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Just did my first batch ever and while I screwed up a ton, at least I know where to go from here. First big mistake: dramatically underestimating how much of a pain in the rear end it is to cool down the boiling wort. The biggest reason for this was when I went to stick in the sink, the pot was too big for the sink and wouldn't even fit. The second reason was, I had no ice since my freezer is the most inefficient piece of poo poo in the universe. I just put it in the bathtub and poured cold water from the purified water jug into the wort, but it was still kind of warm. Second mistake: not having any way to dry off the stupid airlock rubber part. It just wouldn't stay in the carboy. My wife had a good (?) suggestion: we just took some sterile guaze and dried it off that way. I'm really hoping when they say "sterile" they mean sterile. In any case, at the least, the fermentation seems to be going well: pitched the dry yeast (by just pouring it into the carboy, no idea whether that's bad or not) and 12 hours later it's freaking out inside there.
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Jan 24, 2012 00:51
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| # ? May 14, 2024 03:28 |
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I did my first batch that I siphoned onto a yeast cake instead of pitching new yeast and HOLY poo poo does that kick into gear fast! I looked at the airlock and hour later and it was the most vigorous I've ever seen that thing bubble.
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Jan 24, 2012 00:54
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Is there a way or method to ghetto keg? What if I don't want to bottle my beers and just keep them in a carboy or gatorade cooler with a spigot on it after it's carbonated?
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Jan 24, 2012 01:51
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chiz posted:Is there a way or method to ghetto keg? What if I don't want to bottle my beers and just keep them in a carboy or gatorade cooler with a spigot on it after it's carbonated? carboys or gatorade coolers can't hold pressure.. sooooo...
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Jan 24, 2012 02:08
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Kegs are the cheap part of kegging since companies are basically just trying to flog their otherwise useless cornies off for whatever they can get for them. All the expensive parts are the pressurizing things which means any sort of rigged up keg will probably cost more than a legit system.
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Jan 24, 2012 03:07
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chiz posted:Is there a way or method to ghetto keg? What if I don't want to bottle my beers and just keep them in a carboy or gatorade cooler with a spigot on it after it's carbonated? There's no way to do that. First, as stated, those vessels won't hold pressure, but second, as soon as you start pouring you're going to let oxygen in, so the beer will start rapidly declining in quality rapidly and would probably be undrinkable after 4-5 days.
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Jan 24, 2012 04:02
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zedprime posted:Kegs are the cheap part of kegging Not anymore they're not  2 years ago I was buying kegs for $29-34 They're somewhere around $50 now, unfortunately. The price fluctuates a lot.
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Jan 24, 2012 04:35
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Ouch. I was hoping to expand my lovely 2 keg collection soon, the price going up by 50% hurts. I got both of mine for about $30 each on Craigslist a while back. It makes sense with the kegs not really being manufactured anymore and homebrewing blowing up as a hobby, but still sucks.
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Jan 24, 2012 05:40
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Docjowles posted:Ouch. I was hoping to expand my lovely 2 keg collection soon, the price going up by 50% hurts. I got both of mine for about $30 each on Craigslist a while back. It makes sense with the kegs not really being manufactured anymore and homebrewing blowing up as a hobby, but still sucks. I still find kegs on craigslist for $30 once a month or so. Just keep looking, and you'll find what you need.
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Jan 24, 2012 06:22
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Not to mention it's stainless steel and those prices have shot up.
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Jan 24, 2012 06:25
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Ball locks are generally going around $50+ Pin locks are still pretty cheap, and are between 30-40 from what I was looking at earlier today.
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Jan 24, 2012 06:30
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Hey Rage-Saq (or anyone else really) I'm going to be brewing your "The Muse" 100% Brett L beer this weekend and was wondering if you had any advise or anything you would change about the beer. I saw your note on HBT that you would add a bit more Caravienna to get a bit more residual sweetness in the final beer, so I was considering bumping that up from .25 to .5 lbs. I'm going to scale the batch to 10 gallons. I'll take the extra half and ferement with WLP 550, and when its finished add some Jolly Pumpkin Bam Bier dregs growing on my stirplate right now and let it sit on oak for a few months. It won't be a Bam Bier clone per say, just a (hopefully) yummy Belgian sour experiment. Also, how long does it take for a Brett starter to ferment out? Similar to regular yeast? I'm picking up my vial of Brett L tonight.
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Jan 24, 2012 16:18
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PSA: I noticed today that BeerSmith put out a free beta version for Linux. So if any of you goonlords runs Linux at home, give it a spin and report some bugs. It's packaged as a .deb for Debian/Ubuntu distros only it seems, for now.
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Jan 24, 2012 17:40
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Hello. currently I have a batch of chocolate red chili stout bubbling away in a 1 gallon glass jug. I am very green to brewing, and figured I would start out with small experimental batches until I got it figured out. Just 4 hours after popping the airlock on, it was filled with foam, and fermenting violently. I could watch the wort churn in the jug!. After 24 hours it calmed down. No real bubble activity in the airlock. So I took a gravity reading. it went from 1.05 to 1.018 in 24 hours! So it will be 48 hours today. What do you all suggest? Should I leave it in the jug for a full 2 weeks? djnkro fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Jan 24, 2012 |
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Jan 24, 2012 17:47
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djnkro posted:After 24 hours it calmed down. No real bubble activity in the airlock. So I took a gravity reading. it went from 1.05 to 1.018 in 24 hours! What's the expected finish? If it holds at the same gravity for several days, there's not a huge reason to leave it in the fermentor.
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Jan 24, 2012 18:17
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TenjouUtena posted:What's the expected finish? If it holds at the same gravity for several days, there's not a huge reason to leave it in the fermentor. I suppose it should be 1.0125 given the avg 75% attenuation. So it should be drat close. I'll check it again this weekend, and see where we are at. if the change isn't much would it be safe to bottle, and let it condition?
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Jan 24, 2012 18:54
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Leave it in there until three days go by with no appreciable change in density.
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Jan 24, 2012 19:48
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I'd leave it 1 week minimum even if it's at final gravity already. The yeast still need time to clean up off-flavors like diacetyl; if you bottle on like day 3 it's going to kinda taste gross.
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Jan 24, 2012 19:54
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Docjowles posted:I'd leave it 1 week minimum even if it's at final gravity already. The yeast still need time to clean up off-flavors like diacetyl; if you bottle on like day 3 it's going to kinda taste gross. Sounds good. i put it in the jug sunday, and I would not consider moving it to bottle before the coming sunday. After that, how long should it remain in the bottles?
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Jan 24, 2012 20:06
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djnkro posted:Sounds good. i put it in the jug sunday, and I would not consider moving it to bottle before the coming sunday. After that, how long should it remain in the bottles? I find it takes about 3 weeks for the bottles to carbonate and start tasting good. Leave them in a warm dark place.
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Jan 24, 2012 20:19
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Well poo poo. It looks like my keg full of ESB isn't holding a seal somewhere and when I looked at my CO2 tank today, it was almost empty... Since the beer is already pretty carbonated, would there be a problems with just siphoning it to my other keg? Or will the CO2 get all crazy and turn everything to foam?
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Jan 24, 2012 20:34
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Daedalus Esquire posted:Well poo poo. Make yourself a bit of tubing with ball-locks at each end, and just push it over to the new keg. Pressurize the new keg first, and use the pressure relief valve to keep beer flowing into it.
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Jan 24, 2012 20:57
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Unfortunately, I don't really have any extra tubing or pin locks. I just got my keg setup and don't have any spare parts yet really, and I'd rather not cut up the pre-assembled stuff I got from Keg Connection as I'm sure I won't be able to put it back together as well as they did. Maybe I can get some keg lube when I get access to a vehicle later and hit every O-ring. I'm pretty sure the leak is in the lid, but it's a slow leak so it's pretty hard to tell...
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Jan 24, 2012 21:37
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Daedalus Esquire posted:I'm pretty sure the leak is in the lid, but it's a slow leak so it's pretty hard to tell... Spray prepared Star-San solution generously on the whole top of the keg while it's pressurized.
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Jan 24, 2012 21:41
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Daedalus Esquire posted:Unfortunately, I don't really have any extra tubing or pin locks. I just got my keg setup and don't have any spare parts yet really, and I'd rather not cut up the pre-assembled stuff I got from Keg Connection as I'm sure I won't be able to put it back together as well as they did. Spray some StarSan anywhere you might have a leak. It'll bubble up and make it super easy to see. Also, don't forget the leak might be on the tubing, regulator, or tank, not just the keg. Edit: Too slow!
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Jan 24, 2012 21:41
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Daedalus Esquire posted:Unfortunately, I don't really have any extra tubing or pin locks. I just got my keg setup and don't have any spare parts yet really, and I'd rather not cut up the pre-assembled stuff I got from Keg Connection as I'm sure I won't be able to put it back together as well as they did. Letting the pressure out of the keg at anything more than a slow crawl is going to cause a lot of foam. Syphoning from one keg to another has a minimal risk of oxidation (negligible, even, as far as I am concerned, but someone will point it out, I am sure). The major goal you have is to very slowly and carefully depressurize your environment. Heck, you can minimize oxidation risks even further by pushing some co2 into the new keg before starting the siphon. Make sure you check your fittings, tubing, regulator, and all connections everywhere. Do this first. Also remember that if your co2 tank was warm when you filled it, and cold when you checked it today, it will show less full (cold gasses contract).
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Jan 24, 2012 22:05
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I'm almost 100% sure it's the Keg. I pressurized it, disconnected it from everything and left it overnight last night and it had depressurized. I assumed the beer absorbed the CO2 and the head space was too low of a pressure because of it, so I left it hooked up last night and now the regulator is showing tank volume in the red. :edit: And I know it's capable of holding pressure, that's why I think it's the O-rings. It shipped pressurized but I did take it apart to clean it and replace all the sticky soda o-rings. I guess I'll try to siphon it, I'm not too worried about oxidation, just that it might foam up and won't all fit in the other keg.
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Jan 24, 2012 22:21
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Daedalus Esquire posted:
Just relieve pressure on it slowly, and don't rush when siphoning. You'll be fine.
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Jan 24, 2012 22:26
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Daedalus Esquire posted:now the regulator is showing tank volume in the red. That in itself doesn't mean anything. CO2 liquifies at pretty low pressures, so if your tank is cold at all, the gauge *will* be in the red. If you believed the gauge, you would ORDER GAS (as my gauge says) as soon as you got home from your gas supplier.
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Jan 24, 2012 22:29
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Ok, good to know, It's all in my garage which is around 40 degrees right now so that probably explains the drop in the tank. I just took a look and it appears my other keg lost pressure too, so I must be messing something up. I just fooled around with both kegs and the pressure for a few minutes and here is what happens: I hit either keg at 30 PSI to seal the lid with no leaks. Spray starsan around the seal to double check. Slowly bleed off pressure from the gas-in. Lid begins to leak. The problem appears to be that the lids are leaking gas before it's below the pressure I want for carbing, and that apparently my carbing pressure isn't enough to hold the lid in place?
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Jan 24, 2012 22:52
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That doesn't seem right.. have these lids been properly lubed? In my experience anything above 5psi will keep the lids firmly in place and serve to prevent leakage.
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Jan 24, 2012 23:30
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I said earlier that I still hadn't gotten any lube, so I'm assuming that is the problem. It's ordered, I'm just waiting for it to arrive. In the meantime, I got an idea from googling "keg lid leaking" and saw someone say they used some shims to make the handle thing force a tighter connection. We will see if that will hold until I can get to the LHBS or the stuff I ordered arrives.
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Jan 24, 2012 23:36
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Keg lube the poo poo out of everything once you have it and that should fix it.
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Jan 25, 2012 00:22
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Is it safe to leave a blowoff in place for the entirety of primary fermentation or should I replace it with a standard airlock once things have slowed down a little? I've got the other end of the tube firmly in a growler of star-san as opposed to regular water. Edit: I wonder if the only real concern is just getting the tube out of the way before the krausen slime encrusts on the inside and it's too hard to clean? kitten smoothie fucked around with this message at 00:57 on Jan 25, 2012 |
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Jan 25, 2012 00:47
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So I have a dopey question : how come homebrewers don't use those bigger kegs to keg their beers...the half barrels or whatever you call them, like you see at keg parties? How much can they hold and why don't people generally use those instead of Corny kegs?
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Jan 25, 2012 01:40
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chiz posted:So I have a dopey question : how come homebrewers don't use those bigger kegs to keg their beers...the half barrels or whatever you call them, like you see at keg parties? How much can they hold and why don't people generally use those instead of Corny kegs? Corny kegs are relatively cheap, widely available, you can fit several in a single fridge, and they are the same size as most home brew batches.
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Jan 25, 2012 01:45
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Toebone posted:Corny kegs are relatively cheap, widely available, you can fit several in a single fridge, and they are the same size as most home brew batches. makes sense to me, I was just curious. Thanks  Another question : what were you guys's general progression in homebrewing? As a newb I am going to be starting out with a basic kit and buying some bomber size bottles to bottle my beer with. From there I figure I will add more fermenting buckets to have multiple batches at a time and then at some point after that, invest in some Corny kegs. What about you guys? What are your stories as far as going from LME kits to grain and carboys and kegs and all that?
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Jan 25, 2012 02:00
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My story is: 1) Brew a batch of beer, bottle it 2) Buy a 3-keg system to tide me over while I build my eight keg bar 3) Bliss
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Jan 25, 2012 02:06
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I have a quick question for you guys. I'm ready to siphon my beer from the carboy back to the bottling bucket! I wonder though... And this didn't cross my mind until just after I siphoned it the first time from the bucket to the carboy... There's probably a sterile method of siphoning right? Because siphoning by mouth can't be sterile obviously. I've heard the term auto-siphon before, is this what you all use? Are there any techniques that I can use to mouth siphon this over to the bucket for this one batch while still promoting cleanliness? Thanks guys. edit: grammar Ratbones fucked around with this message at 03:01 on Jan 25, 2012 |
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Jan 25, 2012 02:55
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Fill up the tube with starsan, cap it with your thumb, put the cane into the carboy, remove thumb with the end over a spare bowl until it's all beer flowing out, then put the tip into the bottom of the bottling bucket. Using sterilized thumb and hands of course.
Cpt.Wacky fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Jan 25, 2012 |
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Jan 25, 2012 03:01
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