n00b questions

[Crundy]

Hi all,
I'm new to all this, so bear with me!
I'm just starting out making up some of my own lager. I bought the BrewBuddy starter kit and have sterilised & rinsed my fermenting bucket and mixing spoon, added the tin contents along with a kilo of brewers sugar, boiling water, and topped up with tap water. Added the yeast and a "Pilsner Enzyme" that the guy in my brew shop insisted I add, stirred up and sealed, and is now sitting in the garage.

So, if I may I was wondering about a couple of things while I drool over the sight of a huge barrel of lager:
1) Anyone tried the Brew Buddy lager before, and is it any good?
2) What the hell is Pilsner Enzyme? Does it actually help?
3) I didn't use campden tablets to dechlorinate the water. Will it make much of a difference?
4) As I'm doing lager and leaving it in the garage (a bit cooler in there) roughly how long should I leave the primary fermentation?
5) The shop guy also suggested I buy another barrel with a bubbler airlock, and for me to:
- a) Primary ferment in my main barrel
- b) Syphon into the second barrel with finings and leave for a while longer (without priming) in the cold to settle more sediment
- c) Prime the first barrel with sugar syrup and then syphon from the second barrel into the first
- d) Bottle immediately
Does that sound reasonable?
6) How long and under what conditions should I leave the bottles before getting smashed?
7) Should I, in the future, try making some Glucozate Port?

TIA.

[Jerry Cornelius]

Welcome,
1. Don't know, never tried it.
2. Don't know, I don't make lager.
3. It may. If your beer tastes as if it's tainted with TCP , then you'll probably want to use it next time! It depends on how much chlorine you have in your tap water. Some don't bother, many do. I always have used it, so i don't know what leaving it out would be like.
4. If the yeast is a proper lager yeast (i.e Saflager), then you need quite low temperatures, 12 - 15 deg C. Fermentation should be approx a week - perhaps less, personally I always leave mine for 2 weeks anyway. Just check the SG and when you get two the same after 24 hrs, it's done.
5. I suppose you could do as the guy suggested, although if you're bottling don't use finings, you'll end up with cloudy beer. Some people do rack off into a secondary fermenter as he described. I just leave it in the primary for two weeks, rack into a primed bottling bin - fitted with a little bottler - and then bottle straight away.
6. Store the bottles for a week at room temp, and then 3 weeks in the cool (but that's for ale, lager may be a little different).
7. Yes - and send me a bottle

[Crundy]

Thanks for the reply

5. I suppose you could do as the guy suggested, although if you're bottling don't use finings, you'll end up with cloudy beer.

I thought finings were to coagulate the cloudiness? Wouldn't it make it clearer if I left it in the second vessel until it had cleared?

[Mogwyth]

For what it's worth, I usually only use cheap bottled water for all my beer only adds 5p a pint. I only put into a secondary fv to prime, never wait for it to clear nor do I use finings, I just bottle and leave it for the requisite amount of time and all my beer including the coopers lager is clear as a bell.

Cheers

Bill

[Crundy]

Do you get any sediment in the bottles though?

[Jerry Cornelius]

Finings are useful in a keg, but don't really help in bottles.

[Crundy]

I'm a little lost, I think I've misunderstood finings. I was under the impression I could add them to the second vessel, leave it until it clears, and then syphon back into the first for priming and therefore end up with a clear bottled brew with no sediment. Would it not clear with finings like this?

Also, I just checked my FV, and the lid is kinda bulging
Is the lid going to blow off? Do I need to release a bit of pressure? I'm on holiday for a week now, is my garage to be a large bombsite of foam when I get back?

[mickhew]

If the FV is bulging crack the lid open a bit, and let the pressure out. No need for any pressure in the F.V at all, in fact, it will soon pop off under pressure, could cause a mess. All you need is a loose lid on it. The brew is protected by a layer of Co2, which is heavier than air.

[Crundy]

Is it too warm or something?

[sonicated]

I'm a little lost, I think I've misunderstood finings. I was under the impression I could add them to the second vessel, leave it until it clears, and then syphon back into the first for priming and therefore end up with a clear bottled brew with no sediment. Would it not clear with finings like this?

You need yeast in the bottle to carbonate the beer. When the yeast have done their thing they sink to the bottom and lay dormant - therefore if you want fizzy beer you're going to have sediment. Technically you could force carbonate like macro breweries but this is impractical at home - try putting flat beer in a SodaSteam and it'll go everywhere! In addition to this natural carbonation is better on the tongue. I'm not sure if it's smaller bubbles or something else, but compare the fizzyness of a Champagne (which are bottle conditioned with the yeast removed) with a cheap sparkling wine.

Finings help the yeast fall out of the beer to the bottom and clear it, however they make the sediment less floculent. If you do not use finings over time the sediment compacts so you can pour a bottle and it mostly stays at the bottom - with finings it will mix in more and make the clear go cloudy. This is not a problem in a keg as the keg doesn't move when pouring but bottles do.

[Crundy]

Ah, so finings coagulate the yeast as well as the organic matter in suspension?

[Crundy]

Oh wait, I just found this, what I guess is what I'm after:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?ti ... nditioning
So could I use finings to clear down the lager, prime another vessel with sugar water and a little dried yeast, then syphon from the second (conditioning) vessel into the primed one, mix, and then bottle?