Hello! A few questions...

Discuss making up beer kits - the simplest way to brew.
Roy

Hello! A few questions...

Post by Roy » Tue Jan 05, 2010 1:53 pm

hello all,

Just signed up, what a good resource this site is!

Have brewed a few kits in the past, current brew is a muntons traditional bitter kit, nearly gone now though. My girlfriends' mother got me an Edme IPA kit for christmas- i'd like to start afresh with my method since i've come across this site.

Spray malt; I presume I need light spray malt, would I need 1kg of it or 500g spray malt and 500g sugar?

Fermentation time, previously my time was around 10 days, thinking of upping it to a good 4 weeks to ferment out and mature

Bottling and priming; prime with sugar, spray malt, dark sugar etc?

I'm all ears here, would be good to have a good method. to make a good brew :D

crafty john

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by crafty john » Tue Jan 05, 2010 2:58 pm

Roy wrote:hello all,

Just signed up, what a good resource this site is!

Have brewed a few kits in the past, current brew is a muntons traditional bitter kit, nearly gone now though. My girlfriends' mother got me an Edme IPA kit for christmas- i'd like to start afresh with my method since i've come across this site.

Spray malt; I presume I need light spray malt, would I need 1kg of it or 500g spray malt and 500g sugar?

Fermentation time, previously my time was around 10 days, thinking of upping it to a good 4 weeks to ferment out and mature

Bottling and priming; prime with sugar, spray malt, dark sugar etc?

I'm all ears here, would be good to have a good method. to make a good brew :D
Hi Roy
I would go for 1 kilo of srpraymat, you will get more body, 10 days is perfect for fermentation, I always prime with dextrose but it's down to personal choice. Happy brewing.

John

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Ditch
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Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by Ditch » Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:00 pm

Roy wrote:
Fermentation time, previously my time was around 10 days, thinking of upping it to a good 4 weeks to ferment out and mature

:shock: Ten days is plenty of time in the FV, Roy. But, then ye'd really want it out of there and into ye keg / bottles. I've left beer two weeks in the FV, out of a necessity of the moment. But, it was a bit nervy!

guidomax

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by guidomax » Tue Jan 05, 2010 9:59 pm

Just to echo everyone's comments:

Spray malt - depends how much body you like in your beer, versus how strong you want it. A simple way of thinking about it is like this - malt has some "stuff that makes beer malty, gives it body" and some "stuff that gets completely turned to alcohol". Sugar is JUST "stuff that gets completely turned to alcohol".

So if you used all sugar, it would get completely turned to alcohol so you'd get a strong beer (i.e. lots of alcohol) but not much body - this comes across like it's been watered down, or a bit thin.

Likewise if you used all spraymalt, some would get turned to alcohol but there's also the bits that don't get turned to alcohol (we call them 'unfermentables'), which add body to the beer. So the outcome would be a beer with slightly less ABV but more taste, body, and mouthfeel.

Now most people on here are (rightly!) people who drink beer for the taste of beer, as opposed to just a way of getting pi$$ed (if we were just about that we'd all be supping cheap-o carling from the supermarket!), so you'll see (like the previous replies) that most people would recommend going the full whack with the malt - 1kg in your case. Bit more expensive, and a slightly lower ABV on the beer, but this just means that you can savour more of it in a session! Many strong beers that also have a lot of malty flavour would use, as an example, a lot of malt (to get the body up) PLUS some sugar (to boost the alcohol).

So I think that's a long winded way of saying, use 1kg spray malt :roll:

Fermentation time - Ditch is right, rack it to a keg or to bottles after about 10 days (as long as it's finished fermenting, evidenced by consistent hydrometer readings over a couple of days). It will continue maturing in the keg - there's still enough yeast in suspension in the beer for it to clean up all the nasties and generate some fizz. The reason we don't tend to leave the beer in the primary FV for too long is that the trub (the gunky stuff you get at the bottom of the FV) contains both live and dead yeast cells. The dead yeast cells can have a detrimental effect on flavour, so move it off the dead yeast and it can continue conditioning like this.

I tend to leave it in primary for 10 days or so too, then rack off to keg, then leave for as long as I can hold out. In general as long as your sanitation is good and you have an airtight seal, the longer you manage to leave it, the better (generally) the beer will be. At least four weeks if you can stand to wait that long - the kits tend to say just leave for a week or so but that's just to satisfy the punters who want cheap beer quickly. :)

Priming - all the different substances you've mentioned will impart a very slightly different flavour - again, pure sugar imparts a neutral flavour as it *all* gets turned to fizz and alcohol, malt will add a bit of a malty flavour as well as some fizz and a tiny bit of alcohol (for the reason above), honey, maple syrup, etc will do the same (enough sugar for the yeast to generate some CO2 fizz, but also a little bit left over to flavour the beer a tiny bit). If you're bottling, how about trying a few bottles with each priming agent - then you can compare the difference each makes.

G'luck with it! :)

bigdave

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by bigdave » Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:04 pm

guidomax,

That has to be one of the most informative and helpful posts Ive read. As a newbie this is exactly the sort of information I look for and need to help me in the next brew. Thank you very much.

:D

guidomax

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by guidomax » Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:08 pm

Cheers for the testimonial, bigdave - what can I say, I like to type :lol:

Have a good'un :)

Roy

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by Roy » Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:17 pm

Thank you very much for the help :)

Guidomax- wherabouts in oxford are you from? I'm from Oxford originally but living in Bristol after uni and now jobhunting...

guidomax

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by guidomax » Tue Jan 05, 2010 10:27 pm

Roy, no probs mate. I lived in Bristol for 6 or so years a while ago - great city, love it, went to uni there and stayed on for a good few years thereafter. Moved to Oxford for a job and have ended up in Greater Leys, nice enough place but my heart's still in the Westcountry! :)

Roy

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by Roy » Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:44 am

Awesome! Yeah, I still have my heart in Oxord funnily enough. My mate's family live in Greater Leys :)

Roy

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by Roy » Sat Jan 09, 2010 2:40 pm

Another quick question- after fermentation, would be ok to 'rack' it into a pressure barrel for storage/conditioning/maturation or am I barking up the wrong tree here?

guidomax

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by guidomax » Sat Jan 09, 2010 3:28 pm

Yup, that's fine, in fact, that's what I'd recommend to do. 'Racking' is just a fancy word for 'transferring the beer from one vessel to the other'. Some people will rack from the primary FV into a carboy (think big demijohn) or another bucket for conditioning, before then racking again to their chosen dispensing method (pressure barrel, keg, bottles etc).

However as this is another step where the beer is moving around, you increase the chances of infection/oxidation, and to be honest I've never done it because it just seems like too much hassle for too little gain.

So I rack directly from FV to pressure barrel. Put some sugar solution in the bottom of the pressure barrel (dissolve 80g sugar in half-a-pint or so of boiling water in a santised jug, pop some tinfoil on top to stop any nasties getting in the jug while it cools down to room temp, then pour this in the pressure barrel). Then syphon from FV to pressure barrel, making sure that the end of the syphon tube that's in the barrel is as near to the bottom of it as possible - this avoids too much splashing around and oxidation. Once it's all in there, put the lid back on the pressure barrel (may need a smear of vaseline to ensure an airtight seal on the O-ring), put it somewhere warm and leave for a few days to start conditioning.
The yeast suspended in the beer will eat up the sugar and produce the CO2 that gives the beer its sparkle.

After a few days in the warm, move the pressure barrel somewhere cool and leave it for as long as you can manage. This allows the yeast to drop out of suspension so you get bright clear beer, and also allows the flavours to mature and get better.

Roy

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by Roy » Sat Jan 09, 2010 6:35 pm

Brilliant! Thanks for the info.

I've got access to a pressure barrel (my brother's lending me one) would it be worth bottling it off after the pressure barrel or not advisable? Ive started saving beer bottles and going to get a capper tool also.


Thanks for the advice as always :D

Roy

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by Roy » Thu Jan 21, 2010 2:16 am

Can anyone answer the above question please?

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Ditch
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Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by Ditch » Thu Jan 21, 2010 5:37 am

Roy; What's wrong with drinking ye beer from the keg (pressure barrel)? Bottom line is; I'd wonder if ye even know what difference it might make, kegging or bottling.

In which case I'd say ye Bro's maybe trying to save ye a whole world of work there. Perhaps he knows the craic?

Stop trying to find new ways to mess with simplicity and stick it in the keg :wink:

Now use the Search function and check out " CO2 ". Ye'll find a bottle is better than those silly little bulbs. Searching on " Brass ", on this board, may also show ye some things worth learning.

micromaniac

Re: Hello! A few questions...

Post by micromaniac » Thu Jan 21, 2010 8:45 pm

guidomax wrote:Cheers for the testimonial, bigdave - what can I say, I like to type :lol:

Have a good'un :)
max whats your view on the idea of dry hopping with varying types and ammounts,but instead of doing it in the fv or keg i was thinking of doing it individualy in bottels,and hopfully when i get the result i like i could just multiply it accordingly.i mostly make real ale from two can kits.i have tried it a few times in the fv without much differance to end result.i am a bit wary of doing it in the keg as some say if left to long it can taste a bit grassy .i may be missing the pitfalls of this idea so if there are any be glad to hear them :?:

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