Home Brew Questions

[Addy]

Oh fuck. And I thought ale brewing was obsession enough for one man.

Stout and several mini kegs of cider..

Peach wine & plum wine...

Supplies for more wines...

Polish rasberry syrup that makes an excellent wine... and my elderberry wine maturing in the background...

Bags of dried malt and several kits of stout and APA awaiting brewing...

 

[Voley]

 

[Addy]

Plum wine, strained, sugar added and split between 3 DJ's...... 1/2 hr later...

Smelt awesome..

 

[Addy]

Just made up a red grape wine from some juice from Costco... smells wonderful.

I also made another Coopers APA with added Challenger and East Kent Goldingds hops, Elderflowers, demerea sugar and dried malt extract.

I'm supprised my dog isnt dead withh all the co2 comming from the brew cupboard as his bed is opposite it

 

[badseed]

First of the new season kegged, gassed and ready to go.

Second one in the fermenter already - Bright Ale:
1.5 kg IPA can
1.5 kg Blonde malt extract can
150 g Wheat malt
500g cracked carpalis steeped for 30 mins
15g Saaz & Amarillo at flame out
Safale yeast pitched at 16 degrees sitting at 18 now.

I thought the yeast may have been pitched when it was too cold, but it looks ok, there is some condensation forming and the water in the airlock looks like it is being pushed a little bit already.

Amarillo smelled like a nice bag of grass.

 

[Addy]

Amarillo is a nice flavour / aroma hop..... excellent in an APA / IPA

I'm about to order a Bruferm Diabolo kit to get brewed and put away as an winter warmer ale. 7-8% abv and i'll add cinamon/cloves and cinder toffee to the mix while its brewing.

 

[Balbi]

Payday tomorrow. Time for a Wherry kit, and finally get started. My cellars nice and warm, the tumble dryer's down there - possibly too warm?

 

[Addy]

You want to keep a stable 20-22c .. if your fermenter goes too hot the yeast can throw off some funky and fruity esters that are not really welcom in your finished product ( airing cupboard brewers lol)

Beware that Wherry can be a great pint, but has its issues with some brewers....
Getting stuck at 1020 on the hydrometer, leading to a sweet and slow maturing beer, or taking an age to come clear.
I done a wherry once but changed the yeast for a safale yeast and it dropped to 1012 in no time and cleared in 2 weeks.

If you want a good kit that will give you good beer quick, then take a look at the Coopers kits and add a tin/bag od malt to it.

 

[badseed]

My cellars nice and warm, the tumble dryer's down there - possibly too warm?

You want to keep a stable 20-22c .. if your fermenter goes too hot the yeast can throw off some funky and fruity esters that are not really welcom in your finished product ( airing cupboard brewers lol)

A common mistake by new brewers is to brew the beer at too high a temp. In fact the yeast in kits is usually a blend of different types so it will start to ferment across a huge range of temperatures, but because of this it is usually low quality. Stable temperature control, if you can get it, makes a huge difference to your final beer as does replacing the kit yeast.

Airing cupboards or near a fluctuating heat source (tumble drier) should be a last resort.

A few years ago I was given a full Coopers HB kit (fermenter, bottles etc - everything for your first brew) by a neighbour as a thank you present for fixing his PC. I didn't really want it or have any interest in making beer.
I made up the kit (Coopers lager, white sugar) and put it in the fermenter. The instructions said to keep it warm.
So I put it in the spare bedroom and wrapped it in a sleeping bag (in Australia ) and then looked at it every 10 minutes for the next week.

Eventually I bottled it in the plastic PET bottles with a boiled sugar lump thing - tedious process.
I started drinking them after a week. I couldn't believe how good it tasted, or maybe I couldn't believe that it tasted ok and was drinkable at all. I developed a healthy obsession after that which culminated me looking at ridiculous grain milling machines online and trying to grow hops. I think I have it under control now though.

Hmmmm.... not sure what my point was here, I definitely had one when I started typing, maybe something to do with newbie brewing and temperature or airing cupboards. I think I just wanted to tell my story.
I love beer, me.

 

[Voley]

I love beer, me.

Ya reckon?

I used that Wherry kit as my first one, Balbi, and the results were really nice. The main threat to it all going wrong was my inability to stop peering under the lid and let nature take its course. The beginning of this thread is full of Stig's excellent advice telling me to leave it alone ffs.

Always been lucky with temperature here - kitchens aren't the best places usually due to it heating when the cooker's on but mine sits in the corner at a steady 19C and seems to get on very nicely.

 

[mr steev]

I'm just about to start a stout kit. I've got a bucket which holds 40 pints (up to the brim) and intend to make 32 pints. How much action should I expect on the surface? There'll only be a few inches clearance on the top of the bucket and I'm wondering whether it's likely to get very foamy or not?

 

[Addy]

What stout kit?
All my Coopers stout kits end up like this when made up to 20l instead of the 23l
That bucket is 25l capacity

 

[mr steev]

Hmmm, I thought that was what would happen^^ Looks like I'll have to dig out one of my bigger barrels and give it a clean.

It's a John Bull kit I got given for my birthday. I got given 500g of spray malt too and was thinking of mixing that with 500g of brewing sugar... a good idea?

 

[Addy]

sounds about right too me. ​

 

[retribution]

After a one-year break, I started up a Blackwater Bitter kit yesterday, and the airlock is now bubbling away nicely. In the past i've just used ordinary sugar in the secondary fermentaion process, but the instructions on this one call for "either glucose powder or spray malt". Any idea what the difference is?

 

[Addy]

Normal sugar can give a cidery ' homebrew ' taste to the beer and is normally responsible for raging hangovers.
Glucose / dextrose is a more refined sugar, which helps the yeast do its job better and gives a cleaner ethanol (alcohol) while fermenting.
Spray malt / DME / spray dried malt extract is a malted grain sugar, exactly whats in your beer kit (except your beer kit has hops too)
Using DME gives a fuller bodied beer, but doesn't fully ferment out all the sugars, so generally needs to be offset with more hops, unless your aiming for a malty finish to the ale.
BKE is a mixture of maltose and sucrose.

I would be dead against the Tate n Lyle houshold raw cane sugar in all instances, unless you start inverting it and seperating glucose and fructose molecules.
Brewing sugar (glucose powder) gives a cleaner finish, but its still not the best.
BKE - beer kit enhancer is a good step in to raising the ABV of the kit but also retaining body without it finishing too sweet.
DME if you want a full bodied beer.
Confused?

I started a Breferm Diabolo kit today, 9 litres of Belgian 8%abv largerish ale
For that I cooked up a bag of sugar, cup of water and a tsp of citric acid to make inverted sugars - aka candi sugar to try and keep it authentic to the bottled /casked version.

Got a brewferm Grand Cru to put on next week, but i'm currently trying to reculture the yeast from a bottle of Brakspears Tripple - bottle conditioned to use for that project (and to keep the yeast culture going for some extract / biab brews)

 

[retribution]

I ended up using glucose powder from Holland and Barrett, which worked fine (although I put too much in - it's a bit too fizzy for my liking).

A couple of questions for my next brew: I've never racked my beer before - If I'm bottling it, can I rack it in the barrel, and then fill the bottles from the barrel? Or do I need to buy another tub to rack in?

Also, I fancy making my next beer a bit 'christmasy' - was thinking about putting some ginger or cinnamon in there. How would I go about doing that?

Cheers brewers!

 

[Addy]

Racking the brew is just taking the beer/wine off the sediment cake left at the bottom of the fermenter, to give a brighter beer and carry less yeast in to the bottles.
Even if your beer is perfectly clear, there are plenty of live yeast cells still in the beer to give a secondary fermentation, although it might take a little bit longer.
So racking in to a barrel is fine, (add your priming sugar solution to the barrel before siphoning the beer across to help distribute the sugar evenly) but you might find the tap is too fast for filling the bottles.

As for making an xmas ale, they are generally high ABV so I would use 1.5 kilo's of fermentable sugars at a ratio of 1kg of DME and 1/2 kg of Glucose. along with the beer kit (Coopers Dark Ale kit would be ideal), this should give you something around the 6 -6.5% abv
If you want to spice it up, after the main fermentation has happened (first 4 days) I would add a stick of cinamon, 10 cloves, the zest of a couple of oranges and lemons and maybe 1/2 of a star annise... even a touch of corriander leaf might be nice too.
Put it all in to my stainless steel meshed spice ball and drop it in the fermenter for the next 10 days, then rack and bottle.

 

[aqua]

Addy - where is my invite to your place for beer drinking?

 

[Addy]

I did promise you a bottle of sloe gin, but unfortunately the sloes were used in an elderberry & sloe wine

... but I will soon be bottling up about 22 litres of white wine, so I can stick your name on a bottle and drop it off next time i'm going to Ikea or something.

Whats your preference as I will be adding some flavours to the wine in batches?
Strawberry, Peach, Toffee or as is (not tried it yet so can't comment on how it tastes)
sweet, medium or dry?

 

[aqua]

medium strawberry

 

[Addy]

Noted

 

[retribution]

If you want to spice it up, after the main fermentation has happened (first 4 days) I would add a stick of cinamon, 10 cloves, the zest of a couple of oranges and lemons and maybe 1/2 of a star annise... even a touch of corriander leaf might be nice too.
Put it all in to my stainless steel meshed spice ball and drop it in the fermenter for the next 10 days, then rack and bottle.

Thanks for that. Presumably there are issues of sterilisation with this? I was thinking of boiling it all up in a small amount of water first to sterilise, then pour the water + spice ball into the brew, would that work?

In the past I've always waited until the brew reaches the correct gravity before bottling/transfering to barrel, whereas in this instance you are suggesting I should wait a while longer - why is this? Could I just drop the spice ball in at the racking stage?

Thanks again

 

[Voley]

Well the Norfolk Nog that I made a couple of months back has been sampled and very nice it is too. Still just the faintest homebrewwy tinge though so I'm leaving the rest to condition a bit more. Till Xmas I think. It's a proper full-bodied Winter Warmer type ale so it should be good for warming the cockles when the weather's colder.

 

[Addy]

Thanks for that. Presumably there are issues of sterilisation with this? I was thinking of boiling it all up in a small amount of water first to sterilise, then pour the water + spice ball into the brew, would that work?

In the past I've always waited until the brew reaches the correct gravity before bottling/transfering to barrel, whereas in this instance you are suggesting I should wait a while longer - why is this? Could I just drop the spice ball in at the racking stage?

Thanks again

I always leave my brews in the fermenter for 14 days, regardless of how fast the fermentation has gone to let the yeast drop out of suspension so I get minimal amounts in my kegs/bottles, but the first 4 days of fermentation is the most vigorous.
After the krausen has dropped, I would add the 'spice ball'
I have never sterelised hops etc when added as a dry hop to the fermenter, so I would only sterelise the spice ball itself ( I use thin bleach/water solution - 1/2 hr soak)

 

[retribution]

After a hectic week at work and a busy weekend I missed the boat adding the spices when you said I should. Currently I'm at 11 days in the primary, spice-less (oh, and spice-ball-less!). I'm keen to get this ready for Christmas though so ideally want to get it in bottles on the weekend of the 26th November - does this look ok for a timetable?

Day 1: Started brewing
Day 2: Fermentation started.
Day 14: Rack to barrel with sugar and spices (free floating as I don't have the spiceball I thought I had!)
Day 21: Bottle

Apologies for not following your advice Addy!

 

[Addy]

Yeah, it wont hurt to give that a go.... at worst the flavours will be subtle... stuff like this is always trial and error until you get your numbers right.
Although, dont add your priming sugar until the day you bottle it otherwise it will have secondary fermentation in the barrel and it will pour with too much fizz in to your bottles.
You really want the secondary ferment in the bottle to carbonate nicely. (although you will have to be carefull with sediment in the bottles)

 

[wtfftw]

so. If one were to get someone a kit for christmas what would you lot recommend? lager. sorry.

 

[Voley]

so. If one were to get someone a kit for christmas what would you lot recommend? lager. sorry.

Has he made lager before wuffty? ? I'm assuming its a 'he' for sexist reasons obvs. Bitter's easier to do if he's a novice.

 

[Addy]

Has he made lager before wuffty? ? I'm assuming its a 'he' for sexist reasons obvs. Bitter's easier to do if he's a novice.

TBH, as its now the winter months, its an ideal time to be brewing a lager as you need to keep the *fermentation temperature around 13c which is not easy to do during the summer. (*providing your using a true bottom fermenting lager yeast)

But you would need to bottle the lager in good plastic PET bottles, or good thick glass bottles to allow for a good secondary fermentation to get the carbonation levels good.

As for recomending a kit, what does this person enjoy drinking?