Made my first batch! Milk Stout.

[Atlmustang]

Hi all! Just passed the CPA exam after 5 years of studying and taking exams (I took a non traditional route) I finally have time to get a few hobbies! I chose home brewing because I love beer and I can get great beer cheaper by making it on my own. I eventually want to get a keg system to cut out bottling and further cost reduction per pint and also to not have to wait a month or longer to enjoy my brew.

Anyways, I bought a northern Brewer kit to start out. Came with everything and set up was easy. Got my brew pot and a big bottle of star San. Well worth the money! I brewed a Brewers best kit Milk Stout last night and I think overall it went great. Watch my temps, no boil overs, hit my marks on the timing of the hops, nice ice bath to cool the wort, took my OG reading and most importantly I sanitized literally everything with the star San. Including my brew pot. I've heard it's not necessary to star San the pot because the water is boiling to kill anything but I left nothing to chance and sanitized it anyways. So now the brew is fermenting in s closet in my basement at a steady 65 degree temp. Perfect!

I do not plan on transferring to a secondary. I've read on here that it only increases the chance of contamination which I agree with. Less moving equals less risk. I'll go straight to bottles from the bucket. I'm looking forward to checking my airlock tonight to see the bubbles and the yeast happily eating their fill.

A couple of questions:

1. My recipe instructions indicate that the airlock should stop bubbling around 4-6 days. Then I am to wait 2 days (I guess to make absolute sure the yeast have gotten completely full and happy) then move to secondary which I am skipping. Since I am skipping the carboy, how long do I need to let the beer sit in the fermentation bucket before bottling? Is it a time thing or do I need to test for a certain reading on my hydrometer?

2. My northern Brewer fermentation bucket has a spigot at the bottom. According to their website the spigot bucket is advantageous because you don't have to worry about racking the trub when transferring to a bottling bucket because you don't need to transfer to a bottling bucket because the spigot is strategically located above the trub in the bottom of the bucket. Thus, very little trub will run through the spigot and into your bottles. Is that a reliable theory? I can go straight from fermentation into bottles using the spigot without ever having to remove the lid of the bucket and dealing with an auto siphon?

Also, I dipped the spigot and grommets in star San and also ran star San through it when I installed on the bucket to completely sanitize the entire unit inside and out. Will that spigot stay sanitized suck that when I run beer through it won't get contaminated? It's sanitized now but 3 or so weeks from now will it be?

Thanks for any input!!!!!! This is a great site and resource for beginners like me.

 

[MickeyJ]

See answers in red.

1. How long do I need to let the beer sit in the fermentation bucket before bottling? You can let it sit in there as long as it takes to hit its FG. My suggestion would be to move the bucket to the location it will be in when you are ready to start the bottleing process, that way you do not disturb the trub by moving it around at the last second, you will have a clearer beer doing it this way.Is it a time thing or do I need to test for a certain reading on my hydrometer? It is a reading on your hydrometer. Make sure your brew has hit its FG (you know this when your reading does not change for 2-3 consecutive days)

2. Are you using priming sugar or carb drops? Carb drops would allow you to just go from your bucket to the bottle, but priming sugar would require you to go to a pot with the sugar solution and gently mix the two before going to bottles.

Also, I dipped the spigot and grommets in star San and also ran star San through it when I installed on the bucket to completely sanitize the entire unit inside and out. Will that spigot stay sanitized suck that when I run beer through it won't get contaminated? It's sanitized now but 3 or so weeks from now will it be? You will be fine, but the best way to sanitize super quickly is to have a spray bottle of star san solution at the ready so you can just spray what you are using a few time and then get to work.

Thanks for any input!!!!!! This is a great site and resource for beginners like me.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Congratulations on your first brew! Sounds like it went well. Good researching, too. Skipping secondary is a good idea. The general consensus on fermentation is that you don't want to bottle (or keg) as soon as fermentation is done. Even after you reach FG, the yeast are still working and cleaning up after themselves. For OGs under 1060, I usually leave it in the fermenter for at least 2 weeks. Longer will not hurt and usually helps. Higher gravities will need a little longer. I routinely do 3 weeks just for good measure.

Once you reach about 10 days, assuming you see no activity/krausen, check your gravity. It should be close to the predicted FG but many kits finish a little high so don't worry if you're not quite there. Give it 3 more days and check it again. If the gravity is the same, you're good to bottle.

The spigot on the fermenter may be handy but it is tough to avoid getting trub in your bottles if you bottle directly from your fermenter. I recommend racking to a bottling bucket. You can boil your priming sugar, put it in the bottling bucket and rack the beer on top of it to mix it in. Then bottle away.

Disclaimer: All of this is just my own method and practice. It is not absolute law and others will have their own perfectly appropriate methods.

 

[Joe61]

I am a rank beginner. Just brewing my first batch now. I am doing a Brewer's Best Dunkelweizen. I have a kit for their milk stout, which will be my second batch.

In reading here, I have found one "rule" which seems to contradict the BB instructions... airlock activity, or lack thereof, is not a sign of activity. The only way to know you are "done" is with a hydrometer reading.

My BB instructions are similar to yours. It was supposed to be done bubbling in 4-6 days. 48 hours after bubbling stopped it was supposed to be ready for bottling. Seems the yeast didn't read the instructions. My bubbles stopped early and I am now at 8 days in the fermenter. My FG is still too high, so I am not done. My local shop and advice here all say to give it more time.

Regarding your plan to bottle from the fermenter, I see one issue. If you are using the sugar package to carbonate, you will not be able to mix that into the fermenter. Usually you would place that sugar solution into the bottling bucket. During and after racking, the sugar solution would be mixed in evenly so the beer properly carbonates in the bottles. I imagine you would have very bad results trying to mix that solution into the fermentation bucket.

Again - I am brand new to this. Take what I write with a grain of salt. I'm just passing along what I have observed to this point.

 

[RM-MN]

Just because you have the fermenter in a closet that is 65 degrees, don't expect the beer to be 65 degrees. Yeast activity is exothermic and if you don't do better at controlling the temp, it may rise more than it should for good beer. Check the temperature of the beer when it gets fermenting and if it is getting too warm, set the fermenter in a tub of cool water or wrap it in a wet tshirt or towel to help control it.

Lots of instructions are wrong or just wishful thinking. Your airlock may stop bubbling in 2 days or 10 days or it may never start bubbling or may never stop bubbling. The only way to determine for sure if the fermentation is over is your hydrometer so use it. Take a sample at about day 10 or 14, then a second sample 2 to 10 days later and if they match and are near the expected final gravity you can bottle.

Using the spigot to transfer the beer seems like a good idea so you don't get the trub transferred....until you get a batch with more trub and it sucks up anyway. When I transfer to a bottling bucket with my autosiphon (or regular racking cane) I get some trub transferred. No problem, since it had one settled out, just a little time in the bottling bucket and most of it settles again so I get little of it in my bottles. I quite often use one or more clear glass bottles (I keep them out of the light) so I can see how much trub or yeast is in the bottom. The latest one I bottled has so little that I can't even see it.

 

[Atlmustang]

Ok guys...so I noticed the final bit of CO2 escaping on Monday. Tomorrow evening will mark two days without any CO2 escaping the airlock. Total time was 5 days and the manual said to expect the end of bubbling between 4-6 days so right on. As I understand it is at this time I am to open up the bucket and take a FG test. If I am between 1.020 and 1.024 it is supposedly ready.

I think my manual says it is ready for secondary racking (I'm not referring to it as fermentation as I have leaned in my short time doing this that fermentation is technically done when the yeast are done). But what is the purpose of that exactly? If it is done fermenting then why not just transfer to a bottling bucket, prime the beer and bottle it? Is there some sort of aging that needs to occur or just making sure the yeast have been squeezed fully? If the gravity is reached why not to bottle and move on to brewing up the next batch?

Thanks for any advice!

 

[RM-MN]

Ok guys...so I noticed the final bit of CO2 escaping on Monday. Tomorrow evening will mark two days without any CO2 escaping the airlock. Total time was 5 days and the manual said to expect the end of bubbling between 4-6 days so right on. As I understand it is at this time I am to open up the bucket and take a FG test. If I am between 1.020 and 1.024 it is supposedly ready.

I think my manual says it is ready for secondary racking (I'm not referring to it as fermentation as I have leaned in my short time doing this that fermentation is technically done when the yeast are done). But what is the purpose of that exactly? If it is done fermenting then why not just transfer to a bottling bucket, prime the beer and bottle it? Is there some sort of aging that needs to occur or just making sure the yeast have been squeezed fully? If the gravity is reached why not to bottle and move on to brewing up the next batch?

Thanks for any advice!

Nope and nope. The lack of bubbling does not equate to the lack of fermentation. Yeast only emit CO2 during the first phase of fermentation when there is a lot of sugar to consume. Part of the result of this consumption is alcohol but there are other intermediate compounds produced too and given time the yeast will break many of these down into alcohol too. Some beers may be finished at 1.020 to 1.024 but many will finish at 1.012 also. Don't assume that the lack of bubbles and the gravity in that range means the beer is ready to bottle. I wouldn't even open the fermenter before day 10 and I usually wait until about day 18 to 20 so the yeast have a chance to complete the ferment and begin to settle out.

With modern yeasts there is little purpose to moving your beer to another vessel. I never do unless it is to start a secondary fermentation by adding fruit. Let your beer stay right where it is. It will be fine there for months if you keep liquid in the airlock.

Here's an article that explains better how beer is really made. http://www.brewgeeks.com/the-life-cycle-of-yeast.html

 

[jwalk4]

Yeah, technically the most reliable way to ensure that the beer has truly finished fermenting is to take 3 final gravity readings on 3 subsequent days to ensure that your beer isn't still dropping gravity points. However, with a bucket, I would find that to be a colossal pain in the you-know-what, not to mention the oxygen that might introduce (stale flavors imparted).

So for a milk stout, I'd wait til day 10 at least to check fg if you've had a predictable looking fermentation.