Help! Is my kit brew safe to drink

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sexpanther

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Hi all

First post. I'm a total brewb.

I got the coopers starter kit for an English bitter and it went fine, though a bit weak. SG was 1.0042 FG 1.0015. So perhaps I used too much water or summat but I digress.

At the urging of a friend I got a secondary king keg for secondary conditioning. And it was in this phase that I made a mistake and I wanted to know if it's safe to drink my beer.

I sanitised everything before transferring. And I got an s30 valve cap and sealed it all up tight. What I didn't do, cos of stuff I saw on the net, was inject any co2 at transfer. I Thought there would be enough pressure to force out any air so no biggie. Also it happens I bought the wrong cap - no pin for co2 bulbs 😡

Anyway, it's a month gone and the beer tastes fine, if a bit weak and thin. Perfectly quaffable but not remarkable- fair dos for my first kit. But I'm worried if it's safe to drink. Should I be?

Should I rush out and replace the cap so I can inject the co2?

Thanks for your help brew bros
 
Yep I primed it with simple sugar syrup, though I can't quite remember how much. It was quite a lot as I recall. There's not a massive head on it I'll have to check if it's totally flat.

Hah - a tasting lesson as well as a method lesson!

Thanks!
 
If you primed the pressure barrel, and it doesn't 'glug' when you open the tap, then it should be fine. You only need to top up with co2 when you hear the dreaded glug and air enters your barrel.

Jas
 
sexpanther said:
. What I didn't do, cos of stuff I saw on the net, was inject any co2 at transfer. I Thought there would be enough pressure to force out any air so no biggie. Also it happens I bought the wrong cap - no pin for co2 bulbs 😡
Click to expand...

I wonder why they said that. I *always* inject a little CO2 after transferring the beer in, so that you can listen for any leaks in the lid seal. You'll read many tales on here of people priming, waiting for 2 weeks only to find there's no CO2 in the keg cos it's all leaked out. You're leaving it to chance if you take that approach, I reckon 70% of the time my lid isn't sealed first time.

You have bought the right lid, the bulbs are an expensive way to do it, get a Hambleton-Bard CO2 cylinder - that fits your lid, you can normally get them re-filled for a fiver or so.
http://www.hambletonbard.com/products/wine-beer-making-equipment/s30-home-brew-co2.html
 
Bigjas said:
If you primed the pressure barrel, and it doesn't 'glug' when you open the tap, then it should be fine. You only need to top up with co2 when you hear the dreaded glug and air enters your barrel.

Jas
Click to expand...

This was the wisdom I was working off. But my pal gave me the fear.
Drinking it now, it tastes pretty flat. So I think it's likely that any carbonation may have escaped.
 
darrellm said:
I wonder why they said that. I *always* inject a little CO2 after transferring the beer in, so that you can listen for any leaks in the lid seal. You'll read many tales on here of people priming, waiting for 2 weeks only to find there's no CO2 in the keg cos it's all leaked out. You're leaving it to chance if you take that approach, I reckon 70% of the time my lid isn't sealed first time.

You have bought the right lid, the bulbs are an expensive way to do it, get a Hambleton-Bard CO2 cylinder - that fits your lid, you can normally get them re-filled for a fiver or so.
http://www.hambletonbard.com/products/wine-beer-making-equipment/s30-home-brew-co2.html
Click to expand...

This is the lid I have:
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk..._cap_for_King_Keg_with_S30_valve.html#SID=195

So is it as simple as buying one of the big s30 canister and leaving it hooked up to the lid at all times? If not, how do I regulate how much CO2 is forced into the keg?

#brewbquestionsfordays
 
sexpanther said:
This is the lid I have:
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk..._cap_for_King_Keg_with_S30_valve.html#SID=195

So is it as simple as buying one of the big s30 canister and leaving it hooked up to the lid at all times? If not, how do I regulate how much CO2 is forced into the keg?

#brewbquestionsfordays
Click to expand...

No don't leave it hooked up, best case scenario will be that you waste all your C02 in one go, worst and highly likely imo is that you'll burst your PB.
The instructions on the canister say to give it a one second squirt and top up when required (when beer stops flowing).
Also make sure you have a pair of pliers handy to pull the centre pin of the canister out fully or you'll lose all your gas - 20 odd quids worth lost to the atmosphere :mad: I speak from bitter experience.
 
Well, upon another tasting or two, it does taste a bit sour...not unpleasant, but I'm not sure I could serve it to people other than me.

I bottled a few litres of the stuff back when I transferred to the secondary, as an experiment. So what I really ought to do is have a bit of one of the bottle as a comparison. This will also help train my palette a bit to tell the difference.

'train my palette' - now there's a euphemism! :thumb:
 

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