My stout

[beer8360]

Hi,

I am new to the brewing, I am after brewing a milk stout 23L batch. I think I have been correct so far its in the fermenter and i am now looking for advice.

Why would one use a secondary fermenter is it necessary for a stout.
I don't have a syphon to fill the bottling bucket should I invest or is there another way ?

Sorry my questions might sound stupid, I am just learning.

 

[Clint]

Hello
Right...secondary fermentation as I know it is the priming/carbonation in the bottle or keg. Yes get a syphon of some sort to get the beer into the bottling bucket. You can get a piece of tube or a basic one from wilko or go for an auto syphon which make life easy.

Cheers

Clint

 

[beer8360]

thank Clint, just ordered a syphon, so hopefully next week will get my calculation on how much sugar i need put this in the bottling bucket syphone the beer into the bottling bucket and bottle it after then hope for the best.

 

[Clint]

For sugar addition for priming us the forum calculator. ..dissolve in a small amount of boiling water and add to bottling bucket when cooled then syphon on top...stir gently with your sterilised spoon/paddle if you want..then bottle. Dead easy! I'm drinking my stout now...

Cheers

Clint

 

[Dutto]

Some worts (especially AG ones) can have a lot of solids in them as either a krausen floating on the top of the brew or as a trub building up with the yeast on the bottom of the FV.

It is often recommended that these types of brew are racked off into a secondary FV after about a week to allow the beer to ferment out and clear in a cleaner FV before bottling and carbonating.

Also, when brewing lager, the brew is racked into a second FV and allowed to ferment at a low temperature for many weeks, to allow the yeasts to polish up the brew before bottling.

 

[beer8360]

I went bottling over the weekend. I had 20 L. I used 5 gram / Litre of table sugar 100 in total mixed it with warm water and left it cool. I then put this in the bottom on my bottling bucket and syphoned from the fermenter to the bottling bucket. when bottling i used the tubing to fit to the bottling bucket to fill the bottle from the bottom up. The beer smelled ok how long should I leave it ?? any other tips

 

[Dutto]

Well done! :thumb:

Keep the bottles somewhere warm and dark for two weeks to allow carbonation to take place then move them to somewhere equally dark but cool for another two weeks.

These are MINIMUM recommended times and most beers improve if they are left a few weeks longer; and dark beers can keep improving for six months or more.

I know it's a long, long time to wait and the secret is to reach "Critical Mass" as soon as possible.

"Critical Mass" is having so much beer properly carbonated and conditioned that you have the time to let new brews carbonate and condition properly without being tempted to drink them early! :lol:

It ain't easy! :whistle:

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
A bottling bucket with a tap fitted will make your life considerably easier. You could also get a bottling wand with a spring-operated tip - this will also make bottling a much easier process.

 

[Cwrw666]

I bought a bottling wand - it's ok but occasionally the end falls off and you get beer everywhere!:lol:
The tap on my FV was too wide bore for the wand so I bought a special narrow bore tap to fit the wand. Since then though I've found it's actually easier not to bother with the wand but just bottle straight from the tap which fits nicely into the neck of a bottle...

 

[beer8360]

I purchased a bottling wand after spilling some from a previous batch. I put the bottles in a dark room tonight. hopefully this batch will turn out ok. The first stout I made was a disastrous it tasted bad and It had no head at all on it.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[LarryF]

Well done! :thumb:

"Critical Mass" is having so much beer properly carbonated and conditioned that you have the time to let new brews carbonate and condition properly without being tempted to drink them early! :lol:

It ain't easy! :whistle:

I really need critical mass in my life, come Friday night I just end up playing lucky dip with the "Ready crate".

 

[beer8360]

Opened my first bottle of stout it tastes ok. Opened the second and third not so ok. The stout was flat When I added the sugar to the bottling bucket I was told not to stir it that when the stout was coming in form the fermenter through the syphon this would be sufficient enough to mix.

Now what i am thinking if i opened the bottles one by one and if there is no carbonation should I add a little sugar.

 

[MagnusTS]

I had exactly the same thing with a Festival Summer Ale brew last year. Some bottles came out really fizzy and tasted great. Some bottles came out totally flat and were awful.

I hadn't mixed the priming sugar properly in my bottling bucket. In fact I forgot to add the priming sugar solution at the start of transfer to the bottling bucket and only added it when the bucket was already half full. I think the priming sugar solution just sank to the bottom, and the first bottles ended up with lots of priming sugar and the last bottles not so much.

I tried what you are thinking about - adding a bit of sugar to the flat bottles, but it made a proper mess, the sugar releases any CO2 in the bottle and it fizzes up all over the kitchen worktop. I think the technical term is nucleation, but I don't know the science behind it. All I know is I was not a popular man when my wife saw the mess.

So now I make sure I dissolve the priming sugar in a bit (~200ml) of boiling water, let it cool, add it to the bottling bucket before syphoning the brew into the bottling bucket, and I give it a fairly good mix as the brew is running into the bottling bucket, and I mix again when the syphoning is finished. I know it is bad to introduce oxygen, so I try not to splash it about and make bubbles.

 

[Dutto]

Personally, I would leave the bottles that are flat for a few weeks longer to see if they carbonate. :whistle:

 

[Brett74]

I think I have a bit of OCD so the thought of not mixing in the priming solution keeps me up at night! I always carefully stir it in after the bottling bucket is filled. You might find with time they might carb up a bit more..

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
I know that you're keen to drink it, but I agree with @Dutto - patience!
It's only been three weeks since you bottled the stout, so a couple of weeks more in a warm environment won't hurt the beer.
When transferring from FV to bottling bucket, the flow is so gentle that the lower layers will mix with the sugar solution and the top layers won't. At this stage a good stir won't hurt but will ensure that the sugar is evenly distributed.

 

[Brett74]

One of the reasons I stir is because the first time I bottled, hehe, there was a bit left in the bucket when I finished, of course I lifted the bucket to mouth and quaffed that, making sure no one was looking, and it tasted sweeter than I expected, was really anxious I had made some bottles flat and some bombs from the same batch, I bottled three more batches that day and stirred them all...all was well in the end though with the first batch being just fine...

 

[Spapro]

A gentle stir of the bottling bucket after filling makes sense, just to fairly evenly distribute the priming sugar through the wort prior to bottling.