Back at it..

[PlainsBrew]

Hey, friends! Hope you have all been well during this madness we are in the middle of right now. Just wanted to say hello and let you all know I'm back into home brewing. Been a long time, but I'm excited to get back into it. Waiting on my kit order from Northern Brewer to come in and then I'll post some pics. Thanks!

~Dave~

 

[mongoose33]

Welcome back.

You might want to note that some "best practices" have changed over the past decade, and what you remember may not be the best approach any longer. A little extra reading--you probably have been doing some of this--will pay off.

Case in point: using secondaries. Almost nobody who's an established home brewer uses them any more, unless they need to A) clear a fermenter for a new beer, B) are aging a beer, or C) are using some adjunct as part of the process. If your NB kit says to use a secondary, well, I wouldn't unless the above.

Yeasts are better and varieties more plentiful, and a new one (new to the retail sector! ) is Kveik yeast, which can handle high fermentation temps without imparting off flavors--thus, little concern for fermentation temp control. Kviek yeasts won't replace all the varieties, but they are...interesting.

Good luck with your first brew after your hiatus.

 

[dwhite60]

I stay about a month ahead on my consumption which means I brew once a month anyway.

 

[PlainsBrew]

Welcome back.

You might want to note that some "best practices" have changed over the past decade, and what you remember may not be the best approach any longer. A little extra reading--you probably have been doing some of this--will pay off.

Case in point: using secondaries. Almost nobody who's an established home brewer uses them any more, unless they need to A) clear a fermenter for a new beer, B) are aging a beer, or C) are using some adjunct as part of the process. If your NB kit says to use a secondary, well, I wouldn't unless the above.

Yeasts are better and varieties more plentiful, and a new one (new to the retail sector! ) is Kveik yeast, which can handle high fermentation temps without imparting off flavors--thus, little concern for fermentation temp control. Kviek yeasts won't replace all the varieties, but they are...interesting.

Good luck with your first brew after your hiatus.

Thank you! This is super helpful info. I had never used secondaries interestingly. Maybe it was from budgetary reasons? lol Not sure. I am getting a 5 gallon carboy for secondary fermentation but I'm not sure what to use it for yet. Can you "fit" a 5 gallon kit inside a 5 gallon carboy and just put in less water? If not, what should I use that baby for? Thanks again for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it =)

 

[mongoose33]

Thank you! This is super helpful info. I had never used secondaries interestingly. Maybe it was from budgetary reasons? lol Not sure.

I don't know if the kits still promote using a secondary; I started brewing December 2015, bought a NB equipment kit, and it included a secondary. Of course, the ingredients kit instructions said I should use that secondary, so I did. A lot of kit instructions still, apparently, advocate the use of secondary.

Of course, when you transfer beer from primary to secondary, you oxidize the beer unless you take pains to avoid that--which is difficult if not impossible without the proper equipment. At one time, the use of secondaries was advocated because the idea was to get the beer off the yeast before the yeast died and went through autolysis, imparting off flavors to the beer.

You can generally leave beer in a primary, on the yeast, for up to a month without anything untoward happening to it. I typically have my beer off the yeast and into kegs within two weeks.

I am getting a 5 gallon carboy for secondary fermentation but I'm not sure what to use it for yet. Can you "fit" a 5 gallon kit inside a 5 gallon carboy and just put in less water? If not, what should I use that baby for? Thanks again for taking the time to reply. I really appreciate it =)

I don't know what you'd use it for unless it was for one of the reasons noted in my previous post. I got rid of mine--all I have of traditional (traditional? ) plastic Bigmouth Bubbler fermenters is the 6.5-gallon versions. I have a stainless conical as a main fermenter, but very occasionally I'll use the plastic one if I need another fermenter and the SS fermenter is otherwise engaged.

As far as fitting a 5-gallon kit into a secondary....not initially. You should end up with about 5.5 gallons after the boil, and that won't fit. Further, you'll have krausen produced from fermentation--this is why a 6.5-gallon fermenter size exists, to allow for at least a gallon of headspace into which the krausen can expand. Otherwise it'll clog the airlock. You can fight this with a blowoff tube, but the best answer is to have a fermenter large enough to accommodate the krausen.

You *could* add water to fermented beer to increase the volume--but you'll dilute it, resulting in a thinner-tasting beer as well as lower-ABV. How much? Depends on how much you add. The usual caveat to adding anything to already-fermented beer is to make sure what comes in contact with that beer is sanitized, so the water would have to be that as well. Bottled water is pretty safe but you sanitize the mouth and anything with which the water comes in contact prior to adding it.

 

[mongoose33]

Let me add one more thing. As someone who's brewed before, your (re)learning curve will be fast. However, it is probably smart to do the simplest recipes and procedures at the start as you recover your skills. The more complicated the process and recipe, the greater the likelihood you will screw up something. Then, if the beer doesn't turn out, to what can you affix blame?

Virtually every time I brew I screw something up--and I just brewed my 89th batch yesterday. Mostly those screwups aren't affecting the beer, but I'm just surprised that still, I'm making them.

Yesterday, things were going along swimmingly. I added the crushed grain to the mash tun, then started to fill with the strike water. (I "underlet" which is to add the water from the bottom up, pumping it in slowly.). I get the mash tun all full and then....I realize I haven't installed the recirculation return manifold. The port into which that manifold plugs is 2" below the surface of the 140-degree strike water. Ack! I have a pair of rubberized gloves I put on so I could stick my hands into that 140-degree water and attach the return manifold.

I could have drained off a couple inches into a bucket--probably should have--and then I'd have been fine installing it, but the lesson for me is that I need a better checklist--or a brewer who's smarter about these things.

Your setup won't be as complicated as mine (give it time.... ), but even in simple brewing, there are a lot of moving parts. Simple at the outset will likely reward you very quickly.

My 2 cents.

 

[earwig]

The quarantine got me back into brewing. I brewed for the first time in 4 years yesterday; I brewed an Irish Red ale.
I guess I got out of brewing because all-grain, fly sparge, and clean-up takes all dang day. I might look into biab or something.

 

[AkTom]

I just bottled 10 gallons a couple of weeks ago, brewed last week and this week. Trying to get a pipe line going again.

 

[ncbrewer]

You *could* add water to fermented beer to increase the volume--but you'll dilute it, resulting in a thinner-tasting beer as well as lower-ABV.

I haven't tried this, but this article https://byo.com/mr-wizard/does-addi...-65291753&mc_cid=9c8a7ae7d9&mc_eid=2f2f3c6e82 discusses it. Apparently, it's difficult to get the top-off water low enough in oxygen content. It would be worth reading the article if you plan to try it. Good luck.

 

[dwhite60]

The quarantine got me back into brewing. I brewed for the first time in 4 years yesterday; I brewed an Irish Red ale.
I guess I got out of brewing because all-grain, fly sparge, and clean-up takes all dang day. I might look into biab or something.

Doing BIAB took an hour off my brew day. Beer quality has not suffered.