Homebrew Beer Howto

BeerNut

YourName wrote: »

Normal sign???

Totally normal. Most of the fermentation happens in the first three or four days, then it slows down. Bear in mind that, while bubbling means fermentation is happening, no bubbling doesn't mean fermentation has stopped.

YourName wrote: »

Thanks for all the links by the way "BeerNut", they are very helpful and well explained.

Happy to help.

Saruman

BaZmO* wrote: »

I think that's one of the confusing parts of the instructions on certain kits. It's not clear that when you prime the fermented beer it should go straight into bottles. The mate I was talking about earlier primed all his beer and left it in the sealed bucket. Then his mate opened it to have a look into it and released all the built up CO2 that would of carbonated the beer had it of been bottled.

Precisely why I advise people to pretty much ignore the kit instructions. Read them over sure but you are better off following the ICB instructions I posted.


YourName have you heard of an auto siphon? Much handier than sucking a tube.

Mantel

Saruman wrote: »

YourName have you heard of an auto siphon? Much handier than sucking a tube.

Handy things but watch out if you mainly use 1 gallon demijohn's I got an auto syphon and found it just slightly too wide to use with a the demi's I have Works great with the large containers.

BaZmO*

Mantel wrote: »

Handy things but watch out if you mainly use 1 gallon demijohn's I got an auto syphon and found it just slightly too wide to use with a the demi's I have Works great with the large containers.

Yep. I got stung with that too.

Although you can get a smaller version that fits into the demijohns.

Saruman

I have both versions

Mantel

What's it called and where can I buy it?

ManFromAtlantis

cider fermenting for about 6 weeks then to bottles.
i hear it gets better with age.

q: would teh taste be noticeably better if left for say till christmas compared to drinking now ??!! or is the omprovement worth waiting for? ta

BeerNut

Wiser people (well, cavedave, really) say that two months is optimal. Best way to answer your own question is fill a few small sample bottles and open one every week or two.

YourName

At what temperature does fermenting stop??? You say 18 degrees is a good temperature to keep it at but would 16 be too low, as my one is in the region of 18 degrees, maybe less, so I just wnt to make sure its ok.

BeerNut

16 means it'll just go a bit slower. Much better to have the temperature on the low side than too high.

slayerking

YourName wrote: »

At what temperature does fermenting stop??? You say 18 degrees is a good temperature to keep it at but would 16 be too low, as my one is in the region of 18 degrees, maybe less, so I just wnt to make sure its ok.

Some ale yeasts can work as low as 12-13 degrees.
It really depends on the yeast, but generally 18 degrees in about optimal for a pale ale, but 16 should be fine also, it'll just work a little slower but you have a nice clean tasting beer in the end which is what you want. The warmer the beer ferments, the more funky flavours and high alcohols that are released. Flavours like banana, which you dont want in a lager kit!!

I presume you used the yeast that came with the coopers kit. As kit yeasts goes, I found the Coopers yeast very good. Fairly clean and very tolerant to high temperatures, so the fermenters little spell in the hotpress may not have been detrimental after all.:cool:

In any case, where you have it is fine.
She'll stay tickin over there.

YourName

BeerNut wrote: »

16 means it'll just go a bit slower. Much better to have the temperature on the low side than too high.

slayerking wrote: »

Some ale yeasts can work as low as 12-13 degrees.
It really depends on the yeast, but generally 18 degrees in about optimal for a pale ale, but 16 should be fine also, it'll just work a little slower but you have a nice clean tasting beer in the end which is what you want. The warmer the beer ferments, the more funky flavours and high alcohols that are released. Flavours like banana, which you dont want in a lager kit!!

I presume you used the yeast that came with the coopers kit. As kit yeasts goes, I found the Coopers yeast very good. Fairly clean and very tolerant to high temperatures, so the fermenters little spell in the hotpress may not have been detrimental after all.:cool:

In any case, where you have it is fine.
She'll stay tickin over there.

Good stuff, well I will let her tick away there and hope for the best, just keep an eye on it, I will keep her between 16 and 20 and she should be good, its at 18 at the moment and will probably stay at that mark for a while anyway.

I don't' really mind what the outcome of this batch is, because I am learning so much with it that it doesn't really matter. Obviously I do hope it will come out nice and I definitely don't want to have to put it down the drain, but regardless of how it tastes, after the work I have put into it so far and the wait I will have to endure, it will definitely be drank, every last drop.

RebelButtMunch

YourName wrote: »

Oh ok, I didn't realize, I was keeping it in the hot press (even though your not supposed too), because we have a fairly big one and down the end at the bottom the temperature didn't really fluctuate, its staying at 24 degrees, should I take it out of there, because I have another place for it that will keep it at a regular 21 degrees, its just that the kit told me to keep it at them temperatures so I wasn't sure but of course I am sure there are better ways of doing this. Now I had it in the room last night and it went from 24 degrees down to 20 overnight then I put it in the hot press this morning, so its been at 24 all day, if I moved it out again am I moving it around too much and changing the temperature too much???

I got this kit: http://homebrewwest.ie/homebrewwest-brew-smart-starter-beer-kit-245-p.asp

And it came with coopers original lager, from experience does this taste any good???

Is there any reason why they recommend 4 - 6 days????

Yeh I'm hooked now, its a real interesting process though and I am looking forward to the result.

How did you get on with that Ale? I've got my finger hovering over the add-to-cart button on their website.

BeerNut

RebelButtMunch wrote: »

How did you get on with that Ale?

He's still fermenting it. I would strongly advise against buying any beer kit that claims to be a lager.

RebelButtMunch

BeerNut wrote: »

He's still fermenting it. I would strongly advise against buying any beer kit that claims to be a lager.

Why would you advise that? (I've some wine brewing experience but no beer experience....Im a newbie)

BeerNut

RebelButtMunch wrote: »

Why would you advise that?

Mainly because any I've tasted have been terrible. They're blonde ales, light on malt and hop flavours, as you'd expect from a lager. Except, using liquid malt extract you're automatically going to get some bad oxidised tang. If you make the mistake of following the instructions and ferment at too high a temperature, and/or add sugar instead of spraymalt, you'll get other nasty flavours as well. In a darker beer, these get hidden to some extent under the caramelised or roasted malts, or under the stronger hopping. In a pale unhoppy beer there's no other place for them to hide, and you'll taste every manky thing that goes wrong.

Even if made very carefully I very much doubt you can make something resembling commercial lager from a "lager" kit. On the other hand I've tasted several kit stouts that were tastier than manys a commercial stout.

RebelButtMunch

BeerNut wrote: »

Mainly because any I've tasted have been terrible. They're blonde ales, light on malt and hop flavours, as you'd expect from a lager. Except, using liquid malt extract you're automatically going to get some bad oxidised tang. If you make the mistake of following the instructions and ferment at too high a temperature, and/or add sugar instead of spraymalt, you'll get other nasty flavours as well. In a darker beer, these get hidden to some extent under the caramelised or roasted malts, or under the stronger hopping. In a pale unhoppy beer there's no other place for them to hide, and you'll taste every manky thing that goes wrong.

Even if made very carefully I very much doubt you can make something resembling commercial lager from a "lager" kit. On the other hand I've tasted several kit stouts that were tastier than manys a commercial stout.

Thanks for that information. I wanted to make a dark or medium-dark ale for Christmas. Any kit you would particularly recommend for that?

BeerNut

RebelButtMunch wrote: »

Thanks for that information. I wanted to make a dark or medium-dark ale for Christmas. Any kit you would particularly recommend for that?

Woodforde's Nelson's Revenge is a good one in the English strong ale style, or BrewFerm Ambiorix for something more warming and Belgian. Remember to use spraymalt where the instructions ask for sugar.

YourName

Could you recommend anything that I could add to the mix before I bottle to make it taste a little better???

BeerNut

YourName wrote: »

Could you recommend anything that I could add to the mix before I bottle to make it taste a little better?

Nah, you run the risk of infection there. Try cutting it with decent beer when serving.

And don't be so pessimistic: it could turn out wonderful

BaZmO*

BeerNut wrote: »

Try cutting it with decent beer when serving.

Really? What's the point?

BeerNut

BaZmO* wrote: »

Really? What's the point?

It'll dilute some of the off flavours.

BaZmO*

Are you being serious?

Seems like a pointless exercise tbh.

BeerNut

Well if you're determined to drink the stuff, throwing in a can of something palateable (perhaps "decent" is the wrong word above) will help it go down. Putting some flavoured syrup or cordial in would be another option -- if it's good enough for the Berliners and Poles...

BaZmO*

I suppose that's fair enough. Although personally I'd prefer to sacrifice to the great beer God in the sky!

BeerNut

Sacrifice your first-born? Heartless!

BaZmO*

Haha true. I had to sacrifice by third born, but not all of it. Still have a few bottles of it there and I keep convincing myself that it'll get better with time.......it doesn't. Lemon zest doesn't work in the same way that Orange zest does.

Although mixing you're first brew with something else would be akin to giving your ugly child plastic surgery!

ManFromAtlantis

newbie. brewed cider from real apples . thought made many a mistake but tasted it............... excellent..........i mean im no cider expert but it tastes sharp/dry and slight sour..i'd go so far to say its nicer than shop bought !!!!! and still needs time to mature !

delighted.

in fact it tastes a bit like white wine? if anyone knows what i mean.??

BeerNut

Well done! I cracked open the second sample bottle of my cider last night and had a similar experience -- and I didn't so much as touch a real apple in the making process. I was thinking I might have a go at mulling some of it some cold evening.

gaz wac

Hi lads,

Just three questions. I brewed my first batch a few months ago, lovely beer and it was alot easier than i thought !! but three points i want to know about before i start a new batch this weekend:

1) using the magic syphon was a load of balls imo ! Really was a two man job. I put the bucket up on top of a table, Mrs Wac held the tube in place ( just over wort)while i filled the bottles, ok a little messy but the wort was coming up with it, tried to keep it as steady as i could when lifting it, but it was still disrupted, how do you's get over this?

2) I have a second ferm bin, could i cover it with a very fine mesh, filther the beer into it to collect wort and let it settle for a few more days, that way 90% of the wort is in the first bin?

3) i had 60 beer bottles, which i filled with a level tea spoon of sugar in each, but there was not a constant amount of gas in each bottle, some were dead, some over flowed, any thoughts? I actually filled up three 2l coke bottles, yes, they expaded but these ended up the nicest of them all ( think i put 5 teaspoons of sugar into them). Does anyone else, forget about small bottles and just fill up large plastic bottles.

Thanks again