First Brew

[steamtrain]

Gday fellow brewers and lovers of beer. my very lovely wife purchased an early chrissy present of a brewing kit for me and was allowed to start brewing, i laid the brew down the sunday just gone and last night decided to take a look, there was this white cakey layer settling at the bottom of the fermenter and also what looks like brown bird poo sitting on top of the froth, someone please reassure me this is normal, im worried as i think i put the yeast in when it was too hot. So looking fowarded to tasting my first brew.



Cheers,

 

[wbosher]

Haha, sounds pretty normal to me, although I'm only a few brews ahaead of you so I'm no expert either. Never heard of it being refered to as bird poo before. :lol:

 

[Diesel80]

Gday fellow brewers and lovers of beer. my very lovely wife purchased an early chrissy present of a brewing kit for me and was allowed to start brewing, i laid the brew down the sunday just gone and last night decided to take a look, there was this white cakey layer settling at the bottom of the fermenter and also what looks like brown bird poo sitting on top of the froth, someone please reassure me this is normal, im worried as i think i put the yeast in when it was too hot. So looking fowarded to tasting my first brew.



Cheers,

Welcome to the slippery slope steamtrain.

Any chance you could provide more details of the process you followed?
Ingredients, method, how you cleaned / sterilised your brewing gear etc?
Temperature it is fermenting at etc...

Sounds normal but some more information may allow others to provide more specific feedback.

PS if your first beer is an EPIC disappointment, never fear this is completely 'normal'.
Just refine your process / ingredients and get back on that horse.
Stacks of information on this site to help you make top beer.

PPS - did you follow the instructions under the lid in the Tin? - if so, you could be in for a bit of a shock....

Cheers
D80

 

[steamtrain]

First thanks for your quick responses.

I got a Coopers DYI kit it had a Larger included with Brew Enhancer 1kg, i had the can in hot water to soften it then put in two litres of boiling water and dissolved the brew enhancer, the i open the can poured it and mixed i also filled the can with hot water a few times to get all the beery goodness from it, i topped the fermenter with hot water to 20ltrs and started adding cool water to drop the temp down i think the temp was at about 30 degress celcius, i then took a hydrometer reading that read 1.035 then put the krossen (not sure on spelling) collar and sprinkled yeast and put the lid on. The temperature dropped pretty fast and hovered around 16-20 degrees, i cant hear anything going on but ther is condensation on the lid.


As i had not used the kit before i just rinsed the fermenter & tap with hot water. I know i will have to use bleach next time.

I have also resisted the urge to stir, i was talking to my day who says he gives it a stir after a few days but im not so sure. I have lifted the lid once to check it out and smell it (i have trouble smelling so needed close examination) it smells alright.


When should i start measuring the gravity each day?



Thanks Again

 

[wbosher]

I've got one of those kits too, and you're ok to just rinse it out the first time. Others will disagree, and it certainly would have been a good idea to sanitise it, but you should be ok there. I'm pretty sure I just rinsed mine the first time and had no problems.

30 is pretty high but you said the temp dropped quickly so should be ok there too. Although I understand that high temp can cause some off flavours, but if you sense of smell is anything like mine (****), you probably won't notice.

As there is no airlock to judge if the fermentation is near complete, I generally just leave it for about seven days then take a reading. Then another one then next day. Leave in the fermenter for two weeks - ignore the instructions.

Sanitising - GET STARSAN!!!! I just used it myself for the first time on my last brew, saved so much time and mucking around...GET IT.

 

[Diesel80]

First thanks for your quick responses.

I got a Coopers DYI kit it had a Larger included with Brew Enhancer 1kg, i had the can in hot water to soften it then put in two litres of boiling water and dissolved the brew enhancer, the i open the can poured it and mixed i also filled the can with hot water a few times to get all the beery goodness from it, i topped the fermenter with hot water to 20ltrs and started adding cool water to drop the temp down i think the temp was at about 30 degress celcius, i then took a hydrometer reading that read 1.035 then put the krossen (not sure on spelling) collar and sprinkled yeast and put the lid on. The temperature dropped pretty fast and hovered around 16-20 degrees, i cant hear anything going on but ther is condensation on the lid.


As i had not used the kit before i just rinsed the fermenter & tap with hot water. I know i will have to use bleach next time.

I have also resisted the urge to stir, i was talking to my day who says he gives it a stir after a few days but im not so sure. I have lifted the lid once to check it out and smell it (i have trouble smelling so needed close examination) it smells alright.


When should i start measuring the gravity each day?



Thanks Again

I wouldn't worry about it for the moment.
16-20 degrees is a good temperature for fermentation with a kit yeast (that is most likely and Ale yeast strain - despite the can being labelled lager).

I would take a reading now and note it down.
Then another in 3 or so days, then 2 days after that, followed by daily until it reads the same 3 days running.

That will give you about 10-14 days fermenting which is generally good practice.
If your reading is the same in 3 days as it is today and is stuck around about 1.018-1.020 then you may need to read up on 'Stuck Fermentation' - use the google search link on this site. You will find heaps of tips if needed.

I would suggest going to a TouCan brew next, a play on "Two Cans", search TouCan on the forum search for more info. Combine this TouCan brew with a non kit Ale yeast from the local HBS and you will notice a difference immediately in your beer vs your first batch.

Also I will add 1 more tip, for Sanitation check out No Rinse sanitiser, a popular one is StarSan. Available from some of the site sponsors. Lots of brewers use this for Sanitation.

For cleaning (different to sanitation) lots of brewers use Unsented Napisan. The Coles brand is good value. Cleans a fermenter up well even after the messiest of ferments. Remeber - clean first, then sanitise

I will try not to bombard you with too much information straight up as it will take you a few brews to learn how to get the best out of kit brewing. There are some great posts on this site with regards to improving kits. So be sure to utilise the search function and read up.

One step at a time steamtrain. Soon enough you will wonder why you never started this brew caper earlier.

Cheers,
D80

 

[FuzzyDropbear]

Sounds pretty normal to me, I usually have mine in the fermenter for around 14 days before I start taking hydrometer readings (gives it time to do it's thing and clean up some byproducts of fermentation).

If you are going to use bleach, just be sure to rinse the living daylights out of it, you don't want your next batch to taste like it..

Also, try and leave the lid on, the more you open it, the higher the risk of introducing nasties to your brew.

Good luck with it, I'm sure it'll turn out fine.

 

[steamtrain]

Thanks all, i will show some paitience and wait it out, i will let you all know how it goes and post photos of my hopefully tasty, golden looking joy that is beer.

 

[thrillho]

Hi guys!

Won't open up a new thread, but thought I should put my question in here.

I'm onto brew number two, I was slightly impatient with brew number one (the Cooper's lager with the DIY bundle) so I thought I'd let number 2 sit for a while.

Some info:

Black Rock Pilsner Can
1kg Pale Ale kit converter #76 from (liquor/brewcraft)
12g Cascade pellets simmered for 2 minutes then 15 minutes flame off.

Mixed it up, let it sit, it's now seven days in and at around 1.013 creeping down at only .001 a day the last couple of days.

But the brew has gone a little strange I think. I'm not freaking out, but it's curious.

It's quite cloudy and light down the bottom, but clear (almost jelly like- there are two levels of particles, the bubbles and then what looks like yeast about an inch below)

Is this normal? Smells... not as good as yesterday, but tastes fine still- for a wort/beer.

Does this mean I leave it a few more days? Give it a swirl?

Thanks!!

 

[Black Devil Dog]

thrillo,

It seems ok to me, I would let it continue do it's thing and check the gravity again every couple of days, it won't hurt to leave it in the fermenter for a bit longer, but you don't want to bottle too early. Be patient.

You are definitely on the right site for learning more about your great new hobby, keep reading and asking and mostly people will be helpful.

 

[Blitzer]

Your FV looks quite clean, no krausen mark after it settled? The beer also looks delicious.. if you want to bottle and send it my way I'll taste test a few for you just to make sure.

 

[thrillho]

Your FV looks quite clean, no krausen mark after it settled? The beer also looks delicious.. if you want to bottle and send it my way I'll taste test a few for you just to make sure.

The FV at the top has cleared a bit more than my post yesterday, still a very noticeable difference between the hazy bottom and the reddish top. I fear the SG readings would be different for the top, clear area, because it's now stuck at 1.015-14 for the third day now.

(Took the Krausen collar out after day 3-4) Still tastes fine, again, only the hazy stuff though...

I don't want to bottle it and have two different beers- hazy and clear.

Why is it like this?

 

[Blitzer]

The FV at the top has cleared a bit more than my post yesterday, still a very noticeable difference between the hazy bottom and the reddish top. I fear the SG readings would be different for the top, clear area, because it's now stuck at 1.015-14 for the third day now.

(Took the Krausen collar out after day 3-4) Still tastes fine, again, only the hazy stuff though...

I don't want to bottle it and have two different beers- hazy and clear.

Why is it like this?

I don't know why it is like this, my guesses would be if you shaken the fermenter and stirred the cake on the bottom?
Like previously suggested I would just give it more time to settle.

What yeast did you use? How much did you pitch?

If you believe your ferment is stuck there is multiple articles around to kick it back into shape.

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...;showarticle=42

 

[mosto]

Hi thrillo,

TBH, it looks perfectly fine to me, but if you're worried about there's a couple of things you could do. Firstly, once fermentation has finished, you could move it to a fridge and cold crash it for a few days. This will hellp it clear up nicely. Secondly, when you bottle you could bulk prime the batch by mixing up the appropriate amount of sugar / dex (put 'Bulk Priming' in the google search, you'll find tonnes of info), put the priming solution into a second vessel, and rack the beer onto it. When you rack the beer it will mix up and distribute any perceived haziness through the batch.

Cheers,