Bottled up

[Beatnik69]

I bottled my first brew today - Young's Bitter, but to be honest I'm not holding out much hope for it. I used a clear glass bottle for one pint so I can see what's going on with it but it looks very cloudy and I don't think it's going to settle out, but fingers crossed. Still I've learned a few lessons:

I'll make a yeast starter next time

I'll make sure to aerate the wort more

I'll get an FV with a tap

Here's hoping.

G

[Beatnik69]

Cheers Daab. I had a look at the clear bottle this morning and there does seem to be something settling out so I might be ok after all.

Is there a difference between a yeast starter and rehydrating the yeast - I might be confusing the two. The kit said to gently stir in the yeast but I've seen people talking about sprinkling it on the top instead. When I stirred the yeast in it went very 'clumpy'. So that might be another lesson learned.

[tkerby]

Rehydrating the yeast is just adding water at the same temperature as the wort. It serves to better mix the yeast and brings it back to life so it can better withstand the environment of the wort, thus more lives and gives the fermentation a better start. A yeast starter on the other hand is a dilute wort to which the yeast is added and left overnight. A bottle with a few spoons of malt boiled in around 300ml of water (a microwave is ideal) will work for this. This allows the yeast to multiply and thus when its pitched into the more concentrated wort, there are more yeast cells and the fermentation is faster. It also allows you to check your yeast is not dead before adding it.

[delboy]

Rehydrating the yeast is just adding water at the same temperature as the wort. It serves to better mix the yeast and brings it back to life so it can better withstand the environment of the wort, thus more lives and gives the fermentation a better start. A yeast starter on the other hand is a dilute wort to which the yeast is added and left overnight. A bottle with a few spoons of malt boiled in around 300ml of water (a microwave is ideal) will work for this. This allows the yeast to multiply and thus when its pitched into the more concentrated wort, there are more yeast cells and the fermentation is faster. It also allows you to check your yeast is not dead before adding it.

Just one caveat, for dry yeasts an overnight starter of that size isn't really recommended, basically there is a huge number of yeast in a sachet and they will very quickly exhaust the small amount of food in a 300 ml starter.

A starter of this sort of size would be useful if made up perhaps a few hours previous to pitching the yeast, it will get them woke up and used to their environment and the idea of using the malt for food (switching on some enzymes and turning some off etc).

Overnight starters and and longer are really for liquid yeasts were you have a relatively small number of cells and you are increasing their number by making a starter (1L would be a better size though).

Anyway beatnik, hows that bitter coming along, any samples had yet?

[Beatnik69]

I tasted it when I took the final reading and to my surprise it actually tasted like beer. It's in the bottles now. When I first bottled up it was very cloudy (but this might have been down to the fact that I had the fv on the worktop and SWMBO came along and turned the washing machine on - spin cycle magic! ) but it seems to be clearing nicely and there's some sediment in the bottom of the bottles. I might just have something drinkable!

[delboy]

Nice one, using the spraymalt will have made all the difference, i presume as well you treated your tap water with campden whcih also goes a long way to producing great beer

[Beatnik69]

Absolutely.

By the by, did anyone see 'Tribe' on BBC2 the other night. Bruce Parry was staying with some tribe in Tanzania. They had to collect their drinking water from a stagnant pool nearby. They also collected wild honeycomb and put it in a 5 gallon bucket with some tree bark and this fermented to a mead/beer in about a day. However, I was absolutely astonished that they didn't sanitise the FV or treat the water!!

[dan_olo]

By the by, did anyone see 'Tribe' on BBC2 the other night. Bruce Parry was staying with some tribe in Tanzania. They had to collect their drinking water from a stagnant pool nearby. They also collected wild honeycomb and put it in a 5 gallon bucket with some tree bark and this fermented to a mead/beer in about a day. However, I was absolutely astonished that they didn't sanitise the FV or treat the water!!

Wow! That's a pretty extreme example but I've often wondered how people in the past made decent beer before they discovered the whole idea of sterilisation. I know it was Joseph Lister who 'invented' sterile surgery in medicine in the 19th century, does anyone know who brought sterilisation into brewing?

Surely they can't have been drinking vinegary beer for thousands of years until someone invented bleach?

[anomalous_result]

Hear hear. I can't remember seeing an infection on the board since I arrived (/me checks avatar to see just how short a time that is) and there have been a fair few brews documented. I'm not saying decent sanitation procedure is over-rated but I do wonder what they did in the 10th century in their oak pots that they swilled with stream water to make their mead/beer drinkable, perhaps something for a history doctoral student?

[Beatnik69]

Well, I couldn't resist any longer. Sunday would have been a full fortnight in the bottle but I gave into temptation tonight. I decided to try a bottle. Wasn't expecting much; thought it would be flat and nasty tasting. I cracked open a bottle and to my surprise and delight I got that nice pfiss sound and a wee bit of that vapour you get when opening a shop bought beer. I poured it out being careful not to get too much sediment in and had a wee taste and would you believe it, it doesn't taste half bad at all!



Here is the first poured brew from the Beatnik Brewery! I'm on my second now.

(apologies for the photo quality. Camera phone. It looks quite good in real life!)

[sparky Paul]

No need to apologise...

It certainly looks like beer... and you say it tastes like beer... I say that deserves a pat on the back, and a celebratory drink!

Don't drink it all though, save a few to see how it matures.

[Beatnik69]

I thought the remote control for the stereo just set it all off nicely.

I don't think the brew's very strong but I'm not too worried about that as I wasn't expecting it to be. But it has a nice fizz on the tongue and a strong malt flavour. I'll leave most of it for another few weeks and see how it matures

[delboy]

Nice one, nothing quite like sampling the fruits of your own labour, the great thing is it'll keep on getting better.