Starting first brew tonight

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

Hey Guys,

Total brewing newbie here, I have been toying with the idea for ages but have been too lazy to do anything about it!

Finally gave in last week and bought some equipment and a beer kit (figured it would make sense to start with a kit to begin with)

I bought the following stuff and also bought and after reading up on a few things I bought an aquarium heater as the room I am using can get pretty damn cold at times.

http://www.geterbrewed.com/get-er-brewed-complete-starter-kit
http://www.geterbrewed.com/cortez-gold-mexican-cerveza

Has anyone got any tips for me, I'm pretty much winging it at the minute and any help that can stop this first batch tasting like piss would be much appreciated!

Also if anyone has tried the above beer kit it would be great to find out what it should taste like.

Cheers!

 

[RM-MN]

I don't see anything wrong with either the equipment nor the ingredient kit. They should get you started just fine. From the little information I could find on the kit I would assume that it includes an ale yeast. While ale yeasts do not require the colder temperatures of the lager yeasts, keeping them cool does make better tasting beer. Try to keep the temperature in the low to mid 60's F (16 to 18 C) during the intial part of the fermentation (4 or 5 days) and then warm it up slightly to encourage the yeast to complete the ferment. Don't rush your beer. It will take 5 to 6 weeks for your beer to ferment, carbonate, and mature. Hurrying your beer will give you less than desirable results. I usually leave mine in the fermenter for about 3 weeks before bottling. Use your hydrometer to make sure the yeast is finished before you bottle too.

Before you make your second batch, make sure to remove the spigot from the fermenter and disassemble it to get it completely clean, then use a sanitizer such as Idophor or StarSan to make sure you do not infect your next batch with bacteria. Bacteria love the remains of beer and hide in small cracks such as you might find in the spigot.

 

[twistr25]

Read through this if you have the chance How to Brew. Good place to start.

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

Thanks for the responses and advice guys, it's much appreciated!

The kit I bought actually said it should take between 7 and 10 days to brew, I guess it's best to leave it longer then?

I will have a look at your link after work twistr25, thanks!

 

[twistr25]

Unless you can get precise temperature control, most on here would advise a minimum 14 day primary. After that you can rack to secondary if you choose, but it's not necessary, or go ahead and bottle it up. Then, certainly wait at least 3 weeks at room temp to properly condition and carbonate. Having said that, when first starting out, I tried a beer every week to see how it progressed. I also found a minimum of 48 hours fridge time is also needed. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

Thanks a load Twistr! I have some temp control but its a cheap one for a fish tank so it probably wont be the best so il give it 14 days or so!

I'm sure I will have a bottle here and there to "test" it out, Cheers!

 

[DrewschBag]

Make sure everything is sanitized after the boil too. Some first time brewers don't understand the importance of this until they're drinking cardboard. Congrats on taking the leap! I hope it's as fun for you as it is for the rest of us.

 

[woozy]

My advise is go ahead. Don't be afraid of making mistakes. Have fun. learn. and have fun.

I'm not familiar with the extract kit you are using. I see it has hops (so it isn't pre-hopped LME). But is the extract itself prepared specifically for this specific beer kit? (As opposed to a standard LME that is flavored and tempered with specialty grains, which is how must extract recipe brewing I'm familiar works.) That's kind of a neat idea maybe.

 

[twistr25]

Thanks a load Twistr! I have some temp control but its a cheap one for a fish tank so it probably wont be the best so il give it 14 days or so!

I'm sure I will have a bottle here and there to "test" it out, Cheers!

I have decent temp control and typically do 3 weeks. Every brew system will have its slight quirks and its finding the best combination to make the best beer. And don't worry about screwing up, you still may make great beer. For example, my last beer, a black IPA, I missed my OG, was under on my IBUs, and was worried I underprimed. Got second place in a competition last weekend. Always let it play out.

 

[unionrdr]

Ok,bulldogbrews.co.uk says they put invert sugar in the cervesa kit,claiming it'd give better results than dextrose. It doesn't say anything in the kit description about the yeast. But the homepage says "Amongst the varietal strains we can mention the "warm lager strain" which produces very good lager beer at room temperature. Makes me think of the WL029 Ale/Kolsh yeast I used on a couple batches. It's optimal range being 65-69F. Unlike other kolsh strains that use more lager-like temps. Makes me wonder if this yeast is the same or similar? The WL029 does give very lager-like qualities With the local spring water I used.

 

[woozy]

But the homepage says "Amongst the varietal strains we can mention the "warm lager strain" which produces very good lager beer at room temperature. Makes me think of the WL029 Ale/Kolsh yeast I used on a couple batches. It's optimal range being 65-69F. Unlike other kolsh strains that use more lager-like temps. Makes me wonder if this yeast is the same or similar? The WL029 does give very lager-like qualities With the local spring water I used.

Makes me think more of the California or San Francisco Lagers used for steam beers and california commons that are technically lagers. I don't know if these warm temp lagers make more or less "lager-like" beer than the kolsh which I'm actually brewing with right now.

 

[woozy]

I'm not familiar with the extract kit you are using. I see it has hops (so it isn't pre-hopped LME).

Oops. It is pre-hopped. They also include hops for late mid-fermenation "teabag" hopping.

An interesting kit.

 

[unionrdr]

@woozy-It'd be interesting to find out what exact yeast it is. They sure aren't telling...

 

[woozy]

@woozy-It'd be interesting to find out what exact yeast it is. They sure aren't telling...

It would be, wouldn't it? And they aren't, are they?

They seem an interesting product. They give you, the home brewer, credit for knowing what's involved in brewing (as opposed to Mr. Beer's add water until it tastes like flat beer) and nod and wink to the brewer about how smart folks in the know swap out the yeast and they know you're smart enough to do that but you won't because they use super special high quality yeast and this is our special private understanding between one smart brew company and one smart brewer but then will not tell you what it is after all.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,I'm thinking it's not so special a yeast in the end. Just a strong possibility of good marketing. An air of mystery might make home brewers think they're getting some new secret wonder yeast or other. It'd be interesting to brew one just for objectivities sake alone.

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

You lost me about 5 posts ago but it's been on since Friday now and is bubbling away nicely.

Once it's done I'll let you all know how it turns out

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

Hey Guys - I hopped my brew last night (5 days in now) - It currently smells like a pint that's been sitting for ages and has went stale, is that normal? It's also really cloudy (kind of like bad pi$$ if im being honest), im guessing it will clear up after a while?

 

[unionrdr]

5 days is a little soon to dry hop. You'll get less aroma than if you'd waited till FG is reached & it cleared up a bit. sounds like your ferment temps were too high from the smells you're getting.

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

Thanks for the reply, is there anything I can do to save it?

 

[unionrdr]

At this point,just make sure it's clear or slightly misty before bottling. The settling yeast will have eaten the by products of fermentation that cause off flavors by then. Leave'em behind when bottling & give the bottles 3-4 weeks to carb & condition.

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

Had my first hydrometer reading tonight, not there yet. Colour and smell are both still pretty off but not giving up hope, will let it sit for another week or so!

 

[twistr25]

How long has it been in primary? That does still seem to be awful cloudy. What temp is it fermenting at? You can try to cold crash it to get it to clear up some as well.

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

Two weeks today. What's cold crashing?

 

[twistr25]

If you are able, place it in a refrigerator for 24 to 48 hours or some place where you can get temps down into the 30s. It helps "knock down" the rest of the sediment that may be floating around.

 

[IvanTheTerribrew]

One thing you can try if you can't do the fridge thing to clear your beer is to add unflavored gelatin. I had a murky looking ale that wasn't clearing up but once I added this it cleared right up. Here's instructions.
But def let your primary finish and you hit your FG first.

http://anarchylane.com/blog/?page_id=1020

 

[unionrdr]

It def looks like it's still fermenting being that cloudy. Let it come down to a stable FG 1st. Then give it 3-7 days to clean up by products & settle out clear or slightly misty.

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

Thanks again guys, took another sample today, hydrometer reading is still the same, as is the cloudiness. Il give it another week to see if it comes down at all. Hopefully it does, I'm getting thirsty!

 

[unionrdr]

It's been 5 days & it still looks like it did on 8/7? Must be having a time with those last few points...being a cervesa,did it use lager yeast?

 

[twistr25]

Thanks again guys, took another sample today, hydrometer reading is still the same, as is the cloudiness. Il give it another week to see if it comes down at all. Hopefully it does, I'm getting thirsty!

What is the reading? It looks like it's around 1.012 or so. It may be done.

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

The cloudiness has cleared a bit. Still looks wrong though

 

[twistr25]

Certainly not I would have expected. How does it taste? If it tastes fine, I wouldn't worry about it. Work on the clarity on the next one.

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

There's not a whole lot of flavour off it to be honest. I'm going to bottle and carbonate a few now and chill them for a few days. If they come out ok il bottle the rest. Might try a different kit next to see how that works out

 

[twistr25]

I don't know what you have access to, but the ones from Midwest, Northern Brewer etc I believe are better. It gives you more ingredients to work with and you get to control a little bit more of the process. So if you have availability, I would recommend that route, or at least a kit similar that you can get a hold of.

 

[BaronVonMclaughlin]

Cool, thanks Twistr, we have a pretty cool store here in Northern Ireland http://www.geterbrewed.com I'm sure they will have something similar