Hi from new member and a couple of noob questions

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Chris1982

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Hi there,

I recently started home brewing as it's something i've always wanted to do and i've got the space for once. Also i'm hoping to save money on buying beer, and was surprised at the quality of the stuff i produced on my first attempt.

I have a brewing bucket and also a pressure barrell with a CO2 catridge injection valve in the top. I've brewed beer from kits where you get the fermentables in a can to which you add hot water, poor into the brewing bucket and add sugar and cold water and leave it. I've used brewing sugar on both my beers so far, the first time i used dextrose and the second i used slightly more expensive light malt extract that came as a liquid in a can.

I have a quick question - on this, my second attempt, i noticed the primary fermentation occured much more rapidly. Within 8 hours of adding the yeast i was getting more than 1 bubble per second out of my bubbler pressure lock, which kept going for a day and a half before subsiding. On my first attempt it was several days before the fermentation got going and then it seemed to go more slowly. The beer kit says i should leave it 5 to 10 days before moving it to the pressure barrel - should i expect it to be closer to 5 than 10 days as the fermentation occured so quickly? I will check with my beer hydrometer, I'm just wondering why the fermentation happened so much more quickly this time around and wether it will affect my primary fermentation in terms of speed or quality of the end result.

When the bubbler stops bubbling completely, is that a sign that the primary fermentation is over, or can it still be fermenting away without producing much noticable gas?

I think my brewing bucket may have been a couple of degrees C warmer this time around, which may be why the fermentation occured more quickly.
 
Hi Chris and welcome

The time it takes for the yeast to start working from pitching is called the lag time, the shorter the better, because once the yeast starts, there is less risk of infection from nasties. Once the beer is fermenting you just need patience, also the right temperature of 18-20C, no need to keep looking at it, just let it do it's thing. Use your hydrometer to check a stable reading for 2-3 days and then put somewhere cooler for a few days before bottling/casking. There's no rush. :cheers:
 
Thanks for the info and the reassurance. I won't worry about it fermenting more quickly this time then, but i'll probably leave it for 10 days before putting it in the pressure barrel as that seemed to work well the first time around.

I've almost finished off the first load of beer i made, which is good because it will free up the pressure barrel but also bad because it means i'm almost out of beer :-(
 
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