Brewing Virgin; Advice on equipment

[Twostage]

Oh, and don't wait. If it tastes bad then you will want to do another to prove to yourself that you can do better and if it tastes good you will run out of it before your next one is done:razz:

 

[ProjectBeer]

Speaking of storage - I was thinking of those plastic milk crates that you can stack. I think they hold about 20 bottles per crate and have dividers to stop the bottles from clinking together.

Saw some on ebay, but would be interested to see what other storage solutions people may have!

 

[chuff76]

Re crates to store bottles in, I use these.
http://www.diy.com/departments/really-useful-64-l-plastic-storage-box/266363_BQ.prd

They are a bit pricey but you can fit exactly 45 (23L!) 500ml bottles in, and the crate is just tall enough to fit aspalls cider bottles in, which I have quite a few of. And they clamp shut, so you can store clean empties in them without fear of spiders nesting in them (my shed is full of them, I'm petrified every time i get a pint)

+1 on the 'really useful' storage box. They are not the cheapest make but they are strong. I was using one as a bath for 5 demi johns until recently.

I bought a cheaper version from a supermarket the other day and managed to crack one just getting it out of the pile . Strangely they were selling the same placky box in two parts of the store where the only difference was the colour of the lid and one was 50% more expensive than the other.

re: the measuring jug - yes, definitely get your own, and get glass if you can. They don't scratch so less chance of it hosting nasties.

Beer crates proved impossible to find for a reasonable price, so I plumped for the Really Useful storage boxes x2 - I was worried that they might not be tall enough for my bottles with the lids on, but they arrived yesterday and they are perfect! I'm absolutely delighted with them, and delighted that I managed to fit exactly 42 bottles in each!! :clap:

imho use the bottle squirter it will foam the starsan and you only need a lil bit, i apply mine via a trigger spray bottle sold for misting plants,

starsan mixed up with 5l of tesco ashbeck water should remain clear and last a good few brews if sprayed onto surfaces.. a lil booklet of indicator papers is a cheap way to check the ph of stored starsan is still viable (ph 2.5 or lower) going cloudy is only an indicator not a dead cert.

leaving hops in the fv longer than 5-7days can start to impart a grasy off flavour (DOH! moment as i realise ive left some in a we bit too long myself)

when siphoning out 3 hands are usefull so is a siphon clip to fasten the siphon to the bucket edge (clothes pegs never work quite right) and you can if vigilent keep the siphon suck end above the yeast lowering as you go, close to the end when the bucket is lighter gently tip forward and wedge a telephone book or 2 under the back edge to keep a deper pool to siphon from at the front, when u start to such the 'mud' up stop. you will loose some beer but thats that...

if you use the fv tap , when sampling for gravity checks remember to rinse the tap spout out with warm water in a squeezy bottle after drawing the sample and a squirt of starsan too

to filter the beer you will need to invest in kegs (real not pressure barrels) a co2 supply to push the beer and 10" cartridge filters with 5 and 1 micron pollythene filters oh and its a total pita and a waste of time. gravity will drop all sediment out eventually..

a lil sediment in the end product is par for the course and just needs a lil practice to pour off i to a glass, - rinsing out the bottle as soon as you have poured stops yeast baking itself onto the dry bottle bottom its a real pita to clean off if that happens.. for bottling clear brite beer and retaining condition again real kegs and a counter pressure bottle filler is the kit needed...

using real kegs tho is a investment as you need temperature control and a regulated gas system and a method to balance off the keg pressure before your tap to get the best from such a system, it is a system and the kegs are only the storage aspect..

UV/direct sunlight will penetrate green and clear glass bottles more than brown/amber, i just dont leave my bottles in direct sunlight and avoid the issue and it UV that can 'skunk' the hop additions and ruin a bottle.

:

if you want to invest anymore into brewing a brewfridge would be my recommendation a simple fridge with the addition of a small tube heater or similar controlled by an stc1000 or atc800+ which will let you set and maintain an ideal fermentation temperature, with one your primary fermentation will go like clockwork..

Some superb advice there Fil, some of which I've stored in my 'advanced tips' folder for the future, cheers!

Update:
Well my brew has been going for 10 days now, the airlock is still chugging away although it seemed to slow down a fair bit after the first 4 days.
I have bought some muslin hop bags which I'll sterilise in boiled water and put my hops in a few days.
I still havent cracked the lid although I'd love to take a reading and see where we're at - I did order a syringe with tube, but discovered after the fact that its coming from Hong Kong(Amazon) so its unlikely to arrive before I need it.
I read my OG as 1.055, here's a picture I wonder if anyone can tell me if I read it correctly?

Cheers!

 

[Twostage]

I too ordered something of amazon and later found out it was coming fom China. I've learned now to check the expected delivery dates which gives away where they are coming from.

I'd say your OG was more like 1.056 or 1.057 as you can clearly see the 1.054 mark and then there is froth which is at least another point, then the meniscus.

By the way I've realised there is a quick way to get a rough estimate of ABV that you can do in your head. Subtract the current SG from the OG, multiply by 100 and add 1. E.g. 1.050 -1.010 = .04, times 100 = 4, add 1 = 5. It's actually 5.25 but close enough for when you are taking a reading and want to know the ball park figure.

 

[Brewed_Force]

You can use the FV with the tap as your bottling bucket.
Put your prepared sugar solution into the bottom, then gently syphon the beer out of the FV to mix in.
The tap is great because you can easily attach a bottling wand, which is one of the best gadgets I've bought!

 

[Fil]

i agree with twostage due to the surface tension of the liquid it grips/curls up the hydrometer tube, so your looking at where the bulk of the liquid sits compared to the hydrometer not where the liquid touches it, so looks more like 1.056 to me too. (not a biggy tho)

lookin good

 

[chuff76]

Thanks guys, I will adjust my notes to 1.056 and when I do eventually take a new reading I will compare and see what we've got (hopefully in the region of 6% ABV)

I am planning to use the 2nd FV with tap for bottling, it's been frustrating not having a tap right now to check my SG so I might consider adding a tap to this one too (or buying another FV as this also has no measure of volume on it).


Steps remaining:
Dry Hop - Still a bit unsure when to do this.. Should I wait until the fermentation is complete? Today is the 11th day and its still bubbling through the airlock. Adding the hop pellets for 3-4 days in muslin bag(I hope this will reduce any mess getting into my beer when removed)
Bottling Day - Beforehand I'll sanitise 42 bottles and get them on the tree to drain, along with the second FV and all implements.
I plan to do this on the 4th hop day so the FV has only been opened once - Add my sugar solution(Question - How much boiled water and sugar should I be adding here?) to 2nd bucket, remove the hops and siphon gently then get it bottled straight away using my wand.
Will leave them indoors for a while to fizz.. A week? Then probably move to shed/outdoors to sit undisturbed for a month or so.

I think I want to get another one on the go asap, no point waiting around with empty FV's and empty bottles! - This is of course risky as if my first one turns out nasty, I won't have learned any lessons for next time around and I could end up with another 40 pints of rubbish.

I'm hoping that one day I might be able to only drink my own creations and stop paying £1.79 a bottle in Tesco !

 

[Fil]

for the hops, your probably best off waiting till its fermented out to the final gravity or pretty close to it and then dropping them in for 4-5 days. when you have a few brews under your belt and know the beers going to ferment out ok without any major temperature variations inducing a staled fermentation you can dry hop earlier with a realistic expectation that its going to finish ok. tho either way its not the end of the day if you dry hop and the fermentation stalls as you can just rack off the hops into a 2ndary FV for it to finish off, leaving on the hops too laong can encourage a grassy off taste.

get another brew on asap, your beer will be conditioned after a week or 2 in the bottle and you may like the green flavour however its more likely it will benefit from a few weeks maturing, tho its all down to personal taste so only cracking a bottle to sample will tell you..

best to keep the FV working tho while you have empties to fill, and when you run out there are 500ml upto 2l pet pop and and water bottles available if stuck get 11 20p 2l tesco tap water bottles, they work well enough and you can always use the water for the next brew too.. just ensure the bottles are pet pop style and not the ribbed evian style as the latter wont take pressure.. only thing with the bigger pet pop bottles is imho your better off decanting the contents into a big jug in one, any up n down between pint glasses when pouring can disturb the sediment leaving you with opaque yeast filled pint glasses.

just my take ..

 

[Twostage]

+1 on the fizzy water bottles. My missus drinks fizzy water all the time and I bought a big red swing top bin where she puts the empty bottles. Most of my beer goes into these bottles.

The recommendation is to use a few fizzy placky bottles in every batch, when you are carbonating you can squeeze the bottle and know how it is getting on by how stiff it is. When it's really stiff you know its time to put all your bottles in the cold. If they don't go stiff you know you need to add bottling yeast.

 

[chuff76]

[FONT=&quot]Hi chaps[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Progress update:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]On Sunday, after 21 days, I opened the FV for the first time… Was surprised (and delighted) that it looks, and smells, like beer! Just opened it a crack – Took a quick sample and got 1.006.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Boiled up a muslin bag and added the hop pellets, tied off the bag and dropped it through the crack – sealed her back up again. Those hops smell incredible, couldn’t stop sniffing the empty sachet! [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]After 4 days dry hopping, last night I went for it and bottled.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]True to form I spent way more time than was probably necessary – cleaned and sanitising everything like a lunatic. I really like this starsan, good purchase.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The bottles were time consuming, I roped the wife in to help and found the bottling tree to be an absolute godsend.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Boiled up about 300ml of water with the priming sugar that came with the kit for about 5 mins, put this straight into my bottling bucket.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Once everything was ready I opened up the FV, carefully removed the hop bag and got to siphoning.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]This was tricky to get started – In the end I filled up the siphon tube with starsan solution, put my starsany finger over the end and held it down towards the floor – put the other end in the beer, took my finger off and let it run down the sink until we got beer, then into the bucket with the sugar solution – no splashing! [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]One thing that was apparent – This beer was far less cloudy than I expected, in fact it looks pretty damn clear! I was also expecting a thick layer of sludge at the bottom, but it just wasn’t there – By the time I’d got down to the last couple of inches I could clearly see a very distinct sediment(yeast?) but it was only maybe 1cm and seemed quite ’solid’(The FV hasn't moved an inch in 3 weeks), I ended up getting all of it minus less than a pint – nothing got sucked through, and only now did I disturb the sediment with my syphon(I did it on purpose to see what I was up against)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Got my bottling bucket up atop one of my bottle boxes and attached the bottling wand. Another very useful thing – Filling them was a doddle, I brimmed each of them and when the wand was removed the level dropped down a bit, pop the swingtops on and sealed.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Still with the wife’s help, we got into a nice rotation – Each of us fill one, take it to the other room and put cap on – Quick rinse to get rid of any sticky and return with an empty. She told me I have to pay her back by holding her wool while she crochets…[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Ended up with 45 x 500Ml bottles.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]My OG was 1.056 and finished at 1.006 – I calculated this as 6.56% (will this change at all with the priming sugar?)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I also tasted a sample… It tasted great!!! Warm and flat and not ready yet but a pleasant taste – I can’t wait to see how it improves.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Tidying everything up, I decided to open the hop bag and look – A big bag of mush!! I’m so glad that I used the muslin and I can’t imagine it’s easy to avoid siphoning any of that through(seemed to be a much higher volume than all of the yeast layer)[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]

[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]You know what… I think I might like this new hobby :)[/FONT][FONT=&quot] I think I’ve either been very lucky, or my research and obsessive tendencies have paid off(or a bit of both) – I’d read so many horror stories but this has gone like a dream, so pleased!! [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]And now we wait. I might get a ginger beer on the go in the interim but can’t wait to see what I’ve concocted here.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Thanks everyone for all your help!!
[/FONT]

 

[twobrews]

Hi. In lidl the fruit and veg boxes are free to take and are great for holding beer bottles, when filled.