A little hep please...

Advertise with us
Shop deals on ebay
shop deals on amazon
The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Guest
Hi All,

Just started things off for me in the beer making world with a "youngs bitter homebrew kit" One thing i'm stuck with and its probably a stupid question but would really appreciate some guidance....

I've gone through these steps as per isntructions...

1. sterlise barrel
2. fill with 3.5 litres of boiling water
3. add ingredients tin contents
4. add sugar
5. stir up and wait for 18-20 degrees
6. add yeast
7. this is where i'm a little confused on the wording...

It says "stir and then cover with lid" , does this meen seal the lid on properly to make it "air tight" or to just "cover" , i dont want to cause a beer explosion so could do witha pointer here if any one can help :)

thanks!

Ian.
 
Welcome to the forum.

Most bucket lids aren't gas tight so it's usually safe to clip them on all the way around, they may bulge slightly but the gas will usually find a way to escape. If yours looks to be bulging considerably after a few hours, just unclip it slightly in one place.
 
hi Ian

does your lid have an airlock hole with an airlock fitted to it? if not then do not push the lid on tight. or what i do is push the lid on tight all the way round then just pop open a small section, just enough for the air to escape when the brew bubbles. best idea is to put a clean towel just draped over the corner you lift.

now if bucket does have a hole with an airlock fitted just push it on tight all they way round and you should see some action from your airlock in 24hrs or so


hope this helps

simon
 
Thanks! Mine hasn't got a valve just a bucket with a lid, I've done as you say an left a section loose, I had visions of it exposing or something daft!

I don't doubt that I'll have many more questions as time goes on :)

ian
 
dont worry Ian, im new to homebrewing and you will find everyone on here very helpful no matter how stupid or random your questions may be.

good luck with it :thumb:

simon
 
Right then, first stage complete, siphoned into pressure barrel now so according to the instructions this time in 16 days and i'll be trying my first pint :drink:
 
iany said:
Right then, first stage complete, siphoned into pressure barrel now so according to the instructions this time in 16 days and i'll be trying my first pint :drink:
Click to expand...

hi iany, after 16 days and you sample dont be disheartened if its not the best pint... kits brag about being ready to drink in a matter of days, to mis-quote someone else "dish water is ready to drink today"

your beer may take a little while to condition and mature into a fine pint.
if you can sit on it for a month or so im sure you will appreciate it much more.

next time you keg up fill a bottle or two and leave them for 6months to condition... trust me you will understand what im talking about when you drink them
 
thanks for the tip :)

i'll try and leave it a while longer than it "said on the tin" , is there a max time to let it brew? also, what's the "best before date" when you do home brew?




If this one goes well i'll give it another try, i fancy something allong the lines of skinners "cornsih knocker" or robbinsons "dizzy blonde"... any suggestions?
 
Low gravity beers may after a long time in the bottle thin a little, Higher gravity beers really do improve with aging and can sit for years.. (if allowed to)

the problem with keeping beer is keeping it.. when you taste it after 3 months your gonna want to glug it all down asap..
 
Hehehe, fair point!

Once i open the barell tap and try this one for the first time, how long before it would go "off" and be horrible?
 
As this is a Young's starter package, can we assume that you've got the basic keg with a tap at the bottom?

Do you have a screw cap with any method of injecting carbon dioxide?

When you try to draw off your first pint it will probably blast out of the tap and give you a glass full of froth.

As you get down a few pints, the natural pressure from the secondary fermentation of your priming sugars will gradually fall away. I can't tell you how many pints because it's been rather a long time since I've used a plastic keg and I simply can't remember.

Unless you've got some method of squirting some gas in and topping up the dispensing pressure, flow from the tap will slow to a trickle and then air is going to start to glug back up through the tap and into the beer.

Once that starts to happen, you probably need to drink the remainder within a week.

If you can inject gas, your beer will stay good for months.
 
i didn't notice the replies here sorry, so if you're still around....


it was a keg with a standard screw lid, no injector :( since then i've moved on a bit, i've been bottling instead but toying with buying a co2 injector and a new keg (i used the old keg as a bottling bucket, cut the lid out and fitted a little bottler tap)

th whole bottling routine gets me down, takes ages to clean/sterilise/fill them all. on the other hand i might just start doing some 1 gallon brews, that way i can experiment more.
 

Similar threads

GaSh65
Have I messed up?
Replies
6
Views
613
Beermonster66
Beermonster66
hughjamton
Opinions please
Replies
13
Views
2K
Philthebrewer
P
andyb13
Porridge Use in Beer
Replies
3
Views
870
andyb13
andyb13
shd
First brew questions from a novice
2 3
Replies
41
Views
4K
shd
shd
Random Badger
Add yeast after 4 to 6 days? Bad Wilko!!!
Replies
6
Views
2K
Djweeble
D

Latest posts

Back
Top