New Brewer

[tigertim]

Hi guys,
Thought I'd just drop a message to say hello - I've been lurking here for a bit, getting all sorts of advice and recommendations from searching through the forum and though it would have been rude of me not to say anything :)

Currently a new (kit) brewer, my first kit being Woodeford's Great Eastern Golden Ale. I managed to blag a FV and airlock which had been laying dormant in a family member's garage for a fair few years and set the lot going about 10 days ago.

I gave it seven days in the FV, by which time it had pretty much stopped working, and kegged it up in a King Keg.

I gave it two days in the house, then relegated it to the garage yesterday evening. I was in the garage tonight sterilising a fridge I have been given (soon to be fermenting cupboard!) and couldn't resist a taste from the keg. It's unbelievable! It's slightly cloudy, as I would expect, but taste-wise, I'd be happy to be served it in a pub!

I'm actually quite surprised, given the number of mistakes I realise I made, having now read lots on this forum; I used a wooden spoon, I didn't treat the water with campden tablets, it brewed at less than optimum temperatures, I used granulated table sugar instead of spraymalt, and I also let the beer oxygenate as it poured from the FV to the keg! But if it survived all that and still turned out good, the future looks bright!

Can't wait to have a look at AG, but want to get a couple more kits under my belt first I think.

Thanks again for all the advice you guys have given on this forum - looking forward to hanging around here a fair amount from now on :)

Cheers,
T.

 

[Wez]

Hey - glad you like the place it's good to get the feedback.

We have lots of people who know there stuff around here - feel free to ask away :thumb:

Welcome aboard :

 

[BrewStew]

Brewing is quite forgiving (mostly). you can get away with all sorts of sloppyness on your brewday. it's amazing to think we managed it several hundred years ago when we didn't know what germs and bacteria were!

precautions are exactly that, just precautions, not necessarily gospel . as we've all paid good money for our kit beers, hops, grain, and have made significant time investments... obviously the last thing we want is an infected and/or undrinkable brew, so that's where we've come to know and share these little details that help prevent it from being a waste.

As you've just found out, the morale is, don't panic! it'll probably be ok :thumb:

Welcome to the forum mate, and feel free to sap us dry of our knowledge :

 

[Daveo]

Good for you mate! I hope my first brew turns out as well as yours :

 

[tigertim]

Thanks for the wam welcome, guys!

I guess the first question qustion is regarding the storage of my keg for the next couple of weeks. As I have a dedicated fridge at my disposal, is it worth keeping the keg in there at 4-5C or would I be better off just leaving the keg in the garage at 10-12C?

Cheers

 

[BrewStew]

kegs and bottles alike if your priming them with sugar/spraymalt are best left in the warm (18-22'c) for a week or two for the remaining yeast to work it's magic and carbonate the beer. Then move it somewhere colder (10-12'c) for a couple of weeks to make the yeast go dormant and settle out.

4 or 5 'c is far too cold in my opinion and will most likely cause you "chill haze"

 

[tigertim]

Thanks for that, it'd already done a couple of days in the kitchen at ~20C so I'll just leave the keg where it is currently, on the shelf in the garage. Besides, it'll leave the fridge free for conversion into a brewing cupboard - I already have a TC-10 from another project I'm going to put to good use on it!

Cheers,
T.