Homebrew Beer Howto

Saruman

You can get a 10L stock pot at homestore and more but they are quite expensive.

TKK

You could try here for stockpots.

TKK

I have recently started into brewing using a kit and equipment purchased from the homebrewing company - I'm using a Muntons Gold India Pale Ale kit (3kg).

Having been doing a bit of reading I decided that going down the route of secondary fermentation would be the best approach as I don't really fancy an overly yeasty beer with a lot of sediment in the bottles. I started the kit on 15/11. Primary fermentation kicked in - but only really obviously after an anxious almost 24hrs. On Friday night I racked to my secondary fermenter. I took a sample for a reading and quality (i.e. taste) control. Everything seemed fine with no dodgy flavours/smells.

However, since then, there is no evidence of anything happening in the secondary fermenter except for some sediment collecting at the bottom.

Is it likely, as I suspect, that the rate of fermentation has dropped to a level where the headspace in the fermenter hasn't been filled with enough co2 to cause the lid to bulge and the airlock to bubble as it is pushed out (as happened during primary fermentation)?

If fermentation has stopped is there any harm in leaving it in the bucket for a few more days to clear? Will it still be ok to act on the sugar and carbonate when I bottle?

BeerNut

It all sounds perfectly normal. Secondary fermentation is always going to be much slower. Just leave it alone and let it do its thing.

When fermentation stops completely it will restart again for conditioning. You can leave it in secondary for weeks with no ill effects.

mayto

TKK wrote: »

I

If fermentation has stopped is there any harm in leaving it in the bucket for a few more days to clear? Will it still be ok to act on the sugar and carbonate when I bottle?

Your beer will be fine. What was your gravity reading btw to ensure main fermentation is over. I usually do 10 days primary and rack to secondary for a further week, then bottle. My latest beer stayed in primary for 3 weeks before bottling, as I had no time to move to secondary. Turned out fine although I heard someone recommend 2 weeks max in primary as yeast can break down giving off flavours.
Best of luck with the brewing

TKK

It was at 1.014 when I moved it.

mayto

TKK wrote: »

It was at 1.014 when I moved it.

Probably will not drop much more. Check gravity again at end of week and if reading is same over a couple of days you should be good to bottle.

TKK

mayto wrote: »

Probably will not drop much more. Check gravity again at end of week and if reading is same over a couple of days you should be good to bottle.

I'm not expecting it to given the kits expected % and that which I calculated on Friday night.

I'll probably be leaving it until next week to bottle anyway to let it clear some more.

Reminds me I need to get a capper and some caps this week too.

enola/alone

Someone might've already brought this up, but I wasn't bothered looking through all 57 pages to check :P Any reviews/opinions on the iBrew kits? Seen 'em at Toys For Big Boys and might get one

http://www.ibrew.ie/

Thanks! =D

BaZmO*

enola/alone wrote: »

Someone might've already brought this up, but I wasn't bothered looking through all 57 pages to check :P Any reviews/opinions on the iBrew kits? Seen 'em at Toys For Big Boys and might get one

http://www.ibrew.ie/

Thanks! =D

It's been discussed on the Irish Craft Brewer website. General consensus is that it's ok if you're starting out but a lot of the equipment becomes obsolete if you want to move on from kit brewing.

guildofevil

ibrew is kit brewing with a dispense system added.

It differs in that the equipment is rather sparse (eg. no thermometer or hydrometer) and the batches are 20 pint, as opposed to the more usual 40 pint of other kits. The kits are proprietary, although I see no reason why you couldn't get a quality 3kg kit from another supplier and only use one of the two cans of extract with your ibrew system, saving the other for the next time.

So far, getting a starter kit from the hombrewcomany.ie or somewhere would seem a lot better as the equipment you get is more comprehensive (I do not consider a hydrometer to be an unnecessary luxury) and you make twice as much beer per batch.

Where ibrew is good is in the dispense system. Where standard kit brewing provides you with a crown caper and caps, leaving you to source, clean and sanitise suitable bottles, ibrew supplies you with two 10 pint plastic bottles and a mini co2 system. The idea is that you put the 5 pint bottle into your fridge and dispense it using the tap. The co2 bulbs keep the pressure up, so the beer doesn't go flat over time.



This has been on sale as Tap-A-Draft for years. I was actually considering it a few years ago but decided to go the whole hog and get a stainless steel cornelius keg system and dedicated beer fridge.



The tapadraft/ibrew system uses standard 8g co2 bulbs, which you can get from many homebrew suppliers and there is no reason you couldn't dispense other beers, be they kit, extract, or all grain, from the system if you decide to move on from ibrew. You could even expand the system by buying more bottles so it could take a full 5 gallon batch and have a beer maturing, while another one is serving.

It's probably not a bad way of dipping your toe in the water, when it comes to brewing and if you did decide to move on from ibrew and start using standard kits, extract or all grain, the only thing that would go to waste is the tiny fermentation bucket and even that might come in handy for sanitising stuff in.

cuculainn

BeerNut wrote: »

A picnic cooler with a manifold and tap fitted. Not worth the bother if you're using extract.

Dunno how that's going to help your mashing. What do you mean?

How partial do you want your partial mash to be? I'm planning one in a 10L stock pot and reckon it'll have plenty of capacity.

Hi again,

I guess I might have been a bit unclear about what I am planning, It is basically an extract brew with speciality grains. So what I was really looking for was a boiler for the full boil (not for steeping the grains, a small 10 lt pot will be ok for that)

Think I will just fork out on a custom boiler with the thermostat

BeerNut

cuculainn wrote: »

It is basically an extract brew with speciality grains.

Right. That's no mashing at all then.

cuculainn wrote: »

So what I was really looking for was a boiler for the full boil

The biggest I've seen at any kind of sane price is 19L (Living Island, Talbot Street), which probably means a boil of about 16L tops.

cuculainn wrote: »

Think I will just fork out on a custom boiler with the thermostat

A thermostat is unnecessary, and people tell me they end up being more of a hindrance than anything else. I use this and it's great. Remember you'll need a chiller too.

cuculainn

BeerNut wrote: »

Right. That's no mashing at all then.

Got my lingo mixed up. meant to say soaking:)

The biggest I've seen at any kind of sane price is 19L (Living Island, Talbot Street), which probably means a boil of about 16L tops.

A thermostat is unnecessary, and people tell me they end up being more of a hindrance than anything else. I use this and it's great. Remember you'll need a chiller too.

Thats the sort of thing I was looking at alright....

thought I could get away with a bath of water for the chiller:D

Thanks for all the help. ( as you have probably guessed I am a novice, just done a few kit brews. but want something better)

I have a load of ingredients here ready to be used but want to get everything straight in my head first!

BeerNut

cuculainn wrote: »

thought I could get away with a bath of water for the chiller:D

I'd say you'll be buying or making a chiller before long, but you can give the ice bath method a go anyway. It'll take ages.

cuculainn wrote: »

I have a load of ingredients here ready to be used but want to get everything straight in my head first!

This article is a great head-straightener for extract brewing.

Brian CivilEng

BeerNut wrote: »

I'd say you'll be buying or making a chiller before long, but you can give the ice bath method a go anyway. It'll take ages.

Would a few Coke bottles filled with water and frozen, then submerged in the hot wort do the job? I'm thinking that the only problem would be ensuring that the bottles are sanitised.

BaZmO*

abitofacomedian wrote: »

Would a few Coke bottles filled with water and frozen, then submerged in the hot wort do the job? I'm thinking that the only problem would be ensuring that the bottles are sanitised.

What you could do is just get a couple of bottles of water from the likes of Lidl or Aldi and put them in the freezer. Then add the frozen water to the hot Wort to bring the temperature down.

You'll just need to take this extra amount of water into consideration when calculating your final volume.

BeerNut

abitofacomedian wrote: »

Would a few Coke bottles filled with water and frozen, then submerged in the hot wort do the job? I'm thinking that the only problem would be ensuring that the bottles are sanitised.

It'll do some of the job, yes.

BaZmO* wrote: »

What you could do is just get a couple of bottles of water from the likes of Lidl or Aldi and put them in the freezer. Then add the frozen water to the hot Wort to bring the temperature down.

You'll just need to take this extra amount of water into consideration when calculating your final volume.

That's partial boil. It's probably more sanitary to boil then chill/freeze your own tap water. That's what I used to do when I partial boiled.

BaZmO*

BeerNut wrote: »

It's probably more sanitary to boil then chill/freeze your own tap water.

Why?

BeerNut

BaZmO* wrote: »

Why?

You'll know it's sterile. Is there anything on the Lidl/Aldi water that says it's sterile?

oblivious

BeerNut wrote: »

You'll know it's sterile. Is there anything on the Lidl/Aldi water that says it's sterile?

An bottled water usually has higher bacteria loads than tap

BaZmO*

Really? I didn't know that. I just assumed that because it was bottled water it'd be sterile.

Ya learn a new thing everyday!

BeerNut

BaZmO* wrote: »

I just assumed that because it was bottled water it'd be sterile.

Even when they blather about how it was just pulled raw out of a mountain this morning?

BaZmO*

BeerNut wrote: »

Even when they blather about how it was just pulled raw out of a mountain this morning?

Ha yeah.

Although, I used bottled water for my last brew and it's been the nicest one so far. Maybe it was full of tasty bacteria! nom nom

oblivious

BaZmO* wrote: »

Really? I didn't know that. I just assumed that because it was bottled water it'd be sterile.

Ya learn a new thing everyday!

You can never prove something is sterile;)

cuculainn

oblivious wrote: »

You can never prove something is sterile;)

Actually we use water in our lab that is sterile water...cert to prove it....

The funny thing is it is cheaper than ballygowan to buy per lite

gaz wac

Got those swing top bottles from Alpack http://www.alpack.ie/Beer_BottlesSwing_topGrolsch_Bottles/Default.292.html

must say, im delighted with them Had 26L of beer and think i used 29 bottles. Just one question reguarding priming, I used.....

BeerNut wrote: »

It'll work, yes. I use this carbonation calculator.

Selecting American Lager and going for 2.6 volumes, it says that for 26L at 20C you need 173g of pure sugar, so not far off. YMMV.

....the 173g of sugar, melted in some hot water but when I was bottling it, it looks kinda dead? Before this, I used a teaspoon of sugar in each bottle so when i added the beer, you could see it mixin and "working":o, but this way seems kinda...like nothing is happening ?? Have it in a dark cubbard to work its magic but does this sound normal ? also have little or no "crud" in the bottles as i was using a second fermenter.

Cheers

BeerNut

gaz wac wrote: »

it looks kinda dead?

Just like with the primary fermentation, yeast has a lag time before it goes to work. You shouldn't see anything happening since any gas created will be under pressure -- that's the whole point. It's fine. Leave it a fortnight before opening a bottle.

gaz wac

Thanks BN...also have my first ale ready to be transfered into second fermentation tonight......it smells delish....very beery, if you know what i mean not a big fan but thought I would give it a go!

Thanks

TKK

BTW meant to add that I got bottles from here having read a post here. They are brown returnable guinness pint bottles. He told me he has no problem with people buying them off him as long as the deposit he has to pay is covered.