Clearing in a cool place

Mostly the cool maturation helps to clarify the beer ... the cool temps helps speed the settling of the yeast and other things, like "chill haze."

IMHO, 17-20C will be OK, but your beer may not be as clear as it would if you cooled it on down to the 5C area, perhaps. The taste will probably be about the same either way, tho' it will "mature" faster at warmer temperatures.

Derric

G'day Peter,

I'd say it's not all that important. I've had brews sit in the kitchen for a few weeks while I've been away on holiday, or whatever. No problems.

However, the method on the instructions you are using are different to any I have seen. Not wrong. Different. My usual method (over many years) is to brew in the fermenter for about a week and then put into bottles and place in a cool place to allow to clear, clarify and mature (3 to 4 weeks), or as I do these days, brew in the fermenter for a week, transfer to a keg, put the keg straight into the fridge and gas up, and drink in 3-4 days.

It's probably not all that important. Have a play and see what works for you.

Cheers,

PM

What Derric says here is spot on Peter.

Personally, I don't really care what my beer looks like. I don't spend a lot of time looking at it. For this reason I don't get concerned with clarifying the brew. Some people do and good luck to them.

Again, you decide how you want it and do it that way. That's the beauty of home brewing. You can make beer the way you want to.

Have fun.

PM

Yes, that's what I was intending to do as well. Can you really fit a beer keg in your fridge?

I was thinking of bottling some of the beer after the initial fermentation is complete. It would seem to make sense to siphon from the fermenter into the pressure barrel, add the priming sugar and finings, mix thoroughly then decant say 6 litres into bottles. The bottles could be left 4 days for secondary fermentation to take place then transferred to the fridge. The pressure barrel would be left for 4 days then transferred to a cool place for 3 or 4 weeks. Unfortunately I don't have a cool place so the pressure barrel will just be left in the kitchen with the window open. I'll probably just use the pressure barrel initially and maybe try bottling some of the beer with my second batch.

Peter

anon snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk

Sure. Well a 19 litre Post Mix keg... This is not mine, but it is simliar;

I'm not familiar with pressure barrels, but it sounds like a big version of a bottle? Gassed by secondary fermentation?

You might want to leave your bottles to condition a bit longer than 4 days. The rule I used to work to was 2 weeks minimum, with about 3 months being ideal. The taste does improve with the extra few weeks. It might taste a bit thin after only 4 days. But, hey! As they say here "Suck it and see."

Cheers,

PM

fermentation

Well, it's just a sealed five gallon plastic barrel. The caps on some barrels are fitted with a CO2 valve so you can inject further gas when the naturally produced CO2 has been used up. Mine doesn't have a valve. It was relatively inexpensive (18 pounds).

Peter

anon snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk

Is this a substitute for a "Cornelius" keg, like what used to be used for soda (pop) syrup?

If there is an inexpensive plastic version available that will hold pressure up to perhaps 25 psi (I don't know the more sensible MKS system equivalent that you use in the UK--sorry), I might be interested in getting back in to kegging again. I gave up a bit too soon, I think. Learned a lot since then and think I could give it a go and be successful.

Am I correct in thinking that you're trying to do what CAMRA promotes in making a naturally carbonated ale and not just artificially carbonating your beer (just using the additional CO2 to push the beer out of the keg)?

And how is the Campaign for Real Ale going over there?

Don

I'm not going to artificially carbonate my beer, although my local store is selling the caps for the pressure barrel with the valve for the CO2 cylinder.

Peter

anon snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.co.uk