Beginner homebrew trouble

[Erik the Anglophile]

In all sincerity, I doubt you will produce good beer, drinkable sure but not much more.
However if you enjoyed the diy aspect and felt the process seemed fun, buy a 5 liter partial mash starter kit, the only thing you need is a 2 kettles that can hold a couple liters for steeping specialty malt and an ~8 liter kettle for boiling wort. This will produce a far better beer with only a little more effort, and hopefully entice you to fall deeper in to the rabbit hole and join the rest of us obsessive manics.
Are you by any chance Slovenian btw? Na zdravje!

 

[DuncB]

It might take a good while to warm your beer up in that warmer room. Put a plastic bottle or two of warm water next to the fermenter and wrap it in some blankets. That will speed up the yeast, you want it to get going fast before something else takes over. Once the yeast gets going it will make it's own heat. When I started with kits years ago I couldn't resist looking in all the time and often giving it a good stir. Not a good habit. But the beer was drinkable, but not memorable.

 

[gver3478]

It might take a good while to warm your beer up in that warmer room. Put a plastic bottle or two of warm water next to the fermenter and wrap it in some blankets. That will speed up the yeast, you want it to get going fast before something else takes over. Once the yeast gets going it will make it's own heat. When I started with kits years ago I couldn't resist looking in all the time and often giving it a good stir. Not a good habit. But the beer was drinkable, but not memorable.

I have a radiator next to it, it is however turned off since nobody uses that room, should I turn it on, the temp in the room is around 21C, would it help if I made it warmer?

 

[Tallgrass]

21c should be fine for most yeast.

 

[madscientist451]

Hello,
I'm (trying) to make English IPA.
Please help.

Welcome to HBT.
Congratulations on getting your first brew started. Making IPA's needs some advanced brewing skills and equipment because the hops in IPAs interact with oxygen and that affects the flavor. If your beer doesn't come out all that great, don't give up, you can't expect really high quality from a no boil extract kit.
Go on you tube and watch some videos that show BIAB brewing. Brew some simple ales, stouts and porters that don't require lots of hops. All you need is a brew pot, a BIAB bag, some grain and hops and a kitchen stove. You already have the fermenter and some other items.

 

[gver3478]

Update:Fermentation has now started at full speed, it's bubbling beautifully. New problem though: tried to measure gravity to see if we're going in the right direction, but when turning the tap, at first only a bit went out and then it just stopped all together. Seems like some sediment build up at the bottom of the fermentor, will this get cleared on its own or is there a way to clear this? The fermentation will end either at the end of next week or the week after, so says my support guy.
So, any ideas?

 

[GoodTruble]

Update:Fermentation has now started at full speed, it's bubbling beautifully. New problem though: tried to measure gravity to see if we're going in the right direction, but when turning the tap, at first only a bit went out and then it just stopped all together. Seems like some sediment build up at the bottom of the fermentor, will this get cleared on its own or is there a way to clear this? The fermentation will end either at the end of next week or the week after, so says my support guy.
So, any ideas?

Well, 2 steps forward, 1 step back.

If you can tell it is still fermenting, no need to check gravity. It can only move one direction. You only need to check gravity of you think fermentation may be over.

I would keep the lid on and wait until it seems like fermentation is over. There may be trub build up around the spigot that is blocking it, but usually, the trub layer will shrink down lower during fermentation (it compacts). So this problem may solve itself.

When you go to use the spigot again, if it is still jammed, try putting a book under the spigot side and wait a few hours to see if the trub will slide back toward the other side of the bucket.

I'm yet to see a spigot so jammed that it won't work. If that were to happen, you may have to siphon the beer out from the top of the bucket. But my guess is that the spigot will work once everything settles (but that first 6-8 ounces out of the spigot may be a tad funky).

Good luck!

 

[gver3478]

Well, 2 steps forward, 1 step back.

If you can tell it is still fermenting, no need to check gravity. It can only move one direction. You only need to check gravity of you think fermentation may be over.

I would keep the lid on and wait until it seems like fermentation is over. There may be trub build up around the spigot that is blocking it, but usually, the trub layer will shrink down lower during fermentation (it compacts). So this problem may solve itself.

When you go to use the spigot again, if it is still jammed, try putting a book under the spigot side and wait a few hours to see if the trub will slide back toward the other side of the bucket.

I'm yet to see a spigot so jammed that it won't work. If that were to happen, you may have to siphon the beer out from the top of the bucket. But my guess is that the spigot will work once everything settles (but that first 6-8 ounces out of the spigot may be a tad funky).

Good luck!

Tap works great again, guess the sediment at the bottom is gone, gravity has gone from 1.040 to 1.019, so that's a very good sign. Incredible what a change of temperature does to fermentation. So gonna check the gravity again in 5 or 6 days, but yeah things are looking good.

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

Just remember to spray starsan or something up the tap after using it, all kinds of nasties may grow there otherwise.

 

[DuncB]

Probably worth siphoning off the top when you come to bottle as that tap is now a culture bomb. Glad it's got going. Keep us updated.

 

[IslandLizard]

Just remember to spray starsan or something up the tap after using it, all kinds of nasties may grow there otherwise.

Yup, any beer remaining in the spigot, exposed to air will get infected. So you need to clean/rinse/spray that out thoroughly and sanitize it after use. Then resanitize right before you take your next sample, bottle from it, or use it to transfer to a bottling bucket.

If you don't... you may get infected beer.

 

[IslandLizard]

Probably worth siphoning off the top when you come to bottle as that tap is now a culture bomb. Glad it's got going. Keep us updated.

It will indeed become a culture bomb if not cleaned and sanitized (in place) thoroughly. I don't think waiting a day will be detrimental, but it becomes much more difficult to effectively remove dried-on beer from the narrow and fairly deep channel. Brewers have done it successfully...

Also keep it clean when you intent to use it for sampling and transfers. After cleaning and sanitizing you could wrap some (sanitized) plastic film around it, or a plastic baggy.

 

[GoodTruble]

The spigot/tap will probably be fine.

If you can dip or spray sanitizer around it, that certainly won't hurt.

And when you bottle, re-sanitize first and flush out the first few ounces into a drip container instead of bottling. That is usually sufficient (95% of the time). But it should be fine.

Good luck.