First brew, two questions

[Double_Eagle]

Question 1: I brewed my first batch a week ago tomorrow, an Irish Red Ale. It is still bubbling in the air lock. My recipe calls for a secondary fermentation of 5-7 days. After reading this forum I have learned most here do not do a secondary. If I don't do a secondary, how much longer do I leave it in the primary after it stops bubbling? The same 5-7 days?

Question 2: I purchased a 2 1/2 gal kit instead of a full 5 gal kit, thinking if I screw up my first batch I won't loose as much. The recipe said to fill my brew kettle with 1 1/2 gallons of water for the boil. After the boil and cooling the wort, it said to add enough water to the fermentation bucket to bring the total to 2 1/2 gallons. I just added water straight from the tap into my primary fermenter after adding the cooled wort. Can this have contaminated my batch since the added water wasn't boiled?

Hope I haven't screwed it up.

Thanks for you help.

 

[Yooper]

1. Yes, that would work fine. Or, you could go with something like waiting for fermentation to slow/stop, and then 3 days or more after that to check and see if the FG is where is should be and if the beer is clear. If it's not clear, you may want to wait another few days so there is less crud in the bottles.

2. No, but if you have chlorine in your brewing water it can cause some off flavors called chlorophenols. You want to use chlorine-free water, or treat your water for chlorine, if you use city water. If you don't have chlorine in your water supply, it would be fine.

 

[RM-MN]

1. 14 days in the primary will work fine, so will 21 or 28 or ....
Many beers will improve or smooth out with more time. Whether you get this time from sitting in the fermenter or in bottles, the beer seems to age/mature at about the same rate. You mostly want to leave the beer long enough for the fermentation to be complete and some of the yeast to settle out so it doesn't end up with lots of it in the bottom of your bottles.

2. Yooper is right on about the chlorine/chloramine in tap water if you are on "city water" so plan to use half a Campden tablet to eliminate it. If you have your own well that won't be a problem. Can the water contaminate your beer? Sure, but how often does your water make you sick? Most of the time our water is clean enough to be safe to add to the concentrated wort without worrying about contamination. If there is a small amount of bacteria, the yeast will quickly overpower it.

 

[Double_Eagle]

2. No, but if you have chlorine in your brewing water it can cause some off flavors called chlorophenols. You want to use chlorine-free water, or treat your water for chlorine, if you use city water. If you don't have chlorine in your water supply, it would be fine.

That's the first I have heard about chlorine. Yes, there is chlorine in our city water. I wish I would have known about this. I hope it is not ruined.

Are Campden tablets sold at the brew supply stores?

Thank you for your replies.

 

[kh54s10]

That's the first I have heard about chlorine. Yes, there is chlorine in our city water. I wish I would have known about this. I hope it is not ruined.

Are Campden tablets sold at the brew supply stores?

Thank you for your replies.

I have to look at my city water report. I have been brewing without treating for 5 years, I do run the water through a filter though. At first it was through a Brita filter and now a canister charcoal filter.

I rate a most of my beers as good as or better than the average commercial craft beer.

Yes Campden tablets should be available at any LHBS