Home Brew Questions

[existentialist]

Flip tops are the best solution as you can keep them clean and sterile very easily.
Once you open a bottle, wash it out immediately, have a spray bottle of Videne solution handy and give the bottle interior a good squirt and reseal.
Next time you fill them up, just empty out the Videne and your ready to go.

The ultimate solution is to have a keggorator and some cornies.

I must admit - and this is probably superstition rather than science - I don't think I would ever bottle beer into anything other than a freshly-sanitised bottle.

However, I am intrigued by this Videne stuff - I haven't come across that, and it sounds a lot easier than iodophor or sodium percarbonate.

 

[Addy]

Vidine is surgical hand wash.
Used at a low PPM (I use 1ml per litre) it is harmless and tasteless if ingested.
Approximately £6 for 500ml so it will last a long time.

I use it primarily for sanitising my corny kegs as it doesn't attack the stainless steel like chlorine based sanitisers.

As cornies are only 19l capacity I generally bottle up whats left over and have used this system for a couple of years now with no bad beer.

 

[butcher]

I've been using Videne from word go, great stuff, no rinse, no problems and cheap.

 

[fractionMan]

I like the sound of videne

 

[existentialist]

I like the sound of videne

I'm on friendly terms with the staff in the local Lloyds. I think a word needs to be had

 

[Dovydaitis]

These look promising: 1 litre flip top bottles for £1.75 each. Ikea.

http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/30213552/

I use these, great for my spirits. The glass is pretty decent and have yet to have a leaker.

 

[fractionMan]

In the end I've just bought 20l of fizzy tap water from morrisons. £1.80. Can't really argue with that and the labels come off really easily. Only way they could be better is if they were green not clear.

Just added some finings tonight and will bottle up some hopefully crystal clear lager tomorrow. 3 tsp of sugar per 2l bottle sound about right? I'm going to give them 2 inches headroom from the top of the bottle.

Is it a good idea to squeeze the bottle before putting the cap back on to remove the air?

 

[Mapped]

3 tsp sounds about right for priming. I'm not sure about removing all the headroom, doesn't that give the CO2 somewhere to go that isn't liquid?

I had a bit of a result on gumtree and I've got too many bottles, about 250 750ml brown glass bottles in my back yard and I intend to have a good go at filling them this aussie winter.

What are people's thoughts on racking off to a second FV before bottling? I'm reading a lot of conflicting opinion on various home brew sites. At the moment I have a turbo apple/raspberry cider that has just finished and needs either racking off or bottling, a wherry that will finish fermenting this weekend and an empty FV. I'm wondering if these would benefit from racking off into a secondary or if I can just bottle them straight from the primary.

I've got a Black Rock wheat beer kit and a couple of cheapo coopers kits to go on after these are emptied.

I like the sound of videne

Me too. Can't seem to find it in Aus though. I'm using StarSan at the moment, which seems a lot more expensive.

 

[existentialist]

In the end I've just bought 20l of fizzy tap water from morrisons. £1.80. Can't really argue with that and the labels come off really easily. Only way they could be better is if they were green not clear.

Just added some finings tonight and will bottle up some hopefully crystal clear lager tomorrow. 3 tsp of sugar per 2l bottle sound about right? I'm going to give them 2 inches headroom from the top of the bottle.

Is it a good idea to squeeze the bottle before putting the cap back on to remove the air?

I always squeeze the bottle, yes. It serves two purposes: first of all, it means that there's no oxygen in the bottle, which is a good thing. Secondly, it's a handy way of making sure that conditioning has started, as the bottle will "inflate".

I think 2 inches' headroom might be a bit generous, though: I generally fill until the liquid is about 2cm from the top of the neck (ie, most of the way up the shoulder of the bottle), then loosely apply the lid, squeeze gently until a tiny bit of beer leaks out, and tighten down the lid.

Mapped - we're talking about squashy plastic bottles here, so the headspace will reappear as the CO2 comes out of the beer and fills the gap, inflating the bottle back to its usual size.

 

[Addy]

Personally I wouldn't bother removing the air from the top of the bottles for 2 reasons.
1. CO2 is heavier than air and as such will protect your beer from the air (providing your not shaking the bottles up)
2. You want to create a large pressure build up in the bottle so the CO2 becomes absorbed in to the beer to give it fizz, you will lose that extra CO2 if it is merely sitting on top of the beer. (especially for a fizzy brew like lager or cider)

You will be able to determine how well the secondary ferment is doing just by squeezing to test the firmness of the plastic bottles.

 

[existentialist]

Personally I wouldn't bother removing the air from the top of the bottles for 2 reasons.
1. CO2 is heavier than air and as such will protect your beer from the air (providing your not shaking the bottles up)
2. You want to create a large pressure build up in the bottle so the CO2 becomes absorbed in to the beer to give it fizz, you will lose that extra CO2 if it is merely sitting on top of the beer. (especially for a fizzy brew like lager or cider)

You will be able to determine how well the secondary ferment is doing just by squeezing to test the firmness of the plastic bottles.

I'd respectfully disagree here. First of all, there's going to be no shortage of CO2 - the gaseous CO2 in the headspace will represent only the tiniest proportion of the total amount of CO2 being produced. Secondly, the oxygen and CO2 won't just sit on top of the beer in nice convenient layers - they'll mix.

To be fair, the amount of oxygen in the headspace is not a massive concern when it comes to the risk of the beer spoiling, but I take the view that homebrewing is a random enough activity that it's probably worth making the effort to eliminate problems where possible, and squeezing all the air out of the bottle is such a straightforward activity that it seems silly not to.

And if you're really concerned about a shortage of CO2, sling another few grains of sugar in. Yes, really: a few grains.

We usually measure the amount of CO2 dissolved in the beer as "volumes" - 1 volume being a litre of gaseous CO2 dissolved in a litre of beer. Typically, for fizzy lagers, you're looking at 2-3 volumes, so in a 2 litre PET, that's 4-6 litres of dissolved CO2 (I wouldn't want to open a 3 volume beer in an enclosed area, mind!!!).

The rule of thumb is that it takes 4g of sucrose to produce 1 volume of CO2. That space in the top of the bottle represents maybe 5cc, or 0.005 litres. So that space can be safely accommodated by the addition of a couple of crystals of sugar

 

[Addy]

The OP had suggested leaving a 2" headspace in the bottle, which if it is a large rounded 2l (typical pop bottle) this would equate to about 1/2 of 1 volume.

The beer should be carbonated to approximately 2.8 volume
The beer should already carry over 0.8 volume of co2 from primary which would leave you requiring 7.3g of sucrose per 2l to achieve the target.

This is a good guide for anyone who is uncertain as to priming sugars and volumes etc

http://byo.com/resources/carbonation

Personally, I force carbonate my ales at 5 PSI at a refridgerated temperature of 8c

 

[existentialist]

The OP had suggested leaving a 2" headspace in the bottle, which if it is a large rounded 2l (typical pop bottle) this would equate to about 1/2 of 1 volume.

The beer should be carbonated to approximately 2.8 volume
The beer should already carry over 0.8 volume of co2 from primary which would leave you requiring 7.3g of sucrose per 2l to achieve the target.

Yes, I think leaving 2" of headspace is overdoing it a bit: I think I pointed that out in my initial response to him. I did type in a bit of a thesis on the whole dissolved CO2 issue, but decided to leave it out in the end - suffice it to say that if he's putting 3 teaspoonsful into each bottle, a shortage of CO2 is not going to be his main problem!

 

[fractionMan]

I've completed the bottling. Left about 2 cm at the top then squeezed out the air before screwing the cap on. 3 tsp per bottle, I just hope the bottles can cope. The first 9 bottles were fine, but had a problem with the getting out the last of the beer without sediment. I guess that's always going to be the case.

Tastes pretty good already. It's expired coopers ausie lager + light wheat spraymalt.

Cheers for all the advice!

 

[butcher]

Just kegged a Coopers English bitter with a can LME, 200g cyrstal malt partial mash and dry hopped with Whitbread Goldings, the sample jar was magnificent!

 

[friedaweed]

Heeds up brewers

Tesco's got all their homebrew kit reduced

They've got the coopers starter kit for about 50 sovs which is pretty canny if you're starting out. All the coopers ale kits and the geordies are reduced. Got me some of those lazy ass bottle drops and some 500ml pet bottles for £7 a box.

 

[fractionMan]

Dammit. No tescos near here!

 

[fractionMan]

My lager + wheat malt turned out amazing btw. 3 teaspoons per 2 litres was just about right. Could have gone to 4 I think, but 3 was fine. Shame there's no way to get rid of the sediment as the first 3 pints from the bottle are fine but the last really cloudy.

 

[existentialist]

Just racked off the California Common to keg for Saturday's Spousal Sexagenarian Shindig on the beach...

 

[TopCat]

Well we have drunk all of it. The cider was good, the pear cider ok to good and the beer OK. The wine was foul though.

 

[mr steev]

My mate dropped round a shit load of bottles last night (still probably need more though!) ready for a monster bottling session - we have just shy of 17 gallons of damson wine!!

 

[Mapped]

Just opened a couple of my apple/raspberry turbo ciders that I bottled on 26/05 and they already taste great 7.74% as well so two's enough for a sunday night

This week I'll be bottling an Aussie pale ale and a wheat beer with orange and cinnamon, putting on another cider and a Choc/Coffee/Vanilla stout based on the coopers kit (which are dirt cheap over here)

My brewing has taken over my laundry room I've never had the luxury of one before, so I'm making good use of it.

Got a couple of wines on the go also. 10 litres of orange/passion fruit and 10 of coffee/vanilla. The coffee one went pop this week all over the walls.

 

[Mapped]

My lager + wheat malt turned out amazing btw. 3 teaspoons per 2 litres was just about right. Could have gone to 4 I think, but 3 was fine. Shame there's no way to get rid of the sediment as the first 3 pints from the bottle are fine but the last really cloudy.

Serve it in a jug, pour carefully and keep the sediment in the bottle?

 

[sim667]

I want to put my second brew on....... the only problem is doing in a mates cellar who doesnt answer his phone for two weeks at a time is a right bugger........

Would it be alright to do it in my garden at this time of year? Im guessing it'll be warm enough.

 

[mr steev]

Would it be alright to do it in my garden at this time of year? Im guessing it'll be warm enough.

It may be a bit too warm tbh. It depends on what you're brewing though. Most ales should be around 70F/21C but the fermentation process can add a few degrees on top. A shed should be ok I would've thought, but maybe not for lager

 

[sim667]

It may be a bit too warm tbh. It depends on what you're brewing though. Most ales should be around 70F/21C but the fermentation process can add a few degrees on top. A shed should be ok I would've thought, but maybe not for lager

Yeah it would be for lager.

Thats a bugger.... although my mum and dad are home soon and they have a very big garage.

 

[mr steev]

I've not done it myself, but many people brew lager in a fridge. It will still ferment at higher temperatures but will not taste good

 

[mr steev]

There are some posts about brewing lager in a fridge on this thread http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/quick-home-brew-question.209938/

 

[fractionMan]

How does anyone distinguish between the umpteen lager/pilsner/cerveza kits out there?

My coopers australian turned out great (with extra malt) but I only picked it cos it was half price.

 

[sim667]

I definately do not have a fridge big enough.

I reckon a garage will be fine though.