Muntons Kit

[Artois Andy]

Hi all,

just bottled my first brew and leaving it to sit for a while to improve it. Got the bug now tho and went and bought a Muntons Stella Artois kit, but now I'm confused!

Firstly, the kit came with the LME, 1 x 500g #62 Enhancer, 1 x 500g Wheat Malt, 1 x sachet of Saflager dry lager yeast and 1 x foil sachet with the letters YTB printed on it.

Now the 2 x 500g packets were rock hard and I had trouble getting the blasted things to dissolve, and the little foil sachet isn't mentioned anywhere in the instuctions! Do you think it's yeast that needed adding before I put the lid on or is it finings, and is it normal for this stuff to go hard in storage?

TIA

Artois Andy

 

[andrewl]

If its gone hard I'd say they have gone off/lid wasn't sealed properly. Can't say I've ever come across hard LME from the brewshop before.
It would be yeast under the cap as well

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[Artois Andy]

If its gone hard I'd say some moisture has gotten into the packets somehow. Can't say I've ever come across hard LME from the brewshop before.
It would be yeast under the cap as well

Cheers,

Andrew

The LME was fine, it was the two packets of powdery stuff that were rock hard. My mistake in the OP, they are 500g Wheat Unhopped Spraymalt and 1kg Czech Pilsner # 62 Converter.

There was an 11.5g pack of dry lager yeast, labelled as such and a similar sized foil packet with the letters YTB, but this is not mentioned ANYWHERE, either on the instructions on the LME can, OR is it even listed on the contents of the box!!

Help!

 

[Budron]

pixie dust...definitely....




Sorry, dont know

 

[andrewl]

If or when you open up the small packet... see if its a dark colour or a real light yellow colour. If its dark its yeast (which you have bought saflager anyway) If its a sort of yellow colour its finings (which can be bought for a few bucks at the LHBS)

Cheers,

Andrew

 

[Wisey]

Sounds like a half reasonable kit to be honest.

 

[chadjaja]

The YTB pack is indeed the yeast and I just use the kits yeasts in the boil for nutrients.

 

[Artois Andy]

The YTB pack is indeed the yeast and I just use the kits yeasts in the boil for nutrients.

So do I put the YTB pack AND the Saflager yeast in? I just put the Saflager yeast in (last night) and this morning the airlock is, what you would call, "bubbling furiously"

 

[Dazza_devil]

Limited experience here but it all counts.
I've done 3 Ale Muntons kits, the yeast packs all have had the letters on them. I used 2 of the three kit yeasts and found that they performed quite well. I still have the other in the fridge and personally think it's potentially too good for use as nutrients. I reckon the kit yeast could be a lager yeast but not sure.
I would of used the kit yeast depending on your OG, fermentation temperature and volume of your batch. You could always throw the kit yeast in if it stalls.
What temp are you fermenting at?
I've just started making starters for Lager yeasts, perhaps it may be worthwhile you investigating this procedure if you are fermenting at lager temps.

 

[Artois Andy]

Limited experience here but it all counts.
I've done 3 Ale Muntons kits, the yeast packs all have had the letters on them. I used 2 of the three kit yeasts and found that they performed quite well. I still have the other in the fridge and personally think it's potentially too good for use as nutrients. I reckon the kit yeast could be a lager yeast but not sure.
I would of used the kit yeast depending on your OG, fermentation temperature and volume of your batch. You could always throw the kit yeast in if it stalls.
What temp are you fermenting at?
I've just started making starters for Lager yeasts, perhaps it may be worthwhile you investigating this procedure if you are fermenting at lager temps.

Hiya,

managed to get hold of the guy in the beer shop. He said that it is yeast and shouldn't have even been in the pack!!

Good job I didn't throw it in then!

It's bubbling away like a good'un so all seems well. I've got the fermenters in a nice cool spot under the house. It's all built in but nice and cool. Putting an ice block on top of the fermenters daily which seems to be keeping them at about 20 degrees.

Looking forward to some quality stuff here.

Oh, and having spoken to the beer man, he gave me a recipe for Stella Artois, that is better than the pack, in his opinion. So I started that as well. I've now got 23 litres bottled and another 46 litres on the go.

Come on!

 

[RagingBull]

Mate,

What temp you got your saflager at? (hate for it to get too fruity for ya - as that yeast notoriously does)

 

[Thunderlips]

What temp you got your saflager at? (hate for it to get too fruity for ya - as that yeast notoriously does)

Looks like he said 20 degrees.

Fruity lager for sure

 

[loikar]

Oh, and having spoken to the beer man, he gave me a recipe for Stella Artois, that is better than the pack, in his opinion. So I started that as well. I've now got 23 litres bottled and another 46 litres on the go.

Come on!

And that Recipe was?...

 

[RagingBull]

Looks like he said 20 degrees.

Fruity lager for sure

So he did!


Andy mate, you gotta keep this yeast about ~12 degs plus minus 1degC. Even colder would be preferable. Lets hope your next 46L haven't already begun!

The reason why it was bubbling the bejesus out of the airlock was due to the high ferment temp's.

Perhaps you need to get yourself one of these http://shop.ebay.com.au/i.html?_nkw=fridge

and one of these http://mashmaster.com.au/p/365439/fridgema...roller-kit.html

You can get them from the above-mentioned link or one of the sponsors (whatever is cheaper of course)

 

[Artois Andy]

Mate,

What temp you got your saflager at? (hate for it to get too fruity for ya - as that yeast notoriously does)

It's about 20 degrees where it is. Like I said above, it's pretty cool down here anyway and I'm putting an ice pack on top of the carboy every day. Do I need to be more extreme?

 

[RagingBull]

Fingers crossed for you that everything's ok.. its just with that particular yeast. Fermentation is best suited to 10-12 deg's. If you're reading off the digital stick on thermometers it's anyone's guess (i've found them to read much higher than what they actually are after a while - for instance my fridge has been set at 17deg C for a week say with two ale filled fermenters - the digital stick on says 22-24) however if you have a more reliable source of temperature measurement then you may be in luck with the temp control. I have read most people without fridge controllers actively control their temps by the placement/rotation of 2L frozen pet bottles daily.. an ice pack might not cut it..

 

[Artois Andy]

And that Recipe was?...

Here goes;

3l water to the boil
Added 500g Brewcraft wheat unhopped spray malt & 25g Halpertau hops & boiled for 60 mins
Then added a further 25g of the hops and simmered for a further 10 mins
In the fermenter and added a tin of Cooper Canadian Blonde LME and blended in
Added 500g Brewcraft Dextrose
Added 5 litres extremely chilled water
Topped up fermenter to the 23l mark with cold filtered tap water
(I'm on acreage and have lovely filtered rainwater)
Sprinkled the Saflager yeast on top

It started to bubble slowly after about 12 hours and is now bubbling a bit faster but not as madly as the other batch did. I didn't use the ice cold water trick on that batch tho, although the water was still cold-ish.

So he did!


Andy mate, you gotta keep this yeast about ~12 degs plus minus 1degC. Even colder would be preferable. Lets hope your next 46L haven't already begun!

The reason why it was bubbling the bejesus out of the airlock was due to the high ferment temp's.

Perhaps you need to get yourself one of these http://shop.ebay.com.au/i.html?_nkw=fridge

and one of these http://mashmaster.com.au/p/365439/fridgema...roller-kit.html

You can get them from the above-mentioned link or one of the sponsors (whatever is cheaper of course)

And like all my projects, this one looks like it's gonna spiral wildly out of control, financially. Hey, we ARE talking about beer here tho
6 ice packs in. have now transferred the Stella recipe mix to a large Esky, filled it with water and chucked 6 ice packs in. It's the best I can do at the moment. I'll keep you posted and thanks for all the feedback chaps.

AA

 

[RagingBull]

All the best Andy,

One thing i have found is that lhbs owners will point you in the way of better ingredients, but don't seem to tell you about the finer things which i have in-turn found out here. I just wish i had found this forum sooner than steeping those specialty grains in 100deg C water or making some other mistake one could be totally oblivious to.

Edit: Not generalising, just my experience.

 

[Artois Andy]

Hey guys,

well, I took the advice and went with a frozen 2l PET bottle, and sure enuff, the temp stabilised at 12 degrees. All was good for two days but now the sirlock has stopped bubbling...completely. Has fermentation stalled or finished?

Cheers

Andy

 

[buttersd70]

check the sg. Airlocks lie.