008 shich was right on target with the kit.

Don't beat yourself up on that waiting. Go ahead and try one at a week if you want. That way you will know the taste of "green" beer and won't be so tempted to sample the next one so early. Try the next one at 3 weeks and notice the difference. If I read correctly this is a stout which will take a while to get really good so try to hold off drinking the last one for at least 3 months. Meanwhile, what will you brew next? Have you started it?

 

[StophJS]

If your fermentation took off healthily then odds are your beer will ferment out just fine in several days. You can always take a few consecutive readings to be sure your gravity's stable before bottling. Definitely don't bottle after 3 days though.. you will get bottle bombs. Give it two weeks minimum imo.

 

[Mickeymoose]

RM-MN

I like the idea of trying them along their journey to finished beer, I think i will try a green beer to see what to expect.

My next project is another Muntons kit, it is a wheat. I plan on adding oreange flavor to it though. I looked last night and I couldn't find orange zest or coriander at the store, but I did get some Orange extract.

Any tips on when, how much extract to add? Or should I just zest some frest orange into the boil?

Stoph JS, I waited two weeks to bottle, so hopefully no bottle bombs.

Bottle bombs might derail my brewing, not because of discouragement to me, but because my wife might kill me!

 

[BOBrob]

Thanks for all of the replies! I just left in in the primary during the entire vacation and decided to see how it would go.

In the meantime, I hosted a Poker night where I told everyone to only bring beer with non twist off caps. It worked great, almost. I have a double winged capper?? the kind that you push down on two handles. Some of the poker guys brought Red Stripe and some brought Stella. Neither of those bottles will work with that capper! So after all of the labor of delabeling and cleansing of my bottles, I had to throw away 12 of them. bummer because then I didn't have enought bottles and ended up unceremoniously dumping beer down the drain.
I was able to bottle just over two cases and a 22oz bottle. My plan is to let it sit as long as I can hold out, minimum of 3 weeks, before trying one. My final gravity stabilized at 1.008 shich was right on target with the kit.

Now I am itching to brew my next one, which will be a wheat with hopefully some orange peel and coriander, I will be scouring the forum for advice on that.

Thanks again!


PS Weeb, good stuff on the birthday, alas, I am not quite that old.

OHHHHH.NOOOOOO! You never have to dump beer ,because of lack of bottles! You can reuse PET soda bottles and the cap to bottle beer; "Yahoo mountain dew" bottles work great and you won't feel bad dumping it out. I always keep a few 2 liter empties with cap just for that purpose, just clean and sanitize as normal. You can also just give one a squeeze to see how well they carb up as time goes by. Cheers to the new hobby

 

[kh54s10]

I would suggest leaving the experimenting of adding ingredients until you have more experience. The kits are recipes that have been fine tuned to produce the intended beer and style. If you add something without having an idea of the process you may end up with something totally unbalanced.

The other route would be to look for a proven recipe for a wheat beer that has orange peel and coriander in the ingredients already.

 

[Mickeymoose]

I would suggest leaving the experimenting of adding ingredients until you have more experience. The kits are recipes that have been fine tuned to produce the intended beer and style. If you add something without having an idea of the process you may end up with something totally unbalanced.

The other route would be to look for a proven recipe for a wheat beer that has orange peel and coriander in the ingredients already.

Good advice, and in the end, I probably will just stick to the recipe. I will just take some fresh oranges for those who want them in their beer. I think sometimes I am just glutton for punishment.

Bobrob,
Great idea on the soda bottles, I am very curious about my carbonation and it really sucked to pour out that beer!

Is it a bad idea to get a kegerator, or should I stick to bottles?

What are the plus minuses of each?

Thanks again

 

[BOBrob]

I would stick to learning the easy steps first. Make beer and bottle it until you know you wish to invest a lot of money. Kegs come with going all grain and keeping a pipeline, which means brewing every few weeks or less. When you go all grain you start needing stuff that hits at $$$$$$; even if you DIY most of what you need it will add up to hundereds in a hurry, and if you loose interest you will loose money selling it. Keep it simple till you are sure. Just my two cents. Cheers & have fun learning!

 

[jwags48]

don't dump beer that's alcohol abuse ... put it in anything that closes up tight I've used a plastic soda bottle in a jam... just make that one the first to try...fill a growler too

 

[RM-MN]

I would stick to learning the easy steps first. Make beer and bottle it until you know you wish to invest a lot of money. Kegs come with going all grain and keeping a pipeline, which means brewing every few weeks or less. When you go all grain you start needing stuff that hits at $$$$$$; even if you DIY most of what you need it will add up to hundereds in a hurry, and if you loose interest you will loose money selling it. Keep it simple till you are sure. Just my two cents. Cheers & have fun learning!

Yup, it certainly does cost $$$$ to go all grain. I had to get a bigger pot (turkey fryer kit, $60), a grain mill (Corona style cheap knock-off. $30) and a pair of paint strainer bags (come two to a pack, $4). I finally got too rough on squeezing the bag and tore holes in one so I'm on the second bag in only a year of brewing. Search this forum for "brew in a bag" or BIAB.

I have added a little more since starting all grain but my total investment is still under $120.

 

[Mickeymoose]

Thanks again for the responses!

I agree, just keep it simple and wait a few rounds before I decide if I want to go all in. I just am so excited with my first batch bottled and plan on starting the second one this weekend. I can't wait to try my first batch.

If I go with a Muntons wheat kit this weekend, will there be any way it would be ready by superbowl? I know it is better to let it wait longer, but it is a good opportunity to show off my new hobbie (or life)! to my buddies.

 

[BOBrob]

Yup, it certainly does cost $$$$ to go all grain. I had to get a bigger pot (turkey fryer kit, $60), a grain mill (Corona style cheap knock-off. $30) and a pair of paint strainer bags (come two to a pack, $4). I finally got too rough on squeezing the bag and tore holes in one so I'm on the second bag in only a year of brewing. Search this forum for "brew in a bag" or BIAB.

I have added a little more since starting all grain but my total investment is still under $120.

Wow! I scrounge and gather in my advances in this ...hobby, but you got me beat. I'm in the process now in converting my keggle to electric BIAB at a cost of around $25 so far. Still trying to scrounge a pump. The tank and gauges I had to buy, but the soda kegs were from a friend who got me damaged ones for scrap price, which are now rebuilt. I must be obsessed. Oh well Cheers

 

[BOBrob]

Thanks again for the responses!

I agree, just keep it simple and wait a few rounds before I decide if I want to go all in. I just am so excited with my first batch bottled and plan on starting the second one this weekend. I can't wait to try my first batch.

If I go with a Muntons wheat kit this weekend, will there be any way it would be ready by superbowl? I know it is better to let it wait longer, but it is a good opportunity to show off my new hobbie (or life)! to my buddies.

The first batch will be good and ready! but the second will just be making the curve. Welcome to your new hobby, enjoy & Cheers

 

[Mickeymoose]

The first batch will be good and ready! but the second will just be making the curve. Welcome to your new hobby, enjoy & Cheers

Thanks BoBrob,

By just making the curve, do you mean that it will be just becoming a finished beer, or needing more time? I guess it probably doesn't matter as I will open one that saturday and see for myself if it needs more time, but I am needy and like to have an idea in advance... hopefully.

I got my second batch up and running. It is in the primary now, bubling away nicely.

I did go ahead and taste a "green" beer and had one of the stouts from my first batch. It was light years ahead of where it was at bottling as far as taste. It is still a little light and sweet, but the finish was fantastic, can't wait till it has conditioned for at least 3 weeks.