The home brew thread

[bumbleblue]

Hi Crabbers twas in barrel 3 days then after leakage and uber flappage..been in bottles for another week..am having another taste now tbh...lovely pint despite the balls up..i have some elderflower wine to bottle tomorrow and just put a coopers stout on started fermenting in 30 mins...fingers crossed..oh forgot did 40 pints of pear cider too that is bottled and will be two weeks next weekend...so I will try that then. My chardonnay needs stabiliser and fining and that will be done in about 10 days...hopeing for a merry Christmas with the stout.

 

[Bilboblue]

This IPA I am doing.... I take it that I just leave it in the fermenter for two weeks, then bottle it?

Sure this is how I read it, just want to make sure!

(one week done already)

 

[bumbleblue]

Bilbo..check the instructions that came with your IPA..i have just started out..and had good results..so far literally just doing what the instructions say. Not tried owt too ambitious just yet...

 

[Two Gun Bob]

This IPA I am doing.... I take it that I just leave it in the fermenter for two weeks, then bottle it?

Sure this is how I read it, just want to make sure!

(one week done already)

Morning Bilbo

Yes two weeks is good pal.
Then carefully siphon and transfer to another barrel or bucket over your added priming sugar and bottle away.
Leave for two weeks at room temperature to prime up
Then store in cool place for two weeks and enjoy
The longer you leave your ale to condition the better it will become.
Patience is a virtue.

To slightly complicate the agenda you can if you desire rack the beer to a secondary fermenting bucket and leave for another week or two.
But most brewers advocate leaving in the one primary fermenter for the kits as the risk of infection from transferal is real

A few easily absorbed snippets from the great John Palmer and the art of brewing
The reactions that take place during the conditioning phase are primarily a function of the yeast. The vigorous primary stage is over, the majority of the wort sugars have been converted to alcohol, and a lot of the yeast cells are going dormant - but some are still active.
The Secondary Phase allows for the slow reduction of the remaining fermentables. The yeast have eaten most all of the easily fermentable sugars and now start to turn their attention elsewhere. The yeast start to work on the heavier sugars like maltotriose. Also, the yeast clean up some of the byproducts they produced during the fast-paced primary phase.
There has been a lot of controversy within the homebrewing community on the value of racking beers, particularly ales, to secondary fermentors. Many seasoned homebrewers have declared that there is no real taste benefit and that the dangers of contamination and the cost in additional time are not worth what little benefit there may be. While I will agree that for a new brewer's first, low gravity, pale beer that the risks probably outweigh the benefits; I have always argued that through careful transfer, secondary fermentation is beneficial to nearly all beer styles.
But for now, I will advise new brewers to only use a single fermentor until they have gained some experience with racking and sanitation.
Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring from the bottle.


An exciting day tomorrow so not staying up late tonight.
My Barolla is now ready to bottle (hoorah) and has cleared up a treat.
Shouldn't take long to do.
About 25 bottles of 750ml.
It says its possible to drink straight away but we will leave them conditioning for a good fortnight then hoover them up.
Did notice on the previous Chianti batch as the time went by that every bottle improved massively on a weekly basis.
I whacked another wilko pilsner on last week and that will sit in the fermenter for another week.
I intend cold crashing this batch for a week.
I Will transfer it to another FV and place it in the larder fridge for a fortnight at 2c.
Then remove and prime and bottle and store for two weeks at room temperature.
Allegedly this will produce a very crisp clear and smooth brew.
The cold crashing will drop all the crap and yeast out through flocculation.
Enough yeast should still be in suspension to eventually prime the batch up.
I intend replicating this process with the lager yeast brews except I will lager the full fermenting bucket at 2c for 6 weeks minimum.
It says that over this time frame the lager yeast will have all come out of suspension so I may need to add just a small amount of yeast to prime up the bottles.

I have no intention of dry hopping this batch and will let you know if this extra papping about produces any dividends.

Drinking my coopers Aussie at the moment which was indeed dry hopped with the infamous hallertau Mittelfrau.
Very happy with it. Very hoppy indeed
Appears the Coopers Aussie lager really is bomb proof consistently scoring highly with most consumers.

 

[Crabbers]

Hi Crabbers twas in barrel 3 days then after leakage and uber flappage..been in bottles for another week..am having another taste now tbh...lovely pint despite the balls up..i have some elderflower wine to bottle tomorrow and just put a coopers stout on started fermenting in 30 mins...fingers crossed..oh forgot did 40 pints of pear cider too that is bottled and will be two weeks next weekend...so I will try that then. My chardonnay needs stabiliser and fining and that will be done in about 10 days...hopeing for a merry Christmas with the stout.

Sounds like you've a lot going on! I only have capacity to have 1 brew on at a time. Bottled the wherry last week and put a muntons lager on Saturday night. Just figure if I put a new batch on every two weeks after bottling the previous one then by Xmas there will be more than we know what to do with (wine included). My first fermenter had a very small leak through the spigot when I put my first batch on. I had a major paddy about as it meant the airlock didn't bubble but I managed to patch it up some tape and it all worked fine thankfully. Turns out I hadn't tightened the back nut enough.

 

[Crabbers]

Walked into the kitchen last night to find Mrs C taking a bottle of my carefully crafted Yorkshire harvest homebrew out of the fridge. "Hey that's great" I said, "you're finally giving it a try". " Oh no" she replied, "I thought I'd make a shandy". A shandy. A SHANDY!? What the.... With my homebrew?? Is she crazy? I couldn't believe my ears and eyes. Sometimes I think she does things just to wind me up..... And not only that... After ignoring me and making her shandy, she said, "I don't think I like bitter shandy, its just a bit too... Well.... bitter.... really". I had no words left after that.

Taxi, when you say leave it a cold place for two weeks... Just how cold are we talking? I've been putting mine in a cupboard under the stairs but in reality it's not much cooler than room temp (however does keep it away from the kids!).

 

[Bilboblue]

This IPA I am doing.... I take it that I just leave it in the fermenter for two weeks, then bottle it?

Sure this is how I read it, just want to make sure!

(one week done already)

Morning Bilbo

Yes two weeks is good pal.
Then carefully siphon and transfer to another barrel or bucket over your added priming sugar and bottle away.
Leave for two weeks at room temperature to prime up
Then store in cool place for two weeks and enjoy
The longer you leave your ale to condition the better it will become.
Patience is a virtue.

To slightly complicate the agenda you can if you desire rack the beer to a secondary fermenting bucket and leave for another week or two.
But most brewers advocate leaving in the one primary fermenter for the kits as the risk of infection from transferal is real

A few easily absorbed snippets from the great John Palmer and the art of brewing
The reactions that take place during the conditioning phase are primarily a function of the yeast. The vigorous primary stage is over, the majority of the wort sugars have been converted to alcohol, and a lot of the yeast cells are going dormant - but some are still active.
The Secondary Phase allows for the slow reduction of the remaining fermentables. The yeast have eaten most all of the easily fermentable sugars and now start to turn their attention elsewhere. The yeast start to work on the heavier sugars like maltotriose. Also, the yeast clean up some of the byproducts they produced during the fast-paced primary phase.
There has been a lot of controversy within the homebrewing community on the value of racking beers, particularly ales, to secondary fermentors. Many seasoned homebrewers have declared that there is no real taste benefit and that the dangers of contamination and the cost in additional time are not worth what little benefit there may be. While I will agree that for a new brewer's first, low gravity, pale beer that the risks probably outweigh the benefits; I have always argued that through careful transfer, secondary fermentation is beneficial to nearly all beer styles.
But for now, I will advise new brewers to only use a single fermentor until they have gained some experience with racking and sanitation.
Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring from the bottle.


An exciting day tomorrow so not staying up late tonight.
My Barolla is now ready to bottle (hoorah) and has cleared up a treat.
Shouldn't take long to do.
About 25 bottles of 750ml.
It says its possible to drink straight away but we will leave them conditioning for a good fortnight then hoover them up.
Did notice on the previous Chianti batch as the time went by that every bottle improved massively on a weekly basis.
I whacked another wilko pilsner on last week and that will sit in the fermenter for another week.
I intend cold crashing this batch for a week.
I Will transfer it to another FV and place it in the larder fridge for a fortnight at 2c.
Then remove and prime and bottle and store for two weeks at room temperature.
Allegedly this will produce a very crisp clear and smooth brew.
The cold crashing will drop all the crap and yeast out through flocculation.
Enough yeast should still be in suspension to eventually prime the batch up.
I intend replicating this process with the lager yeast brews except I will lager the full fermenting bucket at 2c for 6 weeks minimum.
It says that over this time frame the lager yeast will have all come out of suspension so I may need to add just a small amount of yeast to prime up the bottles.

I have no intention of dry hopping this batch and will let you know if this extra papping about produces any dividends.

Drinking my coopers Aussie at the moment which was indeed dry hopped with the infamous hallertau Mittelfrau.
Very happy with it. Very hoppy indeed
Appears the Coopers Aussie lager really is bomb proof consistently scoring highly with most consumers.

And then ... and then .... And then ... ; After bottling the wine its shit shower shave and City !

Have a tremendously great day everyone.
And don't forget your humbrellers
Rain all day it says : (

Never mind because the weekend has arrived !

Adios
Taxi ;

Beginning to think you won't need embalming when you shuffle off this mortal coil Taxi lol

Thanks again, just to reiterate, I need to transfer from the fermenting bucket to the barrel for two weeks before the bottling stage? I know it's probably been said to me before, but just checking!

 

[Danamy]

This IPA I am doing.... I take it that I just leave it in the fermenter for two weeks, then bottle it?

Sure this is how I read it, just want to make sure!

(one week done already)

Morning Bilbo

Yes two weeks is good pal.
Then carefully siphon and transfer to another barrel or bucket over your added priming sugar and bottle away.
Leave for two weeks at room temperature to prime up
Then store in cool place for two weeks and enjoy
The longer you leave your ale to condition the better it will become.
Patience is a virtue.

To slightly complicate the agenda you can if you desire rack the beer to a secondary fermenting bucket and leave for another week or two.
But most brewers advocate leaving in the one primary fermenter for the kits as the risk of infection from transferal is real

A few easily absorbed snippets from the great John Palmer and the art of brewing
The reactions that take place during the conditioning phase are primarily a function of the yeast. The vigorous primary stage is over, the majority of the wort sugars have been converted to alcohol, and a lot of the yeast cells are going dormant - but some are still active.
The Secondary Phase allows for the slow reduction of the remaining fermentables. The yeast have eaten most all of the easily fermentable sugars and now start to turn their attention elsewhere. The yeast start to work on the heavier sugars like maltotriose. Also, the yeast clean up some of the byproducts they produced during the fast-paced primary phase.
There has been a lot of controversy within the homebrewing community on the value of racking beers, particularly ales, to secondary fermentors. Many seasoned homebrewers have declared that there is no real taste benefit and that the dangers of contamination and the cost in additional time are not worth what little benefit there may be. While I will agree that for a new brewer's first, low gravity, pale beer that the risks probably outweigh the benefits; I have always argued that through careful transfer, secondary fermentation is beneficial to nearly all beer styles.
But for now, I will advise new brewers to only use a single fermentor until they have gained some experience with racking and sanitation.
Leaving an ale beer in the primary fermentor for a total of 2-3 weeks (instead of just the one week most canned kits recommend), will provide time for the conditioning reactions and improve the beer. This extra time will also let more sediment settle out before bottling, resulting in a clearer beer and easier pouring from the bottle.


An exciting day tomorrow so not staying up late tonight.
My Barolla is now ready to bottle (hoorah) and has cleared up a treat.
Shouldn't take long to do.
About 25 bottles of 750ml.
It says its possible to drink straight away but we will leave them conditioning for a good fortnight then hoover them up.
Did notice on the previous Chianti batch as the time went by that every bottle improved massively on a weekly basis.
I whacked another wilko pilsner on last week and that will sit in the fermenter for another week.
I intend cold crashing this batch for a week.
I Will transfer it to another FV and place it in the larder fridge for a fortnight at 2c.
Then remove and prime and bottle and store for two weeks at room temperature.
Allegedly this will produce a very crisp clear and smooth brew.
The cold crashing will drop all the crap and yeast out through flocculation.
Enough yeast should still be in suspension to eventually prime the batch up.
I intend replicating this process with the lager yeast brews except I will lager the full fermenting bucket at 2c for 6 weeks minimum.
It says that over this time frame the lager yeast will have all come out of suspension so I may need to add just a small amount of yeast to prime up the bottles.

I have no intention of dry hopping this batch and will let you know if this extra papping about produces any dividends.

Drinking my coopers Aussie at the moment which was indeed dry hopped with the infamous hallertau Mittelfrau.
Very happy with it. Very hoppy indeed
Appears the Coopers Aussie lager really is bomb proof consistently scoring highly with most consumers.

And then ... and then .... And then ... ; After bottling the wine its shit shower shave and City !

Have a tremendously great day everyone.
And don't forget your humbrellers
Rain all day it says : (

Never mind because the weekend has arrived !

Adios
Taxi ;

Beginning to think you won't need embalming when you shuffle off this mortal coil Taxi lol

Thanks again, just to reiterate, I need to transfer from the fermenting bucket to the barrel for two weeks before the bottling stage? I know it's probably been said to me before, but just checking!

The Heineken family must be quaking in their boots with you on the scene

 

[Two Gun Bob]

Beginning to think you won't need embalming when you shuffle off this mortal coil Taxi lol

Thanks again, just to reiterate, I need to transfer from the fermenting bucket to the barrel for two weeks before the bottling stage? I know it's probably been said to me before, but just checking!


No pal.
That is transferring to a secondary.
You may do this if you wish but its not necessary for the reasons explained above
Some brewers utilize a secondary and some leave it in the primary fermenter .
Just a matter of opinion really.
Because I am moving my fermenting bucket into the fridge for my current pilsner batch I will be transfering to secondary.
But for the majority of my batches I just leave in the original bucket and sit on my hands for the two weeks or so.

So leave the brew as it is for another week.
Then simply transfer by siphon to another bucket or your barrel and immediately bottle up.
This is only done to prime your gorgeous batch up.
After sterilizing the hind legs off your empty bucket or barrel prepare 100 gram of sugar mixed with around 200ml of boiling water then cool and tip into the empty bucket transferring your IPA over the top of it.
As its transferring give a few gentle stirs to distribute the sugars evenly but not too vigorously so as to introduce any oxygen into the mix. At this stage of the game this is not desirable.

The embalming requires something a tad stronger than my 4.5% mixes.
Formaldehyde a Trocar and a very steady hand.
Used to be an embalmer back in the day MBIE
I'm sure the lads still in the game will prepare me well for the afterlife.
And like you infer it shouldn't cost the earth with me being half pickled already.

Sorry if I confused you ,my command of the English language does not come easy.
Sometimes i have to edit many times and it still might not make sense.
In peer to peer conversations and broadcasting live I am usually well fooked especially when there's liberal sprinklings of ethanol involved.

Have a cracking day every one
Off to the bottling shed
Adios ;

 

[Two Gun Bob]

Walked into the kitchen last night to find Mrs C taking a bottle of my carefully crafted Yorkshire harvest homebrew out of the fridge. "Hey that's great" I said, "you're finally giving it a try". " Oh no" she replied, "I thought I'd make a shandy". A shandy. A SHANDY!? What the.... With my homebrew?? Is she crazy? I couldn't believe my ears and eyes. Sometimes I think she does things just to wind me up..... And not only that... After ignoring me and making her shandy, she said, "I don't think I like bitter shandy, its just a bit too... Well.... bitter.... really". I had no words left after that.

Taxi, when you say leave it a cold place for two weeks... Just how cold are we talking? I've been putting mine in a cupboard under the stairs but in reality it's not much cooler than room temp (however does keep it away from the kids!).

For ale yeasts which the majority of the kits use storing under the stairs is just fine and dandy.
Lager yeasts are a different ball game and after fermenting need storing and conditioning for longer periods at very low temperatures .
I have a few batches sitting happy under the stairs.
You can if you have a garden shed bung them in there to condition off
Or alternatively if you have the room pop them in the fridge.
This will do them the power of good.
Small note,if you do put them in the fridge after bottling you may get a slight cloudiness to the brew.
This is called chill haze and is harmless and tasteless
Chill haze is the result of haze-producing proteins that reside in the beer.
They do not react unless chilled, at which point they clump together an become visible enough to reflect light.
They are off white in color giving an appearance of haze.
These proteins are slightly heavier than the beer, so given time in the fridge (many weeks), or in cold temperature, they will and do fall out of suspension.
You can of course just store them cool and pop them in the fridge for a few hours before slurping.
This small amount of time chilling will not affect your clarity.
I put my woodies wherry in the fridge after it had primed.
I love chilled ales and it had little effect on the clarity.
I have no wherry left now
Hope the sale stays on at Wilko for a few more weeks

You gave your time your absolute devotion and your very soul to lovingly prepare this brew for the family's table and she mixed lemonade with it : (
Sleepless nights and pacing up and down worrying about the gravity hydrometer readings and ambient temperature changes.
Checking the bucket out on your hands and knees at daft o'clock in the morning to see if all was well
Talked and chattered to it,bottled it, primed it, sanitized it, only for it to be diluted down with half a bottle of Ben Shaw's.
Shakes head in disbelieve grabs coat and scarf and leaves.
Last one out dim the lights.


Cheers mate