Old instructions?

[baggins22]

Hey everybody,

I have been using these instructions (my local brew store) as my brew bible. it came with a beer starter kit i bought from them and have been using it for a few batchs now, but as i am reading on the forum i am starting to think these are outdated. Can anybody please confirm?



1) why does it say be in a primary only for 6 days? seems that lots of people do all their fermenting in a primary (is this based on the old theory of the old yeast producing off flavors?)

2) it gives specific time frames for primary, secondary and bottling, but reading here, i should be taking gravity readings to know when my yeast is done working right?

3) no mention of a full wort boil? these seems to be the best way to go

4) Why would i add the wort the the plastic bucket and then use the carboy for my secondary? i think it would be better to do it the other way around? that way i can get the beer of the cake, mix in the dextrose without stirring everything up.

5) no mention of straining the wort..seems like most people do it on here.

Some of these make me question the procedure,i feel there are some things missing/wrong. But it could very well be i am misunderstanding steps or taking things i read on the forum as fact instead of opinion.

Thanks (sorry for the long post)

Instructions------------------------------------------------------------

1. Fill a 5 gallon stainless steel or enamel pot 2/3 full of water (3 gallons more or less).
2. Place specialty grains into cheesecloth grain bag and add this bag to the pot of cold water. Add water treatment if called for. Heat this pot at high temperature. At the point you begin to see steam starting to rise from the surface of the water (145° to 165°) turn off the stove and cover the pot with the lid. Steep grains for 35 minutes (more or less). Remove grains and discard them. You now have a grain tea and the start of your WORT.
Note: WORT is essentially beer before fermentation.
Note: Please do not heat these grains to anywhere near boiling, as this will leach tannins (tannic acid) from the husk of the grains and could give your beer an astringent characteristic.
3. Heat WORT at high temperature until close to a boil (pot starts making noise).
4. If using a gas stove turn off fire. If using an electric stove, remove the pot from the burner (very important).
5. Add all of the malt extract (liquid or dry) and first addition of hops. Stir until well mixed.
6. Return WORT to burner. Bring to a full boil. Watch pot carefully at this point. A foam develops on the surface of the WORT and it could rise above the surface of the pot and create a mess. Watch pot until foam disappears.
7. Achieve a good strong ROLLING boil. This is important as the WORT needs to be agitated as much as possible to coagulate undesirable proteins and release desirable oils from the hops.
8. Boil vigorously for 60 minutes total, adding hops at intervals indicated on the recipe sheet.
9. At end of boil (after 60 minutes), turn off heat and COVER POT WITH LID.
10. Place covered pot on ice and water bath (sink) for 45 minutes. This will be added to 2.5 gallons of cool water which will further reduce the temperature.
11. START YEAST STARTER See below
Visit the Yeast section of our store to find the yeast for your next batch of beer
12. IMPORTANT - Place 2.5 gallons of cool water in your primary fermenter. Pour 1/3 of cooled WORT into fermenter with water. PITCH (add) yeast.
13. Vigorously pour other 2/3 of cooled WORT into fermenter over yeast.

Note: this step aerates the WORT and mixes the yeast without having to stir or shake.
14. Place lid on fermenter, tightly (without airlock).
15. Place fermenter someplace your environment has a steady temperature (+/- 2° in 24 hrs). Ales should be fermented at 65 to 75°. lagers should be at 45 to 65° depending on the yeast.

START YEAST

a. Add 1 cup warm water in small sanitized glass, stainless steel or ceramic bowl (a Pyrex measuring cup is good). Optional - Add a pinch of diammonium phosphate (yeast nutrient). Add yeast, DO NOT STIR, cover tightly with plastic wrap and set aside.
b. Yeast likes a location where the temperature doesn't vary much in a 24 hour period.
16. Put a small amount of water in the airlock and insert airlock into the rubber stopper on top of the fermenter.
17. CONGRATULATIONS! In 12 to 15 hours your beer will start to ferment, indicated by the bubbling in the airlock. Leave in your primary for no more than 6 days.
18. Secondary Fermentation. Place primary fermenter on a table, bench or stool. Let stand for 1 to 2 hours. Take largest diameter plastic tube and attach it to the end of the spigot. Place the other end in the secondary fermenter (glass carboy or bucket) and open the spigot and drain the beer into the secondary fermenter. Place a clean airlock and rubber stopper on fermenter as in step 17.
19. At this point, beer will be hazy. It will begin to clarify from top to bottom of fermenter. When haze has dropped completely to the bottom (6-12 days, sometimes longer) it is ready to bottle.
BOTTLING
For your bottling needs see the Bottling & Kegging section of our store
Sanitize racking equipment
• Orange carboy cap
• Smaller diameter siphon hose
• Racking Cane
• Bottle filler
• Bottles
READ ABOUT SANITIZATION (Bottom of Page) OF BOTTLES AND CAPS FIRST.
We will be racking the beer directly from the secondary to the bottles. We are opposed to the common method of using a bottling bucket for several reasons.
a. It is unnecessary. Why not rack beer straight into the bottle?
b. You avoid oxidation by eliminating the bottling bucket.
c. You will lessen the chance of contamination.
1. Take 3/4 to 1 cup of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Turn off heat, and dump in all the dextrose (normally pre-measured in the kit to 4.5 oz) in the hot water, making a simple syrup. Dump hot syrup directly into secondary fermenter. Place sanitized bottling outfit (as pictured) 2/3 of the way down fermenter and stir GENTLY and SLOWLY for 2 minutes with racking cane (carboy cap is flexible). Let settle.
2. At this point a siphon is unavoidable. Some new brewers find this problematic. Our suggestion would be to practice siphoning before doing the real thing. This will avoid a major panic which none of us needs. The easiest way for most brewers to start the siphon is to fill the bottling outfit (as pictured) with water. Remember the tip of the bottle filler must be depressed to fill with water. From here on it is simple. Loosen carboy cap. Take a large bottle or pitcher and empty the water from the bottling outfit. When beer reaches bottle filler, start filling your bottles. Fill to the very top. Removal of the bottle filler from the bottle will displace about 3/4 inches of beer. Letting bottles sit uncapped for a short period of time allows for some CO2 production which protects beer from oxidation, so fill all bottles before starting the capping.
3. NOW IT'S TIME TO CAP!

Here are some guidelines.
a. Practice on some empty bottles.
b. Capping doesn't take a lot of force. Use a light touch.
c. It will become easy after a few tries.
4. After capping, put bottles at room temperature (65-75° for ales) for 2 weeks. At this time it will be fully carbonated and ready to drink, for most ales.



Thanks,

 

[phoenixs4r]

There is no 1 way to brew beer.

While the instructions you have been following might not agree with some folks here, ultimately the best beer comes from being comfortable with what you are doing. Having said that....

A secondary isn't necessary, and yes, ultimately you should follow gravity readings, and not time guidelines. As far as bucket vs carboy, I like glass carboys but ultimately you should ferment in the vessel which is the largest.

Full boil vs partial: there are many benefits to a full boil BUT if you are also getting ingredients and recipes from the same place, those recipes most likely account for the downfalls of a partial boil.

I personally don't strain the wort. Ultimately it is a hassle, and I haven't seen a benefit. Having said that, it goes back to fermenting in the largest vessel you have. My '5' gallon batches actually start as 6 gallons in the fermenter. That way I can lose up to a gallon of yeast/trub/crap and still walk away with a full keg.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Yes, those are standard instructions that come with most kits. Following them will result in beer, but there's a lot in them that really should be disregarded/augmented.

1. I believe the old wive's tale is that prolonged exposure to the yeast cake can cause autolysis, which will produce off flavors. While it can happen, generally it can take 6 weeks or more before it begins to present. Generally speaking, it's really not something that one needs to worry about at the home brewing level.

2. You are correct. Let your hydrometer tell you when the yeasts have finished their work. I'd give it a few days after reaching terminal gravity to give the yeasts time to go back and clean up after themselves before even thinking about transferring to secondary, keg, or bottling bucket.

3. Full wort boils are the best way to go. Most beginners don't have the ability to do them, so the instructions don't bother mentioning it. Most beginners don't have a kettle large enough to handle 6-7 gallons, and since most beginners are also stove top brewers, they couldn't get 6-7 gallons of wort up to a full boil on the kitchen stove even if their kettle was large enough, or if they could, they have no easy way to cool it. If you have the ability to do full boils, I'd recommend you do it.

4. This depends. Generally, a beginners kit will include a primary fermentation bucket, a 5 gallon glass carboy, and a bottling bucket. With a kit like this, it makes sense to use the ferm bucket for primary, then follow up with the carboy for secondary because the carboy's 5 gallon capacity does not leave enough headspace for primary fermentation. At the conclusion of fermentation, rack to bottling bucket. There are a whole host of ways to skin this cat, so do whatever works for you and your equipment. If you have a 6.5 gallon carboy, then by all means use it for primary if you want to. I have found that carboys are, by and large, a PITA (to get beer in/out, clean, take gravity samples, concern for breakage) and so try to do all my fermenting in buckets these days if I have one available. I also rarely do a secondary unless I'm adding fruit, as it is just one more opportunity to expose my beer to infection. Granted, the chances of getting infected are slim, but I figure why take the chance? I leave my beer in primary for 2-4 weeks, depending on style, and then rack to a keg (or bottling bucket if I'm bottling).

5. To strain the wort or not strain the wort, that is the question. I used to strain, but I got tired of cleaning the strainer on brew day. I had enough sh*t to clean and decided to try a few batches where I dumped all the contents of the kettle into the fermenter. I couldn't tell a difference and never went back to straining. This is purely personal preference so do whatever seems right to you.

Also, the instructions don't do a very good job of emphasizing the importance of temperature control during fermentation. While it's true that 65°-75° is the typical range for ales, the instructions lead one to believe that anywhere in this range is just peachy. The truth is that two otherwise identical batches of beer will taste much different if one was fermented at 65 and the other at 75. Here is where it is important to do some pre-brewing research on the strain and decide on what temps to pitch and ferment in order to get the results you desire. I always know the exact temp at which I intend to pitch and cool the wort to within +0°/-0.5° of that target temp, then hold the ambient temp during fermentation to within ±1° of my planned ferm temp.

So, basically, those instructions have been around for years and have made good beer. Some of what they tell you to do is simply unnecessary and some of it is no longer considered good practice. In fact, I think most of the mistakes that new brewers make can be directly attributed to following the instructions that came with their kit, like transferring to secondary after 4 days or some such nonsense.

Since you're on this forum, you are already leaps and bounds ahead of the typical new brewer. Everything you could possibly need to know about brewing great beer can be found here. Read as much as you can and you'll be up to speed making great beer in no time.

 

[Monstar]

1) Yep, you're right. A lot of dudes including myself just do a primary with a cold crash at the end.

2) Yessir, gravity readings are the only way to know for sure when it's ready. And taste, of course.

3) they might be assuming your kettle isn't big enough. If it is, full boil away!

4) Because carboys can be a pain in the behind to clean after primary fermentation. Also, its easier to see the yeast dropping out in a carboy.

5) Do you use a hop bag? It's not a huge deal if you do. I use hop bags and stain though.


Brew on, good sir.

 

[baggins22]

Great , thanks for all the advice

 

[pjj2ba]

Yes, those are standard instructions that come with most kits. Following them will result in beer, but there's a lot in them that really should be disregarded/augmented.

1. I believe the old wive's tale is that prolonged exposure to the yeast cake can cause autolysis, which will produce off flavors. While it can happen, generally it can take 6 weeks or more before it begins to present. Generally speaking, it's really not something that one needs to worry about at the home brewing level.

To be technically accurate the myth is that autolysis produces off flavors, NOT that autolysis does not occur. Autolysis is a normal part of the yeast culture cycle and begins soon after vigorous fermentation has stopped. It is a fact of (yeast) life.

The flavors that have erroneously been ascribed to autolysis were more than likely due to an infection and the bad bugs munching on the dead yeast.

Many people in fact like the flavors obtained by letting the beer sit on the lees (to steal a term from wine makers who often do this). Other folks prefer the flavors of beers that haven't seen prolonged yeast exposure. This is strictly a personal preference.

As to the instructions. I think they are a perfectly valid way to brew a beer, and I'm sure there are people who could following them to a Tee and brew excellent beer. I am a big fan of brewing the way that YOU feel the most comfortable doing it. I've tried this, that and the other way of brewing. Over the years I've settled on what I am comfortable with - the more comfortable you are with the procedure the less likely you are to make mistakes. If there is something you don't like in your current brewing process (it just feels a little off), then try it a different way next time. The instruction for making beer are not ingrained in stone. A word of caution, it often will mess you up and cause grief the first time you change procedures/equipment. Have the patience to decide if the problems were simply lack of your experience with the new variation and will eventually be better, or no, that was just a bad idea

 

[jCOSbrew]

Buy a copy of Palmer's How to Brew for modern and detailed instructions on brewing extract, all grain, yest starters, etc.
The kit instructions look reasonable for stove top partial boil.