Taking the plunge

[lady_brewer]

A couple of thoughts...

I leave my beer in the primary for 2 weeks and then rack to a carboy for at least another week (more if I am too lazy to bottle). I do this, because at the end of two weeks I have a free primary to put on more beer. Seems like a good reason to me - I was lucky in that I got my Dad's old equipment and one of my bosses' at work's old stuff (on perma loan, since it is now out of his garage, but he knows where it is). I really didn't want to use their buckets, since I can't be sure how kind they were to the plastic, but the carboys are fine. I have their buckets as permanent bottle cleaning stations.

I am lucky temp wise, in that the morons who owned my house before me took out the wood/ oil furnace and put in electric heat. We put back in a furnace and have a programmable therm, which we use to keep the temp in good pattern for when we are home/ away. I then keep the heat on in my "brew room" and just keep an eye on the temp range. So far has worked well.

You may want to keep in mind that lower temps are going to affect how long your beer takes to carb as well, not just how long it takes to ferment. One more reason to get the next batch on sooner rather than later

Welcome and Enjoy!

 

[KevinW]

I did so many things wrong on this batch I don't have high hopes, but we'll see what happens.

I don't think you did anything wrong, in fact I think you did the most correct thing any new brewer could do, check out this forum!!

If we all knew everything there was to brewing beer we would not need this forum which means a lot of people around the world would have nothing to do while their beer was fermenting!

Keep it up and keep brewing!!

 

[Martlet]

I don't think you did anything wrong, in fact I think you did the most correct thing any new brewer could do, check out this forum!!

You only say that because you didn't see me with my arm up to my elbow in my bucket fishing out the o-ring I dropped while inserting my fermentation lock.

 

[Martlet]

6 hours later and it's bubbling happily along. I guess that bucket band helped.

 

[Martlet]

I figure I'll post here for now so if anyone cares about the history, they can see my mistakes.

Put it in the bucket yesterday, and withing hours was getting burps every 3-4 seconds. This morning, it was still cranking. I looked now, and it's giving a burp or 2 every minute. It's been just over 24 hours since I closed it up. Is that normal?

 

[lady_brewer]

Airlock activity is not an accurate picture of fermentation... I wouldn't worry about how much the airlock is bubbling, I use it as a random gauge so that I don't open everything up to take gravity readings all the time.

If the temp in your room is varying a lot, you may want to take a SG reading in a few days and then a few days later just to ensure that your fermentation is complete before bottling... other than that I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[Martlet]

Airlock activity is not an accurate picture of fermentation... I wouldn't worry about how much the airlock is bubbling, I use it as a random gauge so that I don't open everything up to take gravity readings all the time.

If the temp in your room is varying a lot, you may want to take a SG reading in a few days and then a few days later just to ensure that your fermentation is complete before bottling... other than that I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I haven't opened it at all yet. I wouldn't think that it's done fermenting, though. It's only been 27 hours since I put it in there. I would assume it has a few weeks to go.

 

[StAnthonyB]

Thanks. It also calls to add crystals that appear to be water hardener. I don't see those mentioned in any books. Could it be specific to the recipe?

Ingredients:
2 - 3.3 lb cans of Malt Extract
1 lb Crystal Malt (grain, crushed)
1 1/2 oz hop pellets
1 pkg water salts

If you bought your stuff from the shop in Woburn then you are okay. The old lady knows her stuff and the staff in general is very helpful. Avoid some of the other shops around Mass. like the plague. There is one fellow on 495 South that knows his stuff real well. But, you should be good to go using the store in Woburn.

 

[Martlet]

If you bought your stuff from the shop in Woburn then you are okay. The old lady knows her stuff and the staff in general is very helpful. Avoid some of the other shops around Mass. like the plague. There is one fellow on 495 South that knows his stuff real well. But, you should be good to go using the store in Woburn.

Thanks! That's the one I went to.

 

[Martlet]

Went back to the store to purchase a few more things that I'd broken or thought would make life easier. Talked to the folks about the recipe, and they said I can do what I'd like, but they HIGHLY SUGGEST I rack to secondary at half gravity. So in the face of conflicting advice, I took a reading when I got home. It was just past half gravity, so I sanitized with Star San (hope I did it correctly) and racked to secondary. When I opened the bucket, it smelled like my Fraternity house the morning after a keg party. Not particularly strong, but it had a hint of that "warm old beer" smell. Normal?

I also picked up another extract kit there. It seemed a little pricey compared to other kits I've seen online. It could just be because it was a better kit. I'm not sure. Where do you guys buy your kits? Locally, or order them online? Any suggestions?

 

[dc_x]

I also picked up another extract kit there. It seemed a little pricey compared to other kits I've seen online. It could just be because it was a better kit. I'm not sure. Where do you guys buy your kits? Locally, or order them online? Any suggestions?

I've had better success online just because I think they have fresher ingredients than the kits at my lhbs. The kits I bought at my lhbs had a layer of dust on top of them, so I'm pretty sure they sat on the shelves for a while before I bought them. I think when you buy online they assemble the kit when you order, so you get fresh ingredients and fresh yeast.

 

[mikebiewer]

I to spend a good portion of money over at Northern Brewer. Its quick and I've generally had good results.

Plus I think their site is one of the best designed and functioning sites out there. Wish lists, customer reviews, pictures, suggested products and so on. They have really stepped into the 20th century to get their site up to good standards.

 

[wendelgee2]

Talked to the folks about the recipe, and they said I can do what I'd like, but they HIGHLY SUGGEST I rack to secondary at half gravity.

Seriously. You need to not listen to them. Did they give you any solid reasons for doing this? Because, here are the reasons NOT to do this. 1) In the middle of fermentation, you just removed the vast majority of the yeast. Now you have left behind a skeleton crew of yeast to finish the job. More than likely, your beer will now be underattenuated. 2) The most common off-flavors in beer (diacetyl, which tastes like the fake butter on movie popcorn; and acetaldehyde, which has a sharp green apple flavor) are caused by metabolic precursors to the fermentation process. These are compounds that are kicked out by the yeast during fermentation, that the yeast will only clean up after they have exhausted all available fermentable sugars. In short, if you leave the yeast on the beer long enough, they clean up after themselves and make your beer taste better. 3) One of the major differences between a veteran's beer and a novice's beer is the pitching rate. Novices routinely underpitch, resulting in stressed out yeast (from excessive replication) that kick out exceptional amounts of esters, fusels, phenols and all sorts of other compounds that make the beer not taste "clean." You very well may have pitched the correct amount to begin with, but now you've removed 85% of the yeast, so you are underpitched at this point. The resulting overstressed yeast will likely not ferment as cleanly, and will almost certainly crap out too soon, resulting in underattenuated beer. 4) The more you fiddle with your beer, the more you are exposing it to oxygen, which is the absolute #1 enemy to beer flavor.

 

[KevinW]

I have to agree with wendel on this one. It is really NOT a good idea to touch the primary for at least a week(2 is better) and secondaries are generally not necessary for most ales unless dry hopping, lagering or adding adjuncts.

The only time I use a secondary is when I need one of my two primaries for a new batch!

Open up those fermentors only when absolutely necessary! IMHO

 

[Martlet]

Great. Well, nothing I can do now except dump it or hope for the best.

 

[wendelgee2]

Great. Well, nothing I can do now except dump it or hope for the best.

Bah...you don't need to dump it for goodness sake. You just need to work to improve your process on every single beer.

This place is a great resource, but nothing is better than howtobrew.com, and the podcasts on thebrewingnetwork.com

Let us know how the beer comes out. I think I speak for everyone here when I say that we're pulling for ya!

 

[billvon]

Great. Well, nothing I can do now except dump it . . . .

Don't do that! Lots of people have used secondaries with no problems. I use them for fruit beers to get them to settle out a little more. Odds are your beer will be fine.

 

[Martlet]

Don't do that! Lots of people have used secondaries with no problems. I use them for fruit beers to get them to settle out a little more. Odds are your beer will be fine.

Back to DZ.com with you!

 

[StAnthonyB]

Great. Well, nothing I can do now except dump it or hope for the best.

It's actually pretty tough to screw up homebrew.

As far as what do we do about kits?

The season of homebrewing is best done experimenting with different kits. Kits are more expensive but it's a great way to learn. I assemble my own kits now. Which really isn't all that tough if you stick with a particular genre of beer.

In my case, I like to brew English style ales; so, it's bitters, milds, browns, and porters, not to mention ipa's and old ales. (I really like Shipyard's old ales... there's a plug for a great Maine brewery!)

My usual trick to order a 55# sack of Pale Malt, and a handful of crystal malts, wheat malts, and colour malts in one pound packs. At the beginning of the season I like to order 1# packs of different hops I'll be using. I'll typically get about 4 session brews out of a 55# sack.