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fishard

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G'day all,

I am yet another new brewer with lots of ?s

I must say that the amount of conflicting info has got me confused :huh:

I have put down a couple of brews and I need to know what temps i should be trying to keep them at?

The brew kits I am using are Morgans stockmans draught.......Coopers larger.....and morgans blue mountins larger. What temp should I ferment these at with the yeast that comes with the kit?

Should my second stage be kept at the same temp?

For the next brew I put down (morgans blue mountins larger) I have picked up some yeast (saflager w34/70) what temp would be good for this?

One brew shop sold me a heater pad and the other said I should give it to my cat........ha ha

I have been searching the site and there is just to much info to wade through. I picked up www.howtobrew.com from here and will be reading it but any help in the mean time would be great!!!!!!!!

From the info that comes with the kit I would think it is around 24C but after reading here i think it should be lower


anyway thanks for any advice, off to read about racking now :blink:

Cheers Russ
 
Hya Russ,

I think I would stick with the HBS owner who told you to give the pad to the cat!

It doesn't matter what yeast in under the lids of the cans: too small a quantity, not kept refridgerated and pretty generic anyway. Buy Safale for ales and Saflager for lagers and see a quantum jump in the quality of your beers. Keep the yeasts in the fridge untill use. The 34/70 is a damn good lager yeast, actually!

Lagers, keep the temp at or under 14C if you can, if not treat them as an ale and ferment 18-20C, nice steady temp. A fermenter standing on a cement floor is cooler than one standing on a bench however low. A blanket (NOT electric) or similar wrapped around the fermenter will keep the temps at 18-20

Jovial Monk
 
Fishard relax and have a beer. Yes yeast and fermentation temperature have an influence on your beer but in many cases less so that some would have you believe. As you brew more beers you will get plenty of opportunities to find out first hand.

I have also not had problems with kit yeasts, of course if they are old YMMV. Keeping a pack of safale and saflager handy (rotate your stock) is good insurance. The only packet yeast I have ever had problems with is Saflager 34/70, I ended up overpitching with regular Saflager after a week of very little action.

I find when good dry yeast is rehydrated (water only, no fermentables) it froths up and I have every confidence that it will work.
 
Russ

The first 2 things I did that improved my beer substantially was to use SAFALE yeast and to rack (syphon) to a secondary fermenter.
I highly recommend SAFALE and SAFLAGER for dried yeast and used them up until this year when I starting using liquid yeasts.
For the SAFALE I tried to keep it at 18C then when fermentation is pretty much over I rack (syphon) to a second fermenter to get the beer off the layer of yeast and leave there for another week at 18C.
The SAFLAGER from memory I fermented at 15C then slowly lowered the temp in my temp controlled fermenting fridge.

Take what the homebrew store owners tell you with a grain of salt. Some are knowledgable with good advice, other have no idea and are just there because they couldn't find a better job!

Hoops
 
How's it going Russ? Good to see another Newcastle brewer on the board. There's a few of us here now...

I agree with what most of the blokes here have already told you. Try some decent dried yeasts like the Saf yeasts, aim to keep your brews at a steady temp within the ranges recommended for the yeasts (18-22 works well for safale in my experience and I also have had really good results in the past with the w34/70 lager at 10-12 degrees), and try to use dried or liquid malt for your fermentables in preference to table sugar. Once you get the hang of that then it's a slippery slope... ;)

Don't sweat it though. Experiment and find out what YOU like. Despite the way it appears early on as long as you are pretty clean in terms of sanitation and keep your brews at a reasonable temp it is pretty hard to really stuff these kits up and brew something undrinkable.

As for the local HBS guys I think I can guess who told you to give the heater to the cat, and in my experience he's the best we have in town. I have no connection to the Mayfield shop in any way, but have had pretty good dealings with him over the years and have learned a helluva lot. He does know what he's talking about, just can come across a bit 'full on' at times.

Good luck,

Shawn.
 
G'day fellas,

thanks for the replies!

This site has a wealth of info.............I found heaps of my ?s answered in fact file!

After reading here for hours i have a better if not still poor understanding of brewing. :D

I am going to put down another brew tomorrow...........here is how I think it will go

1 ferment for about 7days or 3/4 ferment at around 18 - 20c then
2 rack it to a second fermenter for 7 to 14 days then
3 rack it for bulk priming and bottle

I know this is basic but thats where I am at..............how does that sound???

Shawn you picked it in one about the HBS and after what I am getting to know I agree!

One more ? if you rack and bulk prime as above, what would you blokes say would be a minimum before you can crack a bottle??.........keen hahaha!

thanks again Russ
 
Russ,

Everyone has a differnt take on racking. Personally I wait until my brew has finshed fermenting before racking. I've only ever had one stuck ferment so far and that was when I racked before fermentation was finished.

Other than that your plan sounds pretty good. You can drink your beers as soon as they carbonate if you are bulk priming and bottling which depending on temps etc. is usually about 10 days in my experience. They will generally get better with time in the bottle, but it's your beer mate, drink it whenever you like ;) Giving it a 2 week 'secondary' stage before bottling also helps your beer mature meaning you can generally drink them with more confidence earlier than if you've bottled straight from 'primary'.

Good luck,

Shawn.
 
that depends on how good you want it to taste, :) my uncle would almost drink from the fermenter :) YUCK!

but i would say 3-4 weeks make it ok, then 2 months very good, If you last that long well done! (save 6 bottles and try one every 2 weeks (after the first month of waiting) and you will see the improvment!)

some drink as soon as its gassed (about a week) but you might find it very thin in body and flavour Infact maybe just try a stubby at 2 weeks of age, then one each week till you find them drinkable (but save a 6pak as above)

best of luck


ohhh also watch you dont mix to much air with the beer each time you move the beer! and ofcourse keep it all very clean (the more you move beer to different containers there is a increased risk of bugs in the beer)
 
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