First Brew Q's

[ckingale]

Thanks to the kind folks on this forum and their advice I ordered a kit from brewmart last week, which turned up on Tuesday (my birthday ). I had the day free on Wednesday so I went to work.

Everything went well. There are a few things I am a bit paranoid about though!

I mixed up all the ingredients as shown in the kit guide on this site (1 coopers real ale, 2 500g packs of muntons light spray malt and the coopers yeast). The only thing I did differently is I boiled the coopers kit in 2 litres of water (I read in a book somewhere that this would be better than just adding to pre boiled water).

I used the markings on the side of the fermenter and filled it up to about 22ltr. Next time I'm going to measure more accurately because I suspect the markings aren't accurate. I think there is too much in there.

I put the fermenter into something I made to use as an incubator for a previous hobby, it's basically two stacked plastic tubs with an aquarium heater in the bottom set to about 28C (bottom tub has water in). I finished up and put the fermenter in there about 2pm.

Within about 6 or 7 hours I could see a load of froth had developed, which made me happy! At about midnight I went to check on it and it looked like it was about to blow, I realised that I had probably filled the airlock up too much so I pulled it out to empty some water and had a kind of froth explosion from the hole. I stuck the airlock back in which started bubbling like crazy and filling with froth so in the end I cracked the lid open slightly to see if the froth would keep coming out and by god it did. The thing was frothing like mad! It was hilarious.

I went upstairs and searched the internet for a bit, I think maybe the heater was on too high so I switched it off and went to bed. My thermometer reads about 20ish C in that room anyway and I think that should be high enough for fermentation.

This morning I checked on it and the frothing has stopped. I snapped the lid back on and sat and watched the airlock for a few minutes but nothing happened, so I went for a shower. I checked again and there does seem to be pressure building in there but the airlock isn't bubbling.

Should the airlock be bubbling like mad? If so I think I might need to turn the heater back on at a lower temp.

The good news is the froth tasted quite a lot like beer. And all the froth means the yeast is working, right?

The downstairs of the house stinks of beer now! I took that as a good sign too because I read that infections cause horrible smells and this smells brilliant.

As always, all opinions or advice are welcome.

[trucker5774]

Sounds like your initial temperature was too high. This may have caused a rapid start to the fermentation and also a quick progress. Keep it around 20C and leave it for about 5 days then check the gravity each day. When it has been stable for 48 hours you can move on to bottles keg etc.

[AlexCricket]

Probably started off a little warm but being a Coopers kit - afterall their designed to be brewed in Oz - you will probably be ok.
No real need to boil the can of concentrated wort but again probably no harm done.

Sounds like you are getting going well. At this time of year you probably don't need to worry too much about heaters as most houses are currently are not dropping below 18 at night or above 25 in the day.

[ckingale]

OK, I wont turn the heating on again. Thanks guys!

I hope I didn't ruin it. I'll know better next time.

[EoinMag]

It's your first brew, like a first child you think you have to check them every five minutes to see are they breathing, after a while you realise that they have a life of their own and do what they have to do and you can actually let them get on with it without too much intervention beyond creating the right conditions and then letting them get on with it.
But they're actually quite resilient, babies and beers that is