Thank you for the info, and others if I miss anybody! I used to brew before, nothing much, just extract, but I want to step it up a few notches. And in order to do that, I want to make the experience as comfortable as possible, without worrying like an old lady about every nitpicking thing! I want to learn how to easily all grain, and keg, too!
A mate of mine has been using kegs for a few years, so I got a lot of info off him. Plus the Internet and the blokes at the home brew shop.
Good start. Support the local guy.
Not sure about where you are. I've dropped a few hints that I'm not in your hemisphere. Things are probably a bit different here. Downunder. Got it? My email address ends in .au :-)
Nope. No sugar. CO2. You can see the CO2 bottle in right of the picture;
on the floor, outside the fridge.
Shill #312
-- Homer no function beer well without. Homer J. Simpson
The hints were taken. But there still are two types of cornies, a pin lock (Coke) and a ball lock (Pepsi). From what I'm seeing, the ball lock are more popular.
>
By the way, I take a little exception about your being in Australia remarks. Seems as though you were trying to imply that I'm not bright enough to understand the .au, etc. That is far from the case.
Do you have a glass secondary? Many consider it good to get the beer off the spent yeast and other solids that settle our during primary fermentation as they can contribute to "off" flavors. Additionally your primary fermenter (and bottling bucket) are gas permeable which means you may not want to let the beer sit in them any longer than necessary as your brew can oxidize in them a bit.....another potential "off" flavor.
The clear plastic wrap is really only a way to avoid fiddling with an airlock......which is not all that much of a hassle anyway.
With or without the new plastic wrap technique I would not conduct primary fermentation in your bottling bucket. Bottling requires the addition of priming sugar (which should be gently stirred in) which will raise all the solids that have settled out during primary fermentation. So in either case, you are going to need to rack over to a separate bottling bucket (or a glass fermenter for aging) to avoid putting all those solids back into suspsension and into your beer bottles.
Anatabaka
I think I may have misread your question....for some reason I thought you were planning to bottle directly from the primary. I'm the dunce....not you!!
Now that I've re-read your question I'd second the opinion that many spigots leak anyway so the bottling bucket may not be the best primary. There's also the issue of clearing any solids and keeping the spigot sanitized....overall not the best option IMO
Have you seen the Fermtech siphon? It's pretty simple and makes the siphoning process pretty easy.
Yes, I do have a glass carboy as a secondary.
True, but less pieces to sanatize!
Good points all, thanks!
Nah, not a dunce! In my case, sometimes what I read just doesn't quite get to the brain!!
Yeah, think I'll steer clear of the bottling bucket.
Thanks. I'll see if they have one at my local shop first!
While I have your attention, I've got a red ale that fermented great for three days in primary, then slowed. The fourth day I racked to secondary. It's been in secondary for week, and just doesn't seem to be clearing. If you flashlight through the secondary, it just doesn't look clear. Is there concern, or am I just over reacting?
Snip
Probably over reacting. First, I've never been convinced that a clearer beer is necessarily a better beer. In some cases I actually prefer the more handcrafted or rustic look of a slightly cloudy beer. Second, certain beer styles actually seek to be cloudy (though perhaps not your red ale) and the suspended yeasts contribute to the desired flavor profile of the beer. Lastly, there are many factors that might be contributing to your beers failur to clarify. Haze can be caused by a shortened protein rest, high grain temperature, incomplete conversion, incomplete hot break, insufficient cold break, or even bacterial infection. Most of these will not likely have a significant impact on flavor....at least not to the point of making it undrinkable....excepting infection of course.
If you've hit your targe F.G. and are ready to bottle then I'd go ahead without too much concern. Most likely you have a pretty decent red ale waiting in the wings.
Anatabaka
Thanks, man. I'll let you know how it turned out. I'm hoping NOT an infection. It was an extract and adjunct grain brew, btw. I've got to get all grain brewing figured out!
I haven't read through all the threads but I use iodophor. I bought a gallon of it from a homebrew supplier, Listermann Supply, in Cincinnati, for a little over $30 a few years ago. That's enough for years of use. Buy another small item or two and you have free shipping East of the Mississippi (orders over $35).
You use a small amount (1 tablespoon per 5 gallons, a little more for your 6 or 7 gallon plastic fermenters), for 2 minutes (some references say 1 minute is enough). You can use chlorine bleach (don't know the amount it's been so long) for 30 minutes. It's cheap but takes a while compared to iodophor. Rinse with hot water if you use bleach, and make sure it's unscented.
With iodophor you can re-use it as long as it has that tint to it. You can, for example, sanitize your fermenter, siphon into another fermenter and sanitize that one, etc. I place my airlock and tubing in a plastic bucket with the iodophor and get it all done at the same time.
It can stain things, so be careful. If it stains your plastic fermenters, it's not really a problem but you can bleach out the stain if you want to.
Don
messagenews: snipped-for-privacy@51g2000cwl.googlegroups.com...
have a glass secondary? Many consider it good to get the beer off
I use glass carboys for primary (6.5 gal) and secondary(5 gal). I just cover the neck with a piece of aluminum foil and it works fine. There's no room in my fermentation fridge for an airlock.
Oh, I wouldn't leave it in the bottling bucket! What I meant was to primary ferment in the bottling bucket instead of the fermenting bucket so that I'd have a spigot to then rack to my carboy and secondary ferment. Then, at bottling time, the bottling bucket would be clean! BUT, I've since purchased Fertech's auto-siphon, and it works like a champ! Now, here's the question of the day I have!! Would it do any harm, when making a five gallon batch, to put in enough water to have 5
1/2 gallons to start in the primary? I always end up with right around 4 1/2 gallons after racking and leaving trub behind. Or should I just stick with what I end up with? Thank!
Bottled Saturday, and warm and uncarbonated it still tasted great! I think as I shined a flashlight through the carboy, it appeared hazier (if that's a word!) than it was. Looks great in the bucket and bottle!
You can add more water, but it will lower your OG. for example if you have an OG of 1.060 in 4.5 gal, it will become 1.049 in 5.5 gal. Your color will also become a bit lighter and the IBUs of the hops will drop. If you are brewing from a kit, you can try to increase the fermentables to account for this, but then you will need to increase the hops accordingly as well. If you are creating your own recipes then just change your fermented volume to 5.5 gal. I always design my recipes to have 5.5 gal in the primary so that I can rack close to 5 gal to the secondary. To design a recipe or alter an existing recipe try
Brian, thanks for the excellent advice! I've downloaded the recipe designer, and am going to use it to do just as you do, think in terms of 5.5 instead of 5.0. I think I tend to lose a tad more than some others might, because I want to keep as much trub as possible out. Do you do all grain the same way? I'm going to work into all grain, but it seems like there are a million things to learn!
I have about 5 AG batches under my belt, so I am still learning about AG. In general I plan for 5.5 gal to the fermenter and I leave very little behind in the boil kettle. I know in theory you should try and leave the break amterial behind, but I always get greedy and try and get as much wort as possible ito the fermenter. It all settles out in the primary and I lave it behind when I rack to secondary. Using glass for both primary and secondary I can see the layer and do a good job of leaving it all behind. If a little gets to the secondary its no big deal as it will settle out there as well and then I'll get rid of even more when I rack to the keg.
Personally my advice to you is continue to refine your processes with extract and try to move up to full boil batches (boil 6-6.5 gal of extract so you end up with 5.5 gal of wort) and figure out things like the evaporation rate of your kettle. Once the process is reliable and you feel you've learned all there is to learn on extract, then step up to all grain. You'll be introducing many new variables to the equation by mashing, so its best to the basics of brewing well understood from the extract days.
I'd have to say that the biggest improvements I've seen in my beers were due to the following (in order roughly):
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Thanks for the advice! I understand that all grain is almost half the price of extract! How big of a brewpot do you have for full 6 gal. batches? I've got an outdoor type deep fry burner I plan to use instead of the stove, just need to get a pot big enough to do full boils. From what I understand is that even with extracts, the quality goes up with a full boil. Thanks for your time!
Well, I'd just say a 10 gallon pot... here's why: since you usually do an hour to 1.5 hour boil and most pots evaporate about a gallon an hour, if you want 6 gallons at the end of the boil you'll need to boil about 7.5 gallons. Allowing some room for foaming, stirring, etc, 10 gallons isn't too big. I got a 10 gallon heavy duty aluminum pot from a restaurant supply for about $75.
Probably. It certainly can be lighter in color. The hops extraction is better as well (the less dense the wort, the more extraction).
Derric
Cool, thanks, I'll look into it. I thought that I'd read somewhere, perhaps the new complete joy of homebrewing, that aluminum wasn't good for boiling wort? If I'm screwed up, my local Bass Pro Shops has some aluminum pots that big. I have a stainless 4 gallon one now, but it seems as though because of the thin bottom, I have to stir the heck out of it when I put in liquid malt extract. Maybe it just seems like it, but it feels like it sticks to the bottom.
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