Questions from a newbie novice

[dionferguson]

1st of all i'll say hi to everyone as i'm new and i suppose a complete novice or at least thats how i feel now after reading some of the posts on here

I used to homebrew with my dad about 20years ago when i was 10-12 and thought i'd give it a go again as i really enjoyed it and i thought i still remembered what to do but now it seems not

I bought 2 kits, 1 is a magnum pear cider and the other coopers australian lager, and all the equipment i needed (or so i thought) read and did what was in the instructions and set them away

Mistakes i think i made

1 waiting half an hour for the wort to cool down without a lid on before adding the yeast

2 i used beer enhancer instead of sugar but still added an additional 100g of sugar that was left over from the cider i was doing thinking it would turn to alcolhol and make it slightly stronger

3 i added the yeast without re-hydrating it 1st

4 i didnt give it a good stir to aerate the wort before lidding off to ferment

5 my heat pads have kept it at between 28-30 degrees the whole time

6 after 3 days i thought it must have needed a good stir to get it fermenting again as it had stopped

7th i added a fining agent last night to help it clear

So my first question is this, am i now brewing nothing other than useless vinegar? or is there still a small chance it will turn out 2 resemble a drinkable lager?

If not then can anything be done to rescue it? or am i better off starting again from scratch?

I've also made the same mistake with the yeast and lack of aeration with the cider so will that be the same?

Also i was planning on barreling both and bought 2 pressure barrels from wilkinsons and wondered if anyone on here can tell me what size tubing i will need for the taps to enable me to make a transfer tube up? are they all a standard size?

[PMH0810]

Biggest pointer - if the yeast took off and finished and your final gravity is static, bottle/keg and move on.

Aeration: the air is only whipped in to get the yeast a head start. It's only once the oxygen is used up that the yeast starts producing alcohol.

Never pour it away because it may be bad, pour it away when it is bad - you'll end up wondering if you wasted your time and money otherwise.

Other than that, surf the forum, ask questions and try it again; every brew teaches you something different.

[dionferguson]

Was only slightly concearned about it initially until i read that i should not disturb it once it's finished fermentin, whereas i've stirred it up! hopefully then it might not be as bad as i thought, will wait to see how it turns out. will be more carefull with the cider now though!

This may go against the grain of what you 'real ale' drinkers out there think but i like fosters lager, carlsberg export and koppaberg pear cider so this is ultimately what i'd like to brew for myself or at least the closest equivelant, so can anyone recommend any kits that are close to any of these for my next batches

[Ahdinko]

Beer kit enhancer will make your beer taste better than just using sugar, so you've made a step in the right direction there.
the extra 100g of sugar should turn to alcohol anyway.

You can usually get away without rehydrating the yeast too.

I think the heat pads may have an effect on the taste at that heat, take them off and watch the temperature, don't let it drop below about 14c and you'll be fine.

[dionferguson]

Cheers for that so am i best of sticking to an enhancer to keep it simple or should i be using DME instead?

DME = dry malt extract so i'm assuming this is some kind of sugar mix? (didnt no malt was a kind of or contained sugar??)

so if i've got this right brewing sugar is better than white household sugar, enhancer is better than brewing sugar, DME is better than enhancer?

so sounds like the best thing to use is DME

[Ahdinko]

Enhancer is just 50% brewers sugar, 50% DME. I think it's to get some malt in there but keep the costs down. its £4 for 500g DME, or £4 for 1kg of enhancer which has 500g DME in it.

Also there's the issue of balance. If you add too much malt, you may not like the taste.