Home brewing kits ....

JonB · 27 Sep 2010 at 19:06

Hello first homebrew transfer! I don't really know what I was worrying about with the syphon, it was a piece of cake. Do I have it the right way round? I had to tilt the bucket towards the last 1/5th to get it out. The clear plastic bit wasn't long enough. I left a little bit of liquid at the bottom of the bucket, along with the sludge, and threw that away.

(Yuck, Sludge)

So here's the first taster glass I drew. Has a good colour, but is a little cloudy. The woman in the homebrew shop in sheffield told me to add ~3oz (6 table spoons) of sugar to the bottom of my king keg. This (apparently) starts the reaction going a bit to build up CO2 in the keg and force the beer out. (It also has a float thing in the keg).

I assume as I leave the keg to settle, the cloudiness should go?

SourChipmunk · 27 Sep 2010 at 19:18

As far as the sludge (slurry, actually), hopefully you have a proper racking cane with an inverted tip at one end. This will help keep a lot of it out of your product.

Cloudiness is a natural part of homebrews. You can reduce this by performing an additional transfer from one fermentation vessel to the next. Typically, I would go from a primary to secondary fermentation, then rack to a new bucket (with the addition of the priming sugar) prior to bottling.

The woman in the shop was correct: use 1/2 cup corn sugar (not cane sugar) in the final. Boil this in 1 cup water until disolved, but permit it to cool down to 38 C before putting it in, though, else it will kill the yeast.

When you brew more, you'll find you can save the slurry in a zip-loc sandwich bag and store it in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. This will contain live yeasties that can be used again in a similar batch of brew, saving cost on one of the most expensive parts of homebrewing.

JonB · 27 Sep 2010 at 21:58

She said the type of sugar didn't matter, so its a bit too late. I also didn't boil it with water before hand. She didn't say anything about that. I just threw it in the bottom of the barrel. Either way its producing CO2 again, the pressure has built up.

I think i might have a sneaky cloudy pint of beer while I sit infront of the tele.

Just to confirm the main factors of cloudiness are to do with moving the barrels about? If I leave it to stand it should clear on it's own?

Pate · 27 Sep 2010 at 22:25

What strength does it turn out at on average? Would prefer stronger stuff if I was to give this a go

Energize · 27 Sep 2010 at 22:34

JonB said:
Why do you need to hide it? It's perfectly legal. No different to baking a cake. You wouldn't hide a cake from the landlord, would you?

Baking a cake doesn't require the use of large amounts of electricity included in the rent bill though. Besides, most people think you are making bombs if they see a glass beaker in your house due to Labours scare campaign.

JonB · 27 Sep 2010 at 22:44

Lolwhut? Less electricity making a cake? I boiled my kettle twice, if that.

JonB · 27 Sep 2010 at 22:45

kenmare said:
What strength does it turn out at on average? Would prefer stronger stuff if I was to give this a go

My first lot turned out to be 4.9%. My grandad said he used wine yeast in his day for a higher ABV.

Energize · 27 Sep 2010 at 23:47

JonB said:
Less electricity making a cake? I boiled my kettle twice, if that.

You boil water in order to chill? Unusual I must say.

JonB · 28 Sep 2010 at 00:21

Energize said:
You boil water in order to chill? Unusual I must say.

Hot water to dissolve the sugar and the beer mix. Using cold water to top up the 5 gallons brings the water temp nicely to 24'c for adding the yeast.

GarethSouthgate · 28 Sep 2010 at 03:29

How much nicer is home brewed stuff than usual cheap lagers? Fosters, Becks etc.

HeadlessChicken · 28 Sep 2010 at 08:48

sigma said:
How much nicer is home brewed stuff than usual cheap lagers? Fosters, Becks etc.

Depends what you like to drink.

Very good quality Ales, Bitters, Stouts and Trappist beers are easy to make at home. I drink mine over shop bought stuff any day of the week.

High quality lager is a bit more difficult, if that's all you drink (but not impossible, even without chilling equipment etc).

Energize · 28 Sep 2010 at 18:02

JonB said:
Hot water to dissolve the sugar and the beer mix. Using cold water to top up the 5 gallons brings the water temp nicely to 24'c for adding the yeast.

Lager is fermented at 0-5 degrees however.

Ahleckz · 2 Oct 2010 at 17:04

So, just finished my first week at Brewdog. It's pretty much the same as homebrewing, but on a much larger scale. Sodding hard work though! Glad to see the pictures here, it looks good. Good to see other people getting into it!

Dribbles · 2 Oct 2010 at 19:24

Question:

I've set up my first ever brew in the fermentation vessel, it doesn't have a bubbler - how long will it take for the pressure to build up and how often should I open the lid to let CO2 out?

aceface57 · 2 Oct 2010 at 19:28

Ahleckz said:
So, just finished my first week at Brewdog. It's pretty much the same as homebrewing, but on a much larger scale. Sodding hard work though! Glad to see the pictures here, it looks good. Good to see other people getting into it!

Did you apply for one of the jobs going there then?

PlacidCasual · 2 Oct 2010 at 20:04

Dribbles said:
Question:

I've set up my first ever brew in the fermentation vessel, it doesn't have a bubbler - how long will it take for the pressure to build up and how often should I open the lid to let CO2 out?

Unless you're brewing in a pressure vessel like a barrel the pressure will tend to release itself so don't worry too much. The downside of that is the pressure will distort the bucket lid. I tend just to peel back the lid edge a fraction once a day to let some CO2 out and I get by ok

john_s · 5 Oct 2010 at 11:29

Dribbles said:
Question:

I've set up my first ever brew in the fermentation vessel, it doesn't have a bubbler - how long will it take for the pressure to build up and how often should I open the lid to let CO2 out?

I just don't snap down the last bit of the lid on my FV.

Glaucus · 5 Oct 2010 at 12:28

I'm still waiting for my licorice

, how long can you keep live yeast for in those test tube bottles before it dies?

JonB · 6 Oct 2010 at 23:20

Any tips for getting the "King Keg" to seal properly? (I've just set the second lot of beer going in the FV). With the first lot I was struggling with getting it to retain CO2. Plus I'm not even sure that it was producing that much CO2; Was leaving my first batch in the FV for 10 days too long? Will the yeasties die without sugar or if they are left too long?

john_s · 7 Oct 2010 at 09:22

JonB said:
Any tips for getting the "King Keg" to seal properly? (I've just set the second lot of beer going in the FV). With the first lot I was struggling with getting it to retain CO2.

Did you use vaseline on the seals?

JonB said:
Plus I'm not even sure that it was producing that much CO2; Was leaving my first batch in the FV for 10 days too long? Will the yeasties die without sugar or if they are left too long?

It'll be fine at 10 days in the FV.