Missing yeast packet

Howdy, trying my hand at this homebrewing lark for the 3rd time as the last effort went amazingly well. Bought a Coopers English Bitter kit just before December and forgot all about it. Off the drink for January so what better way to get back into it in Feb than with my own beer, right?

Wrong, Just finished all the sterilisation of the equipment and opened the kit to find there is no yeast packet / instructions as indicated on the side of the tin. I've googled the product and it seems like somebody in Tesco either opened it up and removed all of the yeast packets or they were removed accidentally while in storage, as the can doesn't look like it should. None of the cans in Tesco looked like this, rather they all looked like this with the plastic part removed.

This is the first time I've ever even seen them in Tesco, nevermind bought one, so I'm freaked that I made such a schoolboy error. It was before Xmas, so no point in returning to Tesco. Am i right in saying this is not salvageable and i might as well dump it now? There's no way to keep it and try to get some brewing yeast somewhere tomorrow?

BeerNut

Deleted User wrote: »

There's no way to keep it and try to get some brewing yeast somewhere tomorrow?

Depends where you are. It's always the people with location-specific requirements who decide to put something funny in the location field.

Dublin, I work in the city centre. My question was more based around whether or not it there is any point in trying to get some yeast from somewhere and put it in.

BeerNut

Deleted User wrote: »

Dublin, I work in the city centre. My question was more based around whether or not it there is any point in trying to get some yeast from somewhere and put it in.

It depends what stage you're at. What does "opened the kit" mean? If you've just taken the lid off the tin it'll probably be fine. If you've diluted it already it's less likely to be OK. Mottly Brew should be able to sort you out with yeast.

Lovely Bloke

yeah, have you actually opened the tin? Even if you have, I'd say a way to rescue this would be to get down to Mottley in Glasnevin and get yeast (he should have ale yeast).

Then, make a five or six litre mix with water and the contents of the tin, and boil it for about fifteen minutes, then top up in the Fermenter with cold water (and DME if you use it) to the required volume.

The boiling will remove any nasties that may have gotten into the tin while open.

While you are down in Mottley, get some hops too and dry hop the beer about a week before bottling, that would be nice.

Do all your sterilisation again!

Thanks for the input lads.

I had already opened the tin, so I diluted it and poured it into the fermenter last night as I felt it was safer than leaving it in the opened metal tin. I didn't put any sugar in.

My plan was to heat the mixture this evening and add the sugar and yeast after I transferred it back to my fermenter. You're saying I should sterilise the fermenter again, so?

viper123

just sent you a PM, I might be able to sort you out with yeast this evening.

Lovely Bloke

No, in that case pitch the yeast and hope for the best is my advice.

Baldy Conscience

Thanks again for the info, and the offer of the yeast, but I got my Ass out to that place in Glasnevin and sorted it out.

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

No, in that case pitch the yeast and hope for the best is my advice.

This was your mans advice also in mottly brew. Since it was sealed, no need to do anything other than add the yeast and sugar.

Bought some hops and a muslin sock after the advice given here and will add that on Friday. Whats the difference with "dry" hopping?

BeerNut

Deleted User wrote: »

Whats the difference with "dry" hopping?

You get extra aroma.

Good luck with the batch -- good to hear you got sorted.

Lovely Bloke

Friday?

That seems a bit soon to me.

I wouldn't be dry hopping until primary fermentation has stopped. Take hydrometer readings if you can, or else leave at least 2 weeks before dry hopping, then leave the hops in for a week.

What hops did you get?

They usually come in 100g bags, which is a bit much to be dry hopping a 23l batch with imo, use probably half of them, and don't forget to sanitise the muslin bag before lobbing it into the beer.

Before you do dry hop, what it adds to the beer is more of that hop aroma, that fruity/citrus hit you get off IPAs. The more hops you use, the more aroma you'll get. So bear that in mind before you add anything to the beer, just in case you aren't a fan of that style.

fobster

+1 what Baldy said 5-7 days is plenty for dry-hopping. For a style like English bitter 2oz is plenty... If it was an 7% IPA I'd lob in the whole bag

The chap in Mottley Brew said to give it 4 days into the brew process and then add the hops (which he called Goldy's / Goldies). His advice was to sterilise the muslin, put about an ounce (28g) into it, then leave it soaking in a cup of boiling water for 30 mins or so. Then add both the sock and the water to the bucket.


I assume dry hopping is just to put the muslin straight into the bucket without soaking it...i.e. putting it in dry? If so, I take it I should leave it longer than 4 days?


I don't mind the 'hoppy' IPA flavour but wouldn't want to overdo it in terms of bitternes either, so my plan was to throw about a quarter of the 100g pouch in and use that as my barometer for future brews.

Thanks again for all the advice.

BeerNut

Dry hopping doesn't contribute any bitterness -- only boiling hops in wort causes bittering. The effect from a hop like Goldings will be pretty subtle anyway.

Personally I don't bother with the muslin when dry-hopping and just throw the hops in as they are, literally dry.

For best results I reckon you should add them a week before bottling, and you should also leave the beer to ferment for at least two weeks in total before bottling. You can do your own maths on that.

Lovely Bloke

I can't believe he's giving that type of advice.

Here's what you need to do.

Ferment your beer for 2 weeks (yes, yes, packet instructions, Mottley Brew blah blah blah)

At the end of the 2 weeks, lob in the hops. Either as described with the boiling water etc, or as BeerNut says just lash them in, under no circumstances do what you yourself have said there and put the muslin in without soaking in boiling water. The reason? God knows where the muslin has been, and it could be a source of potential infection, the boiling water will sterilise it.

A week later, bottle the beer.

Your definition of "Dry hopping" above is not correct - essentially for this excercise, dry hopping is adding hops after fermentation has finished and before bottling, the method for doing this is unimportant.

The main alternate way to get hops into beer is during the boil (a step you skip by doing kits, so that hop addition is already done for you, in the tin so to speak).

As a matter of interest, is there a % reading on the hop packet? I've never really heard of anyone dry hopping with Goldings before.

Cheers Baldy, that's exactly what I was looking for re: dry hopping.


Maybe I took him up incorrectly on timeframes, but that was certainly what I took away from the conversation....he definitely said "about 4 days or so", whether he meant before bottling or not is another matter.

BeerNut

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

I've never really heard of anyone dry hopping with Goldings before.

They were mad for it in the 1860s :P

Okay, pleased to report it looks like we're in business. Fermenter is gurgling away in the corner there like a newborn babe. One final question for the wise folk on here:

I was unsure of how much sugar to use, as all of the previous kits I had used a full kilo (or 500g sugar and 500g of spray malt). I googled the instructions for the English Bitter kit and it said to use 500g of malt. I put about half a 1kg bag of brewing sugar in and am wondering if this is enough...i.e. do the instructions mean to use a kilo of sugar and also the malt for 1.5kg in total? Should i just add the rest of the sugar?

What are the pitfalls of too little or too much sugar? Would it make it overly strong in alcohol content or sickeningly sweet?

Lovely Bloke

Sugars like Spraymalt and normal table sugar will ferment out - the spraymalt will leave some residual unfermentables for "body", but no, unless you put in so much sugar that the yeast is just unable to ferment it then it won't be sickly sweet. You are probably talking about 3+kilos of sugar here though.

So yes, the amount of sugar determines the final ABV of the beer. The lower the sugar volume, the lower the final alcohol content.

About a kilo should be ok, you'll probably finish somewhere in the 4-5% range.

PixelTrawler

Cant find the link now but i read an article that suggested and ran some tests on dry hopping for one day vs 7. I tried it myself and a one day dry hop surprisingly works well.

The gist of the article is you get the immediate freshness that wears off after a few days in the fermenter.

BeerNut

Deleted User wrote: »

What are the pitfalls of too little or too much sugar?

It's a bad idea to use any sugar as a top-up fermentable, IMO. Spraymalt will give you a much better tasting beer.