Beer Kits

[ericmark]

I say beer kits as the whole idea of pans with mash seems just too much work in my mind however the kit is very simple.

There are so tweaks one can do with a kit from type of sugar to amount of sugar and amount of water which will alter taste and alcohol level and I have tried some of these but clearly it takes time to assess the results.

But the big question is when to bottle? Once one leaves the recommended figures then the times will change so there seems to be two methods to assess when to bottle. The hydrometer readings and the air lock activity however in both cases one can get odd results.

Water will absorb gas be it air in a fish pond or CO2 in the beer and when disturbed it will release this gas. So taking a sample of beer for the hydrometer readings I find often the gas released can give a false reading. Also my hydrometer is correct at 60 degs F which is colder than the temperature at which beer will ferment so at 20 degs C the reading is inaccurate.

When my brew cooled to 16 degs C and I measured the s.g. it showed as nearly finished 0.010 but when the brew was raised back to the 20 to 24 degrees needed for the yeast to work the hydrometer reading went up to 0.014 showing not ready to bottle.

All the stuff says the reading should get lower day by day but my reading went up which got me scratching my head. So I got out another hydrometer and started some tests.

My first result was the two hydrometers altered in the reverse as the temperature changed one was plastic the other glass so reading temperature correction tables is useless unless designed for the hydrometer you are using they are not universal.

The only way seems to be to keep the brew at a set temperature and then one can look for the change without trying to correct for temperature.

Second indicator is the air lock and how many bubbles are released. However the lid on both my fermentors have cracks around where the bung for air lock is placed and sealing is some times lost giving wrong readings as far as bubble activity goes. I seal with a little butter.

With Bitter and Mild if sealed the bubbles in air lock do seem a good indicator as to when to bottle but with Ginger beer the activity was so low it was very hard to judge and again with Ginger beer I have had yeast fail and no activity also when bottled too early I had to pour them all back into the fermentor for a week to avoid the bottles exploding.

Extra sugar and water does seem to produce a brew more to my taste but this also means instead of 7 days in fermentor it can take 3 weeks so I use two methods to stop bursting a bottle. First is using screw cap bottles where the cap is weakest part the other now my preferred method is use plastic pop bottles so I can feel the pressure without opening.

The other thing is I now keep a journal detailing what I have done so I can look back and get some data as to how long at what temperature a brew takes.

With two fermentors I now transfer when near complete this removes the bulk of the sediment so when bottled some 3 or 4 days latter there is very little sediment transferred into the bottles. This is more important when using pop bottles as although one can carefully pour the first glass with crystal clear results once returned to upright sediment is disturbed so second glass becomes slightly cloudy.

Well this should I hope be a good start now it's time to sit back enjoy a pint and wait for replies and see how others get on with beer kits.

 

[jockscott]

I used to brew my own beer from kits. Some years ago I had a lager kit on the go. Bubbling away nicely, when we had a power cut where I live) Took SSEB almost 4 days to get the power back on (in winter) Result was we had no heating either as the gas boiler needed electricity to work. I looked at my home brew a few days into the power cut and found it was as flat as the proverbial millpond. Thinking I'd lost it, I decided to wait and see. Sure enough once power was restored and the heating was on, the beer started fermenting again. Bubbled away merrily. When it was finally bottled, it was surprisingly clear and when finally ready to drink, it was undoubtedly, one of the best brews I'd ever made.

 

[ericmark]

I have just bottled one Mild and another one on the way so moved back to Bitter well a Scottish Heavy both fermetors next to each other and there is a marked difference in the activity between the two.

Twice as many bubbles from Heavy than Mild the Bitter in the past took around 7 to 10 days but Mild was 21 days. The Bitter well within sell by date Mild just about to run out that may have a bearing on the activity.

The Ginger Beer was over a month in the fermentor and extremely slow.

As to larger I read the instructions and once the weather starts to cool I would love to give it a go. Seems it uses bottom-fermenting yeast and is done much colder however Young's instructions for Larger are the same as Mild and Bitter so a little confused.

 

[RogerMellie]

I started brewing from kits last year, wasn't expecting great results but it all turned out much better than expected. For a total beginner like me I recommend starting with a good quality kit like Woodfords Wherry. It's a 2can kit, no need to add any sugar or additional malt, just follow the instructions and you really can't go wrong.
I know much of the appeal of home brewing is the ability to modify the brew to your own taste, but for me staring off with a good kit and getting good results on the first brew was important- if it was rubbish there was no way SWMBO would allow me to dedicate so much time or space to my new hobby!

 

[ericmark]

At the moment trying a Lager. The idea was I did a so called Lager following the instructions which said keep temperature at around 20 degs C however it may be Lager taste but not a Lager.

So bought same kit again but this time used Lager yeast and put in garage at 10 degs C idea was to compare. However been 5 days now and nothing happening. Expected it to take longer but did not expect it to take that long.

So now wondering how long to leave before giving up and bringing into the warm house?

Well I left it 7 days the put a small 18W heater under the fermentor plus body warmer and coat and over 30 hours brought it up to 18 degs at which point it started to react so heat removed took around 15 hours to drop to 12 degs and it is giving a bubble in air lock every 35 seconds now.

It will clearly take a long time but run out of bottles to put beer into so I can afford to give a gap in the beer production. Since I can only Lager beer in the winter this will be the only one I will do this year.

 

[WabbitPoo]

I too have just started my first brew, from BigJugs (try googling that!)

I have just bottled it and, after a week in the warm, it is now out in the cool of the shed for a few weeks. It did look very clear, and didn't smell too yeasty, so I am hoping it'll at least be drinkable. I hope its all OK as I have 22L of the stuff.......

I like the idea of an initial syphon to get rid of sediment. Must get another bucket. Once a bottle is opened for the first time, could I do a syphoning into another clean bottle, that way you don't need to worry about pouring/sediment issues? or would it lose all/any fizz straight away?

 

[Stivino]

When you open a bottle, you must pour it all, leaving any sediment in the bottle. You can either pour it into more than one glass or a big jug for decanting. Try no to use big bottles then it won't be too much of an issue.

 

[ericmark]

Now here is one for the books.

When I brew after a week I move beer into a clean fermentor which removes much of the sediment so when I bottle maybe a week later much less sediment ends up in the beer.

However at this transfer there is still a lot of gas in the beer with a good head the siphon is not a problem but the last one used a lower stool and so near the end lost the siphon.

So put the remnants in a demijohn with funnel to settle but next day clearly had not settled so just left in demijohn.

This was really the first time I had been able to see the beer and although the air lock was relatively inactive the stream of bubbles showed it was still fermenting some 17 days after starting.

The temperature however in the demijohn was following the room temperature 14 - 20 degs C but the fermentor was covered so only varied 16 - 18 degs C so thought I would compare the specific gravity of the pair.

This was really a surprise demijohn 1.002 and fermentor 1.006 but 8 days earlier they had been the same. So question is why?
1) Demijohn in light fermentor in dark.
2) Demijohn has larger temperature variation.
3) More sediment in demijohn.
4) Demijohn beer taken from bottom of first fermentor.

I was told ale is a top yeast but lager is a bottom yeast however this is an ale "Geordie Bitter" but clearly the very tiny bubbles all come from the bottom.

This again has raised the question call it conditioning or lagering but in essence is it the same process? When we put our beer in a cold place is it lagering? Of course not commercial beer likely pasteurised but home brew I do notice how the brew improves with time. So is what I call ale really a Dunkel or Schwarzbier dark lager having been left in a cold shed for months?

 

[big-all]

you will always have bubbles if the yeast is live and theres sugars to convert

you get the whole head frothy 2" deep thats say 100% "activity" a few bubbles about 0.0000001% activity in other words your 99.9% there
the last 1 or 2% not worth the extra time cost and effort involved

 

[ericmark]

I do not need the fermentor for another 5 days at which time next brew will be ready to be transferred into clean fermentor, so will leave for at least 4 more days then test specific gravity again. I expect they will become closer which will indicate just running at difference speed.

If however they don't come closer then I will suspect light has had an effect and will be careful in future to cover demijohn.

 

[mimilovell]

Is it legal to make your own beer in the UK?

 

[stillp]

Yes, as long as you don't sell it.

 

[ericmark]

After loads of tests I have come to the conclusion the problem is temperature and the amount of dissolved gases in the liquid.

I took a bottle brewed some 3 months ago and tested s.g. 1.010 rather surprised much higher than expected so went to look at records and what was the s.g. when bottled. I am careful to spin hydrometer to ensure no bubbles sticking to it. I could not find original s.g. but it had resulted in some time where the hydrometer was sitting in the beer.

Looked again in case I had misread still showing 1.010 so spun it again and it dropped to 1.005.

There may have been a few degrees temperature rise however not enough to show such a marked change but also of course by now the beer was flat.

I was aware of problem of bubbles sticking to side of hydrometer but had not considered dissolved gasses.

It would therefore seem careful noting of air lock activity is required as well as hydrometer readings.

Lager is a major problem at 12 degs C there has never been much activity so noting and change it very hard. Any slight temperature change can cause gas released to vary so was relying on s.g. reading.

Another point I had not realised there are two types of hydrometer those for s.g. are calibrated at 60 degs F (15C) and those for density are calibrated at 20 degs C. It would seem my old hydrometer is 60 degs F but those used for beer are in the main density type and so 20 degs C.

This means when asking advice you can get wrong figures quoted as using different hydrometer. Also found plastic one varies opposite way to glass with temperature change.