New To The Homebrew Scene

[ODDBALL]

Oddball, for secondry I use a 20l plastic jerry can and it can hold up to about 23-24l, so don't lose anything. I get mine from bunnings for about 15 bucks and I believe the brand is bmw plastics No need to put another airlock on this at all, you can just release the pressure now and again by cracking the seal on the lid.

If you get one, make sure than it has a number 2 in a triangle thingy stamped on the jerry somewhere. These are considered to be foodgrade.

I just recently racked and CC'd for the first time, and was amazed at how much sediment dropped out of suspension by doing it. Well worth the extra steps.

If you do get into cold conditioning, watch the seal on the bung hole if you put a tap in. They can tend to leak when put in the fridge to CC. I left the original bung in and syphoned from the top when I bulk primed. Once the jerry was 3/4 empty I then removed the bung and put a tap in and drained the rest of the jerry through the tap.

It's also worth marking marks on the jerry to indicate different volumes. I have markings starting at 18l and then 1l thereafter. This helps when calculating how much dextrose to use when you bulk prime.

Before racking and bulk priming for the first time, try bottling just one after primary fermentation for you to comapare the clarity of it compared to the same brew being racked and cc'd.

Cheers

[post="56160"][/post]​

Some sound advice there, cheers.

I am looking at the possibility of obtaining a "Beer" fridge to go under the house from the local electrical superstore skip, I went around today and there we're three fridges there waiting to be taken to fridge heaven after their previous owners had bought a new one and the shop had taken the old one away.
I will have a go at racking into a cube for CC in the fridge (If I get one) and bulk priming because after all the great advice I have got here I feel more confident at having a go, hell even if it tastes like piss I will drink it! One question though. If I am unable to get a freebie fridge I won't have the money to buy one for some time so will it be Ok just to leave the cube under the house in a cool area or even in a chest of icy water keeping it around 20C?

I will take your advice and do a bottle or two apart from the main CC batch and see what the difference is.

Cheers again. :beer:

 

[kaitai]

20 degrees is going to be fine for secondary fermentation, but not really for cold conditioning. For CC you really need to get the temp down in order to drop the yeast out of suspension.

Don't worry too much though. Even just racking into secondary for a period of time, without worring about cc'ing, is going to help clear the beer a resonable amount and help ensure a complete fermentation, so it's still well worth doing until you get some fridge space.

The process I follow now is approx

1 week primary
1 week secondary (same temp as primary)
2 weeks CC in fridge.
Remove beer from fridge for about 12 hours, bulk prime and bottle.

If you can't CC yet, then maybe try leaving it in secondary for a week or so longer.

Still pretty new to this myself, maybe someone else has another opinion?


Cheers

 

[kitkat]

I don't have a CC fridge, so for me the primary and then one week in the secondary is enough. I am not sure 2 weeks in secondary would bring that much improvement over 1 week.

 

[Byron]

Hi all,

I have put down several brews in the past (during University myself and the blokes i lived with were reasonably popular for our tasty and cheap product) and was reasonably successful using kits. I was given a 60 litre barrel as a present and was wondering if there are any changes that should be made compared to a brewing in a 30 litre barrell. I am planning on putting two kits in the one fermenter mainly to get a lot more product, in a shorter space of time.

Cheers

 

[Linz]

Yup, Just double up on what you were doing before..just watch out for the ferment to race off and generate more heat in a larger mass

 

[Cocko]

Oddball,

Welcome aboard, you are in safe hands now!

This site has saved me at every turn... Thanks again to all.

Cheers
Cocko.

 

[0M39A]

anyone else notice the 3 year bump?

as for your question Byron, yes, just double everything. heat shouldnt be a problem at this time of the year (except perhaps getting too cold), but during summer it will be. hope you have some means of keeping it all cool.

 

[Lorenzo99]

Hi There i am also new to the home brew scene. I just started my first brew on the 23rd jan i used brewmakers draught with a 1kg brew booster.(600g dextrose, 200g light malt, and 200g corn syrup) Sopussod to be a carlton draught copy i used the yeast that came with the kit. I have a question regarding secondary fermentation i am going to do this (for a week before kegging) but i am not sure when to add the finishing's i have. do i do this in the primary fermenter and wait 2 days or do i do this in the secondary fermenter and leave for a week? Thanks in advance.

 

[Alex.Tas]

do you mean finishing hops, or finings? very different things.

 

[Lorenzo99]

I was talking about finings

 

[Trevandjo]

I'd give the secondary a miss altogether. Especially as it's your first brew. Too much risk for too little reward.

 

[Alex.Tas]

Agreed with above. to be honest, as its your first brew i wouldn't worry about using finings. just leave it in the fermenter a bit longer. the yeast should flocculate (clump together and drop out of suspension) on its own given enough time. It will clear up even better if you can drop the temperature down as close to 1 degree as possible too, or even as cold as you can get it.

edit: missed a couple of words...

 

[mosto]

:icon_offtopic:

Given the bump trend of this thread it should come around again in 2026.

Back OT, as others have said just keep it simple on your first brew. If you see something you want to change try it next time so you have a reference point.

Cheers,

 

[Lorenzo99]

Ok thanks allot for your tips i did add the finings yesterday. I will give the secondary ferm. a miss this time and just put it in the fridge for a couple days to drop everything out of it. Than keg it, gas it, drink it and take notes.

What is the risk with the secondary fermentation?

Thanks again for your time

 

[Alex.Tas]

its just another stage in the process that adds a risk of infection, for very little gain.
Unless you are going to leave the beer on the yeast cake for months (more than two) I don't think there is much of a problem with leaving it in the one fermenter.
Plus, it one more thing you need to wash/sterilise afterwards too. I hate cleaning brewing gear, pain in the arse!