Hello, lurker with a first post - Just bottled my first brew

[sixstring]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone that posts here, as my first brew, an English Pale Ale (I'm English and love my ale), turned out crystal clear when bottling and tasted great during the bottling. Wasn't overly strong, but I expected it to be around the percentage it was (3.9%). I don't drink to get drunk, i drink as I love the flavour.
Kept it simple, just used a 5 gallon bucket for fermenting, left it alone for 3 weeks, then siphoned off into another 5 gal bucket to bottle it. Bottled and now waiting for another two weeks to drink it. To save buying special bottles, I just bought some Heineken from Costco (price was about the same as if i'd bought empty bottles, but this way I could drink the contents too, heh) and used those to bottle with. Reason I went with those was the labels are really really easy to remove if you want to do so.

The best part was tasting it while the bottling was done. I actually love how it tastes flat and warm, but I've had many a beer from pubs in England that were their house brews and were pretty much all flat and warm or warmish.

I do have some questions though:

1. My siphon seems to have an end that would let me put it all the way down to the bottom of the bucket in the sediment, would it be ok to stick it gently down to the bottom and start the siphoning? Which then leads into another one, how do you get the last few inches or so of beer out easily, without disturbing the bottom? As there was easily another two bottles worth of beer that I felt like I lost.
2. Is there a good online source for getting the ingredients that would be cheaper than buying one of the kits? I bought this one to start (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006M3V0V2) and would like to just source everything to reduce cost if possible.

Anyway, just wanted to share my successful first brew story, and to anyone else doing their first brew, if your brewing kit says to siphon into another bucket/carboy and continue fermentation in that after the first week or few days, don't bother. From everything I've read here and elsewhere, it seems that it's not necessary. My beer certainly turned out nicely.

Not starting another batch until I know how this one turned out, but looking forward to starting another brew if this goes well.

 

[hotbeer]

Well congrat's on your successful results.

1) I had several siphon attachments including a auto siphon that had their end designed to look like their intention was to reduce sediment and trub being siphoned out. However they didn't work. The yeast and other sediment is so fine that the slightest current pulls it up and into the wort you are siphoning.

I found it best to keep the end well above the bottom of the FV as long as I could. And for the last few dregs, just tilt the FV or use that to put in your hydrometer jar so you can measure the OG. Then you can drink it afterward.

Getting the trub and yeast into your beer bottles or keg isn't a disaster though. Whatever was trub in the FV will just be sediment in the bottle or keg. But getting less of it will be less sediment in the bottles which might make it easier to get a cleaner pour.

2) Not knowing where you are, it's sort of hard to recommend anything but the big online places that amalgamate vendors, such as Amazon, AliExpress and others. I realize you made a comparison to England pubs, but I can't assume that means you lived there. As more than a few of us from other countries have visited England.

But here in the USA, I find that MoreBeer more often than not, beats most everyone for ingredient prices on small batch orders. But you have to check around. There are quite a few online beer brewing supply vendors. Most only selling domestically.

 

[Broken Crow]

Like @hotbeer I would keep the end above the bottom. When I began I used glass carboys so I had to lower it slowly by hand as it drained, but as you're using buckets and it sounds like you might have 'The Original Fermtech AutoSiphon', you can get a clip to hold it to the side of your bucket if your siphon didn't come with one, here's the 2 available sizes:
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/autosiphonclamp38.htm
https://www.brewhardware.com/product_p/autosiphonclamp12.htm


BTW: Welcome to HBT!

 

[mac_1103]

Welcome!

Q1 - if you go to Morebeer and buy the ingredients in that kit separately you will pay more than what you paid for the kit. To save any money you'll have to buy a few recipe's worth at a time. If you're doing that and keeping extract around for a while, you'll probably be better off using all DME instead of LME since it stays fresh longer.

Q2 - Keep the siphon above the trub until you've gotten as much clear beer out as you can. Then bottle the last of it and label those bottles clearly. They'll have more gunk on the bottom but will probably be just fine.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

how do you get the last few inches or so of beer out easily, without disturbing the bottom?

The "tilt the fermenter" tip works better when you tilt earlier in the fermentation.

The idea is to get most of the trub & yeast to fall to one side of the fermenter, then fill bottles (or transfer to a bottling bucket) from the other side of the fermenter.

Moving the fermenter a day (or so) before bottling will give any stirred up trub a chance to settle again.

Yeast strains and flocculation: some strains of yeast flocculate well and stay put on the bottom after falling out of suspension. In my experience, US-05 is not one of them. But with one brand (of more expensive) yeast, I can often get "almost all" of the beer out of the fermenter without picking up trub.

 

[Broken Crow]

Something else occurred to me; Since you're looking for an economical approach, there is the time-honoured practice many folk do: Plan to do your next brew on bottling day and dump your next batch of fresh wort on top of the trub to re-use the yeast and save some money. There are many threads on here on re-using and harvesting yeast. As to the last inch of beer; Don't sweat it, it'll be cloudy anyway.

 

[Ninoid]

I gave up on the autosiphon a long time ago because it injects too much air into my beer, but I cut its tube, put a hose through that tube, which is marked so that it reaches 3 cm (one inch) before the bottom of the fermenter, and now I draw the beer with my mouth.

 

[AlexKay]

Posting to chime in the green bottles come directly from the Devil. Keep them well away from any source of UV light!

 

[BrewZer]

To save buying special bottles, I just bought some Heineken from Costco (price was about the same as if i'd bought empty bottles, but this way I could drink the contents too, heh) and used those to bottle with. Reason I went with those was the labels are really really easy to remove if you want to do so.

If you can get them, a 24-pack case of Samuel Adams (any variety) will go a long way towards satisfying your bottling needs. Labels come off with a good hot soak and minor scraping with a razor blade. Keep the case (reinforced with packing tape) or get the square plastic milk crates at Target (holds 25 12 oz bottles.).

 

[Zanatrik]

I gave up on the autosiphon a long time ago because it injects too much air into my beer, but I cut its tube, put a hose through that tube, which is marked so that it reaches 3 cm (one inch) before the bottom of the fermenter, and now I draw the beer with my mouth.

Same! I dont know why but I really hated the autosiphon (I suspect some level of user error, but dont feel bad about that). I was glad to upgrade to other vessels in part because it allowed me to move to gravity feed.

That said, agreed on keeping it above the gunk but know that it wont be bad beer, just less beer in that last few bottles.

 

[rodwha]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone that posts here, as my first brew, an English Pale Ale (I'm English and love my ale), turned out crystal clear when bottling and tasted great during the bottling. Wasn't overly strong, but I expected it to be around the percentage it was (3.9%). I don't drink to get drunk, i drink as I love the flavour.
Kept it simple, just used a 5 gallon bucket for fermenting, left it alone for 3 weeks, then siphoned off into another 5 gal bucket to bottle it. Bottled and now waiting for another two weeks to drink it. To save buying special bottles, I just bought some Heineken from Costco (price was about the same as if i'd bought empty bottles, but this way I could drink the contents too, heh) and used those to bottle with. Reason I went with those was the labels are really really easy to remove if you want to do so.

The best part was tasting it while the bottling was done. I actually love how it tastes flat and warm, but I've had many a beer from pubs in England that were their house brews and were pretty much all flat and warm or warmish.

I do have some questions though:

1. My siphon seems to have an end that would let me put it all the way down to the bottom of the bucket in the sediment, would it be ok to stick it gently down to the bottom and start the siphoning? Which then leads into another one, how do you get the last few inches or so of beer out easily, without disturbing the bottom? As there was easily another two bottles worth of beer that I felt like I lost.
2. Is there a good online source for getting the ingredients that would be cheaper than buying one of the kits? I bought this one to start (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006M3V0V2) and would like to just source everything to reduce cost if possible.

Anyway, just wanted to share my successful first brew story, and to anyone else doing their first brew, if your brewing kit says to siphon into another bucket/carboy and continue fermentation in that after the first week or few days, don't bother. From everything I've read here and elsewhere, it seems that it's not necessary. My beer certainly turned out nicely.

Not starting another batch until I know how this one turned out, but looking forward to starting another brew if this goes well.

Awesome! Welcome to the addiction!

Some time back I had kept reading about the British mild and how it’s all but dead and considered grandpa’s beer these days. Then I ran across an article talking about the same thing. I had just spent my month’s hobby funds on other ingredients but realized I had everything it called for but in American ingredients so I brewed it up and called it a Texas mild. Fantastic beer!! Surprised it’s dying out. Happen to enjoy those as well?

 

[rodwha]

Yeah, for next time you want brown bottles. And I’ve found not all bottles accept a cap properly. I prefer Sierra Nevada bottles myself. Easy to remove labels as well, but a different profile than the average bottle I guess.

 

[OleBrewing]

trying to save every last bit of beer out of a bucket siphoning can be a hassle, depending on the type of yeast used and how hard the yeast/trub is. I chalk it up to part of the process and consider it byproduct. siphoning is fine but with using buckets might be best to drill a hole and put a bulk head and valve. the hardware store should have plenty appropriate plastic parts to use.

 

[rodwha]

trying to save every last bit of beer out of a bucket siphoning can be a hassle, depending on the type of yeast used and how hard the yeast/trub is. I chalk it up to part of the process and consider it byproduct. siphoning is fine but with using buckets might be best to drill a hole and put a bulk head and valve. the hardware store should have plenty appropriate plastic parts to use.

Yeah, these days I just use bottling buckets to ferment and use a hose to transfer.

 

[sixstring]

Awesome! Welcome to the addiction!

Some time back I had kept reading about the British mild and how it’s all but dead and considered grandpa’s beer these days. Then I ran across an article talking about the same thing. I had just spent my month’s hobby funds on other ingredients but realized I had everything it called for but in American ingredients so I brewed it up and called it a Texas mild. Fantastic beer!! Surprised it’s dying out. Happen to enjoy those as well?

I love milds. Not sure they're dying out though, at least not in England. I don't live there anymore but every time i've been back home, I can still walk into a pub and ask for a pint of mild and they always have it. Glad you're enjoying yours.

For those who said about bottles. Thanks, I'll see about getting some brown bottles next time.

Something else occurred to me; Since you're looking for an economical approach, there is the time-honoured practice many folk do: Plan to do your next brew on bottling day and dump your next batch of fresh wort on top of the trub to re-use the yeast and save some money. There are many threads on here on re-using and harvesting yeast. As to the last inch of beer; Don't sweat it, it'll be cloudy anyway.

I threw mine out, I thought it was a one and done thing. I'll do some more reading and learn more about this process. Thanks for the heads up on it.

Welcome!

Q1 - if you go to Morebeer and buy the ingredients in that kit separately you will pay more than what you paid for the kit. To save any money you'll have to buy a few recipe's worth at a time. If you're doing that and keeping extract around for a while, you'll probably be better off using all DME instead of LME since it stays fresh longer.

Q2 - Keep the siphon above the trub until you've gotten as much clear beer out as you can. Then bottle the last of it and label those bottles clearly. They'll have more gunk on the bottom but will probably be just fine.

Thanks. Those are the answers I needed.

 

[Ramjet]

Welcome to HBT. All good advice above. You also may want to try a different fermenter like a fermonster I believe that will keep the trub near the middle so less trub into your bottling bucket

 

[sixstring]

Welcome to HBT. All good advice above. You also may want to try a different fermenter like a fermonster I believe that will keep the trub near the middle so less trub into your bottling bucket

That looks interesting. My main goal is simplicity and easy to clean. If I continue on with this after the first batch of bottles is chilled and tasted, then I may invest some more funds into something like this. But then I wonder if it's not just easier to go with an all in one system that can boil, ferment and bottle without needing to change vessels. But that's not for now, I want to get my hands dirty before I invest anything into this. I'd rather know how to brew using basics, so if there's ever a time when the world loses power, and I'm still alive, I can still make my own beer and use that as my trading commodity in an apocalypse

 

[mac_1103]

I have a 7 gallon fermonster. It's a great fermenter, and you can do closed transfers either by gravity through a spigot or under low pressure with a simple modification to the lid. They also come in 1, 3 and 6 gallon sizes. But the middle of the bottom is higher than the edges, so they do not keep the trub in the middle. However, if you get one of the ported versions then the trub should usually stay below the level of the spigot.

 

[sixstring]

Rather than start a new thread, I thought i'd just add to this one.
Brewed a few more batches of the EPA since that first one was done.
Got myself a few items to help make things easier: Some nice 16oz brown Grolsch style flip top bottles and an Anvil 7.5 gallon fermenter to make it easier to get the beer from for bottling. Only now did I realize that unless I use carbonation tablets, I still need to transfer to a bottling bucket if I want to put the sugar primer in the beer before bottling

But the Anvil is much nicer than a plastic bucket for fermenting it seems. The proof is in the pudding tomorrow for bottling day (wish I had another kit to start cooking another batch with too, but I forgot to order it.
Next thing I want to do is get my kettle off the stove top, as it's awkward on there. So I'm going to save for the Anvil AIO electric system I think. Seems to be decent price and easy to use and also I can use it to cook steaks in too (sous vide). So that gives me more excuse to buy one haha.

Anyway, thanks for all the encouragement on here. You guys kept the fire alive and I'm really glad I stuck to brewing my own. It's so much nicer than the shop stuff.

 

[Rish]

carbonation tablets

You can just add sugar to each bottle instead of using the bottling bucket. Kind of tedious but I've done it a few times. Glad to see you're enjoying brewing!

 

[BongoYodeler]

Expanding on what @Rish said...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/individual-bottle-priming-instructions-with-cane-sugar.683687/

 

[sixstring]

Expanding on what @Rish said...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/individual-bottle-priming-instructions-with-cane-sugar.683687/

That's what I was looking for. Thank you.

 

[Ninoid]

Expanding on what @Rish said...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/individual-bottle-priming-instructions-with-cane-sugar.683687/

That's exactly what I do.

 

[Miraculix]

That's exactly what I do.

I also do this.

I usually calculate the amount of sugar that I need based on the brewers friend priming calculator, then scoop a spoon of sugar and see how much the sugar weighs with a scale. I then can see how full the spoon has to be to hit the required number and then I can easily doze each bottle separately with the funnel and spoon.

Five minutes and my 32 bottles are primed. It's actually quicker than preparing the bottling bucket, the sugar solution, siphoning the beer and afterwards cleaning the bottling bucket.

 

[BongoYodeler]

I also do this.

I usually calculate the amount of sugar that I need based on the brewers friend priming calculator, then scoop a spoon of sugar and see how much the sugar weighs with a scale. I then can see how full the spoon has to be to hit the required number and then I can easily doze each bottle separately with the funnel and spoon.

Five minutes and my 32 bottles are primed. It's actually quicker than preparing the bottling bucket, the sugar solution, siphoning the beer and afterwards cleaning the bottling bucket.

Yep. Quicker, and more consistent too.

 

[sixstring]

Thanks for the extra info. I used up my Coopers carbonation drops, which I might add are significantly smaller than the Brewers Best ones and hopefully won't gas the ale up as much as the Brewers Best ones. And then to experiment, I set 4 bottles aside and used the cane sugar recommendation. So here's hoping in two weeks the carbonation with the cane sugar is spot on. As it'll definitely save money. 10lbs of cane sugar at Costco is about $8, compared to the $10 for the 60 Coopers carb drops.

 

[mac_1103]

I used up my Coopers carbonation drops, which I might add are significantly smaller than the Brewers Best ones and hopefully won't gas the ale up as much as the Brewers Best ones.

Pretty sure they have exactly the same amount of fermentable sugar (so maybe a case where size really doesn't matter?). Brewer's Best also makes carbonation tablets that have much less sugar per tab, the idea being that you can control the carbonation level by using more or fewer per bottle.

 

[sixstring]

Pretty sure they have exactly the same amount of fermentable sugar (so maybe a case where size really doesn't matter?). Brewer's Best also makes carbonation tablets that have much less sugar per tab, the idea being that you can control the carbonation level by using more or fewer per bottle.

Well, hopefully I can eliminate the carbonation drops entirely and switch to cane sugar if that works out. But thanks for the extra tip.

 

[tdf]

Sugar cubes are also nice for individual priming and if you buy them in bulk, a lot cheaper than carb drops.

wish I had another kit to start cooking another batch with too, but I forgot to order it.

As long as you leave a few cm of beer above the yeast you can keep it around for at least a week at room temperature and still just pitch on top.

 

[mac_1103]

Sugar cubes are also nice for individual priming and if you buy them in bulk, a lot cheaper than carb drops.

Domino Dots - 2.29 grams each - 2.5 volumes in a 12 ounce bottle - about 4 cents each. Regular sugar cubes are too big - 3.5 grams, which is 3.3 volumes (if you could even get them into the bottles).

 

[sixstring]

I have to say, the Anvil fermenter seems really worth it. I didn't bother transferring to a bottling bucket, just opened the tap on the Anvil and poured into the bottles directly. Was this ok? I don't know. But it saved me needing to use a bottle wand and also saved me needing to wash another bucket up before and after bottling. Cleaning the Anvil was easy, nothing got "stuck" on the sides like the plastic buckets seemed to have a habit of doing.
Going to stick with just using Cane Sugar if I can, since that's really the cheapest option and saves me buying more things.

 

[mac_1103]

I didn't bother transferring to a bottling bucket, just opened the tap on the Anvil and poured into the bottles directly. Was this ok?

Sure. But you might find that attaching a short piece of tubing and a bottling wand to the spigot is a little bit easier since you wouldn't have to open and close the valve for each bottle.

 

[RM-MN]

an English Pale Ale

just opened the tap on the Anvil and poured into the bottles directly. Was this ok?

If your beer splashed as it filled the bottle, you have introduced more oxygen to the beer. That oxygen reacts with the aromatic hop oils that make a pale ale taste the way it does and will destroy it fairly quickly. Your beer will be best if drunk within a month or 2. Bottling wands let your fill the bottles from the bottom which limits the splashing.