Its my first time, complaints and criticisms accepted!

[Firgman]

Helo one and all. I have started on my first home brew One of ma iny I hope! I would certainly like to move onto 'proper' home brewing choosing my own hops etc. as there are a lot of local brewers and farms supplying all different sorts but for my first try I have gone for an easy home-kit. I haven't used the actual kit (as the beer/pilsner supplied looked to be rather tasteless) but have purhcased all the items separately and gone for a stronger flavoured Norfolk Ale. The only other thing I have done differently is I am using a 'flavour' or 'beer' enhancer which is made up of extra maltings and dextrose? Not sure if that was a good idea or not?

Other than that I have followed the instructions to the letter. However, after reading other posts here I think that I will leave the beer in the fermentation drum for longer than the suggested 4 - 6 days. Looks like I would be best leaving this for up to 2 weeks I believe?

If you don't mind, one more quick question. Do I need to do anything to the beer before siphoning it off into the pressure resistant plastic keg I have? I now that they would be different, but when my father used to make wine he had to add something to the wine before bottling to cease the fermenting. Is it right that I just place it straight into the keg?

Many thanks all,

Firgman

 

[DustinHickey]

Hi Firgman,
About two weeks is ok for primary fermentation. It can stay more if you like but I usually transfer to bottles or kegs at 2 weeks in. Some people take gravity readings to determine if primary fermentation is complete but I haven't found the need to yet. As far as adding anything to the beer before transfering to your keg, usually a bit of corn sugar / honey / dry malt extract / or other type of sugar is added to the batch for what will eventually be carbonation.

Yeast produce Co2 when they metobolize the sugar. Since your beer will now be in a sealed keg, the Co2 builds up and begins to equalize pressure in the keg by seeping into the beer, thus carbonating it. The level of carbonation all depends upon how much sugar is added.

Google "priming sugar calculator" and you can find multiple calculators that will tell you about how much sugar to add for your desired volumes of Co2. Most ales are between 2 and 2.5 volumes.

Also, I usually use corn sugar or (dextrin sugar) because it does not effect the taste of the beer as honey or other sugars would.

Good luck and check back on the post for info from others. I'm sure I may have missed something that someone else may do for the better.

 

[Firgman]

Thanks for that info Dustin. Getting a bit confused now due to my novice level of knowledge (zero that is). The 'beer enhancer' that I added to my original mix in the fermenting bin was supposed to be added instead of any sugar - the 'tip' on the bags instructions was that it is easier to add when mixing together the liquid malts and water rather than mixing in when bottling or kegging. Have I done this wrong then? From your description I will end up with flat beer methinks?

If you don't mind the stupid questions, should I be stirring the fermenting beer in the first two weeks from time to time to help things along?

Cheers again
Firgman

 

[SoonerDoc]

I assume the "beer enhancer" is DME and it boosts the alcohol content. You'll still need to add corn sugar at bottling to get carbonation (unless you are kegging).
Stirring during fermentation shouldn't be necessary and risks contaminating the beer.

 

[mojotele]

What you should do first is read over Section 1 (at least) of Palmer's online edition of How To Brew (link goes to Introduction).

That will tell you the basics of brewing beer. Some of it is outdated as the free online version of How To Brew is the first edition, but 99% of it is still applicable. It really is much too much information to go over on a forum.

That said, I'm sure your kit will be slightly different than his extract batch. If you're still confused, come back here and do a search. You'll likely find that your questions have been answered already. However, if not, feel free to start up a thread and ask!

 

[DustinHickey]

Soonerdoc is probibly right about the dme. As far as stirring goes, you dont want to aerate the beer or contaminate the beer at this point. From here on out as little oxygen that touches the beer the better. You only want to aerate the beer prior to the primary fermentation. And yea, palmers book is great, i read almost the whole thing before my first batch and it came out great. And it was an all grain batch to boot.