Cornfused...

Ok, I have been reading through the site for a month or so and while this has answered many questions, it has spawned many more. Some of which I cannot find any solid answers for. So, sorry if I ask a common noob Q...

1) Bottle Carb'ing & Conditioning: Many people say to not worry about the temp during secondary temp due to the fact that the fermentation is basically complete. Others say high temps will cause off flavors regardless of which phase your beer is in. So, being stationed in Hawaii, there is no way I'm going to be able to store ALL of my bottled beer in a manner that allows for 70* storage. How will this affect my carbonation and aging/taste?

2) Sanitization: During the first 3-6 weeks of research before my first batch one would assume that you should shave your body and burn the first layer of your skin off in order to have a beer turn out without HIV/AIDS. Others say not to worry about it. My first batch got an entire airlock's worth of filtered tap squirted into it soon after I pitched. The second batch got probably a full Cup's worth of filtered tap water sucked into it while racking to secondary. (long story) The water had betadine (or what ever that sanitizing solution is), in it the week prior but of course as I'm sure you all know, the sanitizing quality of the solution is nearly gone after 24 hours. So I'm praying the alcohol content will save me. Other stories I have read involve guys with their entire arms/bung's/what ever else dropped/dunked/submerged and they are told not to worry. So, how serious is this sanitization thing?

3) Have to stop for now, SWMBO is calling... I'm sure the answers I get from this will spawn further questions. Sorry... But Thanks in advance!

Once your beer has finished fermenting then you can store it at higher temps but that will shorten the life of the beer considerably. It is best to store them at cool temps for aging and cold temps for storage if possible. If not then try keep your supply such that you are drinking the beer within a couple months.

Sanitation is important in producing a consistent quality beer. However beer is quite resistant to infection so if you have problems occasionally or get sloppy you will still usually make good beer.

Good luck and enjoy the beer.
Craig

Ahh. K-bay...

Higher temps are actually good for bottle conditioning. Just don't leave the beer anywhere too hot. With winter approaching, you should be alright. Most winter nights in Hawaii get down in the 60's, and it's always 83, partly cloudy with a chance of showers in the day.

As far as your sanitation, be clean, sanitize everything, but don't let it totally consume you. The instructions that come with your first kit stress sanitation to get you into a mindset. Once you have good habits, it will be really easy to be sanitary. A little tap water from the airlock won't ruin your beer, but in the future, use some cheap vodka to put your mind at ease.

Don't "sweat" the heat thing too much. Even here in Oklahoma, heat doesn't seem to affect the brew much, but, you got to be smart. Store in a dark and cool place, like a pantry or better yet, a cellar. Don't store it in the living room, right next to a window on the west or east side......

Thanks for the response. I try to keep the temp as close to 70* as possible, but I am afraid the temp likely fluctuates between 68-80 but I doubt it reaches 80 much, if at all. Right now I have my bottles submerged under water in a couple of coolers . I figure that will help moderate any temperature fluctuations as well as let me know if I have a bad seal on any of them. We'll see how they turn out in 17 more days.

Now, back to the questions...

Life Span CBBaron said that higher temps will significantly reduce the life of the beer. How high are we talking about here? Is there an exponential correlation between decrease in shelf life based on storage temps? i.e..
80* = 6mo 75* = 9mo etc? I simply do not have adequate storage space at my house now and as such, I am planning on keeping my bottles in a closet with temps ranging from probably 60-90. Do I have more options?

Bottle vs Keg: It would seem that this is natural brewing progression. However I have heard some people say they much prefer bottleing due to various reasons. So when you keg, do you still prime the beer? Also, if you force carbonate, does the beer still age and mellow in the months to follow? It seems to me that if you do not prime, the yeast is essentially out of the game and would not contribute any further. If that's the case I would think you might want to wait on kegging until you get your SOP's down well enough to consistantly produce great beer.

Full boil What constitutes a full boil? Does it need to be a roaring boil edging on the boil over stage? What affect does a weaker boil have on the end result?

Wort Cooling I have decided that until I can expound my brewing repertoire to include a good wort chiller, I'm going to sanitize 3 milk jugs and freeze boiled water in them. Then cut the plastic off and add the ice bergs to my 2.5-3 gallons of wort in order to rapidly chill while the boil pot is in an ice bath. Any issues with this?

I'll have many more questions, but I'll stop for now and get back to work... Thanks again for all the help.

Life Span

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in my experience it's not an issue. I don't keep my beer long enough for it to matter. (IE: max 6 months0

Bottle vs Keg: It would seem that this is natural brewing progression. However I have heard some people say they much prefer bottleing due to various reasons. So when you keg, do you still prime the beer?

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You can, or you can force carb.

Full boil What constitutes a full boil? Does it need to be a roaring boil edging on the boil over stage? What affect does a weaker boil have on the end result?

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I boil as vigerously as I can. If you don't, you can get DME off flavors.

Wort Cooling I have decided that until I can expound my brewing repertoire to include a good wort chiller, I'm going to sanitize 3 milk jugs and freeze boiled water in them. Then cut the plastic off and add the ice bergs to my 2.5-3 gallons of wort in order to rapidly chill while the boil pot is in an ice bath. Any issues with this?

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no, should work fine. Just make sure you don't add too much water.

After my first batch was ruined, I became a Sanitation Nazi. I never had a bad batch after than. I did ruin about 20 gallons of mead in one fell swoop though, because I forgot to keep my airlocks filled.

Actually, there was one batch, a Blue Moon clone where I got sh1tfaced before I even started the boil. SWMBO came out into the garage and saw that I was smashed. She took advantage of my weakened state and had her way with me in the garage. I don't even remember pitching the yeast or anything. Well, I woke up and all of my gear was sitting on the kitchen counter cleaned and dried. My primary was bubbling away in a bucket of cold water with a towel wrapped around it and a floating thermometer in the water. My notes were in perfect order. My burner and brew gear was all put away all nice and tidy.

I was pretty damn drunk, so I was worried about how stringent I was on sanitation post boil (post massive beer consumption).
The beer turned out great. We named it Bangin' Blue Moon!:rockin:

talleym0nster said:

SWMBO came out into the garage and saw that I was smashed. She took advantage of my weakened state and had her way with me in the garage.

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My virgin jaw just dropped as far as it possibly can.

I've learned all what I know from reading here along with trial and error. Since I had started, a lot of my techniques have loosened up. I'm not a sani-freak, but I keep things clean nonetheless. When priming, the only purpose the remaining yeast have is to carb up the bottles. Look at it like this, yeast eat the fermentable sugar and in return, they poop out CO2 and piss alcohol. The priming sugar added is just enough to give the remaining yeast a second shot of doing what they already did, but now it's sealed up. That's why you have to be careful in not adding too much priming sugar because it will cause the bottles to blow. With kegging, you don't have that problem. I'll be the first to admit, there is a big difference in taste between bottling and kegging with bottling tasting better, but it does not warrant enough difference for me to do all the bottling work. If I enter a contest, I'll make a couple batches for bottling, but other than that for sipping sessions, it's kegging all the way.
There are a couple of folks here that went to kegs first, without bottling. It's not that hard, just more expensive when you first start out.
On your wort cooling method, I've tried the partial boil with an ice bath surrounding the boil pot in the kitchen sink; I made a copper coiled wort chiller running through the garden hose when I go full boil with my kettle outside and I've recently started doing what your doing, but using cheap-o drinking water partially frozen in a gallon jug, then dumping that into the partial boiled wort. Of all methods, the later was the easiest and by far, the fastest, with the less amount of clean up time. I'd be cautious with your method, as your opening a chance for more contamination. It could come from the kneive you use, the plastic itself or the water. Another problem as mentioned above, is adding too much water. The only problem with my "frozen water" method is that it's not quite cold enough to drop the temperature of the wort down to pitching temperature right away. I have to seal up my primary and wait about 2 to 3 hours, depending on ambient temperature. In the winter, this won't be a problem, I'll put it outside, but in the summer, it takes a little longer as one would suspect. I might try what your doing this weekend but I'll make sure my knieve or what ever I use to cut the jugs, is clean. I'll also continue to use the walmart drinking water in the gallon jug and maybe wash the jugs on the outside before putting them in the freezer. I figure if I can get my chilled water down lower, I maybe able to get it to pitching temperatures right off the bat.

Thanks for all the feedback. Only two questions this time...

I have only brewed two batches thus far and have yet to even try one yet. I have two cases of Hefeweizen on week two in the carbing phase. The Cream Ale is still in the secondary. The thing about them is they are both the exact same color, very dark brown. I didnt burn/scorch the extract on either batch and used a fairly light grain bill on both, but especially the Cream Ale. (.5 flaked corn, .5 Crystal 10*L, & .5 Honey Malt) <-- Oh and 6#'s of pale malt extract. I followed steeping/boiling directions correctly, so I'm not sure why they are so dark. I am wondering if I was given the wrong extract. The other possible cause that I can think of is I do not have a propane burner, so I use my kitchen stove and as such, never get a good rolling boil. Any other ideas?

The other question is, I am planning on buying a 6 gal glass carboy to brew a strawberry wheat and will need the extra space in the secondary. Will I run into oxidation problems if I use the bigger carboy for 5 gal brews in the future?

you generally want a 6 gallon or more for a 5 gallon batch. the co2 produced during fermentation actually protects the beer, like a blanket, from o2 because its heavier and the o2 gets pushed up and out. you could do a 2 or 3 gallon batch and not have to worry. plus the extra head space means less chance of krausen causing messy problems.

talleym0nster said:

Dear BYO Forum,

I never thought this would happen to me. Actually, there was one batch, a Blue Moon clone where I got sh1tfaced before I even started the boil. SWMBO came out into the garage and...

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Fixed that for ya :rockin: