Help a newb with first brew please.

[Rdyno]

Hi all, I will start from the beginning I bought a starter home brew kit that came with beermakers cold LME and 1kg of sugar. I added all the ingredients and pitched the yeast two days later the wort was inactive sitting at 26deg, so in a panic (being my first brew) I went to the shop and bought a coopers draught LME tin and stole the yeast out of it and pitched that in. The brew started fermenting rapidly and formed a krausen, I checked the gravity a day before pitching the coopers yeast (the second lot) it was 1050, now two days after pitching the coopers yeast it is at about 1015 and the krasuen seems to not be there.

Is this normal? I don't know whether to leave it two more days like recommended or bottle tomorrow, dose the first two days of the wort sitting at 26deg mean anything or dose the fermentation time only start from when I pitched the second lot of yeast? If it hits 1010 specific gravity and the airlock is still bubbling away is it ok to bottle? Is the krausen meant to disappear after two days?

I just knocked all the condensation off the lid and looked in and it is just bubbly on the surface it looks like the whole drum is a pale beer looking liquid, I'm thinking it may be time to bottle tomorrow am I write?

 

[manticle]

You are panicking about nothing.

It is better if yeast starts quicker than 2 days but everything else sounds normal.

It has fermented but may still have a way to go so leaving it a few more days to check stability of gravity (if it drops, it's still fermenting) and to allow the beer to condition will make it better..

One very important thing is that your temperature is too high and the beer may have developed flavours due to the high temperature.
Next one get down to about 18 or so if you can and hold it there for at least 4 days (better if you can keep it there the whole time.

Don't bottle yet - wait and see if gravity drops and give the beer a few days after gravity is finalised to clear and clean itself up.

 

[Rdyno]

stuff

Thanks for the advice I'm planing on setting up a stc1000 for a fridge I have, I wired one up for my dads mate that brews.

 

[philmud]

Thanks for the advice I'm planing on setting up a stc1000 for a fridge I have, I wired one up for my dads mate that brews.

This will improve your beer dramatically, especially if you haven't previously used a swamp-cooler type technique.
Another huge improvement you could easily make is to use a better yeast. The yeast from your tins has been stored poorly and is possibly old (may have contributed to the initial slow/non start). For $5-6 there are excellent dried yeasts that will produce a far superior beer, or, buy a few Cooper's stubbies and reculture their yeast for free!

 

[Rdyno]

This will improve your beer dramatically, especially if you haven't previously used a swamp-cooler type technique.
Another huge improvement you could easily make is to use a better yeast. The yeast from your tins has been stored poorly and is possibly old (may have contributed to the initial slow/non start). For $5-6 there are excellent dried yeasts that will produce a far superior beer, or, buy a few Cooper's stubbies and reculture their yeast for free!

I will be buying a packet of yeast for the tin that I stole the yeast from, any recommendations? I will be buying over the net.

 

[daveHQ]

Try safale US-05 yeast and ferment at 18deg

 

[Rdyno]

Try safale US-05 yeast and ferment at 18deg

Thanks I will try it.

 

[philmud]

Yep, that's what I'd have said. Grab a couple of packs so you can ditch the kit yeast next time too. If you boil it to kill the yeast, you can add it to your fermenter as yeast nutrient (so not a dead waste). Just make sure you're sanitary.

 

[Rdyno]

Yep, that's what I'd have said. Grab a couple of packs so you can ditch the kit yeast next time too. If you boil it to kill the yeast, you can add it to your fermenter as yeast nutrient (so not a dead waste). Just make sure you're sanitary.

Thanks, do you have to bring it to a boil or do you just throw it in when it's boiling and kill them?

 

[philmud]

I'd doubt they'd last long just stirred into a cup of boiling water, but you don't want the buggers being viable, so keeping them at that temperature for a couple of minutes might be safest. Dunno, might be unnecessarily cautious.

 

[Rdyno]

I'd doubt they'd last long just stirred into a cup of boiling water, but you don't want the buggers being viable, so keeping them at that temperature for a couple of minutes might be safest. Dunno, might be unnecessarily cautious.

So if dead yeast is good for brewing, would that mean if I used water and sugar to culture lots of yeast and boiled them I could add that to the brew to feed the good yeast?

 

[philmud]

I don't think it's necessarily a case of more = better. I use a commercial yeast nutrient (probably dry, dead yeast matter) and use 1/2 teaspoon per 23L brew. You could do as you've suggested, but it's possibly overkill. If you're brewing kits you'll always have plenty of "nutrient".

Edit: I meant to say too, you're feeding the yeast the sugar in your malt extract. The yeast nutrient provides some additional nutrition that helps it remain healthy to give you a successful ferment. Think of it as though the sugar is the meat and carbs in the meal. The yeast nutrient is the multivitamin.