My Homebrew!

[Jaydee]

Right.

So I've been reading here for about a half a hour now taking it all in. Alot of great tips and advice. Thanks heaps to everyone, this is great.

So we've (my brother in law and myself) have done countless brews now over 3 or 4 years. Only out of kits, we're far from pro's. lol we have about 1000 crownies, ginger beer & old pickaxe longnecks & stubbies. Thinking about going to kegs soon. bottles are handy, but alot of work. can't really drag a keg with you everywhere you go that easily.

I still have a few questions, which i'm sure have been asked countless times on here, but like I've said i haven't been on here that long. Easier to start a new post.

We've found recently that our brews are improving ten fold. We used to just use dextrose, but we're off that now and onto this "brew enhancer". Sometimes the coopers stuff, or the i dunno...no name stuff from the brew shops. so ya. Good stuff.

I think the other plus we've got going is i've got a pit in my workshop. it used to be a mechanics shop at one stage. All our bottled beer lives down there and the temp doesn't shift more than 1 degree. not even in the dead of summer. a definate plus.

I've read on here that the fermentation in the barrel should be steady. Ours doesn't jump around too much i don't think. 18-24 degrees i'd say. right now they just sit on a bench in my workshop and old eagle eye here keeps a pretty close eye on it with blankets and a heat cord. I do have a old fridge i'm going to start putting the barrel in to help that situation out. good tip. *thumbs up*

I have read on here that brews can be done at what i think is pretty low temps. 8-10 i thought i read on here. what's the go with that?? The instructions on the kits says to brew it at 18-28 kind of thing. pretty big spread i thought.

Now yeast.

what's the ideal temp to add the yeast?? once again the cans say 18-28. big spread.

I got talking to a friend of a friend, and he reckons we'd be better off throwing away the yeast that comes with the kits and getting our own. Never got to the stage of asking from where or what type. What does everyone think of that suggestion?

Cleanliness. I'm the better of the two. My brother in laws motto on this is "ah ya gotta have a few f*&% ups!..." lol The bottles are pretty clean to start with. After we drink them they get rinsed with hot water to get the sediment and whatnot out. I've built some new dust proof (as it can get in a joinery shop) cabinets that we then put the "clean & dry" bottles in till we bottle. In the benchtop is a double bowl sink. When we bottle one bowl is full of hot water and cleaning agent. the bottles get a couple min hot bath then a cold rinse in the other bowl to get the detergent out obviously. Is this enough?? would people recommend more?? can't say we have any contamination problems. are they in there long enough to even do anything??

once it's fermented, how long can you leave it in the barrel before you bottle it? between the two of us something is always coming up.

I always chuck the hydrometer in the barrel too. cleaned of course. but exactly how naughty is this?

Finally, honey. I've had store bought honey lager before and some of it is quite nice. I'm about to put down another brew in a couple days and i'm gunna have a crack at it. Question is how much?? Been talking to people and they all say different things. I guess i'm worried about putting too much in more than anything else. I'm tempted to put in the kilo of sugar (brew enhancer) and a kilo of honey. people i talk to say to put in 500g sugar & 500g honey to make up the 1kg to do the single brew. (kit out of a can). So what's everyone think? who's done this before??

Sorry for the long post. Thanks in advance for any input.

Cheers,

~J.

 

[kelbygreen]

ok the 8-10 is "proper" lager yeast, but its more like 10-12 (depending on the strain). The ideal temp to add yeast is around 20deg for ales and well for lagers many do different things I add at about 16deg and bring it down slow so it gets its feet to kick off.

The kit yeast (well coopers) I found is ok but they give you 6g of yeast where good yeast is 11g. homebrew shops should (but may not) stock them but watch out for the used by date, I buy mine from HBS and craftbrewer. The type of yeast depends what you are brewing but a sure thing for a start is us-05 for ales and s-23 for lagers, Make sure us-05 ferments at 18-20deg and s-23 10-12deg can use good yeast and still make crap beer if the temps arnt right.

I would recommend not only with your bottles but fermenter to doing what I do (may be over the top but no infections yet). after drinking bottles rinse twice then they go in a empty fermenter filled with half a cap of napisan and filled with water (always have one laying around), then they soak till the next night before I pour a beer I drag the bottles out and rinse 3 times and onto the bottle tree, come bottling day I fill the fermenter (about 25lts) with water and put 10ml per 5lts of bleach and the same of white vinegar (put bleach in then fill about 5lts then add the vinegar never mix vinegar and bleach together) then soak for 5mins (3 is EPA recommended) then rinse 3 times and on the bottle tree.

After Fermentation I rinse the trub out and pour onto the trees and then get as much loose crap out as I can by shacking it with water in. Then remover the tap, pull the tap apart (thread here some where one it) throw the tap and bottling wand in the fermenter, put the bung in and half a cap of napisan fill to the top and leave for 2-3 days. empty 3/4 of the solution and if there is some caked on stuff shake the fermenter (never had caked on stuff after 2 day soak) and it should be that clean you will not have to rub a surface to clean it. Then again 5lts of water in the bottom 10ml of bleach, 10ml of vinegar then shake it up. then make beer and every few mins walk over and shake fermenter to coat the sides with solution. After beer is made and cooled empty fermenter and rinse 3 times then put the tap back together and remove bung replace with tap then start making beer

after fermented I drop temps to 4deg to drop yeast and crap out of suspension and leave for 5-7 days. I heard people leaving for months with no worries. Actually the longer you leave it the better it will be (will mature faster and better in bigger batches).

the hydrometer in the fermenter isnt a thing I would recommend unless you sanitise it then sanitise your hand (after opening the fermenter, also wouldnt open the fermenter while its fermenting) big risk doing that get a test tube and draw a little bit out the tap.

I put in 400g of honey (yellow box) and its very distinct, Prob wouldnt use something so over powering next but it is very nice and smells good. i wouldnt go over 500g and also I cant remember what other fermentables I put in but maybe go 500g light dry malt extract, 400g honey and 200g dextrose that may work alright others may know better

 

[scotteth]

I'm sure you'll get lots of helpful replies. My 2cents:

18-20 degrees is pretty good for most yeasts. 24 is starting to get a bit high and 28 is very high, pitching temp and fermenting temp should be the same. try 20 C.

As for yeasts yes- Fermentis US05 is a good dry yeast that will improve your beers immensely. Most kits come with "ale" yeasts which tend to ferment well at 18-20 if you buy a lager yeast from the local homebrew shop then you can go down to 8 C.

Cleaner the better when it comes to bottles. I remember tipping my first amber ale and about 50 bucks worth of kit ingredients down the drain due to bottle infection. A no rinse sanitiser from you local brew shop would be worth it (prior to bottling).

In terms of honey - i've used 1kg (no sugar) with success, it can take a while to ferment out and you'd probably want a decent yeast to make sure (ie not just kit yeast).

In terms of the sanitising regime it sounds ok, cleanliness is next to godliness though and you could be cleaner (as could I).

Keep up the good work!