advice for new brewer- muntons cerveza

[CarstenBrau]

Hi guys, this is my first post here so I'll keep it short and sweet. I am still quite new to brewing (have made 3 batches that all turned out pretty good) however this time I went for a Muntons Cerveza kit as I've booked a holiday home for mid June and need some clean, session summer brew. I used 1KG of Light DME and Muntons premium gold yeast and it's been fermenting at 20oC for 3 days now. This is my first batch using a lager style kit with an ale yeast so my 3 questions are as follows: -how long should I leave it in the primary fermenter - how much table sugar should I use for batch priming -how should I condition my bottles? I have 5 weeks before the holiday and would greatly appreciate any useful advice! Cheers, Carsten.

 

[Spapro]

If its an ale yeast you just do everything as per an ale - but using a bit more priming sugar for a lager style fizz. 140g - 150g table sugar for 22.5 litres is more than enough if batch priming for bottling at 20°C. Thats 6.5g of sugar per litre (3.25g per 500ml bottle) which will give a fizzy pint - nice out the fridge, bit too fizzy if serving warmer.

Everything else is as per an ale (2+2+2) typically 2 weeks primary fermenting, then prime and bottle, 2 weeks in the warm after bottling to carb up, then move somewhere cooler if possible for 2 weeks before sampling.

 

[terrym]

I addition to what Spapro has said on timing I would suggest that you do leave it 2 weeks in the fermenter but when this period is up you move it to the coldest place you have for 2 or 3 days before you go ahead and bottle. This will help the yeast drop out of suspension and you should hopefully get clear or nearly clear beer going into your bottles, but still enough to yeast to carbonate. And less yeast in the bottle usually means less going into your glass. :thumb:

 

[CarstenBrau]

thanks very much guys, I appreciate the speedy responses.

I should have mentioned Spapro that I've brewed this batch to 20L. Do you reckon that 120g of table sugar would do the job for that nice lager fizz?

the yeast I've used is sort of an experiment because it's supposed to form a really tight cake at the bottom of the fermenter and I'd like to see how well this works.. but I think I'll try what you've said with a Northern Brown Ale that I'm going to brew today TerryM :) cheers

 

[Spapro]

thanks very much guys, I appreciate the speedy responses.

I should have mentioned Spapro that I've brewed this batch to 20L. Do you reckon that 120g of table sugar would do the job for that nice lager fizz?

You will lose a little to trub/dead space when syphoning out etc so I would work with 19l x 6.5g = 123.5g so yes 120g is spot on. This is based on having your beer at 20°C or so - if you do cold crash you would need to use a calculator to calculate priming sugar as temp of the beer at bottling does affect the priming sugar amounts.

This calculator is very useful, try it with your amount being packaged (19l) and temperature (20°C) and set it for 2.5 volumes of CO2:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

just below the calculator bit it shows the typical levels of volumes of CO2 for different beer styles

 

[terrym]

You will lose a little to trub/dead space when syphoning out etc so I would work with 19l x 6.5g = 123.5g so yes 120g is spot on. This is based on having your beer at 20°C or so - if you do cold crash you would need to use a calculator to calculate priming sugar as temp of the beer at bottling does affect the priming sugar amounts.

This calculator is very useful, try it with your amount being packaged (19l) and temperature (20°C) and set it for 2.5 volumes of CO2:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

just below the calculator bit it shows the typical levels of volumes of CO2 for different beer styles

I take the view that if the primary fermentation has finished and little or no CO2 is being released the beer will still contain more or less the same amount of CO2 as it is cooled (were it heated, CO2 would be lost of course to maintain the equilibrium). In other words as the temperature falls the beer gets less and less saturated with CO2.
What this means in practice (at least for me) is that for a normal brew, after 14 days plus in the FV when the primary is usually well and truly done, I can crash cool, then prime at a rate equivalent to the required vols of CO2 at 20*C or thereabouts, in other words not bother with a temperature correction.

 

[CarstenBrau]

excellent :) cheers for the help lads. I'll post about my findings when all is said and done