Hey all,
Totally new to brewing and I had a few questions. Most of my questions I was able to find answers to by doing searches, but one in particular i wasn't able to find a definite answer to.
A little background...
I've always been into beer gizmos and I've expanded my draft beer equipment most recently this year. I finally said to myself, "Heck, why don't I just try to brew my own...?"
After a few days of research, I was at my local distributor buying all my supplies. I decided to go with a 6.5gal primary bucket, standard odds and ends, and I got myself a Corny keg, just because I have all the other equipment to dispense it. I decided to skip all the bottling equipment.
I started out with a True-Brew Amber kit. The kit was extremely simple and I'll be sure to step it up next time, but I figured this would give me a good basis to get the process down.
The brewing process was a snap and after cleaning and sanitizing my equipment, the wort was in the primary and it was extremely active within 9 hours of pitching. Most of the airlock activity stopped around 36 hours after pitching. My starting SG read about 1.045-1.046.
Here is my question:
I plan to crack open the primary in a few days (total time in primary will be exactly one week), and measure where the SG is. It should be around the 1.010-1.012 mark. I've been reading that even though the instructions say I can bottle after a week, I should leave it in there for longer.
With that being said, I plan to leave it in the primary for an additional week. After a total of two weeks have gone by, is it then OK to transfer it directly to my keg and artifically carbonate it and begin drinking it?
I mostly read about a 2-3 week period in the primary and then an additonal 3 weeks in bottles to condition.
Am I losing anything by putting it in the keg and artifically carbonating it? Since 99% of the topics here deal with the question of 'When can I bottle?", my question is, "When can I keg?" (and more importantly drink?). I feel like a lot of the bottle questions are considering the fact that you are still conditioning the beer for an aditional 3 weeks, mostly to carbonate, but in my case, I'm going straight from the primary to the keg, to my frosty mug.
To sum it all up, my questions are:
1.) Should I transfer to my keg after 1 week and enjoy?
2.) Should I let my mixture sit an additional 1 week (two weeks total), then keg?
3.) Should I let it sit in my keg for an additional period after the two week mark?
I appreciate all the help!
Totally new to brewing and I had a few questions. Most of my questions I was able to find answers to by doing searches, but one in particular i wasn't able to find a definite answer to.
A little background...
I've always been into beer gizmos and I've expanded my draft beer equipment most recently this year. I finally said to myself, "Heck, why don't I just try to brew my own...?"
After a few days of research, I was at my local distributor buying all my supplies. I decided to go with a 6.5gal primary bucket, standard odds and ends, and I got myself a Corny keg, just because I have all the other equipment to dispense it. I decided to skip all the bottling equipment.
I started out with a True-Brew Amber kit. The kit was extremely simple and I'll be sure to step it up next time, but I figured this would give me a good basis to get the process down.
The brewing process was a snap and after cleaning and sanitizing my equipment, the wort was in the primary and it was extremely active within 9 hours of pitching. Most of the airlock activity stopped around 36 hours after pitching. My starting SG read about 1.045-1.046.
Here is my question:
I plan to crack open the primary in a few days (total time in primary will be exactly one week), and measure where the SG is. It should be around the 1.010-1.012 mark. I've been reading that even though the instructions say I can bottle after a week, I should leave it in there for longer.
With that being said, I plan to leave it in the primary for an additional week. After a total of two weeks have gone by, is it then OK to transfer it directly to my keg and artifically carbonate it and begin drinking it?
I mostly read about a 2-3 week period in the primary and then an additonal 3 weeks in bottles to condition.
Am I losing anything by putting it in the keg and artifically carbonating it? Since 99% of the topics here deal with the question of 'When can I bottle?", my question is, "When can I keg?" (and more importantly drink?). I feel like a lot of the bottle questions are considering the fact that you are still conditioning the beer for an aditional 3 weeks, mostly to carbonate, but in my case, I'm going straight from the primary to the keg, to my frosty mug.
To sum it all up, my questions are:
1.) Should I transfer to my keg after 1 week and enjoy?
2.) Should I let my mixture sit an additional 1 week (two weeks total), then keg?
3.) Should I let it sit in my keg for an additional period after the two week mark?
I appreciate all the help!