O my first batch came out ok, it was a all malt amber kit. I just brewed my new batch which is oktoberfest all malt also. My question is do I need to put this in a 2 nd fermenter? I have a 6 gallon Carboy from my dad but not sure when to use it he passed on, or do you just use them when you are doing an all grain batch? Any help would be great. My first batch did not seem to be high abv? Any thing that might cause that? I followed the kit to the T.
2nd batch
- Thread starter zedman9
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SilverZero
Well-Known Member
As far as fermenters go, use whatever is free. It makes no difference whether it was extract, kit, all-grain, partial, or whatever. Once you're boiling, it's all the same anyway. Keep the first batch in whatever it's in, and use the carboy for your second batch. My opinion is that you're better off not transferring from one fermenter to another unless you really know you need to do a secondary fermentation. Some might disagree, but a lot of people are pro-long-primary.
If your batches are low ABV compared to what you calculated they should be (or what was reported on the kit) then it could be an incomplete fermentation, but that's very common. What do you mean by "did not seem to be high abv"? Are you using a hydrometer?
If your batches are low ABV compared to what you calculated they should be (or what was reported on the kit) then it could be an incomplete fermentation, but that's very common. What do you mean by "did not seem to be high abv"? Are you using a hydrometer?
SilverZero said:
I did not use a hydrometer on the first batch, I pitched the yeast and covered before I remembered. It was just because me and my buds drank about 8 each and felt as though we were drinking spring water. The 2nd batch I did take a reading it came up as 1.040 the best I could tell.
What sort of recipe was your first one? a kit? that probably listed expect OG, FG and ABV%. Same with the 2nd one. One common problem, although it looks like you don't have this with you second one, is if you do a partial boil with extract, and then add water in the fermentor ("boil extrat in 2.5 gallons, top off to 5 gallons in fermentor") you have to mix the water and boild wort to get an acurate OG. It will mix by itself when fermenting, so that isn't and issue, it is only a problem when trying to take OG's.
On my first batch, I "loosely" followed a recipe and I actually just decided to add 1 pound of honey after the boil (just to see what would happen) and it ended up at 8% ABV.
I knew from the furious fermentation the ABV was going to be elevated.
Anyway... The beer came out great! I just bottled my second batch, no honey this time 5.6% ABV.
Also I just primary for three weeks, then into the bottles... Cheers!
I knew from the furious fermentation the ABV was going to be elevated.
Anyway... The beer came out great! I just bottled my second batch, no honey this time 5.6% ABV.
Also I just primary for three weeks, then into the bottles... Cheers!
SilverZero
Well-Known Member
Let it go longer. 7 days is the minimum for the yeast to convert sugars, but there's a lot of clean-up they'll do if you let them go for 2-3 weeks.
EDIT - If the kit means 7 days AFTER the bubbles stop, that's also misleading. Airlocks aren't great indicators of fermentation activity. Just plan to leave it for 3 weeks. (My $0.02)
SilverZero
Well-Known Member
Double post.
