I'm new to brewing although I did around 50 coopers lagers kits about 20 years ago...
I've decided to take up brewing again and this time to go a little further and I have a keg setup.
I want to keep it simple to start with so am using can kits but want to do the best kit style brewing possible
I have a few questions and would like opinions from experienced brewers.
I prefer darker malty flavoured beer similar to tooweys old an here are the notes from my log of the second brew.
Here are my questions:
If kegging should I add more dextrose to get my Alc to 5% (target) to make up for not bottling the beer?
The Salfale yeast says best range is 15-20 and I thing my wort temp was too high to start with, I didn't want to delay the pitch, was this a big problem?
If beer improves in the bottle for up to 2 months due to yeast cleaning up the beer, is this process missed b kegging and chilling straight after fermentation?
How important is it to maintain the fermenter temperature at the same temperature as the yeast pitching temp? Would the fluctuation lead to the high final gravity reading?
Does cold crashing the beer kill the yeast and stop the aging process and improvement of the beer?
Should I keg the beer and maintain the temp at the same temp as the fermenter and age the beer in the keg at this temp? Will this improve the beer similar to aging in a bottle?
Any suggestions and advice appreciated!
Cheers
Grunter
I've decided to take up brewing again and this time to go a little further and I have a keg setup.
I want to keep it simple to start with so am using can kits but want to do the best kit style brewing possible
I have a few questions and would like opinions from experienced brewers.
I prefer darker malty flavoured beer similar to tooweys old an here are the notes from my log of the second brew.
I know I buggered this one by forgetting to dissolve the dry ingredients and I'm not sure if that's the reason for not getting a lower final gravity. This has turned out to be quite a nice beer with more flavour than tooweys old and a good creamy head however I believe (going from the coopers formula) that the alcohol is quite light. Also it seems to have a slightly green flavour. I want to do this one again now using my second keg, see if I can improve it.[SIZE=medium]Beermakers old tin [/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Ingredients:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Beermakers old tin best before 9-12-2013[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Yeast Salfale S04 83898 !2-14[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Brewcraft Blend 25 stout booster (Dry malt extract 70%, multidextrose and dextrose)roughly[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Water from fridge filter[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Cascade hops 15 gram pellet bag[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Method:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Brewed as per kit instructions sanitising with bleach and boiling water. Forgot to put dry ingredients in until after water but already had 23l. Just threw it in dry and tried to mix as good as possible and ended up with 24l. Pitched yeast dry on top.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Followed hops pack instructions: 300ml boiling water just off boil, steeped yeast for 10 minutes. Squeezed bag to extract flavour and poured the lot into wort.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Finished temperature of wort at pitch: [/SIZE]24c
[SIZE=medium]Beginning gravity: [/SIZE]1037
[SIZE=medium]Gravity measurements Day/gravity/taste: [/SIZE]Day 3 1030 Tasted good
[SIZE=medium]Gravity measurements Day/gravity/taste: [/SIZE]Day 7 1018
[SIZE=medium]Gravity measurements Day/gravity/taste: [/SIZE]Day 8 1015
[SIZE=medium]Gravity measurements Day/gravity/taste: [/SIZE]Day 11 1014
[SIZE=medium]Gravity measurements Day/gravity/taste: [/SIZE]Day 12 1014 Tasted quite good.
[SIZE=medium]Notes on process:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]Temp dropped to 18 over night with no sign of action. Left at 16-18 for 3 days but not much sign of action. Decided to run heater and Heated back to 23c but not much difference. Left heater off again for a few days then on again for last day but couldn’t achieve lower than 1014. Kegged and chilled on day 13.[/SIZE]
Here are my questions:
If kegging should I add more dextrose to get my Alc to 5% (target) to make up for not bottling the beer?
The Salfale yeast says best range is 15-20 and I thing my wort temp was too high to start with, I didn't want to delay the pitch, was this a big problem?
If beer improves in the bottle for up to 2 months due to yeast cleaning up the beer, is this process missed b kegging and chilling straight after fermentation?
How important is it to maintain the fermenter temperature at the same temperature as the yeast pitching temp? Would the fluctuation lead to the high final gravity reading?
Does cold crashing the beer kill the yeast and stop the aging process and improvement of the beer?
Should I keg the beer and maintain the temp at the same temp as the fermenter and age the beer in the keg at this temp? Will this improve the beer similar to aging in a bottle?
Any suggestions and advice appreciated!
Cheers
Grunter