1yr since I recieved my Mr.Beer, I learned...

[looneybomber]

I am so glad I got one of those for Christmas. I brewed 1 "kit" and then brewed 5 or 6 more of the custom recipes where you had to buy multiple different cans and use home ingredients. They were great, but expensive. So I looked around and found out I could brew 5gal for just a little more than some of those 2gal Mr.Beer recipes.

While I haven't learned a whole lot about how to make my own recipe or what each variety of hop tastes like and how to choose one over the other, I did learn that making an extract beer is easy. I kept reading thread after thread about stuck fermentation or possible infection (I even created one or two) and never had an issue with that.

But after a year, the only real important thing I learned, was to use champagne yeast (EC1118 or 1116) to carb a beer if it was racked to secondary. If it was not racked, even with a 1.11OG, I had a RIS carb just fine without adding yeast. This tip, for some reason, is either not mentioned in any of the stickies for n00bs, or I just somehow overlooked it. It would make a great addition.

Oh, wait, two more good tips for n00bs.
1) If using Belgian corked bottles, use cages, otherwise you will have corks hit the ceiling!

2) Use one plastic bottle with each and every batch, that way you can squeeze it to check carb levels without having to guess/assume it's carbed or pry up a cap. The 1L plastic bottles included in the Mr.Beer kit work great, but drinking 1L of an 11% RIS all by yourself?

 

[Toga]

The champagne yeast tip is not mentioned anywhere because it is completely unnecessary. There is enough yeast in suspension in most average to moderate gravity brews to carb up just fine with a little priming sugar. Now if you made a mega high gravity brew and or let it bulk age for an extended period of time you may want to add some fresh yeast at bottling however even in these cases champagne yeast not necessary.

 

[fall-line]

Using one plastic bottle along with your other bottles is a good idea to help keep an eye on the carbonation level without having to open a bottle each time. That being said, there is more to the bottle conditioning phase than just carbonating. For best results, just let give it a full 3 (or more, depending on the recipe) weeks to carb up and condition. If you start drinking your beer as soon as the test bottle feels properly conditioned, chances are you are depriving yourself of the better beer it would have become, given a few more weeks.

I'm with Toga, I've never needed to use additional yeast to carb bottled beer. The step you are describing is unnecessary for the majority of beers a homebrewer will make. The only situations I can think of where this would be required is if you pasteurized or heavily filtered your beer before bottling, or let a beer bulk condition in secondary for longer than 6 months or so. Otherwise, there is plenty of yeast in suspension to carb up the bottles if you are patient.

We certainly don't mean to criticize your process, but it's important to explain both sides to the argument in this forum as it is intended as advice for new brewers.

Cheers!

 

[looneybomber]

Now if you made a mega high gravity brew and or let it bulk age for an extended period of time you may want to add some fresh yeast at bottling however even in these cases champagne yeast not necessary.

I, on the contrary, think it's a very good tip. Why? Because when trying to carb a bulk aged 11% beer, these were my options I read;

1) Buy pack of US05, create starter, decant and step up till the yeast will be strong enough to handle the toxic environment.
2) Brew another beer using US05 or other strong yeast, then add part of that yeast slurry to carb up the beer.

Neither option was cheap, quick or easy especially after I had already bottled my beer. Using a packet of champagne yeast, I buy it for $1, hydrate for 20min, pour into bottling bucket, or in my case, squirt a mL into each bottle. DONE! That should be suggestion/tip #1 for carbing those beers due to cost and simplicity.

 

[Bradyfumbled]

A "noob" isn't likely going to be brewing a bulk-aged 11% beer.

Throwing this into a sticky would confuse the heck out of a lot of folks when they're starting out. Unless you're doing extended aging (more than a month or two) in a secondary, oak barrel, or something like that, you're going to have plenty of residual yeast in suspension for carbing.

 

[gelatin]

Are most of your beers 11%+? Your advice just isn't on message for anyone sticking with the normal 4-8% range.

 

[looneybomber]

Are most of your beers 11%+? Your advice just isn't on message for anyone sticking with the normal 4-8% range.

8-11%, yes. Is that unusual? The light beers I've brewed, I brewed mainly to harvest yeast from for the big beers. The exception being my Oktoberfest that's near 6%.

My very first 5 gal batch was an 8.5% triple secondaried on orange peels and the second is the one that's being talked about. An 11% imperial stout, with chocolate, that I bottled half, then aged the second half on oak and bourbon so I could compare them side by side to see how I liked the oak. Everywhere I read, as a noob, said it'll carb, there's enough yeast in suspension, but I didn't see a caveat stating that's only true unless I brew a beer like my second batch.

 

[lgilmore]

Are these kits you're buying? could you post your receipe? or provide a link?

I could understand extra yeast in a fermentor if your batch stalls out, but I don't follow extra squirt of yeast into the bottle at bottling. There should be enough yeast in the beer to do the trick.

 

[looneybomber]

Are these kits you're buying? could you post your receipe? or provide a link?

I could understand extra yeast in a fermentor if your batch stalls out, but I don't follow extra squirt of yeast into the bottle at bottling. There should be enough yeast in the beer to do the trick.

That's what everybody says, but my triple didn't carb (the one I racked onto orange peel) and neither did the half of my RIS that I racked onto oak and whiskey. So that said, with any big beer that I secondary, I now put a packet of hydrated EC1118 in the bottling bucket to ensure it carbs.

The triple was this with a little more malt and a little more sugar.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/belgian-tripel-extract-kit.html

The RIS was this with an extra 3.15lbs of Dark LME, turbinado sugar (I forget how much and I don't have my notes), 0.5lbs special B, and 4oz chocolate (not enough).
http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/imperial-stout-extract-kit.html
Next time I brew this one, I would like to add 1lb of dark belgian syrup.

 

[lgilmore]

are you putting your carbing mix into your bottling bucket and mixing it up? Could it be something with your capping? are all your bottles uncarbed?

 

[looneybomber]

Process goes like this.
1) pour boiled water/sugar into bottling bucket after it's cooled some.
2) rack beer into bucket then stir gently
3) fill bottles using bottling wand
4) cap beer bottles.

Process works for all but two batches and those two batches were 8% or higher and sat in secondary for at least 4wks but not longer than 7wks. Thus far I have never had a problem with anything straight from primary, only secondary. Oh, and I didn't use the same carboy for secondary.

 

[CDGoin]

OK.. I am a complete noob and have to ask.. (Sorry if I am hijacking the thread a bit)

Whats it take to make an 11% beer.. and can it be done in a Stout or Porter..? The high % beers I have had over the years always seem a bit sweet and less hoppy.. which BTW I Am fine with Which is a reason I like Porters and Stouts.. but they tend to be lower in %.

 

[BrewKid]

OK.. I am a complete noob and have to ask.. (Sorry if I am hijacking the thread a bit)

Whats it take to make an 11% beer.. and can it be done in a Stout or Porter..? The high % beers I have had over the years always seem a bit sweet and less hoppy.. which BTW I Am fine with Which is a reason I like Porters and Stouts.. but they tend to be lower in %.

To make a beer with a higher abv you will need to add more malt. The more malt there is the more sugar there will be for the yeast to eat, thus creating more alcohol. That is given that you have used an appropriate amount of yeast by using a yeast starter.

 

[lgilmore]

Hmm, maybe it's the yeast then. How was your fg in those two batches that didn't carb. Do you remember what yeast you used? Was it fresh? did you have a lot of trub in your primary and secondary for the amount of sugars these batches had?

 

[looneybomber]

Hmm, maybe it's the yeast then. How was your fg in those two batches that didn't carb. Do you remember what yeast you used? Was it fresh? did you have a lot of trub in your primary and secondary for the amount of sugars these batches had?

You could be on to something and I thought about that too since it's about the only thing these two beers had in common. I, however, blew it off thinking that wyeast makes a quality product and the yeast was not older than 2wks when I "smacked" it.

I used 3787 on the triple, then used that yeast cake to ferment the RIS (should be Belgian Imperial Stout?). Both fermented fine, but I'll have to look back at my notes to see what they finished at. I thought the stout was around 1.026-1.027 just going by memory.

As for trub, I did make a post on here a while back when doing the triple that I was worried too much yeast fell out of suspension while in secondary since I had a nice white layer on the bottom. Everyone said DWRHAHB or however that thing is spelled.