Annoying questions :D

The Homebrew Forum

Help Support The Homebrew Forum:

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

RexBanner

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 27, 2016
Messages
100
Reaction score
29
Location
NULL
Eyup all,
been reading the kit brew list and peoples reviews with great interest and have a few questions if i may.
I plan to make a batch of Brown Ale grom a kit however I hear this can turn out a bit "**** watery" and to avoid this people are adding dark spray malt. Fair eneugh, so my question is this...

- if the kit says add 1kilo of breeing sugar, and i want to add the 500g of spray malt do I use 1k of sugar+malt or do i use 500g sugar + 500g of malt? So it i add malt to I need to remove equal sugar to come up with the same weight.

Question 2 (bottling related)

I read a review by a chap and he fermented his brew for ten days and then transfered the clear liquid into another FV for a further week or so. Now then, whats the purpose of letting it sit in the 2nd FV?? And does it continue to ferment or is it just to let sediment settle?

As i have seen videos where its syphoned into the 2nd FV and then primed and bottled immediatly.

Question 3 (last one...promise).

I plan to do my prep and what not in the kitchen and move the FV into my cubourd upstairs. After the fermentation period of x amount of weeks is it safe to move the FV back into the kitchen? Ready to transfer into 2nd FV? And then repeat the move again.

Thanks for reading this far!!
 
Many ways to skin a cat as they say....

Eyup all,
been reading the kit brew list and peoples reviews with great interest and have a few questions if i may.
I plan to make a batch of Brown Ale grom a kit however I hear this can turn out a bit "**** watery" and to avoid this people are adding dark spray malt. Fair eneugh, so my question is this...

- if the kit says add 1kilo of breeing sugar, and i want to add the 500g of spray malt do I use 1k of sugar+malt or do i use 500g sugar + 500g of malt? So it i add malt to I need to remove equal sugar to come up with the same weight.

I don't tend to make one can kits myself where you add sugar but they have their place and can be good for pimping as you'll see from other threads on here. They can lack body if brewed with just sugar as you suggest so what you are suggesting is a good move. Yes substitute whatever the quantity of sugar stated is with a mix of spraymalt and sugar or even just malt. You can use liquid malt extract too put you'll need to add more as it's not so concentrated. This calculator is handy: http://www.brewersfriend.com/extract-ogfg/

You can also brew short if concerned about the lack of body / strength in the end product, e.g. when the kit says to make up to 23L with water instead only make it up to 20L. You'll have a stronger beer at the end but less of it.

Question 2 (bottling related)

I read a review by a chap and he fermented his brew for ten days and then transfered the clear liquid into another FV for a further week or so. Now then, whats the purpose of letting it sit in the 2nd FV?? And does it continue to ferment or is it just to let sediment settle?

As i have seen videos where its syphoned into the 2nd FV and then primed and bottled immediatly.

You can do this but personally I never bother. It can improve the clarity of the final beer. The idea is that when the main vigour of fermentation is over you transfer the beer into another vessel so that most of the sediment / spent yeast is left behind. There will still be some yeast in suspension in the beer. This will then hopefully drop out in the second FV. It can still ferment if there is any fermenting left to do as there is still yeast in the beer. Aside from this it's best to leave it in the FV for at least 2 weeks before bottling despite some kits telling you it can be ready in 5-7 days, there are beneficial effects to be had from the yeast clearing up some of the fermentation byproducts that can otherwise lead to funny tastes even after it has done it's main job of turning sugar into alcohol.

The videos you've seen would suggest the 2nd FV is being used as a bottling bucket, this is what I do when bottling. On bottling day I syphon all the beer from the primary FV into another FV leaving as much of the sediment behind as I can. The second FV has a tap to which I can fit a bottling wand. Once the beer is in the second FV it's dead easy to bottle. There's also the added advantage of being able to batch prime where the priming sugar is dissolved and added to the second FV prior to syphoning the beer into it. This saves having to add priming sugar individually to each bottle.

Question 3 (last one...promise).

I plan to do my prep and what not in the kitchen and move the FV into my cubourd upstairs. After the fermentation period of x amount of weeks is it safe to move the FV back into the kitchen? Ready to transfer into 2nd FV? And then repeat the move again.

Thanks for reading this far!!

You can move it around but be very careful for a number of reasons.

1. You don't want to stir up the sediment.
2. It's heavy 23kg+
3. If you drop it the mess that will ensue doesn't bear thinking about. Relationships have broken up of this sort of thing ;)

Good luck.
 
I move all my brewstuff to the kitchen when it's time to rack etc just do it as carefully as you can and it's best to do it 2-3days before you rack to let the sediment resettle

Also graz has it right just leave in primary for at least 2 weeks then rack prime and bottle
 
Many ways to skin a cat as they say....



You can move it around but be very careful for a number of reasons.

1. You don't want to stir up the sediment.
2. It's heavy 23kg+
3. If you drop it the mess that will ensue doesn't bear thinking about. Relationships have broken up of this sort of thing ;)

Good luck.

She already thinks im mental for wanting to home brew lol.
 
Cheers for the reply guys. One other thing. I keep coming across the odd review that says "bought 2 and did a 2 tin job" what does that mean? They just put 2 tins of malt into the same quantity to create double the flavour??
 
Cheers for the reply guys. One other thing. I keep coming across the odd review that says "bought 2 and did a 2 tin job" what does that mean? They just put 2 tins of malt into the same quantity to create double the flavour??
As you say sometimes people buy two one can kits (especially if they are cheap) and make it up as if they were only using one can plus other fermentables. That's OK for malt, but also doubles up the hop content which may for some be too much.
As far as your Q2 is concerned I am one of the group of people that rack off the beer into a second FV towards the ends of the primary fermentation. I then leave it for a few more days to clear usually with a dry hop. This helps me get a clearer beer that goes into my bottles/PB. Other folks don't bother with this. I don't bother with a 'bottling bucket' in which I batch prime, it goes straight from the FV into bottle or pressure barrel and I prime those as necessary. Each to their own.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top