First Brew

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

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

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

Bernaaard

Active Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2016
Messages
76
Reaction score
10
Location
NULL
Hi All.

Long time reader first time poster.

First brew in nearly 20 years tonight. Went for the Wilko Velvet Stout as I have read good things about it.

One point of concern was that there wasn't much froth on the top when I pitched the yeast and I am worried hat it was a little warm at the top end of 28 degrees. Any thoughts on whether I have botched this perhaps?
 
Welcome.

There's every chance that it will be fine but up may be up against two issues.

The lack of froth would suggest that you didn't aerate the wort very well, yeast needs oxygen to get going so after you made the kit up but before pitching the yeast it's a good idea to give it a good thrash with a spoon or paddle. What I do is pour the water into the fermenter from a jug and high up so that it creates lots of froth.

Secondly 28 degrees is a bit high to pitch the yeast, you'd probably have been better off leaving it for a while to cool or sitting it in a bath of cold water / ice to drop the temperature before adding the yeast. I aim for 20 degrees but if it's sitting at 22-23 I'll still pitch. I brew in a brew fridge so it gets cooled off quite quickly to 20 degrees once it's in there.

What I'd do is have a peak after a day or two, if there's a good layer of froth (krausen) on top of the beer then all is well and the yeast is working. Leave to ferment out. If there's not activity after a couple of days then the yeast is probably dead, you'll need a fresh packet. Give the wort a good thrash to aerate, check the temperature is okay and pitch the new yeast. Hopefully this will then get to work and you'll have beer.

Good luck!
 
That is pretty warm, and I don't think the brew will be as nice as it would've been if pitched cooler. Nevertheless, if it hasn't stayed that high for the first couple of days you should still end up with something drinkable.
 
I had two stick on thermometers on the outside of the FV and one said 28 while the other said 30. I will go have a look tonight but if nothing seems to be happening am I OK to just pitch another pack of yeast on top assuming the temp is well down where it should be? Sorry you guys. Newbie questions and all that.
 
Yes, you can add more yeast, but you could also leave it alone if you think there is any sign of life, perhaps with a gentle rousing.
But importantly try to keep the lid on as much as you can.
However if there is no life I would repitch at 20-24*C, take an SG reading and then leave it alone for a week or so, aiming for 19-20*C if you can.
And don't forget to take some SG readings, which is usually the best indicator of how the brew has progressed.
 
Just checked on it and I have Krausen which has made me very happy indeed. It is sat at 20 degrees at the moment. Popped the lid to have a look and will now leave it alone until Saturday or Sunday when I go check on it again. Any ideas what FG it should be when it is finished? SG was 1062?
 
From OG 1.062 down to an FG somewhere in the range 1.015 to 1.018 will be 71 to 76% attenuation which is about what you should expect if you used the kit yeast.
I would also leave it for about ten days or so before you open it up again now you know its going.
 
Sorry i dont know what that works out as in ABV i am afraid. Will go work it out on and ABV calvulator app i have. Planned on leaving it about 10 days. Then, i was going to decant it into a caravan water container (sterile of course) that has a tap, and add the finings. Give it another 2-3 days to fully clear and then bottle it.
 
I opened the lid to get a look at it this afternoon but will.leave it now until at least Sat when i ho to check on it again. Will give it a week then to fully ferment out i think before i go decant it the gollowing week. Then its 2 days with the finings while i get a second brew on and then into bottles. All i have is clear plastic PET bottles though, empty sparkling water ones basically. Do you think they will be ok if i keep them in a dark place the first 2 weeks?
 
Bernaaard said:
I opened the lid to get a look at it this afternoon but will.leave it now until at least Sat when i ho to check on it again. Will give it a week then to fully ferment out i think before i go decant it the gollowing week. Then its 2 days with the finings while i get a second brew on and then into bottles. All i have is clear plastic PET bottles though, empty sparkling water ones basically. Do you think they will be ok if i keep them in a dark place the first 2 weeks?
Click to expand...

They'll be fine but stop opening the lid. You're just cruising to get nasties in there.
When you transfer to the secondary be very cautious. This is where wild yeast get into it. Sanitize and steralize are 2 different things. Starsan will not kill wild yeast. I use 77% ethanol to kill everything.
 
If i treat the carrier with the same sterilising agent as i did with the FV it shoukd be ok though right? I am just seeking to get as clear a brew as i can when it goes into the bottles with the primer. Lid will stay on now assuming it doesnt blow off cos it isnt one with an airlock on it.
 
Once again keep the lid on!
If you have no airlock just break the seal slightly between lid and FV to let the CO2 escape. The smallest gap will work, in fact that's why many ill-fitting lids stop an airlock working since CO2 bypasses the lock.
I don't bother to use finings and I suspect a majority on this Forum don't either for beer. You really don't need it. You will to get clear enough beer in your glass by leaving the brew in the FV for two weeks or longer, a racking off for a few days will help even more, and then leaving it alone to clear in the bottles after carbonation, the longer the better. Plus if your beer has little or no yeast present when it goes into bottles you will struggle to carbonate it properly.
I use clear PET bottles. They are fine imo. Just keep them in a dark place once the beer has gone in.
 
Thanks for the advice Terrym. I have even told other people to leave it alone no matter what they see or how nosy they feel. I am trying to get it as clear and drinkable as possible as i suspect some people want me to produce something cloudy and horrible to say they told me so that home brew cant be any good, and i know it can.

Once i decant it i am going to scrub down and set a lager going to take advantage of the cold temps and need for long conditioning time so if you have any advice on that score it is much appreciated?
 
Bernaard
The vast majority on this forum brew clear, drinkable, excellent homebrewed beer from kits, extract brew and AG. If they didn't this forum wouldn't exist. Strange company you keep, wanting you to fail!!
As far as lager is concerned I don't brew it or drink it. If you want to go ahead yourself and continue with kits there are plenty of lager kits which use yeast which will ferment out at ale yeast temperatures, say 18-20*C, and I assume produce good results, or they wouldn't sell. Look at the kit review section for a few suggestions. 'Proper' lager requires a completely different technique including a long 'lagering' stage at low (i.e refrigerated) temperatures. Others can advise on this.
 
Bernaaard said:
Once i decant it i am going to scrub down and set a lager going to take advantage of the cold temps and need for long conditioning time so if you have any advice on that score it is much appreciated?
Click to expand...

As far as your current brew goes, I'd also advise that you leave out the finings; leave your brew in the secondary vessel for a couple of weeks as close to fermentation temperature as you can. Although primary fermentation has finished, the yeast will still need time to gobble up other stuff that you don't want in the bottle.
After that, cold crash - get it cold for a few days to settle out all the sediment. After that, you are ready to bottle.
Patience is the brewer's most valuable tool.
I tried a kit lager earlier this year using Nottingham yeast (Gervin Ale yeast from Wilkinsons), fermenting at 15°C and allowing plenty of time for the fermentation to finish. For this fermentation temperature I pitched two sachets of yeast, as the Danstar website recommended adapting the pitching rate. Danstar say that this yeast has good tolerance to temperatures as low as 12°C.
This is really a pseudo-lager, but it turned out well. I didn't get to have more that a taste - my son and his friend guzzled all of it! They were very complimentary about it.
 
I think it is more bad experiences in the past with HB than wanting me to fail. Especially when they will get to hang a fang on a pint of my finest free of charge. Will see who was right then. Ok so i took your advice and sealed it good and proper and you are right i can hear the gas escaping so i know that first off it is ticking over fine and second off it isnt going to explode. Is the temptation to open it up and have a look always there or does it ever go away? :D

So is finings a bad idea then? Will it make it taste ofd or is it just a waste of money where time would be the better clearer? Does it not clear the brew any quicker?
 
If you have a Wilko near you you can use their kit, Cerveza, Light Golden Lager or Delicate Pilsner. A bag of Muntons Brew Enhancer and instead of the kit yeast get their Gervin yeast, 11g. You'll get a very drinkable lager out of those. Add 50g of sugar and it'll be about 5%, add a hop tea and you've got some thing a bit special.
 
Bernaaard said:
I think it is more bad experiences in the past with HB than wanting me to fail. Especially when they will get to hang a fang on a pint of my finest free of charge. Will see who was right then. Ok so i took your advice and sealed it good and proper and you are right i can hear the gas escaping so i know that first off it is ticking over fine and second off it isnt going to explode. Is the temptation to open it up and have a look always there or does it ever go away? :D

So is finings a bad idea then? Will it make it taste ofd or is it just a waste of money where time would be the better clearer? Does it not clear the brew any quicker?
Click to expand...
The disire to look is always there. But it changes to wanting to drink. Of course experience takes over. It also helps to plan for the future. It's like 50 year old planting a tree. Or was tha an older chap!? Oh well, I think you get the point.
As for finings, the best to use with very little complications is Irish moss. And it's added to last 10 minutes of boil. But doing kits, doesn't really apply. The problem with this is for the first 10 brews, keep it simple. Work on you movement and routines. As you get more comfortable you'll naturally start adding techniques. Like most are saying, be patient and start to understand each process. You'll produce fantastic beer that you'll be proud of.
 
When it comes to bottling, are there any views on what's best? Part of me thinks save the money and use left over PET500ml fizzy water bottles which are clear but free. The other part says invest in a 10 quid box of brown plastic ones from Wilko and reuse those?
 

Similar threads

I
Festive stout aka brew 2
Replies
2
Views
421
FakeBiffa
FakeBiffa
Beer Elzibub
First ever mash and boil…Belgian Dubbel
Replies
4
Views
265
Beer Elzibub
Beer Elzibub
ScrumpyRam
First AG brew
Replies
2
Views
316
ScrumpyRam
ScrumpyRam
Leard
First brew on the new BZ4
Replies
7
Views
653
Leard
Leard
earthwormgaz
Inkbird and maybe stuck brew
Replies
12
Views
534
marshbrewer
marshbrewer

Latest posts

Back
Top