Homebrew Beer Howto

arse..biscuits

How long after mixing all the ingredients should I see bubbles in the airlock?

Blisterman

Depends, could be an hour, could be 2 days.

I'd say wait three days, and take a hydrometer reading. It's pretty normal to obsess about everything with the first couple of batches, but as long as you follow everything right, it's hard for anything major to go wrong.

So, relax and be patient.

arse..biscuits

Blisterman wrote: »

Depends, could be an hour, could be 2 days.

I'd say wait three days, and take a hydrometer reading. It's pretty normal to obsess about everything with the first couple of batches, but as long as you follow everything right, it's hard for anything major to go wrong.

So, relax and be patient.

Cheers, I'm watching the brew like a moron here.
No bubbles yet, I was thinkin I must have done something wrong.

kenmc

you may not see any bubbles, if you have a little leak around the airlock. you might just notice a ring of scum around the fermenter 4-5cm higher than the level of the liquid, where the 'krausen' has risen and fallen during the night.
patience, young grasshopper

arse..biscuits

She's bubbling away goodo all last night

Bill-e

Hi,

I have a coopers beer kit and I'm missing the yeast that came with it.
I got some yeast from thehomebrewcompany.ie
It's Safbrew S-33 Yeast.
How much of this yeast should I put into my mix?

Also, I have some molasses that I would like to try out instead of the white sugar.
What quantity of molasses would equate to 1kg of suger as per the instructions?

Thanks in advance.

oblivious

use all of the yeast

I would keep the molasses to 200g or less as its a very strong flavor, but if its your first time ding a kit I would avoid it completely

Bill-e

Thanks Oblivious.

It's my 3rd kit so far. My 1st one was a larger and it worked out very well. But it did give a hint of cider on the after taste, which i believe is due to the sugar.
the 2nd was an ale but it went bad(flat). Not sure why, maybe the syphon wasn't cleaned correctly, may also have been my king keg, not sure if it is air tight. Might half fill it with cheap coke and see if it hold the pressure.

So with regards the yeast, is it the case that there is no such thing as too much? I guess it all falls to the bottom either way once it has done it's job.

I'm looking forward to getting this next brew started, will try to make it easier on myself this time and wash everything after rather then 6 months later when things have all turned green :rolleyes:

kenmc

Re the flat beer, that won't have been caused by the syphon, you almost certainly had a leak in the king keg (you really have to crank the lid on TIGHT), or you didn't add enough sugar when kegging it. You could have just topped it up with CO2 and it would have been fine.

Those sachets of yeasts are designed for around 20litres. Also, once you open it it'll no longer be sterile, so there's no point in keeping a half a packet.

Bill-e

I see.

I tightened the bleddy thing so tight that I had to dip the lid in hot water to get it open again.
The mouth of the keg seems uneven and I have a gut feeling that it's not air tight. I guess I will have to test it out.

Is there any shops you can buy co2 bottles? My credit card hasn't got enough juice left to get more from these online places.

airliebeach

hey folks
just about to start into this homebrewing....
have a fermenting barrel, but nowhere to put a bung and airlock into it...
the bung/airlock are to see when its finished fermenting???
and i've read here somewhere that opening the lid to check is not the best idea.....
so should i get a different barrell that can take a bung????
thanks....also whats a good beer kit to start with...i.e. simple and taste good assuming it gets successfully brewed!!!

noby

You don't need an airlock - place the lid loosely on the bucket (ie don't seal it down, or there will be nowhere for the gas to vent. The best way to determine if it's finished fermenting is with a hydrometer - if you don't already have one you could pick one up from one of the on-line places when you're getting yout kit.
Constantly checking it isn't the best idea, but is hard to resist on your first brew - take a quick peep a couple of times over the first day or so to make sure fermentation gets started (you should see a big frothy head appear, then fall back after a couple of days), but use the hydrometer after a week or so to determine that it is finished.

kenmc

Bill-e wrote: »

Is there any shops you can buy co2 bottles? My credit card hasn't got enough juice left to get more from these online places.

If you mean the little co2 bulbs which my king keg came with, then most bike shops will do these - AFAIK Co2 is Co2, i dunno if there is such a thing as food grade - you hear of people refilling corny CO2 bottles from welding shops and fire extinguisher places.

kenmc

airliebeach wrote: »

also whats a good beer kit to start with...i.e. simple and taste good assuming it gets successfully brewed!!!

Anything but lager really. There's plenty of choices: ales, stouts, belgians, wheat beers, IPAs etc. Get one which is 'all malt' rather than one which you add a kilo of sugar to. It will taste a lot better, but will be a bit more expensive.

oblivious

Bill-e wrote: »

Is there any shops you can buy co2 bottles? My credit card hasn't got enough juice left to get more from these online places.

http://www.grapengraindublin.com/beermaking.html sell the lager s-33 (soda stream) cylinders and take cash

guildofevil

I think a few people here might benefit from a little article I wrote.
Getting started: Brewing beer, with beer kits covers the basics of brewing beer from a kit, using the equipment and kits commonly available in Ireland. It should, hopefully give you a good idea of what you need to do and steer you around the major pitfalls.

Bill-e

@airliebeach: I made a nice hole for my airlock buy heating up the end of a metal pipe and pushed that through the lid. It melted like butter and fits pretty well! My 1st beer was done via the half closed lid way and that also worked fine.

@Ken: I need to bring my bike in to the shop anyway so I can check this out at the same time. Could call my beer Bicycle Beer hehe.

I was going to begin my brew last night but can't find my thermometer and all I have round the house are digital body thermometers which don't seem to work well or within the range required. I tried Tescos last night but they only had them body ones. It's surprisingly difficult to get my hands on one of these.

Bill-e

Guys I may have messed up my Beer???

I followed the instructions etc... 2 Litres of Boiling water added to the sugar and then the tin of ingredients. Then I added 22 litres of cold tap water.
The tap water up by me seems pretty cold and when I took a measurement of the temperature after putting in the water, it was 18c. Which is 3 degrees below the minimum recommendation on the tin.

I was in a bit of a rush so I just went ahead and put in the yeast. Put on the lid and put it into the press with the boiler for the heating. In the hope that'll get it up a few degrees. Anyway, I had a look at the airlock about 5 hours later b4 bed and there didn't seem to be any life at all from it.

How will I kick start it? Is it too late? Should I put the fermenter into a bath of hot water?

arse..biscuits

Bill-e wrote: »

Guys I may have messed up my Beer???

I followed the instructions etc... 2 Litres of Boiling water added to the sugar and then the tin of ingredients. Then I added 22 litres of cold tap water.
The tap water up by me seems pretty cold and when I took a measurement of the temperature after putting in the water, it was 18c. Which is 3 degrees below the minimum recommendation on the tin.

I was in a bit of a rush so I just went ahead and put in the yeast. Put on the lid and put it into the press with the boiler for the heating. In the hope that'll get it up a few degrees. Anyway, I had a look at the airlock about 5 hours later b4 bed and there didn't seem to be any life at all from it.

How will I kick start it? Is it too late? Should I put the fermenter into a bath of hot water?

My brew a few days back was a very similar situation.
I had no bubbles for over a day, then it bubbled non stop for 2 days.
Just give it time

kenmc

it'll be fine.

BeerNut

I'd say it's grand. Yeast just gets a bit sluggish when cold so might take a little longer to wake up and get moving.

noby

AS the others said, it'll be fine. 18deg might be below the suggested pitching temp. but is still well within the range of an ale yeast. Kits often take 24 hours to show signs of fermentation.

Bill-e

Thanks for the reassurance guys.

Hopefully, there'll be bubbles when I get home from work later.

Blisterman

For future reference, for added peace of mind, I'd recommend boiling as much of the water as possible, rather than just 2 litres, and letting it cool. I boil about 70% of the water I use.

Takes longer, but the risk of infection is minimised.

As a rule for yeast temperature, too cold is better than too hot.
Too hot, can release off flavours to the beer, and even kill the yeast.
Too cold means, it'll just take a bit longer. It'd have to be fairly cold to stop the yeast working at all.

mazza

mazza wrote: »

I'm a newbie working on my first batch (Woodfordes Great Eastern 'Golden Ale') which I started on Sunday evening.

Its fermenting nicely now and all going according to plan I think, but I have some doubts about secondary fermentation and maybe one of you experts could help?

Firstly, should I do it for this particular brew?<snip>

Hi again,

An update and a quick question!

I'm happy to report that my first brew was safely bottled three weeks ago. Based on the good advice here, I left it a total of 3 weeks in the primary fermenter and didn't transfer to another vessel at all.

Anyway, I'm being patient and the most recent tasting this week was positive as it seemed clearer, less harsh and more drinkable than the first tasting I had 10 days after bottling. So hopefully moving in the right direction!

My question is about carbonation as the beer was quite flat on both tastings. There is a hiss of escaping gas as the bottle is opened, but there isn't much fizz in it after that, just small amounts of little bubbles rising as it sits in the glass.

I added 85g of glucose (more than recommended on the beer kit) during bottling. I'm not sure how fizzy a beer like this should be as it does mention ale on the pack, which I believe is flatter?

After the initial tasting (bottling + 10 days) when I found it quite flat, I upended each bottle several times to mix up yeast / sugars again and put somewhere warmer for several days. This didn't really seem to make any odds as it wasn't any fizzier at second tasting, so maybe all the sugar has been consumed and that's it?

So, the big question is should I upend the bottles again now (bottling +21 days), put somewhere warm or just accept my lot and leave the beer to continue settling and clearing?

Also, after how long in the bottle is the beer likely to have reached its optimium condition and should be drunk?! :P

Thanks again for the help and a great sticky!

BeerNut

I'd say it's as carbonated as it's going to get, unfortunately. I can't think how that would have happened, though.

neuro-praxis

Hi folks, I'm a newbie to this forum so bear with me. I haven't read all of this thread so I apologise if this question has been answered before.

I have just brewed my first batch of lager using a micro-brewery, and had the first tasting tonight, straight from the tap on the keg.

It tastes great, very smooth, with a small amount of fizz. Not so little fizz that it's flat, but not so much as to produce a head. I have a small CO2 canister which I'm going to use when the keg stops dispensing - will this be more successful in producing a head on the beer?

Is it common for home brew to be headless? I'm not worried, just wondering.

Thanks everyone.

BeerNut

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Is it common for home brew to be headless?

Nope. If it's primed properly and conditioned long enough, it should have a head like a commercial beer.

I'll leave the effects of the CO2 canister to one of the board's keggers.

oblivious

neuro-praxis wrote: »

I have a small CO2 canister which I'm going to use when the keg stops dispensing - will this be more successful in producing a head on the beer?.

Those small co2 canister are really designed to provide CO2 for serving and not for carbonation. A lager s-33 vale one something like the soda stream one can carbonate your beer, but if a plastic barrel/keg I am not sure what those pressure are rate to/

Bill-e

Guys, my larger is bubbling away in the fermenter(phew!). It is giving off a somewhat potent sulferie kind of smell. Is that ok?