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shmickvl

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hey guys, how are you going??

im a 20 year old who has just bought my forst home brew kit from the local home brew shop. i found this site the other day and have been reading it ever since. some great reading for an apprentice brewer.

i started my first brew on sunday nite and have a few q's about it. i was given the following ingrediants in the kit:
- pilsner can
- brew body
- brew booster


1. i did no take a reading with the hydrometer before i added the yeast. does this matter??

2. i put the yeast in on sunday nite, and closed her up ready for fermenting. the buubles in the airlock come about once every 5 seconds, is this normal practice??

3. i was reading a few sites and they say that the brew should have a really bubbly top to it in the first stage of fermenting. mine did not do this, or could it have done it overnite?

4. my brew is sitting on about 25 degrees. at this rate, when should i add the finnings???

5. at the moment the brew does not look like its doing much, however if i luck at the handles on the side of the fermenter, i see little bubbles on the underside of it. is this normal on the second or third day??

if i have any other q's ill post them up!!!

thanks for your help in advance guys

cheers
 
I am 23 and only started a few months ago myself.

Best advice is to keep it simple @ first about the only thing that you should be changing is from sugar to dextrose or a booster pack. - Simple step but improves it greatly and no change in technique required.

Get a few brews under ur belt first, make sure they taste good then worry about some of the far out and highly technical advise that will be thrown @ you here. - They just confuse u @ first.

Also u didnt list the ingredients bro.....
 
1. i did no take a reading with the hydrometer before i added the yeast. does this matter??
No
4. my brew is sitting on about 25 degrees. at this rate, when should i add the finnings???
Try to get the temp. down a little bit lower
 
1. Hydrometer reading doesn't matter too much. Just means it's difficult to calculate your alcohol percentage.

2. There's no standard for the bubbles out of the airlock. Don't worry about how many bubbles per second/minute/whatever. Use your hydrometer for checking whether the fermentation has finished.

3. Depends on the type of yeast, conditions, etc. I wouldn't worry about it.

4. 25*C is a bit high, especially for a lager yeast. Try to get it down to 20*C at least, if not more. Not sure about finnings. Never used them myself.

5. Don't worry about how it looks. Rely on your hydrometer readings to tell when fermentation is finished.
 
so since i put it in the fermenter on sunday nite, should i take a sample and check it say tomorrow nite??? that would be 3 days. or should i leve it till 4 or days??
 
I've never been game to use finnings...the thought of fish by-products in my beer isn't one Im very comfortable with :ph34r:

PZ.

*EDIT* - Sorry, I missed your last post.
If you are going to bottle straight from the fermenter (ie, no secondary), leave it in there for at least 6 days when fermented at 24 deg...don't rely on what the kit instructions tell you.
 
shmickvl said:
1. i did no take a reading with the hydrometer before i added the yeast. does this matter??
No for kits not really necessary, about the only thing it does is give u a gauge of what the alcohol level will be... Mostly it will be between 4-5 percent for kits, I dont bother but its up to you.

2. i put the yeast in on sunday nite, and closed her up ready for fermenting. the buubles in the airlock come about once every 5 seconds, is this normal practice??

Yes will be like that for two days, slow down day three and be almost non existant by day four.

3. i was reading a few sites and they say that the brew should have a really bubbly top to it in the first stage of fermenting. mine did not do this, or could it have done it overnite?

Mine never has or not very much and mine tastes great, so you have no worries.

4. my brew is sitting on about 25 degrees. at this rate, when should i add the finnings???

Day 4, dissolve it with 3 teaspoons of sugar in a coffee cup with boiling water add to wort and reseal.

5. at the moment the brew does not look like its doing much, however if i luck at the handles on the side of the fermenter, i see little bubbles on the underside of it. is this normal on the second or third day??

Dont rock it leave it as still as possible I know how tempting it is to play with it but dont!

if i have any other q's ill post them up!!!

thanks for your help in advance guys

cheers
[post="92363"][/post]​
 
shmickvl said:
so since i put it in the fermenter on sunday nite, should i take a sample and check it say tomorrow nite??? that would be 3 days. or should i leve it till 4 or days??
[post="92376"][/post]​

Leave it at least a week (2 wks preferred) - wont hurt anything

After the main attenuation (2-3 days bubbling quickly) the yeast goes into a conditioning phase where it cleans up some of the initial fermentation by-products and the harder to digest sugars.
It will drop only a few SG points during this time but it makes quite a difference to the taste.

After a week or 2, take a SG sample each day and if it's not dropping over 2 or 3 consecutive days you should be safe to bottle.
The yeast will coninue to act on the brew (condition) for a good month or two after bottling. The main concern is that if you dont get the SG down far enough before bottling it will produce too much CO2 gas as it continues to ferment and will either be overcarbonated or explode :eek:

Try to keep the temps down a bit (20C) else you can end up with some pretty fruity/funky flavours.
You didn't say the kit brand or type of yeast but chances are it's an Ale type yeast and will work best around 20degC give or take 2 or 3 degs.

The hardest lesson to learn is patience - but you have to learn it one way or the other. The more you rush it the worse the result. :)


P.S. cool name
 
Nice advise on here first time I got on here people where throwing terms like racking, final gravity, adding grains ect.
 
so when takin a sample from the tap at the bottom of the fermenter, it does not affect the brew??? and people do this often to see how it is going??
 
I wouldn't bother with the finings at all - it's more helpful to keep it all natural as you can see what's going on, especially with things like yeast flocculation (settling) and chill haze. Use it if it's important that your beer is clear (maybe for a party etc) but if you want to understand your brewing it's not helpful.

Assuming your sanitation and ingredients are good, the next most important thing affecting the quality of your beer is fermentation temp. You want to try and keep it consistent, and as others have said probably a little cooler than this one.

It should be ready to bottle between 1 & 2 weeks, if you don't want to take gravity readings then give it 2 weeks before bottling to be on the safe side. Gravity readings will help you understand what's going on, but they also risk infection if everything is not well sanitised.


Good luck, and in the words of Charlie Papazian:

Relax, Don't Worry, Have A Home Brew (RDWHAHB)
 
The trouble with taking samples from the tap is that you'll get a sticky goo in the tap, which can lead to infecting all your bottles if you use it then. Also, you need to remove the airlock to avoid sucking its contents into the fermenter.

I'd say use the tap for samples OR bottling, not both.
 
hey shimickvl i mostly take 4 readings over the time of the brew 1 at the start, 2nd at 5 to 7 days, then 2 readings at 10 to 12 days if the last 2 readings are the same it's time to bottle,easy...
and taking the sample through the tap from the bottom dose not effect the brew cause how else will you get your sample ya deffinatly don't open the top mid brew.... hope this helps occ ;)
 
OCC, I think what Wortgames means is this:

Take samples via the tap and syphon to bottles/secondary, hence avoiding any infection risk due to beer left in the "open" end of the tap after taking said samples.


PZ.
 
i read somehwere that when u do take samples via the tap u should place some sterilizer in a slad wrap and use a rubber band to wrap around the tap hole. would this affect the brew?
 
i spray brewshield from a spray bottle up inside the tap after i take a sample
it really only needs it just before racking/bottling.
 
That sounds pretty reasonable VL, but it won't completely remove the risk factor.

ATM I don't take samples at all...there are reasons for this, but I wouldn't suggest it to you right now.

What I do if I take samples via the tap is spray a little just-boiled, stinking hot, water up into the end of the closed tap afterwards.
Never had an infection using this method (and all the other usual sanitising procedures).

PZ.

*EDIT* - Bottle rocket, you type faster than me :lol:
 
Assuming you use a hydrometer for testing SG, make sure you don't get too much sediment/yeast trub in the sample from the tap.
Thers's usually a little bit hiding in there that can effect your reading.
Drain a bit (50ml) first at a fast rate to clear the tap then take your sample. :chug:
 
I don't use anything to sterlise my tap and never had any problem with infection .. should i clean the tap every time i take a sample??????
 
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