Hello and a question!

[Andy.H]

Good evening all :)

Newbie alert, please be gentle! I've been looking at home brew for a while now. After having a couple of successful ventures with the Youngs Alcoshots kits, my good lady wife purchased me the Coopers DIY Lager kit from Tesco as a birthday present.

Now although the birthday is tomorrow, I was norty and got all impatient and decided to get started today. However, I has a bit of a senior moment and forgot to add the sugar until after I'd sprinkled the yeast on top! I quickly realised my error after a minute or two and stirred the sugar in afterwards.

Now obviously the yeast is now mixed in with everything as opposed to sitting on top as per the instructions. Is this going to make a huge difference? I.e. have I borked it and need to start again?

I know this might seem like a silly question to some, but I'm new at this and just want to be sure!

Andy :)

 

[PD]

shouldn't be too much of a problem especially if you remembered to add the sugar before the yeast got reactivated and started working Adding lots of sugar to working yeast causes a problem as they get shocked and can die. But you should be ok.

 

[dennisking]

Hi and welcome.

 

[Andy.H]

Thanks for that :)

It was literally a matter of about 2 minutes before the grey matter kicked in and I bolted back to the kitchen lol. Logic was telling me that the yeast and sugar needs to mix for fermentation to start, but you know how it is... sometimes you need someone to reassure you of the obvious.

I remember the old man brewing his own wine back when I was a kid... always fancied giving it a go, but patience is something that sometimes evades me lol.

 

[PD]

when your starting in home brewing don't be afraid to write out an idiots sheet of what to do and when list what you need to do and tick it off as you do it. Theres nothing to be ashamed of when your learning or even when your more experienced.
I keep a book running on my brews date started Og and Fg temps etc dates started racked bottled and how long in condition, these things help when your looking back after supping a particular good ( or bad ) brew.

 

[Andy.H]

Well I woke up this morning to find it clouding up and a nice layer of foam on top. Looks like I got away with it :)

Cheers for the advice.

 

[PD]

now leave it alone for 10 days.... no peeping.

 

[calumscott]

when your starting in home brewing don't be afraid to write out an idiots sheet of what to do and when list what you need to do and tick it off as you do it. Theres nothing to be ashamed of when your learning or even when your more experienced.
I keep a book running on my brews date started Og and Fg temps etc dates started racked bottled and how long in condition, these things help when your looking back after supping a particular good ( or bad ) brew.

Great advice for when you do ANYTHING out of the ordinary or new. :thumb:

I'm just about to print up my instruction sheet for today because I'll be adding hop-boiling and grain-steeping to the process.

 

[aftermath]

Welcome to the forum pal..

you say your impatient ? patience is a must in this game lol

i am also very new to beer making, done wine for a few month then went on to do beer kits which is a piece of pi5s, you can also add extra things like enhancer tins, spray malt, hops to bet a more flavored beer, i am on to my 7th kit now, i think my first kit has been bottled about 5 or 6 weeks now, its a better brew Czech Pilsner lager and its just about the way i like it now, but hopefully in another month it will improve even more.

i am planning on trying the AG way, just waiting for a price for a 70l boiling pan, and a 50l thermo

 

[Andy.H]

Heh I know... I CAN be patient if I push myself, I just need to work at it a bit :lol:

The house has a fairly big garage, the eventual plan that's forming in my head is to convert part of that into a brewing room/storage area. Only thing is it can get a bit chilly in there overnight during the winter months, so I'll need to have a think about temperature control and how to approach it.

Certainly looks like there's a wealth of knowledge on here, quite looking forward to my new hobby lol

 

[jonewer]

Heh I know... I CAN be patient if I push myself, I just need to work at it a bit :lol:

The house has a fairly big garage, the eventual plan that's forming in my head is to convert part of that into a brewing room/storage area. Only thing is it can get a bit chilly in there overnight during the winter months, so I'll need to have a think about temperature control and how to approach it.

Certainly looks like there's a wealth of knowledge on here, quite looking forward to my new hobby lol

Not a problem. Ferment indoors and store the beer in garage for conditioning.

 

[Andy.H]

Yeah, I'll probably end up having to do that in the short term. It's sitting on the dining room table at the moment and the temp is holding pretty much rock steady.

However, the whole lower storey of our house is concrete (it's a 3 storey townhouse with the kitchen/diner downstairs) and it still gets colder during the night, although not as much as the garage does. I think it's just something I'll have to play by ear, maybe procure an old fridge if it comes to it.

I know it sounds like I'm probably overthinking it a bit, that's just me. Like to have a plan for every eventuality :)

 

[Andy.H]

I know I'm aways off bottling yet, but I thought I'd take a sample tonight and test it's strength just to see how it was coming along. From an SG of 1036 at about 25c, it's down to 1014 at 21c... seems to be going in the right direction then!

Wife was suitably impressed... "smells like a normal lager. What you going to do with that?" she says, pointing at the hydrometer tube. Tell her it's going down the sink.

"Wonder what it tastes like" she says, and promptly takes a swig! "Hmm... flat Fosters." :lol:

Funny thing is, she's right... it does taste almost exactly like flat Fosters at the moment. Not really a shocker I suppose lol