Before my first attempt some deliberations

[mirsultankhan]

OK, you could do a Scottish Ale kit:

http://www.tesco.com/direct/youngs-harvest-scottish-ale-40pt/213-6222.prd

They deliver free to your nearest store.




OR you could do an extract plus steeping grains brew:

http://www.jaysbrewing.com/2012/08/01/a-must-make-scottish-beer/


Or you could do a partial mash:

https://byo.com/stories/issue/item/2160-the-brothers-reid-scottish-ale

yes my Scottish harvest ale arrived today, it was very cold and i worried for the yeast. I am amazed that Youngs advise using white sugar??? and their measurements are still in imperial, how long has the UK been metric, sigh. . . anyhow, to my chagrin i read the instructions on the inside of the label as directed and it called for 1.5Kg's of sugar and i had only purchased 1Kg of beer enhancer (dextrose and DME I think) so I will need to purchase another and ad 500g. It was certainly an anticlimax as i was gleefully anticipating brewing today, oh well.

Also what do you think of the idea of priming with different ingredients? I had planned to experiment with a few bottles, perhaps brown sugar as a primer in one, or honey, or beer enhancer or pure dextrose or pure DME, just to see what the effects were if any.

 

[mirsultankhan]

imho to brew ag all the extra kit you need is something big enough to boil the beer in and a bag to contain grains in. after brewing kits you have everything else you NEED.

borrow a 20l or so stockpot from someone if you dont have one, and brew up a 10l biab brew, small enough not to need extra equipment, and large enough to give you some beer. there is a lot more time elapsed than time spent doing stuff and it can be a long day (more equipment more to clean)

personally i think you will apreciate the difference in the beer, im biased but imho with kits you can brew a beer as good as a comercial offering,
ag brews can set the standard higher. otherwise folk wouldnt devote a day to the job (can be 6-7hours elapsed from throwing the heating switch) time spent doing stuff is less, lots of opportunities to sit back

Yes, it sounds really good and not too difficult, perhaps one day i will progress to all grain brewing and brew a fine ale and I thank you for the encouragement!

 

[Daveg]

Have you brewed a Scottish Harvest Ale before? If not, do what it says on the tin then go from there. Next time you brew it alter it slightly if you think it needs it, you'll be surprised at the quality of a kit beer even a cheap one and if you do like it you've saved yourself the cost of beer enhancer etc. The people who design these kits know what they are doing. They're a million miles from the kits of say, ten years ago. Table sugar isn't a bad thing in beer, some types actually need it to aquire a certain flavour, perhaps Scottish Harvest Ale is one of them.
Enjoy the brewing and the beer and perhaps one day you'll take a step into a different kind of brewing from kits, after all you've made the first step by joining this forum. Have a look at Jim's Beer Kit website if you haven't already that encouraged me to have a go.

 

[clibit]

I would use the beer enhancer myself. Half of it is sugar, and too much sugar is never a good thing IMHO, it thins the body and 1.5kg is an awful lot. Maybe add 500g sugar to the enhancer and see how that goes. Brown sugar perhaps, in a Scottish Ale.

As far as priming goes, it barely makes a noticeable difference as you're only using about half a teaspoon per bottle. I usually use brewing sugar (dextrose), but that's just cos it's cheap and it works well.

 

[Cwrw666]

1 can kits usually advise adding just granulated sugar. Some of these kits are fine made like this, but some aren't though you do get used to the taste.
A step up is to 2 can kits to which you add nothing else. It's all malt extract and hop extract. A little yeast nutrient is said by many to make the fermentation go smoother, but that's all. They are, however, quite a bit dearer than 1 can kits, though it still works out round about 50p a pint.
I think I'd recommend moving on to these and then at some time in the future moving on to BIAB (brewed in a bag) all grain. I intend doing this and have just ordered a boiler.
Good luck with your brewing career.

 

[mirsultankhan]

I would use the beer enhancer myself. Half of it is sugar, and too much sugar is never a good thing IMHO, it thins the body and 1.5kg is an awful lot. Maybe add 500g sugar to the enhancer and see how that goes. Brown sugar perhaps, in a Scottish Ale.

As far as priming goes, it barely makes a noticeable difference as you're only using about half a teaspoon per bottle. I usually use brewing sugar (dextrose), but that's just cos it's cheap and it works well.

Yes I like that idea, if i use 1KG beer enhancer and 500g brown sugar then it should be surely tasty. I recall a site that advocated brown sugar to get a certain style, how bad can it be, but i don't fancy white sugar. Soooo thats settled then, 1kg of beer enhancer and 500g or brown sugar to make up the 1.5kg's that the kit asked for! Lets see what happens, gulp!

 

[mirsultankhan]

1 can kits usually advise adding just granulated sugar. Some of these kits are fine made like this, but some aren't though you do get used to the taste.
A step up is to 2 can kits to which you add nothing else. It's all malt extract and hop extract. A little yeast nutrient is said by many to make the fermentation go smoother, but that's all. They are, however, quite a bit dearer than 1 can kits, though it still works out round about 50p a pint.
I think I'd recommend moving on to these and then at some time in the future moving on to BIAB (brewed in a bag) all grain. I intend doing this and have just ordered a boiler.
Good luck with your brewing career.

yes 3kgs of malty goodness in a two can pack, man thats gotta be not only tasty but healthy, beer should be a health food, like a savoury smoothie! its full of natural ingredients, provides energy and vitamins and so many good things!

 

[mirsultankhan]

Have you brewed a Scottish Harvest Ale before? If not, do what it says on the tin then go from there. Next time you brew it alter it slightly if you think it needs it, you'll be surprised at the quality of a kit beer even a cheap one and if you do like it you've saved yourself the cost of beer enhancer etc. The people who design these kits know what they are doing. They're a million miles from the kits of say, ten years ago. Table sugar isn't a bad thing in beer, some types actually need it to aquire a certain flavour, perhaps Scottish Harvest Ale is one of them.
Enjoy the brewing and the beer and perhaps one day you'll take a step into a different kind of brewing from kits, after all you've made the first step by joining this forum. Have a look at Jim's Beer Kit website if you haven't already that encouraged me to have a go.

Hi I have brewed country wine before, you know raspberry and bramble wine but never beer. I will check out Jims beer kit website for sure. Many thanks for the recommendation

 

[mirsultankhan]

My friends, i have made the wort and pitched my yeast after the necessary arrangements were made to sanitise everything. What struck me was the beautiful sweet malty aroma that permeated the kitchen and the auburn golden brown liquid that filled the vessel. Patience is a virtue they say and hopefully i can hold out for a couple of weeks.

The instructions stated that one can drink it after about five days which i find hard to believe for reading your comments here its self evident that its best after about a week or more fermentation and a further three in the bottle.

 

[clibit]

The instructions on kits are geared towards persuading you that you don't need to wait long before you drink it. I never bottle my beers until at least 10/11 days have passed in the fermenter, and usually 2 weeks, sometimes 3. This allows the yeast to finish its job and for the beer to clear before you bottle, reducing the amount of sediment in the bottles. I then usually try a bottle after a week to check progress, and another after two weeks.

I find mostly that at least two weeks is needed in the bottle for carbonation to reach a satisfactory level. And that four weeks in the bottle is required for the beer to reach a more enjoyable state. Try to make your bottles last at least 3 to 4 months after bottling, it will enable you to track the progress, many people mature their beers for 3 months or so before drinking. Beers vary. Kits seem to require a maturing period before they hit their best, though it's a long time since I made one myself. If it's lovely after two weeks, it won't last that long, I'm sure. If it's not, be patient, drink one a week, and things are likely to improve.

 

[mirsultankhan]

The instructions on kits are geared towards persuading you that you don't need to wait long before you drink it. I never bottle my beers until at least 10/11 days have passed in the fermenter, and usually 2 weeks, sometimes 3. This allows the yeast to finish its job and for the beer to clear before you bottle, reducing the amount of sediment in the bottles. I then usually try a bottle after a week to check progress, and another after two weeks.

I find mostly that at least two weeks is needed in the bottle for carbonation to reach a satisfactory level. And that four weeks in the bottle is required for the beer to reach a more enjoyable state. Try to make your bottles last at least 3 to 4 months after bottling, it will enable you to track the progress, many people mature their beers for 3 months or so before drinking. Beers vary. Kits seem to require a maturing period before they hit their best, though it's a long time since I made one myself. If it's lovely after two weeks, it won't last that long, I'm sure. If it's not, be patient, drink one a week, and things are likely to improve.

Hi Clibit, this is great advice, thankyou so much for it. Was reading yesterday about cold crashing a beer on the forum but felt not a little hesitant because one would not want to crash a beer to the extent that all the yeast ended up as sediment and there was nothing left to carbonate the priming sugars! it seems a very tricky business for sure. I wonder how commercial brewers do it ? because they never hardly have any sediment in their beers. I want to bottle in glass, plastic is convenient but glass is the ultimate!

 

[Fil]

crash chilling wont drop every cell of yeast out of suspension in a couple of days, it will help drop out a lot more **** that will just add to the bottle sediment tho,

with the current outdoor temps if you can lift and move the bucket easily to the outside and cover with a bin bag in the evening it will be settled and crash chilled the next evening , leave it a day longer and it will probably be crystal clear, but still teaming with live (all be it dormant yeast). if botteling crom chilled it wont take long for the bottles to warm up when kept in the warm. if adding to a PB it can take longer for the large mass to warm up to conditioning temps..

 

[clibit]

Don't worry about having no yeast to carbonate the bottles, that just doesn't happen. There are billions of yeast cells in a bottle, they don't all settle out. Cold crash if you can.

Commercial beers are mostly filtered, pasteurised and injected with CO2, rather than bottle conditioned. The bottle conditioned beers sold commercially have a small amount of sediment, but are filtered and conditioned before they are bottled to minimise this.

Some advice from a good online brewing book:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-1.html

 

[mirsultankhan]

crash chilling wont drop every cell of yeast out of suspension in a couple of days, it will help drop out a lot more **** that will just add to the bottle sediment tho,

with the current outdoor temps if you can lift and move the bucket easily to the outside and cover with a bin bag in the evening it will be settled and crash chilled the next evening , leave it a day longer and it will probably be crystal clear, but still teaming with live (all be it dormant yeast). if botteling crom chilled it wont take long for the bottles to warm up when kept in the warm. if adding to a PB it can take longer for the large mass to warm up to conditioning temps..

thankyou that sounds like a great idea. Here it gets pretty cold and is probably just slighlty above freezing at the moment, two days cold child would be easy, i could put my barrel in the shed and cover it with some fleece and a black bag like you say, that would chill it for sure - many thanks for the help

 

[mirsultankhan]

Don't worry about having no yeast to carbonate the bottles, that just doesn't happen. There are billions of yeast cells in a bottle, they don't all settle out. Cold crash if you can.

Commercial beers are mostly filtered, pasteurised and injected with CO2, rather than bottle conditioned. The bottle conditioned beers sold commercially have a small amount of sediment, but are filtered and conditioned before they are bottled to minimise this.

Some advice from a good online brewing book:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-1.html

thank you very much for the reassurance, I will check the link out now

 

[Fil]

if you do move the beer outside to crash chill place it somewhere easy to bottle from moving will probably disturb the sediment no matter how careful you are.

 

[clibit]

I move mine across the kitchen after lifting it out of the fridge. Just be as careful as possible. The howtobrew link is great. A whole book on how to brew, broken in to small chunks, with links down the side.

 

[mirsultankhan]

if you do move the beer outside to crash chill place it somewhere easy to bottle from moving will probably disturb the sediment no matter how careful you are.

Hi I had planned to siphon my beer into a bottling vessel leaving most of the original sediment behind and then cold chilling to reduce the risk of having too much sediment in the vessel. Do you guys think that's a good idea? or should i cold crash in the original vessel and then transfer to a bottling vessel?

P.S. I have read the articles on whether its necessary or unnecessary to siphon beer into a secondary (some say its entirely unnecessary and actually increases the risk of have more particles in suspension, others saying its entirely necessary to get a uniform secondary fermentation etc etc)