when to start

[elmiguel]

Hello all,

I am so happy to have found this forum. Its great! Sorry but English is not my mother tongue and you may find some spelling mistakes.

A friend came home last week with a very good beer that he brewed himself.
I have always loved drinking beer and not the typical lagers but more ales and different tastes so he talked me into trying to brew my own beer and here I am now .

After my quick introduction on how I came to this forum, this is my question:

I have bought all the basic equipment and since it is my first time I thought lets start from the last step and buy a beer kit. So I bought a belgium Brewferm Diabolo and I am ready to start brewing tonight...so I am quite excited!....but on 10 days I will be going on vacation for 3 weeks , so I am wonder when should I start.

As I see the first fermentation takes around a week, but then comes the second which takes longer (4-6) and during the second I should move the bottles after a week from a warm to a colder location...
What is your opinion? Could I start today and put it into bottles before I leave? Then would it be better for the beer to stay for the 2nd fermentation in cold or in a warm place during those 3 weeks? Or shall I do the first fermentation before I leave and leave it for the 3 weeks?
I could also of course start when I am back but its a pity not to use those 3 weeks that I will be away anyway.


Thanks for your comments!

 

[jetmac]

In my opinion. Go ahead and start, do not secondary and bottle after you get back from vacation(holiday).

 

[elmiguel]

Do not secondary means...do not secondary also afterwards? or secondary when I am back and I put it into bottles?

From my little understanding, this type of belgium needs a long seconday (4-6) weeks... or am I wrong?

Thanks again!

 

[two_one_seven]

He means just put it in the fermenter and leave it for 4 to 6 weeks (more like 6). Secondary is moving it to a second fermenter. You can skip that part if you would like. I would do it sooner so you can be around for the intial part of fermentation that is when you need to be present incase you have to put on a blow off tube (bigger type of airlock).

 

[jazzbass]

Brew it now. Leave it in a stable temperature.

Go enjoy your vacation and bottle when you return.

Welcome to the Forum and Home Brewing

 

[firebirdude]

Welcome to the forum. Your English is actually pretty good!

I wouldn't worry. There's lots of wiggle room in this hobby. Very rarely does something need to be exact. Many people don't use a secondary at all. It's up to you. So either brew right now and rack it to the secondary right before you leave, or brew right before you leave and just leave it in the primary for the 3 weeks and skip the secondary.

Relax and enjoy your vacation.

 

[stratslinger]

Welcome to the hobby!

Just to add a little more info to what's already been said: Most kits still tell you to move your beer to a second container after a week or so. This, for one, is typically too soon to move the beer. And secondly, moving the beer at all is mostly based on old brewing information anyway. Most of the people who initially pushed for homebrewers to move their beers to secondary fermenters have changed their minds about that need - and most of us here don't use secondaries unless we're aging for a long time (more than a couple months), aging a beer on wood, or adding fruit.

In your case, like other folks have suggested, go ahead and brew it now and leave it in the primary fermenter for 4-6 weeks, then go through your bottling routine straight from there. You should be all set just like that!

 

[jetmac]

Lots of great replies above.

Do not secondary means...do not secondary also afterwards? or secondary when I am back and I put it into bottles?

From my little understanding, this type of belgium needs a long seconday (4-6) weeks... or am I wrong?

Thanks again!

From reading the instructions for the Diablo, the way I understand it, the secondary they are mentioning is actually getting the beer to carbonate and then condition in the bottles.

So I had a bit of a misunderstanding. You can go ahead and follow the instructions. But it is okay to leave them in the warm place while you are gone. But, you must leave them in a warm place after bottling to help the yeast stay active and carbonate the beer. After you get back, put them in the cool place and drink when cooled.

Typically when you mention a secondary, it is a second fermentation vessel that the beer is transferred to to help clear it. Then it is bottled. A secondary has been recommended in the past because the yeast in the old days wasn't as healthy as the yeast we get these days. A secondary was used to get the beer off the dead yeast and to clear the beer. Now a days it is generally recommended to leave the beer on the yeast so they will clean up the mess of undesirables they made.

 

[jetmac]

So, let us know what you did and how it turns out.