Hi,
I am new to home brewing and have got my first batch fermenting. My dilema is how to store the brew. I will be bottling some but wanted to store some in Demijohn's - is this okay or is that not what they are intended for??
Thanks
Demijohn's?
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WishboneBrewery
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Re: Demijohn's?
You could get some of those plastic water bottles from Asda / sainsburys etc... the 5L ones that they sell as plastic demi's in HBS's... 2L coke bottles are doing the job for my wine & cider.
Re: Demijohn's?
Demijohns aren't suitable for holding pressure, so you would need to store the beer at atmosphere. I imagine you might need to force carbonate the beer if you left it in this state for a long time. PET bottles would be a good solution if you want to store the beer under pressure and allow it to carbonate naturally.
Drinking - Young's Harvest Bitter
Conditioning - Coopers Australian Lager
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will
Re: Demijohn's?
Storing in a DJ is fine. I have just bought some corks for this purpose.
The only thing that you need to bare in mind is that they can't hold pressure, so you'll only be able to store flat brews in there. Such as wine or some types of cider.
You can "batch mature" in DJ's too, that is to say that rather than mature in a bottle you rack off to a clean DJ and leave. You could then bottle at a later date from there - say if you're short of bottles.
The only thing that you need to bare in mind is that they can't hold pressure, so you'll only be able to store flat brews in there. Such as wine or some types of cider.
You can "batch mature" in DJ's too, that is to say that rather than mature in a bottle you rack off to a clean DJ and leave. You could then bottle at a later date from there - say if you're short of bottles.
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chorltonbrewers
Re: Demijohn's?
Thanks for the replies. To clarify, I have a brew fermenting in a bucket. I am slightly confused on how best to store it once it has finished. I was going to transfer to another bucket with the extra sugar for conditioning. Do I then leave it in that bucket or transfer immediately to bottles. I think I will be using a mixture of PET and glass bottles and I was intending to store some in glass demijohns too. I have done lots of research and it has left me confused. There seem to be pro's and con's for PET & glass. My concern with glass is that they could explode?!
My second concern is that the room is too cold for fermenting - it is 15 degrees c during the day and only reaches 19 degrees c in the evening when we have the heating on - is this too cold??
Thanks
My second concern is that the room is too cold for fermenting - it is 15 degrees c during the day and only reaches 19 degrees c in the evening when we have the heating on - is this too cold??
Thanks
Re: Demijohn's?
Hopefully this will help.. (you will probably know most of this already, so apologies if you find it abit patronising, just wanted to give as complete an answer as possible and get you on the right track.)
Once the beer has stopped primary fermentation (your gravity reading remains steady over 48 hours, or roughly 7-10 days after you started), typically your beer is then ready bottle or transfer to a keg. Another option you have is to use a secondary fermentor, where you continue to store the beer to allow it to settle (~10 days), but this isn't often required (I personally wouldn't in your case - although this site explains when it is needed). When you are ready to bottle or keg your beer, at this point you add sugar, known as priming sugar, which is used to create the fizz in your beer by creating CO2 during secondary fermentation of the yeast (although most of the yeast sank will have died and sank to the bottom of your fermentor during primary, some is more resilient, staying in suspension within the beer continuing to ferment slowly, which is known as secondary fermentation). The process of bottling is shown nicely both here and here.
PET or glass bottles are perfectly safe to use, as long as they are rated suitable (those that have previously held pressurised drinks will be fine). Make sure you follow the instructions and use the correct amount of priming sugar (eg. Coopers recommend 8g/100cl in their kits), either added directly into each bottle, or as shown in the above link, added all at once into the beer. Once bottled leave your bottles in the warm for a few days to allow the priming sugar to convert to CO2, then move them into a cold environment which will help the sediment in your beer to fine out.
Now to the demijohns. If you were to add priming sugar to your beer, then put this in your demijohn, the CO2 created would shatter the vessel as they are not suitable to hold pressure. You could just add the beer into the demijohn without priming sugar, but your beer would be flat, and you would need to force carbonate it in a cornelius keg/using a soda stream at a later date (not ideal). Personally I would follow pdtnc's advice and pick up a few 2/5 litre supermarket own-brand carbonated water bottles next time you are shopping, these should cost you no more than a pound and will hold carbonated beer without worry. As you are wary about exploding bottles too, with PET bottles you always have the option of 'feeling' the bottle to see how the pressure is building up and can always let some gas escape if you are concerned.
Once the beer has stopped primary fermentation (your gravity reading remains steady over 48 hours, or roughly 7-10 days after you started), typically your beer is then ready bottle or transfer to a keg. Another option you have is to use a secondary fermentor, where you continue to store the beer to allow it to settle (~10 days), but this isn't often required (I personally wouldn't in your case - although this site explains when it is needed). When you are ready to bottle or keg your beer, at this point you add sugar, known as priming sugar, which is used to create the fizz in your beer by creating CO2 during secondary fermentation of the yeast (although most of the yeast sank will have died and sank to the bottom of your fermentor during primary, some is more resilient, staying in suspension within the beer continuing to ferment slowly, which is known as secondary fermentation). The process of bottling is shown nicely both here and here.
PET or glass bottles are perfectly safe to use, as long as they are rated suitable (those that have previously held pressurised drinks will be fine). Make sure you follow the instructions and use the correct amount of priming sugar (eg. Coopers recommend 8g/100cl in their kits), either added directly into each bottle, or as shown in the above link, added all at once into the beer. Once bottled leave your bottles in the warm for a few days to allow the priming sugar to convert to CO2, then move them into a cold environment which will help the sediment in your beer to fine out.
Now to the demijohns. If you were to add priming sugar to your beer, then put this in your demijohn, the CO2 created would shatter the vessel as they are not suitable to hold pressure. You could just add the beer into the demijohn without priming sugar, but your beer would be flat, and you would need to force carbonate it in a cornelius keg/using a soda stream at a later date (not ideal). Personally I would follow pdtnc's advice and pick up a few 2/5 litre supermarket own-brand carbonated water bottles next time you are shopping, these should cost you no more than a pound and will hold carbonated beer without worry. As you are wary about exploding bottles too, with PET bottles you always have the option of 'feeling' the bottle to see how the pressure is building up and can always let some gas escape if you are concerned.
Drinking - Young's Harvest Bitter
Conditioning - Coopers Australian Lager
