still new but enjoying lots of my own beer

[happyhoppytaff]

hi guys.

so im only about 5 or 6 brews into my hobby, and what a hobby. my latest brew is the best i have yet made. i have been experimenting with different sugars (for my kit brews, im a humble kit brewer, using only the cheepest of kits) i have settled on a 50:50 mix of molasis and demerera, with demerera for secondary. it is a nice bitter brew with a hint of caramell. ive got 40 pints of the stuff and another 40 on the way.

ive still not finished experimenting, i still want to try other sugars and some sprey malts and hopped sprey malts.

i am still quite new to this and it seems it is taking a loooong time for primary to complete. as much as 16 days for a recent brew (a brew that didnt survive new years eve.) my current brew has had 10 days already and is still a few days off. i know my 'brewery' (underthestairs) is a bit cool and that is why its taking a bit longer. i have been tempted to try a heater belt but to be honest as long as the beer tastes good i can wait for it.

guys, how long is too long for primary? have you had a beer go bad because it took too long?

happy brewing

taff

on a side note, im going to watch cardiff blues kick french derriere tonight and i expect my 40 pints will take a kicking when i get back home too.

 

[robsan77]

I wouldnt bother with a heater belt. They can heat the beer too much. Cooler is better and if its fermenting out then great and you'll get a much better beer than a hotter ferment. As long as the temp is a nice constant sounds like you're on to a winner. What you can do is get a thermostat and wire the belt up to it but leave it near, not around the fv. Then you can be sure to maintain a stable temp in the cupboard. :thumb:

 

[Grumpy Jack]

My brews are taking around 10-14 days at present and I often leave them longer to settle out, I'm only doing kits at present myself but I've yet to have a brew go wrong and the longest I had go for was around 3 weeks... but you may want to think about the heater or some insulation (a rug or some foam like an old camping roll mat works well) if the temperature is likely to stop fermentation keeping going...

I too have experimented with sugars, some of the darker sugars have given a really good different flavour, you could consider honey or golden syrup or treacle if you want to take it further...

 

[Dunfie]

If it aint broke then don't try and fix it.

Robsan is correct, an unchecked heatbelt can drive the temperature up far too high and this will introduce different flavours into the beer which you may not want.

I ferment in my garage but driving a heatbelt with a TC-10 PID. I then insulate the fermenter in a big sleeping bag and this allows me to set a preferred temperature and let it do its thing. Of course this will only work when the ambient temperature is lower that the intended fermentation temperature (not a problem at this time of year).

 

[happyhoppytaff]

thanks for the replys guys. cardiff blues won and my beer did take a beating afterwards.
thanks for the advice, ill try a few of your ideas out on my next brew. ill be bottling the current brew and popping a new one on in the next few days.