Ready to barrel first brew advice please

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Crystal_Ball

Crystal_Ball

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After 2 and half weeks in FV my Woodforde's Wherry has had a consistent gravity reading of 1.12 . So next stage I'm going to transfer to my barrel. According to the instructions sugar or spray malt can be added to help condition the beer.
What would the difference be in adding either of these?
Im guessing the clearing process will clear all of the brown flakey bits in the brew? Will these sink to the bottom or just disappear?
Any advice will be much appreciated.
 
Crystal_Ball said:
After 2 and half weeks in FV my Woodforde's Wherry has had a consistent gravity reading of 1.12 . So next stage I'm going to transfer to my barrel. According to the instructions sugar or spray malt can be added to help condition the beer.
What would the difference be in adding either of these?
Im guessing the clearing process will clear all of the brown flakey bits in the brew? Will these sink to the bottom or just disappear?
Any advice will be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Welcome to the Forum and to homebrewing.

At 1.012 it should be fine to barrel with 100g of table sugar. DME is difficult to dissolve at this stage. You can dissolve the sugar in water, bit it's not really necessary. The sugar will enable the beer to carbonate (go fizzy) in the barrel. Most of the bits will be left in the FV, any others will drop to the bottom of the barrel. Anything soluble will have dissolved long since, so no chance of just disappearing.

Good Luck :cheers:
 
I too am getting ready to barrel a woodefords wherry.
Do you simply just put 100g of sugar in the bottom of the barrel and then pour the brew in. Or brew first then sugar?
Also i have a tap on my fv do i simply just turn it on with the barrel underneath?
Thanks in advance.
Chris
 
To chrispurvis,

It doesn't matter whether you add the sugar before or after the beer. I usually boil the sugar in a little water to sterilise it, then let it cool (you don't want to kill any yeast) in the saucepan with the lid on (to keep it clean), and then add it before, while or after the beer goes in.

If you just let the beer pour through the tap into the barrel then you will massively aerate the beer which is not something you want to do at this stage. (Those taps aerate the beer anyway, and the drop to the bottom of the barrel will exacerbate things.) Use a siphon.
 
Slid said:
Welcome to the Forum and to homebrewing.

At 1.012 it should be fine to barrel with 100g of table sugar. DME is difficult to dissolve at this stage. You can dissolve the sugar in water, bit it's not really necessary. The sugar will enable the beer to carbonate (go fizzy) in the barrel. Most of the bits will be left in the FV, any others will drop to the bottom of the barrel. Anything soluble will have dissolved long since, so no chance of just disappearing.

Good Luck :cheers:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice and welcome!

It does quote 85g of sugar. Will putting in 100g over carbonate? I know the barrel has a pressure release valve.
Have read advice on here about pressure testing the barrel before using first time so that is my first task.
 
Crystal_Ball said:
Thanks for the advice and welcome!

It does quote 85g of sugar. Will putting in 100g over carbonate? I know the barrel has a pressure release valve.
Have read advice on here about pressure testing the barrel before using first time so that is my first task.
Click to expand...

100g is a "rule of thumb" sort of figure. A lot of beer is drunk, especially in the southern end of England, without much froth on the top. hence, I guess, the slightly lower end of the "rule of thumb" at 85g.

The amount of priming sugar is pretty much neither here nor there for a first timer - the main thing is not putting it in barrels or bottles before it has finished its main ferment. At 1012 fininshing gravity, that risk has passed and you would be fine with anything around the 85g - 100g mark.

As you are a bit concerned, go for the lower figure.
 
Slid said:
100g is a "rule of thumb" sort of figure. A lot of beer is drunk, especially in the southern end of England, without much froth on the top. hence, I guess, the slightly lower end of the "rule of thumb" at 85g.

The amount of priming sugar is pretty much neither here nor there for a first timer - the main thing is not putting it in barrels or bottles before it has finished its main ferment. At 1012 fininshing gravity, that risk has passed and you would be fine with anything around the 85g - 100g mark.

As you are a bit concerned, go for the lower figure.
Click to expand...

.....and that's normal sugar or brewing sugar?

Btw I'm from the south :lol:
 
Crystal_Ball said:
.....and that's normal sugar or brewing sugar?

Btw I'm from the south :lol:
Click to expand...

I use table sugar. Made from beet or cane.

Brewing sugar is the same, chemically, but made from maize and will make no difference, but cost you twice as much.

You decide.

Being "form the south" may be significant in that water quality might be a consideration if you want to take this up as a hobby. Lots of that on the forum, but for now, just get the first brew done. :thumb:
 
This has been in the King Keg for 4 weeks after putting about 95g of granulated sugar in without dissolving first.
As you can see from the image it's not quite crystal clear. Tastes pretty damn good especially for my first brew!!
SHWMBO even said "it tastes like real beer!"

I haven't moved this to a cool place. Do you think that will help it completely clear or is this the best I'm going to get? It's been around 16-17c under the stairs where all my brewing takes place.

(Sorry couldn't rotate image on iPad)

image.jpg
 
My beer is never crystal clear like a pub's beer. But it's for a different reason. Homebrew remains cloudy usually because of suspended protein or traces of yeast in the beer, none of which is a problem IMHO. Pub beer is cloudy when it's going off after air getting in or dirty pipes, which is why it's bad. You do occasionally get real ale that's a touch cloudy though because the brew didn't clear in the first place, same as your homebrew - this will taste ok though, while the going off pub beer definitely won't.
 
I just made a mistake I think, I misred instructions and added 30 tsp of sugar to a ruby red ale rather than 20.... what are the implications?
 
Slightly fizzier beer. But I wouldn't worry. Personally I quite like my beer on the fizzier side, unless it's being dispensed through a handpump.

If the beer's too fizzy for you, I suppose you could try waiting until the carbonation process is complete, then opening and recapping all the bottles, to let some of the pressure out.

If you're using a pressure barrel, my advice would be to do nothing. I've only ever used one once, so I'm no expert, but my understanding is that the beer will be under considerably less pressure after the first few pints have been drawn off.
 
After putting in 90 grams of sugar in the barrel I got about 3 pints before the pressure ran out. Once topped up with co2 I have had at least 12 or more pints out without having to top up the pressure again.
 

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