Kit beers usually have decent instructions, that include how long to let a beer ferment. On Northern Brewer or other kit sellers, you can usually find additional info on the kit review page or that particular sellers forums. That being said, a hydrometer is a great investment and will always...
+1 vote on the Northern Brewer kit. I went to my local bottle shop and bought singles of six diff reds. After brewing the NB kit it tasted closest to Killians
Austin homebrew has free shipping on kits. Northern Brewer runs a lot of promos for kits, so I just wait them out. Morebeer is free shipping if your order is over $59 (they break down items in either free shipping/ pay for shipping categories) The kits fall under the free shipping if spend the $59
If you added what came with your kit (the 5oz package), then you are fine. Caveat being that your initial fermentation was also complete before you bottled.
I just auto-siphon it over until there is a more manageable amount left in the kettle. Once that happens I just carefully pour the rest in. I know it is not getting as aerated but before I pitch it gets a few minutes of good shaking.
Beer frog, my .02. I just started doing my own recipes over kits as well. There is a lot of info on the site (especially Yoopers advice and recipes), but the best tool I found was the Beersmith program. Free 21 day trial and it will tell you what is exactly going to happen with your recipes. It...
Another quick tip. If you need to move your primary carboy to another location for the purposes of siphoning to the secondary, move it the night before to let it settle again. I had to move mine and it kicked up a little trub, I let this settle back down before moving.
Thanks all for the guidance. My plan is to heat the honey up on the stove, and add it in when I remove the blow off tube from the over eager initial ferm my yeast is doing now. I have to take the blow off out and put an airlock on either way, so I might as well pour some honey in there.
It sounds like I was better off not adding it when I originally planned to. I don't plan on using a secondary for this batch, so do I just pour it in the primary without mixing (stirring/shaking) the carboy. I am not sure when I am supposed to start worrying about oxydation during this time...
During my second batch of beer, a Bavarian Hefe extract kit from Northern Brewer, I had meant to add a pound of honey at flame out. I forgot to throw it in there. Looking at two options: 1. Just opening the airlock and add it to the carboy. 2. After initial fermentation is over adding it with a...