Hi, I am just getting back into brewing. My living situation required I keep most of my brewing, wine making and sausage making equipment in storage for over 4 years. I did buy some Walmart buckets and a spigot or 2 and brewed some at a friends house, but he must have had mice because there was some beer missing from the buckets.
This Star-San thread is interesting because I just used it for the first time. 1/5 oz per gallon is pretty hard to measure but I could not find a "no rinse" clause in the instructions so I did the best I could. I used a spray bottle and a catch basin and caught the solution for later use. I usually use a no rinse from Mr. Beer but the Star-San seems easier.
This is where the first part left off..........................
(I think I have already tossed my hat in.)
I will be looking around a bit before I toss my hat into the ring because I have to learn some things all over again. I purchased 3 kits over 3 years ago and just got around to brewing them up. One was a Mr. Beer American Porter. It is ok but not great. I also got 2 kits of partial grain kits from Midwest Supplies. One was a Black Dog Ale and the other a Mexican Cerveza. They may not taste perfect after the several years in storage but nothing was opened so I hope for at least drinkable beer. I won't be out anything extra except brew time because if they suck, at least I learned something... and since I had already purchased the kits I figured I should at least try. The Porter is a dark strong beer. It may not have carbonated all the way but it is drinkable. I only had 1 gallon to bottle.
When I finally opened the 2 gallon kit (Porter) the yeast was bad, so I used yeast from one of the other kits. When the brew keg was all settled down after a week and a half I poured it into a small secondary and harvested the yeast, washed it and made a starter for the Black Dog. (For some reason I refrigerated the yeast packet from the Black Dog kit but not the others.) The yeast came alive in the mini beer solution I made to feed it and when I brewed the Black Dog it came alive after a couple hours. I had brewed the Cerveza a day earlier and it had not started to ferment yet...or was just not showing. But soon after the Black Dog started to bubble the Cerveza showed life.
I have some diammonium phosphate from making wine so on day 2 of fermentation I used 1/2 tsp per 5 gallon bucket to feed the yeast figuring after being out of date it may need a boost. Talk about superfoods...It worked great. I bottled the American Porter 2 weeks ago and am drinking a bottle a day. It does improve immensely just leaving it in the bottle. It is now in the fridge and doing well.
I bottled the Black Dog yesterday, 1/13, and the Cerveza the day before. Now I can relax for a couple days. But then back to work. I bought a new kit from Midwest Supplies: a "Beer Simply Beer" Pale Ale. I won't be leaving this sit on the shelf. I learned that lesson also.
I want to up the abv and do not know how much extract or sugar or other adjunct to use. Maybe someone here can give me that info. I will appreciate it. Also, is there a difference in the amount of time it takes to carbonate, priming by the batch and by the bottle?
One site I was looking at said if bottling and priming with Dextrose it will take 2 weeks. I think this may also refer to some carbonation drops. But the Brewers Best Drops are speed demons and the ad states they will fully carbonate beer in as little as 3 days. I found the link. I wonder just how "small" a beer style has to be for the 3 days to be true?
http://www.homebrewohio.com/pd-brewer-s-best-carbonation-tablets.cfm
Is it better to prime by the batch? I know it saves time and gives every bottle regardless of size the same amount of priming solution. But, how does one know just how much to mix up?
Thanks for the interesting info. I now realize how much I used to think I knew but don't.
This Star-San thread is interesting because I just used it for the first time. 1/5 oz per gallon is pretty hard to measure but I could not find a "no rinse" clause in the instructions so I did the best I could. I used a spray bottle and a catch basin and caught the solution for later use. I usually use a no rinse from Mr. Beer but the Star-San seems easier.
This is where the first part left off..........................
(I think I have already tossed my hat in.)
I will be looking around a bit before I toss my hat into the ring because I have to learn some things all over again. I purchased 3 kits over 3 years ago and just got around to brewing them up. One was a Mr. Beer American Porter. It is ok but not great. I also got 2 kits of partial grain kits from Midwest Supplies. One was a Black Dog Ale and the other a Mexican Cerveza. They may not taste perfect after the several years in storage but nothing was opened so I hope for at least drinkable beer. I won't be out anything extra except brew time because if they suck, at least I learned something... and since I had already purchased the kits I figured I should at least try. The Porter is a dark strong beer. It may not have carbonated all the way but it is drinkable. I only had 1 gallon to bottle.
When I finally opened the 2 gallon kit (Porter) the yeast was bad, so I used yeast from one of the other kits. When the brew keg was all settled down after a week and a half I poured it into a small secondary and harvested the yeast, washed it and made a starter for the Black Dog. (For some reason I refrigerated the yeast packet from the Black Dog kit but not the others.) The yeast came alive in the mini beer solution I made to feed it and when I brewed the Black Dog it came alive after a couple hours. I had brewed the Cerveza a day earlier and it had not started to ferment yet...or was just not showing. But soon after the Black Dog started to bubble the Cerveza showed life.
I have some diammonium phosphate from making wine so on day 2 of fermentation I used 1/2 tsp per 5 gallon bucket to feed the yeast figuring after being out of date it may need a boost. Talk about superfoods...It worked great. I bottled the American Porter 2 weeks ago and am drinking a bottle a day. It does improve immensely just leaving it in the bottle. It is now in the fridge and doing well.
I bottled the Black Dog yesterday, 1/13, and the Cerveza the day before. Now I can relax for a couple days. But then back to work. I bought a new kit from Midwest Supplies: a "Beer Simply Beer" Pale Ale. I won't be leaving this sit on the shelf. I learned that lesson also.
I want to up the abv and do not know how much extract or sugar or other adjunct to use. Maybe someone here can give me that info. I will appreciate it. Also, is there a difference in the amount of time it takes to carbonate, priming by the batch and by the bottle?
One site I was looking at said if bottling and priming with Dextrose it will take 2 weeks. I think this may also refer to some carbonation drops. But the Brewers Best Drops are speed demons and the ad states they will fully carbonate beer in as little as 3 days. I found the link. I wonder just how "small" a beer style has to be for the 3 days to be true?
http://www.homebrewohio.com/pd-brewer-s-best-carbonation-tablets.cfm
Is it better to prime by the batch? I know it saves time and gives every bottle regardless of size the same amount of priming solution. But, how does one know just how much to mix up?
Thanks for the interesting info. I now realize how much I used to think I knew but don't.