Hand full of questions...

[Jhatfield]

Hey guys. Wanted to shoot some questions by all of you. In hopes you can give me some advice and clear some things up.

1- I bottled my first batch ever and it tastes great. But I have some "white" sediment at the bottom of the bottles. What is this from? How can I get rid of this in the future?

2- I am doing 1 gallon batch at a time. (Craft a Beer starter kit) I am hooked! So fun. I want to learn more and get more experience. Any recommended books? Any recommended recipe kits for me to use to learn from?

3- Dry vs liquid malt. Is there a preferred form?

Thanks in advance - more to come.

 

[boxofjibboo]

Hello Jhatfield!

Welcome to the hobby.

1. The sediment you're seeing on the bottom of your bottle is yeast. It should be there! That helps your beer carbonate after adding the sugar during the bottling process. You can avoid it by pouring your beers into a glass and leaving the last ounce or two in the bottle.

2. I haven't don't too many 1 g kits so I don't have much for you here. I do know NorthernBrewer sells 1 gallon kits that should be pretty good. Look on their website and they will have reviews too.

3. As for yeast choice, since you're doing 1 gallon, I would recommend dry. It's cheaper and for your batch size, you don't even need to use the full thing. If you want to venture into liquid, that's not a bad thing, but just going to cost you more.

Hope this info helps! Cheers!


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[kingogames]

+1 for pretty much everything boxofjibboo said!! Once you get a few batches under your belt, you may want to try all grain. One gallon all grain batches are super easy to do BIAB.

 

[danath34]

Hey guys. Wanted to shoot some questions by all of you. In hopes you can give me some advice and clear some things up.

1- I bottled my first batch ever and it tastes great. But I have some "white" sediment at the bottom of the bottles. What is this from? How can I get rid of this in the future?

2- I am doing 1 gallon batch at a time. (Craft a Beer starter kit) I am hooked! So fun. I want to learn more and get more experience. Any recommended books? Any recommended recipe kits for me to use to learn from?

3- Dry vs liquid malt. Is there a preferred form?

Thanks in advance - more to come.

1. As said above, you want that sediment. That's your yeast, and if it isn't there, chances are your beer didn't carbonate. If you're picky, you can reduce how much there is by allowing more settling time before bottling, and maybe do a search on cold crashing and finings. The only way to eliminate it is to keg and force carbonate.

2. When I first started brewing I read Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. This is what many would call the homebrewing bible. There's also John Palmer's How to Brew. Both are excellent reads and will teach every brewer something they didn't know, whether they're new or experienced. John Palmer's book is more up to date, but the differences won't matter for a beginner.

3. Most people prefer dry malt extract as it keeps good for longer, and there can be an issue with liquid malt scorching and caramelizing more if you're not careful. I think there are more varieties of liquid malt though. Neither is necessarily better, just make sure if you get liquid, it's as fresh as possible.

 

[Jhatfield]

Thank you guys. Lots of info.
Will these books go over different techniques and styles?

 

[unionrdr]

Yes. the newer the better when it comes to the latest info.

 

[Jhatfield]

Sweet. Any sites or kits I should avoid?

 

[Jhatfield]

So I am enjoying one of my nice home brews as I write this and figured I would ask more questions in my thread rather than start a new one.

Why do some people use a secondary fermenter? What is the purpose? What is the process?

Does anyone go through the trouble of filtering their beer before bottling?

I am going to be trying my hand on a hard cider here soon - I've been reading posts about pastorizing bottles and cold crashing bottles. What is cold crashing?

I just purchased another gallon glass carboy and while I was researching I found lots of 5 gallon buckets or bigger being used as a fermenter- is this a common place to ferment large batches in?
I would like to upgrade to larger batches in the future - so I would like to know how people feel about the buckets. I feel like I could purchase these at my local hardware store.

Any thoughts on honey to use in brewing? I am going to be brewing a whitehouse honey ale and would love to hear what people weigh in on.

Thanks!!

 

[ncboiler]

2. When I first started brewing I read Charlie Papazian's The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.

Must reading

 

[Jhatfield]

Must reading

I am assuming that some of my questions (or most) would be answered in there?

 

[ncboiler]

I am assuming that some of my questions (or most) would be answered in there?

I don't know what questions you have outside those you posted but I suspect it will answer many of your questions. It's just, like someone already said, considered the bible of homebrewing. It delves into the science, discusses ingredients, covers the process, and has recipes in it. You really need to read it.

 

[Darth_Malt]

I just purchased another gallon glass carboy and while I was researching I found lots of 5 gallon buckets or bigger being used as a fermenter- is this a common place to ferment large batches in?
I would like to upgrade to larger batches in the future - so I would like to know how people feel about the buckets. I feel like I could purchase these at my local hardware store.

I personally haven't used buckets, only large glass carboys. I splurged with my tax return and bought 5 glass carboys of various sizes. After a year of fermenting in these I have one piece of advice if you decide to go with carboys...BUY THE BIG MOUTH CARBOYS!!!! Cleaning the small mouthed ones is a huge pain in the @$$! I've used brushes, drill attached cleaners, soaking with various solutions...all of which leave me with a longing for the ability to just grab a sponge and get all that krauseny gunk off by hand.

 

[ncboiler]

I personally haven't used buckets, only large glass carboys. I splurged with my tax return and bought 5 glass carboys of various sizes. After a year of fermenting in these I have one piece of advice if you decide to go with carboys...BUY THE BIG MOUTH CARBOYS!!!! Cleaning the small mouthed ones is a huge pain in the @$$! I've used brushes, drill attached cleaners, soaking with various solutions...all of which leave me with a longing for the ability to just grab a sponge and get all that krauseny gunk off by hand.

I just bought a glass carboy - 6.5 gallons - and have used it one time so far. I cleaned it but it made me wonder, outside of it being real cool during active fermentation, what was the advantage over a bucket. I mean a bucket is soooooooo easy to clean. Granted a few scratches in a bucket can lead to an infection but as long as you are careful a bucket seems much more practical.

 

[podz]

Where I live, dry malt and liquid malt cost exactly the same, regardless of the brand:

Dry malt - 1 kg = 12,90 EUR
Liquid malt (unhopped) 1,5 kg = 12,90 EUR

In case you didn't figure it out, 1 kg of dry malt is equal to 1,5 kg of liquid malt.

Advantages of liquid malt:

- can be obtained pre-hopped (but then it comes in a 1,7 kg can and costs more)
- can be obtained as a blend
- easier to dissolve by stirring


Advantages of dry malt:

- less weight to carry during transport
- possibility to use only a part of the package (especially handy for making starters) -- this is a SUPER BIG PLUS

 

[rlmiller10]

So I am enjoying one of my nice home brews as I write this and figured I would ask more questions in my thread rather than start a new one.

Why do some people use a secondary fermenter? What is the purpose? What is the process?

Does anyone go through the trouble of filtering their beer before bottling?

I am going to be trying my hand on a hard cider here soon - I've been reading posts about pastorizing bottles and cold crashing bottles. What is cold crashing?

I just purchased another gallon glass carboy and while I was researching I found lots of 5 gallon buckets or bigger being used as a fermenter- is this a common place to ferment large batches in?
I would like to upgrade to larger batches in the future - so I would like to know how people feel about the buckets. I feel like I could purchase these at my local hardware store.

Any thoughts on honey to use in brewing? I am going to be brewing a whitehouse honey ale and would love to hear what people weigh in on.

Thanks!!

People will rack the beer from the primary fermenter to a secondary to get it off the yeast. The secondary fermenter is usually smaller than the primary so there will be very little head space to minimize oxygen contact. But unless you adding fruit, spices, or other fun things there is no need to secondary, just leave it in primary three or more weeks until ready to rack to a bottling bucket.

No need to filter if you are going to bottle. You want some yeast to carbonate your bottled beer. For a clearer beer cold crash (take the temp down to 30 to 35 F for a day or so before bottling. You can also use gelatin. Do a search on gelatin to clear beer for more info.

Glass is pretty and fun to look at but are heavy, they break and can lacerate you, and if not a big mouth are hard to clean. That said I use them. But many, probably the majority, of people use buckets. If getting them at the hardware store make sure they are food grade. Most recipes are for 5 gallons. You will need a 6.5 gallon bucket to ferment 5 gallons. Of course you could scale the recipe to 3.7 gal or so such that it will ferment in a 5 gal bucket. But if you want to ferment 5 gal go to your local home brew shop (LHBS) and get a fermenting bucket for $12 or so.

Have not used honey but have used honey malt and it gives a nice sweetness to my black IPA.

 

[RM-MN]

You can reduce the amount of yeast that settles to the bottom of your bottles in two ways, both requiring only gravity. One is time. Leaving your beer in the fermenter for a longer period of time will let more of the suspended yeast settle out so you don't get as much in the bottle. The second it called "cold crashing". You simply reduce the beer temperature which makes the yeast settle faster but then you have to warm it back up so the yeast left will eat the priming sugars to carbonate the bottles.

In past years, it was thought that you had to get the beer off the yeast cake quickly to prevent off flavors from developing so people would rack the beer to secondary as soon as the ferment slowed. Now we know that it isn't necessary to move the beer and that by moving the beer to secondary you risk infection, oxidation, and stuck ferments. Unless you are adding fruit (true secondary ferment) or oaking your beer, leaving your beer on the yeast cake is the best. I've left beer in the primary for 9 weeks and got good beer from that as well as such a small amount of yeast in the bottle that it was hard to see.

 

[rekoob]

Not sure why so many people are having issues cleaning a carboy. I have been using the same glass carboys for 16 years, lets see you use plastic for that amount of time.

After I rack out of the carboy I rinse, add some oxiclean, fill and let sit. when I'm ready to use it, empty, rinse, starsan, fill.

Take some time to read the basics and learn some of the often used terms. Don't rush into buying a bunch of equipment or going going to all grain brewing. Making batches and figuring out what you want before buying equipment will save you money and time getting to where you want to be. If you don't know where that is (in terms of brewing) then you need to brew more.
Learn the process of making beer and what each step is all about and why. The malt extract these days will make a very good beer, learn why to change to AG instead of just doing it cuz people say you should.
Good luck.

 

[madscientist451]

I'm a lazy brewer, and I hate washing the carboy after a primary fermentation. So I use a bottling bucket for primary, then attach a hose and drain to a glass or "better bottle" plastic carboy.
I feel more comfortable using the carboy to age the beer a few weeks or months depending on what I'm brewing.
I've been getting into some saisons and sours and they have to age a 3-12 months or longer.
Another reason I rack to secondary is I like the carboy for dry hopping or adding oak. I also like the idea of drawing samples through the small opening for taste tests and being able to monitor the clarity before bottling.
Using a secondary is somewhat "old school" but I just keep on doing it and haven't had any problems.
Someday I'll probably just skip the secondary, everyone else seems to like doing it that way.
Everyone has their methods that work for them with their equipment, time schedule and individual tastes.