imho 2 attributes help when it comes to brewing and it sounds like you have #1 already an almost verging on ocd aproach to cleanliness and hygiene :)
the second attribute that will do you well is patience kits are notorious for indicating you can sup the beer within X days of starting the brew, and given ideal conditions and luck in rare cases you may be able to.
Hi Fil, yes I've always been a bit germ-phobic which should hopefully serve me well in this :)
Patience has never been my strong point but my over-riding concern here is doing it right and from what I've read I expect it to be in the FV for up to 3 weeks, then bottled and left for another 2 Months to condition
rely on the gravity of the brew to tell you when its ready for the bottle, without a tap on the FV ( fwiw i luv my fv taps others h8 em..) drawing off a sample to check the gravity can be easily done using a sanitised turkey baster or huge syringe (Just dont blow air into the beer).. crack the lid and draw the sample from the side
never stand looking down over an open brew, all it takes is a single scratch of the head to drop all sorts of nasties in
and never return a sample to the bulk, drink it for a taste test
Now that I've done this I can immediately see the benefits of the tap and wished I used the other FV - It's a learning process I guess, so I'll use that one next time. I understand that an SG reading is the only way to be sure but as I'm tapless I'm very wary about opening the lid. Is there any negative to leaving it brewing for that little bit longer? Once its stopped bubbling, leave it for a few days to make sure? Twostage's suggestion below about the syring with tube through the airlock hole is probably the best option I can see so so far
hope im not coming across all preachy but there are a few easy to make beginner errors its best to avoid making..
Fil, you really aren't and I'd much rather be told straight than dallying around while I make schoolboy errors :thumb:
hope you enjoy the brewing and the beer, and you can build up your swing top bottle collection cheaper by encouraging friends to buy grolsh from the supermarkets when its 3 for a fiver or cheaper.. :hat:
You know what, I think I might really like this - I like to know things and how to make things myself. The actual drinking is the cherry on top!
re the grolsch bottles, I'd heard that green glass isnt great for keeping it fresh? I reckon I spent as much on empty bottles as I would have on ones filled with Grolsch!
Good stuff. Now sit back while your mind can think of nothing but making beer for the rest of your life!
Your idea of spraying the worktop with star San is great, having a sanitised surface to put stuff on caught me out a few times, I use the lid of the fv sprayed with star San now, or the lid of my plastic bottle crates when bottling.
Are you bottling or barreling?
Hi Gareth, once I got over the foam I really like the starsan - The lid of the FV is a cool idea and I'll use that too.
I bought 84 x 500ml brown glass swingtop bottles which are beautiful, I just need to find suitable crates now (barreling doesnt appeal to me as I like a nice cold 'un) Cheers!
+1 for the bottling tree and squirter thing and starsan. I also used a "required rinse" steriliser and then washed with boiled water, took bloody ages, now its very quick.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B003E45GQ2/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20
My tree is ready and waiting, I should probably have bought the smaller one but better too much than too little. The squirter is still boxed and I dont imagine I'll use it, might send back to them for a refund and will probably just submerge them all in starsan for a couple of minutes then onto the tree :thumb:
I use a sanitised measuring jug as a place to stick things after they have also been sanitised. It can simultaneously hold thermometer, airlock, siphon, spoon, turkey baster etc. etc.
This is what I ended up doing but might insist on buying my own dedicated measuring jug instead of the kitchen one
Turkey baster is good for getting samples for hydro tests. So is the solid tube bit of a siphon stuck to the end of a big syringe. You can get big plastic syringes from farming shops. They say 'single use' on them, obviously not made in Yorkshire :-P. The advantage of the syphon tube, syringe combo is it fits where the airlock goes so you don't need to take the lid off.
That is an absolutely inspired idea, brilliant, thanks! I had my eye on one of those and sticking it through the airlock hole should minimise any risk.
Thank you all, I will update again soon.
My next considerations are:
Dry hopping - it says 3-4 days before bottling, is there any benefit/negative to leaving them in there for longer?
I am hoping to get the clearest beer I can, would you advise using muslin bags for the hops? Should I starsan the muslin bag beforehand?
Bottling - I plan to use a bottling bucket so that I get an equal distribution of priming sugar... I have a siphon with sediment trap, but I've no idea how much sediment to expect and what is acceptable to transfer/chuck away. Does anyone use any extra filtration media on the sediment trap, like a muslin cloth to keep any particles from the end product?
I know that oxygenation should be avoided at this stage at all costs so I expect it could be a bit tricky, so siphon gently with zero splashing, is it worth putting the lid on the bottling bucket at this point? although it will just be full of air anyway.
I think I might want to get another brew on the go as soon as this is bottled, logic tells me that I should wait and see how the first lot turns out but I don't know if I'll have the self discipline and at the end of the day if it all went wrong I've only lost the cost of the kit.
