New brewer with a couple of newbie questions

[designvoid]

Morning all!

As stated I'm a total newbie - and I have a couple of questions that I was hoping some of the seasoned pro's could answer!

So I have brewed, bottled and tasted my first beer - I used a Coopers English Bitter Beer Kit that came with the equipment I was gifted. Everything seemed to go smoothly and the beer is perfectly drinkable, it's not going to win any awards but I'm happy with how it went and tatstes.

I have now got a second brew under way using the Festival Pride Of London Porter Beer Kit and it seems to be underway and nearing the middle of the primary fermantation and ready to chuck the hop pellets in!

So having gone through both of these I have the following questions:

1) both brews seemed to get very active within first 24/36 hours (I can see a very high 'tide mark' on the side of the fermementer) and then drops down to a slight frothy head with the odd bubble burting etc... I don't have an airock barrel I have the barrel that comes with the coopers starter set with the lid that can expand. So my question is - is this normal?

2) I potentially did something a bit daft with this second brew and gave it a good stir after 5 days as I was worried some of the yeast had just settled on the frith when I pitched it and that maybe all the sugars hadn't been mixed - have I done my brew harm? I sanitzed the spoon before stiring and only lifted the lid slightly...

3) With my first brew I used the 'carbonation' tablets that came with the starter kit for the secondary fermantaion in the bottles - they seemed to work well but there is a definite variation in some of the bottle in terms of taste and forthy head when poured... Is this to be expected? I mean the taste variations are negligable - a couple were a bit 'thin' tasting compared to others and didn't taste as 'full'. With the head, 99% have nice forthy heads that tsay nicely on the beer but the odd one or two seem 'headless'?

I'm sure all of this is just newbie worry but figured it would be good to ask!
Cheers!

 

[Joeyriles]

Hey designvoid,

Regarding the P.O.L.P I have done this kit twice and it is definitely a cracker!

Don't worry about the stirring; you sanitised.

Regards the sugar I can advise this:

I like to mix up some dextrose (there should be 100g of this with the kit) and dark brown sugar and prime each bottle with a level teaspoon. Some on here will tell you to batch prime but as I always have a mismatch of bottle sizes I prefer to take the scenic route.

 

[designvoid]

Thanks for the reply!

Glad to hear the Porter is a good kit - I had read a few reviews and all had been positive so I decided to give it a spin!

I figured the stirring was a gamble, but fingers crossed it'll be fine...

I really like the idea of adding some extra flavour with dark brown sugar - do you mix them together dry or make a solution?

 

[designvoid]

Update! I have now added the additional hops after the alotted 5 days.
Also did a gravity reading:
Initial - 1.047
After 5 days: 1.017

Does this seem right? Also, couldn'r resist a sneaky taste - hmm... no porter taste notes as yet, kinda sharp... Hoping it's ok and the additional hops will be the secret to the elusive porter coffee/chocolate notes!

 

[clibit]

I think batch priming is the way to go. If you make sure the priming solution is well mixed in, before you bottle, every bottle gets the right amount of sugar. Rack the beer into a separate bucket which already contains the sugar which has been dissolved in boiling water, stir gently, and bottle. If you have a tap and a bottling wand/Little bottler attached you can bottle really quickly and easily.

 

[designvoid]

Ok - cheers! So I should invest in a second 'bucket' then? I guess that will require some form of filter?

I have a bottling wand/doodah that came with the kit and made bottling my first brew a breeze, but that fits on the big fermenter and possibly won't on a secondary 'bucket'... hmmm!

I definitely like the idea of different sugars - should I just use some dark sugar or a mix of the priming sugar from kit AND some dark sugar?

Soooo many questions! haha! Thanks all!

 

[Joeyriles]

Batch priming is all well and good, though I prefer mixing a dry blend of sugar/dark brown sugar and putting a heaped teaspoon in each bottle. This also might be your best bet if you have no second FV.

It must be said that I do this because I use myriad different bottle sizes and I like to prime the big'uns with more than the small'uns.

 

[designvoid]

I was just going to buy a 2nd 'barrel' - cheap enough.

One thing that crossed my mind - you're exposing the beer to the air when transfering it to the 2nd barrel - does this not risk contamination?

 

[Joeyriles]

Yeah, but I've not had a brew go bad on me yet. Just sanitise thoroughly and don't splash the beer around too much.

 

[designvoid]

Fair play! Cool, so I shall go with 2nd barrel!
So it's sugar in the 2nd barrel, filter the contents of primary into it, good stir, leave to do 2nd fermentation then bottle? How do you know when it's ok to bottle?

 

[DoctorMick]

Bottle it pretty much straight away, you need it to carbonate in the bottles And if you leave it in the bucket for any amount of time the yeast will eat the priming sugar before getting in to the bottle.

 

[baggybill]

Fair play! Cool, so I shall go with 2nd barrel!
So it's sugar in the 2nd barrel, filter the contents of primary into it, good stir, leave to do 2nd fermentation then bottle? How do you know when it's ok to bottle?

NO! Don't leave it to do secondary fermentation. As the Doctor says above - bottle it right away. Secondary fermentation happens IN the bottle - that's where your CO2/fizz comes from

 

[clibit]

I was just going to buy a 2nd 'barrel' - cheap enough.

One thing that crossed my mind - you're exposing the beer to the air when transfering it to the 2nd barrel - does this not risk contamination?

Good question. You do have a risk of contamination, and of oxidisation. But these are things that are possible threats throughout the period between the boil and bottling the finished product. We are always minimising those threats the best we can. When you siphon from one bucket to another, keep lids in place, and avoid splashing. If you have taps fitted you can transfer via a piece of tubing attached to the tap, using gravity. Get a bottling bucket with a tap that fits a bottling wand.

 

[Fil]

To minimise the risk during transfer, ensure your drain/siphon tube reaches the bottom of the receiving bucket/keg/bottle, that way the residual co2 thats absorbed in the still beer after fermentation can be agitated out of suspension by the transfer and hopefully blanket the beer inside the recieving vessel as you fill,

if siphoning you have probably noticed some bubbles in the Ubend at the top as you transfer, thats co2 agitated out of the solution that didnt get carried out with the beer..

 

[designvoid]

Well it's all bottled!

As per usual the paranoia has set in now....

I wasn't overly cautious when transferring between 1st barrel and 2nd, and again when bottling - all seemed quite 'frothy' and I fear there may have been more a than a bit of contaminated air flying around... :sad:

I also started the syphon by mouth and apparently thats a no no.. :?

Oh and I forgot to do a FG reading... doh!

But... it's all bottled and sat in the warm dark place for the next 2 weeks so I guess it's fingers crossed!

 

[MyQul]

Well it's all bottled!

As per usual the paranoia has set in now....

I wasn't overly cautious when transferring between 1st barrel and 2nd, and again when bottling - all seemed quite 'frothy' and I fear there may have been more a than a bit of contaminated air flying around... :sad:

I also started the syphon by mouth and apparently thats a no no.. :?

Oh and I forgot to do a FG reading... doh!

But... it's all bottled and sat in the warm dark place for the next 2 weeks so I guess it's fingers crossed!

I wouldn't worry about "contaminated air". Just transfering from one vessel to another is not likely to contaminate your beer . Yes you want to keep contamination risk to a minimum but you'd be surprised how resistant beer is to contamination.

What you may have done though, with all the frothing is oxidise your beer. You want to keep the least amount of oxygen in your beer after fermetation as possible as oxidisation will cause off flavours in your beer. However my LHBS once told me oxidisation is all a matter of time so even if you did get oxygen in your beer if your not going to keep it for that long conditioning it will still be ok as you will have drunk it by the time it oxidises.

You definately dont want to syphon using your gob because of the vast quantity of bacteria in the human mouth. Put 'syphoning beer' into the search bar of you tube to find out how to do this properly.

I often don't bother to take a FG as long as I left it in the FV for two weeks and the beer wasn't too 'big' I find not taking a FG no problem

 

[clibit]

You should do a FG reading to make sure its finished fermenting. I'm sure the fermentation will have finished though, they occasionally get stuck but most yeasts just get on with it until there's nothing left. If it hasn't, it will go on fermenting in the bottles and over carbonate. You can release this pressure by releasing the lid slightly with a bottle opener and resealing with your capper.

Sucking the tube is very risky, likely to cause infection. My prediction is that the beer will be OK when it has carbonated, but will gradually become more infected, and this will also increase the gas in the bottle. I know, it's happened to me. SO I would be inclined to drink it quickly, two weeks to carb and get boozing basically. See it off over Christmas and get another one on.

You can get autosyphons to avoid sucking. I use a plastic syringe which fits the syphon tube, this works well and saved me buying an autosyphon as I already had the cheap plastic syringe which I bought for turning bottled beer into draught beer! Pour the bottle, Pull some beer out wityh the syringe and inject it back in. It works! Better with low carbonated beers, very fizzy beers go berserk! Or should I say everywhere....

 

[MyQul]

You should do a FG reading to make sure its finished fermenting. I'm sure the fermentation will have finished though, they occasionally get stuck but most yeasts just get on with it until there's nothing left. If it hasn't, it will go on fermenting in the bottles and over carbonate. You can release this pressure by releasing the lid slightly with a bottle opener and resealing with your capper.
..

Actually, I'd definately go with clibit here as I'm lazy. Also I prefer low carbonated beer so if my beer hasn't finished fermenting in the FV and carrys on in the bottle I get away with it because I haven't used much priming sugar

 

[Fil]

imho relax, and just ensure the bottles if glass are sat in a waterproof box/tray with a binbag and old towel/blanket covering em, then after conditioning and moving to sit for a few days in the cold crack one open and judge the condition

if highly conditioned just chill right down to serve like a cola or lager..

consider chopping a bit of tube off the siphon to use as a mouth piece very easy if its terminated with a tap as the mouth piece tube can slip onto the tap out spout for sucking and easy removal before coming into contact with beer