New To Brewing

[nathanR]

I have a coupple of questions being new to brewing and knowing nothing

My first brew seemed to go ok a german wheat beer in a can and all I did was mix it with water and wait 7 days. seemed to taste alright before I bottled it and now all I have to do is wait for it to carbonate and be reddy to drink

The next brew I have done is a coopers dark ale with 500grams of dark malt and 1kg of dextrose the stuff you buy at coles. When I first tested it the hydrometer came to 1030 at 27-30 deg 1.5 ltrs of boiling water and the rest was cold from the tap . I am not shure if I should of put the yeast in at this stage but did as the coopers thing I downloaded said "it will be ok if it is a little over temp the most important thing is to not leve the wort too long before pitching the yeast " or somthing along those lines

after a coupple of days it seems to be bubbling along ok at around 24 to 26 deg I have it sitting on the floor in a darkish room covered with a light sheet to keep it in the shade

Am I doing the right thing here or shold I be trying to keep the beer colder if so how should I be doing this is there somthing I can buy to do this ?

 

[Kleiny]

Did you add some sugar or carb drops to the bottles at bottleing as this is where your carbonation comes from? if so then yes just wait a couple of weeks and chill and drink.

Hydrometers are usually set for 16C and anything over you need to look for a calc table just search for hydrometers and you should get a temp conversion table. 1030 is not right at 30C

30C is a bit high to add your yeast and you should try and keep it around 18-20C for an ale, this gives you a cleaner flavor and less fusal's which have been known to lead to headaches

if yoiu have a local home brew store i would drop in there as they should be able to give you advice.

Also at the top of the page is a section called articles click that and there is a section for new brewers, its got heaps of tips.

Goodluck
Kleiny

 

[RobH]

Reasonably new to this myself, but one of the first things that stuck out to me when reading your post was the temperature ... all advice that I have read on this site is to ferment your Ales at 18-20 degrees celcius (check out http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...;showarticle=13 and the other articles in the articles section). Assuming that you followed good sanitsing practice, your beer will still be fine at that temp.

Also, if you don't pitch your yeast and seal off your fermenter (with airlock etc...), then the longer you leave it open the higher chance there will be for wild yeasts and other nasties to take hold in your fermenter.

Sounds like you are doing ok though - especially if your first beer went ok and you are happy drinking it

If your brew is sitting at that 24-26 deg range without any assistance (ie: a heater), then you will probbly want to look for a cooler part of the house to sit your fermenters in. Alot of people use old fridges - either plugged in, or with a few freezer blocks that they swap in and out to maintain the desired temperature.

With Dark ales, I have found that they require a good lenght of bottle conditioning before they taste really good ... yeah they have been drinkable after 3 weeks, but given 3 months and they tend to be much better - YMMV - you may find different results to me, but if you can resist the urge to drink it all, then putting some aside will give you a good idea on how the flavour changes and improves over time.

And finally, as was recently said to me... Welcome to the obsession!

Cheers!

 

[Fermented]

Hydrometers are usually set for 16C and anything over you need to look for a calc table just search for hydrometers and you should get a temp conversion table.

That would be 20C for most product out here, in my experience.

However, back to the OP...

Getting your temp down can be as easy as popping the fermenter into the laundry tub with a couple of Coke bottles filled with water and frozen, changing them daily. There are some other low-tech, low-$ methods mentioned in the forums here that are worth looking at. There are also some really top methods that need a little spend but will give supreme results.

Light isn't such an enemy when the brew is fermenting. The material that the fermenter is made from is highly UV resistant. UV is the enemy.

The Coopers suggestion of pitching the yeast sooner rather than later is OK when you're starting out. On your next one, drop a few kilos of ice into it to help pull the temp down to 20C-ish for ales (the best kind to start out with) and you should be on a winner. 1030 sounds about right for that tiny amount of fermentables.

Welcome to the hobby!

Cheers - Fermented.

 

[nathanR]

Thanks for the help


should I be using less boiling water or using ice after to drop the temp, also would it be a good idea to make a box out of fridge pannels or somthing simalar to keep the brew in whilst fementing to keep the temp down or is there a cheaper alternative

The dark ale I plan on putting away for a coupple of months and have it out in febuary when my 1st baby is born to have with the Johny Blue and bottles of fine port that has been put away :icon_drool2:

 

[Fermented]

If you stick to the instructions that come under the lid, then you will be fine. Try to get the temp closer to 20C. 24+ is too hot and will give some pretty ordinary or just plain bad results.

I think they recommend two litres of boiling or four litres of hot tap water to dissolve the can of goo. Get that all mixed up nicely and then top up with cold to 21 litres or 23 litres (depends on the kit).

If you have an auto-ice-maker on your fridge, just dump the whole shebang into the fermenter then top off. Otherwise, freeze a couple of icecream containers worth of boiled and cooled water (cover it in the freezer so it doesn't get meat juice or similar contaminants), and drop those big ice cubes into the fermenter with the wort and water.

If you can get an old fridge from a charity shop or FreeCycle or similar, then you're on a winner. There are many, many, many threads about how to use an old fridge to control your brewing temps in here. Have a look around... they usually involve old non-running fridge, frozen Coke bottles changed daily, etc or a running fridge a temperature controller of some kind. Search on "Fridgemate" and you will get lots of answers.

HTH.

Cheers - Fermented.

EDIT: Clarification.