Seeking advice on my first batch of pumpkin porter

[Mx750ktm]

Hey guys I'm new here my names Jacob, I am 22 from ohio and have been browsing the forums quite often just haven't posted anything yet. So far all I've seen is a bunch of helpful people on here so that's awesome.
Anyways on to my subject. I've recently purchased a little starter kit to make some home brews. When I bought the kit it came with one brewers best kit and since it's the time of the year I choose the pumpkin porter.

I followed the directions and everything seems to be going smooth so far. I had it in the bucket for a week and 2 days until there was no apparent action taking place for 48 hrs like the instructions said. Since them I've seen people say to leave it longer but anywho now it's in the Carboy and has been for right at two weeks. So here soon I plan to bottle this batch. The kit came with 10oz of priming sugar. 10oz just seems like a lot compared to other recipies and posts I've seen concerning this topic. I was just looking for some recommendations on how much I should actually use in this batch. And maybe someone can inform me how much water to mix it in with and the boil time and also do you put the sugar in the bottom of the bottling bucket first or do you transfer your beer from the Carboy to bottling bucket and then pour the sugar into the bucket?

I know this is a lot to ask at once but I'd appreciate any insight.
Thanks guys

 

[JR_Brewer]

Welcome Jacob,

First, and most importantly, you mentioned there was no apparent action at a week and 2 days - did you ever get any action in the air lock? Was there a layer of foam on top of the beer during that time? Do you have a hydrometer? If so, check the gravity to make sure it's dropped down close to the expected final gravity (FG).

10oz sounds like a lot of priming sugar for a 5 gallon batch. My guess is adding all 10oz will cause some bottle bombs. When I first started, kits said to add 5 oz per 5 gallons of beer, but now I like to calculate my priming sugar, here is the site I use. I know there are other sites out there, so maybe someone else can recommend some alternatives.

The amount of water you mix your priming sugar in isn't critical. I would say about 2 cups. Doing more would be ok, but you'll start to dilute your beer. The key to adding it to the bottling bucket is to get it evenly mixed without adding too much oxygen by vigorous stirring. I like to add a little at the beginning, middle, and end while the beer is transferring from the carboy/bucket to the bottling bucket. Then a few nice gentle stirs to get it all mixed up.

 

[Mx750ktm]

Thank you for the reply and to answer your question yes after day one the bubbling seemed to be pretty rapid for about 3-4 days then it began to slow down a little bit. When I got to the point of transferring the bucket did have a decent amount of foam at the top. Not sure how much there should have been but I would say the top had a full layer of foam and what appeared to be junk haha. And no I didn't get a hydrometer unfortunately but I plan to get one soon, just out of my price range for the time being especially for an experiment at this point.

 

[JR_Brewer]

Ok, it sounds like your yeast was active, and that's the most important part. 3-4 days of rapid bubbling is usually about right. Fermentation likely wasn't done at that point, but it just slowed down a bit.

Good luck!

 

[Mx750ktm]

Although the other say I did try a very small sample and it tasted pretty good but just didn't taste very alcoholy. But I've also never drank flat warm uncarbonated beer so hopefully it will all turn out to be decent for a first attempt