Recent content by jkenvere

This article explains a lot about using honey. http://byo.com/feature/924.html

Ive been using SO2 as a sanitizer ( Potassium Metabisulphite) for making wine for 12 years now. I clean with tons of hot water using special bottle washer then I rinse with SO2. I don't rinse after that, just put them in the drying tower. Whats a standard practice for beer. Would leaving the...

The advantage is the beer clears and thus you avoid bottling that yeasty sludge that gives homebrew a bad rap. I was away and had to leave a batch in secondary for 3 weeks and so far it's been my best. There's a ice cold mug of it right next to the keypad..yummy.

Spoke to soon, Found this in John Palmer http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-3.html Quote: Honey is difficult to prime with because there is no standard for concentration. The gravity of honey is different jar to jar. To use honey, you will need to dilute it and measure its gravity...

DId a google " Fermenting Honey" and found this. http://byo.com/feature/924.html Seems you need to do a few things before using honey so better read up like I said. Can't seem to find any info on using it for priming.

I read somewhere that natural honey has a preservative in it that keeps it from fermenting. It would be worth checking into..I would think you could use honey for flavour but it might not work for priming??

I'm pretty new to this hobby, but seems your beer is way to young. I would wait 2 weeks before I bothered tasting. I think you'll be supprised. Stick to the simple formula of 1 week primary, 2 weeks secondary and 3 weeks in the jug. Seems to be the 90% fool proof method.

Thank you. That clears it up. Sounds like I've been racking a little to soon, I'm using a standard primary vessel they sell at most shops and it has a lot of head room, about double, I was worried the big air space was a danger. I know with a primary full of wine the CO2 will keep the O2 away...

[ jkenvere- I always rack mine to secondary after at least a week, so I don't know the answer about moving it after only 3 days. What was your final s.g.? Because it's hard to take a reading from a glass carbouy without using a wine theif I'm guilty of not bothering. I've only bein taking a...

I'm looking for advise on when and how to rack once the primary fermentation is done. From what I've read after about 3 to 5 days or when SG is 1.020 you can rack into a secondary carbouy then let sit for a few weeks before bottling. My questions are. Is that to soon? Should you rack the...

Hmmm. I was going to post a question about this very subject as I have a batch that still has no head bottled Sept 18th . A batch I bottled Sept 26th is fine, both were treated the same way and are sitting on the same shelf at about 65F.Both are kis from cans. The batch that is flat is a...

Ya Mikeyt it's funny how some people just blow wind and never listen. I just bottled another Coopers kit and all is going smoothly. A friend layed 12 dozen old non twist top bottles on me. Been up to my elbows in tepid water and scrub brush etc. It was a light spray malt that I used. I used the...

Mikyt, what we need here ( or somewhere) is a forum for us lowly kit makers, Your right about confusing info. I just started using canned kits myself and the first 2 batches are already gone. It was very good beer even though I made some mistakes. I used regular sugar with the first batch and...

I'm new to beer making so pardon my ignorance here but isn't a primary an open vessel? ( bucket) and a secondary a closed carbouy? If so wouldn't leaving your beer in an open vessel result in oxidation? I,ve had great sucsess making Coppers Kits I've made 3 now. and I've been racking from my...

Can't help you with your question as I'm just starting myself, But seems that Coopers are considered to be a low standard kit. I'm into week 2 of a Coopers real ale too, glad to here you liked yours,,Did you use white sugar? . I've been trying to find more info because the instructions seemed...