Brand new and brew on...Urgent Question

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gor84

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Hi,

I tend to do things and ask questions later....being of the old school construction mentality of "instructions are for loosers"...

However, i had wanted to brew my own beer for a long time and one night picked up a very BASIC kit.

So i sterilised everything, even followed instructions, and have my first batch of lager in the fermentor. its a "young's" kit with lager malt extract.

Questions are:
  1. Bucket lid has no hole for airlock, however i do push the lid every evening and a bit of gas comes out.....do i need to drill a hole for and airlock and are they essential going forward?
  2. It says leave for 6 - 7 days, this seems short, should i leave it for more?
  1. Moving on to bottling, all vids i see of bottling, transfer from fermentation bucket to bottling bucket...is this necessary...wife will kill me if i land home with another bucket....could i do it in stages into pans.
  2. lastly, where do i get a siphon cane and bottling tube...i have the siphon hose and a small clip...is this enough.

oh and I put the 1kg of brewing sugar in with the malt and water, do i need to put sugar in the bottles and how much??
 
Bucket lid has no hole for airlock, however i do push the lid every evening and a bit of gas comes out.....do i need to drill a hole for and airlock and are they essential going forward?
Airlock not essential at all. The lid will stop nasties getting in, and the seal won't be 100% airtight so excess CO2 should be able to escape OK.

It says leave for 6 - 7 days, this seems short, should i leave it for more?
About 14 days is best for most kits. It's long enough to ensure fermentation is complete and the beer should be nice and clear ready to bottle.

Moving on to bottling, all vids i see of bottling, transfer from fermentation bucket to bottling bucket...is this necessary...wife will kill me if i land home with another bucket....could i do it in stages into pans.
Once fermentation is complete you really need to avoid mixing air into the beer, as this will result in oxidation and nasty tastes. So avoid sloshing it about in pans. Best thing is to siphon it carefully into a second bucket, leaving all the sediment behind in the first bucket. You can mix it with your priming sugar at the same time, to save priming each bottle individually.

lastly, where do i get a siphon cane and bottling tube...i have the siphon hose and a small clip...is this enough.
Some people siphon directly into bottles, or even pour in through a funnel. But a bottling wand (£7-£8 from your favourite homebrew supplier) makes things much quicker and less messy, and keeps oxidation to a minimum too. The dream set-up is a bottling bucket with a tap at the bottom connected to a wand.

oh and I put the 1kg of brewing sugar in with the malt and water, do i need to put sugar in the bottles and how much??
Yes, you'll need to add a little extra sugar to the bottles so the yeast will come back to life and carbonate the beer. About 1/2 to 1 teaspoon per bottle is should do it, depending on how fizzy you like your pint, or if you "batch prime" in your bottling bucket, a total of around 85g to 140g for a 23-litre brew.
 
Hey, thanks very much for the reply.

So i guess i will wait another while and i think i will just try bottle directly from the fermentation bucket.
 
This link shows a fermentation vessel with bottling wand (little bottler) included. As has been mentioned would allow you to siphon into this (leaving most of the sediment behind in your primary fermentation bucket), then batch prime with sugar, then bottle with minimum mess/fuss:

http://www.home-brew-online.com/equ...5-ltr-including-little-bottler-plain-lid-p800

Obviously sterilising everything your nectar touches during the process.
 
I bottle straight from my FV. I use coopers carbonation drops for the bottles (1 per 500ml bottle) Works great for me. I syphon with a bottle wand and the syphone pipe in the FV is one of those with the stiff plastic pipe and the little upward facing cap on the bottom to stop the sediment going in (from wilko), Like i say works fine for me.
 
All good advice there


The thing I'd add is patience, patience and buy a beer from tesco to tide you over.


Scaff
 
Thanks guys some real great advice there. Got myself one of the bottling Wands so I am awaiting it's arrival. Last problem is I have a party on the 18th October which I would like to serve up some of my brew. Is two Weeks in bottle enough...I don't think so.

Go in to bottle directly from my fermentation vessel. Wife will kill me of I have another bucket.
 
Oh and forgot to say I will be bottling next Thursday when it will be 14 days old.
 
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