Beginning First Beer Home Brew Tonight - Tips?

[brewkinger]

You can remove the airlock, it is called open fermentation. Enough pressure internal to prevent nasties from getting in.
Having said that, it needs to be watched and the airlock replaced as soon as you can.

 

[Thegreatestgray]

If you don't want to buy another bucket for bottling you can go to your local super market and ask the baking department for a few buckets they usually will give them to you for free. Just remember be patient and give the yeast time to do there thing

 

[PGEduardo]

For my first 48 hours I just placed a ziplock bag loosely over the top - the CO2 should keep enough positive pressure to prevent contaminants from getting in...

 

[Sollozzo]

Thinking ahead, I'm trying to decide if I should bottle or keg.

I can afford to split a keg kit with my buddy, and we know of a few places to pick up CO2 tanks locally. The problem is I don't have a spare fridge. I can buy one off craigslist, but I drive a 4 door Mazda 3 so I have no way to get it to my house.

There are obviously kegs smaller than 5 gallons. Can I fill one small keg at a time so that I can store it in my kitchen fridge, and leave the rest of the brew in the carboy until the keg is empty?

 

[Mirkin]

You should really bottle/keg the whole lot at once, maybe split between small keg as you say and the remainder into bottles.

Personally I wish I had a keg set up.

 

[Sollozzo]

You should really bottle/keg the whole lot at once, maybe split between small keg as you say and the remainder into bottles.

Personally I wish I had a keg set up.

So then I'll probably just keg it all at once in a 5 gallon Cornelius. Gotta buy a keg kit now. Was looking on amazon and found one that came with everything except the CO2 tank for $159.99. Any suggestions on where to find something cheaper, or is that as good as it gets?

 

[DrunkleJon]

I casnt believe everyone forgot the biggest bit of advice. Do not forget your towel. Boilovers can be messy.

 

[mlinc]

If you are getting into kegging do your research on prices. I bought some of my equipment from BeerElements http://www.bvrgelements.com/category/Keg/

My biggest item was balancing the cost at my LHBS vs paying shipping from an online vendor. I recently got into HB and kegging saves a lot of time but I still bottle half the time.

Good luck on your search.

 

[Thegreatestgray]

You could always get a tap a draft system it's like 70 bucks and they easily fit in your fridge I have one and love it. It comes with 3 1.5 gallon containers so you only have to bottle .5 gallons worth of bottles

 

[Sollozzo]

You could always get a tap a draft system it's like 70 bucks and they easily fit in your fridge I have one and love it. It comes with 3 1.5 gallon containers so you only have to bottle .5 gallons worth of bottles

That seems like a steal.

Couple questions.

1. Do I still have to use priming sugar if I keg, specifically in that Tap-a-Draft system?

2. Can you immediately drink your brew (after a night of refrigerating) with that system?

3. Is it absolutely necessary to use a bottling bucket, or can I siphon into the Tap-a-Draft kegs directly from the primary carboy?

 

[Thegreatestgray]

That seems like a steal.

Couple questions.

1. Do I still have to use priming sugar if I keg, specifically in that Tap-a-Draft system?

2. Can you immediately drink your brew (after a night of refrigerating) with that system?

3. Is it absolutely necessary to use a bottling bucket, or can I siphon into the Tap-a-Draft kegs directly from the primary carboy?

1. You can either force carb or naturally carb in it
2. It takes a week to force carb it
3. I have never done it before but if you were going to force carb all of them. I can't see why you couldn't

What I do is naturally carb two and force carb one so I only have to wait a week to start drinking my brew

Also another plus is it is super easy to take anywhere

 

[philber]

I casnt believe everyone forgot the biggest bit of advice. Do not forget your towel. Boilovers can be messy.

Or a spray bottle with starsan solution helps to knock down the boil over.

What is a boilover?!? You will find out! Everytime you add an ingredient, withing 1-5 minutes boom! well really whoosh, boom is when you drop what is in your hands because you have a volcano on the stove and the wife is screaming. It sux cleaning that off a new flush top stove . (Clean the burnt on sugars with water, baking soda and lemon juice, turn on the burner just to heat things up again and it will loosen up the mess) It will give you good reason to get an outdoor brew set or go full electric keggle.

Add hops slowly, stir, stir out your boilovers, most importantly lower the heat prior to adding LME, DME, Hops or other ingredients to boiling water(wort).

HTH

 

[DrunkleJon]

What is a boilover?!? You will find out! Everytime you add an ingredient, withing 1-5 minutes boom! well really whoosh, boom is when you drop what is in your hands because you have a volcano on the stove and the wife is screaming. It sux cleaning that off a new flush top stove . (Clean the burnt on sugars with water, baking soda and lemon juice, turn on the burner just to heat things up again and it will loosen up the mess) It will give you good reason to get an outdoor brew set or go full electric keggle.
H

Also, you can CAREFULLY scrape the residue off of flush and glass top stoves with a razor blade, much like you would in removing paint off of windows. Much emphasis on CAREFULLY. Do not hold the Drunkle responsible for any damage to cooktops.

Additionally, do not ask me how I know, but scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner really seems to be effective on getting deep into cooked on stuff. Ok, I will admit it. I have a second stove in the bathroom and often cook while in the shower. Its cleaner that way but I would avise against cooking bacon that way.

 

[Sollozzo]

1. You can either force carb or naturally carb in it
2. It takes a week to force carb it
3. I have never done it before but if you were going to force carb all of them. I can't see why you couldn't

What I do is naturally carb two and force carb one so I only have to wait a week to start drinking my brew

Also another plus is it is super easy to take anywhere

Force carb meaning just install and use the CO2 tank, right?

So if I naturally carb two of the them, is it necessary to even use the CO2, or can I save them for force carbing future brews?

 

[Thegreatestgray]

Force carb meaning just install and use the CO2 tank, right?

So if I naturally carb two of the them, is it necessary to even use the CO2, or can I save them for force carbing future brews?

The tap a draft system use CO2 cartridges so there is no tank. It comes with 6 of them and they are sold at most home brew shops. You install one cartridge to force carb then after the week you install another one to serve the beer. You need to use the CO2 to serve so the beer doesn't become oxidized and stale.

 

[Sollozzo]

The tap a draft system use CO2 cartridges so there is no tank. It comes with 6 of them and they are sold at most home brew shops. You install one cartridge to force carb then after the week you install another one to serve the beer. You need to use the CO2 to serve so the beer doesn't become oxidized and stale.

Does force carbing cause a decrease in the quality (taste) as opposed to natural carbing? And how long do those cartridges last approximately?

 

[Thegreatestgray]

Does force carbing cause a decrease in the quality (taste) as opposed to natural carbing? And how long do those cartridges last approximately?

In my opinion yes I have notice the ones I force carb aren't as good as my naturally carbed ones. It's probably caused by the only aging it for a week instead of three + weeks

 

[dwtowler]

I make a lot of brewers best kits, they make good beer. The only thing I change is to leave wort in primary for 2 weeks and secondary for 2 weeks before I bottle. Use a. Wort chiller if you have one and some Irish moss and you will have a tastes clear beer in about 6 weeks. Drinking a brewers best oktoberfest right now.