Another noob finishes his first kit

[mkdewinter]

By racking to secondary you stirred up yeast that was starting to flocculate and removed the beer from the bulk of the yeast.

So leave it in the primary longer even though the f.g. is good?

 

[Roland_deschain]

My personal rule of thumb....3 weeks primary, no secondary(unless I'm adding oak or fruit,etc). Patience is a virtue, especially when making beer.

 

[RM-MN]

So leave it in the primary longer even though the f.g. is good?

Yes. I usually leave my beers in primary for 3 to 4 weeks. At 3 weeks most of the yeast has settled and I get clear beer. After 4 weeks even more yeast settles out so I have very little in the bottom of the bottles.

 

[mkdewinter]

I guess another reason I thought it best to rack to secondary is that I would inevitably get some of the trub when racking, and if I went to secondary I'd have yet another chance to have even less when racking to the bottling bucket. I guess just don't try to get every last drop from the fermenting bucket then.

 

[martiniw2olives]

If you are in the US and have access to Target they sell a 20qt tamale steamer pot for very very cheap. It's what I do my 5 gallon batches in when I don't feel like lugging all my 10g allgrain stuff outside.

That is exactly what I used for years before switching to electric. Works great and it's cheap.

 

[martiniw2olives]

RM-MN,

I hear you. And I'm probably not going to jump into BIAB anytime soon. I'm figuring on getting a few 1 gallon extract kits under my belt first, but I was thinking on trying a 1 gallon BIAB recipe for my first BIAB experience, when ever that turns out to be. I figure that will take at least a 3 gallon kettle. If I'm way off in that assumption, please, anyone, chime in. Understand too that to do a true lager will require some sort of fermentation chamber that can get down to lagering temps and my set-up is not that.

Also, I'm limited to boiling on a kitchen gas stove, so a full 5 gallon (or more) boil is probably out of my reach for the time being.

I'm sure I'll be back talking about bottling too after my first go around on that, but from what I can tell from reading and youtubes is that folks move past bottling and kegging pretty quick in their home brewing career.

Don't be afraid to dive into all grain, it's not much more difficult and very rewarding. Here is the set-up that I used for years and wasn't expensive. It's not BIAB, but there are many advantages to this type of system and can be done on the stove top as well. I personally don't like handling the heavy grain bag and think sparging may be a little for efficient. I moved to an electric Brewha BIAC system and kinda miss the old process.

1. 32 quart tamale steamer pot for boiling (about $30)
2. Turkey fryer pot with spigot for hot liqueur sparging (about $40)
3. Water cooler mash tun with false bottom (about $100)

Yes, bottling gets old fast. I went to kegging aster one year.

 

[Sadu]

It's not been a week, but I threw another bottle in the fridge midweek to chill for a football match tonight.

Sad to say the beautiful hoppy aroma and flavour was far more subdued.

I'd out another bottle in earlier this afternoon, and tried that as well. Same result.

It's still beer, and it tastes fine, just not as hoppy or good as a few days ago.

Any ideas what might have caused this?

My experience with pale ales is that they keep getting better and better up until about 8-10 weeks. Mine often start off a bit plain in the hop department but find they mature very nicely after just a bit more time. Also if the carbonation isn't done you won't get the full hop character. Chill them in the fridge for at least a few days as well. After 10 weeks the hop flavour and aroma is fading, leaving just bitterness.