Home brewing kits ....

seabiscuit · 30 Apr 2015 at 09:39

Sorry, must have been writing at the same time.

valve90210 said:
Well, I made a start last night, got the kit mixed up with the water and yeast and it's now sitting at about 22C and I'm keeping my fingers crossed...lol

How will I know it's doing anything, it looks like it's just sitting there at the moment...lol

If you have used an airlock, then during fermentation carbon dioxide will be produced. This will bubble through the airlock (depending on the style of airlock and so long as you've put some liquid in it) giving you a good indication that fermentation has been going on.

valve90210 · 30 Apr 2015 at 09:57

Thanks for your replies.

Once I opened the containers with the malt syrup I realised that I'd need to use just boiled water, hadn't realised just how sticky it would be! lol

For this batch I've used just my normal tap water as it's fine for drinking, maybe for my next batch I'll filter it and see if it makes any difference.

I didn't bother with the simering as time was getting on and I figure if it was really important it would have been in the main instructions rather than just in the tips.

For this batch, as I'm in no rush I won't bother with the finings as it's another complication which my newbie brain could do without.

The bottling bucket sounds like a very good idea to me, and I assume racking the brew involves carefull transfering it without disturbing the sediment? Would syphoning it into the new container be a good way of doing this?

I'm using a fairly standard (ie I've seen one before) s type airlock, which I have put some water into (which turned out to be a bit of an artform in itself!!

) How quickly would it be bubbling during fermentation as I've not really had a chance to look for more thana breif look this morning. This evening I shall sit and stare at it!lol

seabiscuit · 30 Apr 2015 at 11:36

Yep, for racking, carefully syphoning it into a second container is ideal.
As for bubbling, probably starting between 12 hours and 2 days. At the start, the yeast is multiplying and multiplying until it reaches a critical mass (kind of) and then it starts fermentation. I believe this is called its lag phase. There's quite a good book all about Yeast and the fermentation process, but I really wouldn't look at anything like that to start with.

This is a pretty good source of information, but it does cover all grain more than kits.
http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

valve90210 · 30 Apr 2015 at 12:39

That will be my plan then, a couple of days before I'm going to be bottling I shall lift the fermentor onto the side to give it time to settle then syphon into a second bucket.

That's good to hear re the bubbling, hopefully tomorrow I'll see bubbles.

One question on the airtrap, does it matter how much water is in it?

seabiscuit · 30 Apr 2015 at 13:13

As to how much, umm, we just put some in. if there's too much it just gets bubbled out onto the top of the lid anyway. Just needs to be enough to give you an idea tha fermentation is goign on, and to stop insects trying to fly/crawl/walk in. Some people use vodka so that if for some reason the liquid gets sucked in, it's already have going to have killed any bateria that might have fallen into the airlock. We tend to take the airlock out when lifting the fermenter to stop it getting sucked into the fermenter.
There is a possibility it won't bubble even if fermentation is going on. If the lid isn't a perfect seal then gasses will escape through the path of least resistance, so if the lid is not quite on fully CO2 can escape from there, rather than bubbling out of the airlock. We've had that happen with older fermenters where the lids have got warped over time. But by that point it's probably as easy/cheap to replace the fermenter as it will have had a lot of use.

valve90210 · 30 Apr 2015 at 13:41

Oh that's good, I managed to get some water in, enough to give me a bit of a 'U' in the air trap which I figured would be ok as it'll be doing it's job.

Is it a problem if the CO2 escapes from a slightly poorly fitting lid or does it not make much difference?

NickK · 30 Apr 2015 at 14:00

I wonder if you can do Lambic cider..

The only thing is hops were originally introduced to kill off the nasty bugs.

seabiscuit · 30 Apr 2015 at 14:08

Could you use aged hops?
http://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/index.php?searchStr=aged+hops&_a=viewCat&Submit=

Mr Badger · 30 Apr 2015 at 14:45

NickK said:
I wonder if you can do Lambic cider..

The only thing is hops were originally introduced to kill off the nasty bugs.

If you put it that way, isn't all traditional cider "Lambic" in style as it uses naturally occurring wild yeast?

oli collett · 30 Apr 2015 at 19:01

Eek, this is a big thread!

I'm looking to brew some beer for this summer. Thinking of trying a single hop american IPA or two to go with my BBQs. Where do I start?

Budget wise I'm happy to spend a few £100 if it gives more consistent results as I end up spending a lot on booze for my usual BBQs.

john_s · 1 May 2015 at 08:19

valve90210 said:
Is it a problem if the CO2 escapes from a slightly poorly fitting lid or does it not make much difference?

For fermenting, no. The CO2 will escape from the bubbler anyway if it was sealed. You don't want too much air getting in, but unless you disturb the fermentation loads, there will be a layer of CO2 sits over the beer anyway.

NickK · 1 May 2015 at 08:28

Mr Badger said:
If you put it that way, isn't all traditional cider "Lambic" in style as it uses naturally occurring wild yeast?

Hmm good point - I've never made cider and assumed that it was added yeast to get a certain taste.

valve90210 · 1 May 2015 at 12:04

Had another check this morning, still no signs of bubbling, temperature a little cooler today so I've wrapped it in another blanket and put the heating on for a bit this morning to keep it around 22C. Fingers crossed it's doing it's thing and will start bubbling soon.

valve90210 · 3 May 2015 at 16:47

Still no sign of bubbles in the air trap...

I've been trying to keep the temperature up but it's dropped about 20c...

I measured the gravity yesterday which was 1.038, and when doing so it smelt very yeasty.

Should I be worried?

seabiscuit · 4 May 2015 at 07:10

It's difficult to say for sure. For the no bubbling from the airlock, I wouldn't worry too much about that. Was there any foam on top of the beer? If there wasn't don't worry too much as the directions you wrote says that there wouldn't be.
Did you measure the original/starting gravity? There's always a possibility that the sachet of yeast was old or stored very badly and it didn't have many viable yeast cells. You could potentially add another sachet of yeast to try and kickstart fermentation.

valve90210 · 4 May 2015 at 15:13

This morning I measured the gravity again, this time it was 1.031 so it's changed a bit over the last couple of days, still got a fair way to go but it does seem to be doing something.

Edit:

Yesterday afternoon, having read the gravity in the morning, I noticed I was getting bubbling every few minutes in the sir lock so it's definitely doing something.

My concern now is that it will be finished over the weekend, which will be a nuisance as I'm away over the weekend. I've read that I shouldn't leave it too long once it's finished fermenting before prime and bottle it but how essential is this?

hamesy · 6 May 2015 at 14:14

I'm looking at brewing another batch of beer. I'm keen on the Youngs Harvest Bitter but fancy a change, any recommendations?

Also does brewing sugar make much of a difference?

seabiscuit · 7 May 2015 at 08:56

valve90210 said:
This morning I measured the gravity again, this time it was 1.031 so it's changed a bit over the last couple of days, still got a fair way to go but it does seem to be doing something.

Edit:

Yesterday afternoon, having read the gravity in the morning, I noticed I was getting bubbling every few minutes in the sir lock so it's definitely doing something.

My concern now is that it will be finished over the weekend, which will be a nuisance as I'm away over the weekend. I've read that I shouldn't leave it too long once it's finished fermenting before prime and bottle it but how essential is this?

Leaving the beer on the yeast for a couple of weeks even shouldn't be much of a problem. In fact leaving it a bit longer will allow more of the yeast to settle, so less excess yeast going into the bottles (don't worry, even if it looks crystal clear there will be enough in suspension for priming the bottles).

hamesy said:
I'm looking at brewing another batch of beer. I'm keen on the Youngs Harvest Bitter but fancy a change, any recommendations?

Also does brewing sugar make much of a difference?

We found that table sugar gives a winey/cidery taste to kits. Brewing sugar should be a cleaner more neutral taste. A brew enhancer kit that uses a mix of brewing sugar and malt should be even better still. Best option are the "premium" kits that come with two cans of hopped malt, so you're not having to top it up with sugars at all (other than priming at the end). Also some of the premium kits include more things, like finishing hops, to give your beer more character still.
We rate the Brewpaks Pride of Yorkshire range pretty highly, but it just depends what you like.

valve90210 · 7 May 2015 at 11:42

Thanks, that's very reassuring!

I've not done anything with it for a couple of days, so I'll probably measure the gravity and move it to where I want it for syphoning into a second bucket for priming to give it plenty of time any sediment to settle. The hopefully when I return on Monday it'll be almost ready for bottling.

hamesy · 7 May 2015 at 14:25

seabiscuit said:
We found that table sugar gives a winey/cidery taste to kits. Brewing sugar should be a cleaner more neutral taste. A brew enhancer kit that uses a mix of brewing sugar and malt should be even better still. Best option are the "premium" kits that come with two cans of hopped malt, so you're not having to top it up with sugars at all (other than priming at the end). Also some of the premium kits include more things, like finishing hops, to give your beer more character still.
We rate the Brewpaks Pride of Yorkshire range pretty highly, but it just depends what you like.

Cheers for that. I'll admit, there's been a few batches that have tasted a little winey but I put it down to me not cleaning the equipment properly.