just a few weeks in and 3 batches on.

[whippintegra]

Hello all

My wife gave me a Mr.Beer kit almost half a year ago and it sat in the corner for months. I decided to take it out and get it going. It came with 2 brew kits. as soon as the first batch was in the bottles I got the second batch in the fermenting tank.

Then for Christmas she gave me a 5 gal kit (obviously I don't know what to call everything yet) and I remembered that my dad bought a 5 gal kit with carboy about 10 years ago and never used it. So off I went and "borrowed" it and the 3rd batch is on even before the 1st batch is done!

Yep I can see how addicting this is already! with any luck I will have some good beer to drink next week (1st batch of MrBeer)

So, on that note I have a few questions.

1. What is the best method of transferring the beer to the carboy? (I think I have to do this tomorrow or Friday)
2. Should I get a, I think it is called a "worm" for chilling the wort. I used my sink filled with ice and water and it took forever. If so what one, and how do I use it?
3. How the heck do I use the Hydrometer I took a reading before I added the yeast just like the directions said but there is a lot of numbers on that thing. what one should I be looking at.

Thanks!
Travis

 

[two_hearted]

1. You'll need a racking cane and some vinyl tubing to transfer or "rack" your beer. I like an autosiphon too. However, you should think about why you're transferring to the carboy. A lot of people, myself included, just leave their beer in the primary fermenter for longer periods of time (3-4 weeks) and then bottle it. This will clear the beer just as easily as a secondary and you won't have to worry about oxidation or possible infection risk that comes with transferring. Letting the yeast clean up the byproducts or fermentation will help eliminate some off flavors.

2. Wort chillers. If you are doing a full boil (5 -7 gallons) you will need a chiller. Immersion, counter-flow, or plate chiller (in order of price) are great, but if you are only doing a partial boil with extract the ice bath will work fine. Immersion is just a coil of copper tubing that you hook up to your sink or garden hose and run cold water through.

3. The hydrometer probably has a few sets of numbers on it. You should concern yourself with the specific gravity. The scale will usually go from .999 to 1.012 or higher. Sometimes the 1.000 line will be marked and everything below it will just have 10, 20, 30 etc. so if your post boil wort is measuring at 55, your beer has an original gravity of 1.055. You then measure the gravity when it is finished fermenting to get your final gravity. Keep in mind you will need to use your hydrometer at the temp it was calibrated for (usually 68F). High temperature will skew your results.

There are numberous online calculators to find your abv or you can calculate it yourself.
ABV = (OG - FG) * 131

OG = Original Gravity (Specific gravity before fermentation)
FG = Final Gravity (Specific gravity after fermentation)
SG = Specific Gravity (The measurement itself during any part of the process)

This always confused me when I began brewing. People always interchanged SG with OG or FG and I was always confused about when in the process the SG was taken.

 

[whippintegra]

Thanks for the reply!

The beer I am making is a Witbier "Brewer's Best" kit and the instructions and a few other people in my area that home brew said they recommend for that beer to have a second stage. Besides the faster I free up my fermenter the faster I can get another batch in it!

I am still a little confused on the Hydrometer but I will give it a guess what it is based on your response.

I had a temp of around 68 when I put the hydrometer in and it rested at 10 so I should have a OG of 1.010?

 

[whippintegra]

I just looked at my paper that I put my readings on and my OG was 40 so that means it is 1.040?

 

[two_hearted]

I just looked at my paper that I put my readings on and my OG was 40 so that means it is 1.040?

Yes, it would be 1.040.

Was it the same beer that you measured at 1.010? How long had it been fermenting?

I would pick up a few more buckets or better bottles to use as primary fermenters. I have used glass carboys and better bottles but I have come back to buckets. They are easy to clean, easy to move, easy to pull samples from and CHEAP! You can even get them free from bakeries (they store frosting in them). Lowes and Home Depot sell food-grade buckets now for a few bucks. The only catch is that they are exactly 5 gallons which doesn't give you much headroom during fermentation.

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

Try a search on YouTube for "Hydrometer". There's a few good videos on there that explain the process. It might be a little easier to understand if you see someone using one instead of reading it from instructions.

Welcome!

 

[whippintegra]

The correct was 1.040 I took the 1.010 from memory because I could not find the paper it has been fermenting sense Monday and the bubbles in the airlock are starting to slow down.

Thanks for the You Tube tip I will check when I get home form work.