newbie

me and my mate are students and have just started brewing our 1st 40 pints yestarday!

the brewing bucket we have says that the lid should be seald firmly and it has been designed to let gas out through the rim.

but this morning we found the lid blown off, so we made a (very) small hole in the lid to let out the gas!

will it be ok!

and also the brewing kit says to stir the contents in two days to make sure the yeast hasnt settled,and take a hydrometer reading, but a tip sheet that came with the brewing equip says to stir but not agravate the sediment.

errr so what do u guys think.

Reply to
Pete
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I haven't seen these lids that claim to let pressure out through the lid. I guess that idea doesn't work too well, huh? You may want to get a drilled rubber stopper and an airlock from your homebrew supply store. Put a hole in the lid to accept the stopper to prevent this from happening again. This will keep it from popping off again. Your beer will be fine now, since the fermentation produces CO2 that will sit on top of the liquid and keep air out. If you do any long-term storage in the bucket, you will want it to be air tight. But, for the short term, you'll be OK.

As far as the yeast sediment is concerned, there should be no reason why you'd have to disturb it. Usually, primary fermentation will be completed within the first few days. Then, you want to give it some time for the yeast to settle out and clarify your beer. You could resuspend the yeast if it settles out before fermentation is complete, but you'd only need to do this if you are making a really strong beer or if the yeast is highly flocculating. So, the bottom line is that there's nothing wrong with stirring up the yeast, just give it a few days afterwards to settle back out.

Reply to
Glenn L.

should be ok, but a better way to go may be to use a stopper and airlock in any hole you add. Exposure to air can result (though not necessarily) in the introduction of foreign bacteria/yeast/etc that will "color" the flavor of the final brew.

i've never stirred the sediment, and make every effort to keep it as settled as possible while fermenting. Sure, some always gets sloshed around a bit, but not intentionally.

bob p

Reply to
jrprice

thanks we are trying to brew this mexican beer stuff and want it to end up between 6-7% so i might stir it.

oh yeah to make it that strength we needed just over 1.5kg of sugar, i know that u shouldnt use sugar but we only had 1kg of glucose powder so we added sugar to make it up to just over 1.5kg

it wont taste that bad i hope coz of the powder constituting the most, and we didnt get that soup effect i read about on some websites

if this goes well im gona experiment with fruit juices to make some bad ass stuff.

Reply to
Pete

There should be no need to stir it. If you do, make sure to stir gently...you don't want to introduce O2 into it at this point.

There's nothing wrong with using sugar.

-------->Denny

Reply to
Denny Conn

if you are cheap you could get some plastic sheeting (like you would use for vapour barrier or what have you, thicker stuff anyhow) and use a big elastic band (go to a sewing shop and get some elastic). Cut a square bigger than the top of your fermentor, secure it with the elastic and no critters will get in, but gas will escape.

Since you have a lid that seems to have been fitting well though, you might as well invest the couple of dollars in a bung and airlock.

As far as stiring, that seems weird to me. I just brewed a 6% beer and the main fermentation was done in two days, no stirring. Take a specific gravity reading, if it's low enough don't bother stiring it.

Reply to
steve

thanks for the advice ppl!

Reply to
Pete

ok ppl we bottled the beer last night put some ugar in each bottle couldnt help but taste some of it (had 2 pints each) well it doesnt taste that bad i know it will taste better with age, but we are gonna have some on friday.

we ran out of bottles so we used a 5 litre water bottle, this morning i could hear a hiss so i checked it and it was the water bottle i tryed tightening the top but it was one of those were if you tighten too much it just undoes, soo all the gas came out i resealed it.

will it be ok 5 litres is alot of beer to go to waste! (for a student)

Reply to
Pete

Hmm.... well, a bottle for beer needs to be able to handle pressure.

If you are going to drink the 5 liters all at once, you could probably do that soon. It will just be lightly carbonated since the water bottle isn't holding pressure well.

You could use 2 or 3 liter soft drink bottles instead of a water bottle and they work well. (You can even use the smaller bottles just fine).

Just transfer the beer from the water bottle into the soft drink bottles now and let them continue to carbonate. If you think that you have already lost too much carbonation, you could loosen the water bottle lid and wait a few days (a week?) for your carbonation sugar to ferment out, then re-prime and put into soft drink bottles.

((Note to pedants... I don't think this beer will last long enough for any sort of oxydation to matter, so I totally avoided the subject. :) ))

Derric

Reply to
Derric

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