First time brewing with a kit, advice please?

[terobi]

Hey all!

I've helped out friends with brews and stuff over the years (even spent a day in a local microbrewery when a friend wanted to scale up his recipe for his wedding), but this is my first time trying it out on my own now that I actually have space for it.

I got my hands on one of these kits from Wilko's, and the instructions were simple enough to follow.

The main problem I've had is that the instructions are really quite vague in some places. Fermenting temperature, for example, it just says "room temperature", without any specific information about ideal temperatures and so on. It also doesn't include an airlock, instead telling me to put on the lid (but not push it closed fully) for the fermentation process.

One thing that this meant immediately is that I have no way to see if the fermenting process is actually happening. Having bought a couple of stick-on thermometers, I can see that the temperature in the place I have set aside for fermenting is a steady 18°C, which fits MY definition of room temperature, but I have no idea whether this is the right temperature for the yeast to work since the kit doesn't provide any more information.

So a week has passed now, which is what the kit recommends. It smells strongly malty, and this is how it looks:

Clearly some activty has taken place, but I can't be sure exactly how much. The kit didn't come with a hydrometer, so I have no way of comparing it now to how it was a week ago. Nor do I know what this means if fermentation hasn't taken place as it should - do I just wait a bit longer and hope for some activity, or is the whole thing a write-off? Do I try and increase the temperature of the space without having to shell out £20-odd for some specialist heating device? Do I still go ahead and bottle it with a spoon of sugar as the kit suggests, and hope fermentation completes properly in the bottles? The kit has no other information.

Any help you guys could offer would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

Jonny

 

[MmmBeer]

Hi Johnny,

First the basics, temperature for most ales should be as close to 20C as you can manage, 18 - 22C is usually fine. I would recommend an airlock, although as an alternative a scrunched up piece of aluminium foil in the airlock hole is better than leaving the lid loose (if your fermenter has an airlock hole).

Looking at the photo, there doesn't appear to be much liquid in there, how much water did you add?

I would recommend two weeks before bottling as a rule of The best way of testing whether your fermentation is complete is with a hydrometer. Remove some beer using a sterilised turkey baster into a narrow jar and float the hydrometer in it. I suspect like myself and most people when they start out, don't have one. For my first few brews, I scooped some beer into a shot glass and tasted it, if it was at all sweet, it wasn't done yet.

Hope this helps, but feel free to ask again.

p.s.
The Wherry kit is very popular and a nice pint, but it is prone to stopping part way through fermentation. The cause of this is often cited as insufficient yeast; the standard 6 g sachet should have been fine for your 20 pints. I also find that a stuck fermentation can jogged back into life by gently shaking the fermenter, which provides some oxygen to the yeast. Others may scorn this idea, but it has worked for me.

 

[Godsdog]

Hey all!

I've helped out friends with brews and stuff over the years (even spent a day in a local microbrewery when a friend wanted to scale up his recipe for his wedding), but this is my first time trying it out on my own now that I actually have space for it.

I got my hands on one of these kits from Wilko's, and the instructions were simple enough to follow.

The main problem I've had is that the instructions are really quite vague in some places. Fermenting temperature, for example, it just says "room temperature", without any specific information about ideal temperatures and so on. It also doesn't include an airlock, instead telling me to put on the lid (but not push it closed fully) for the fermentation process.

One thing that this meant immediately is that I have no way to see if the fermenting process is actually happening. Having bought a couple of stick-on thermometers, I can see that the temperature in the place I have set aside for fermenting is a steady 18°C, which fits MY definition of room temperature, but I have no idea whether this is the right temperature for the yeast to work since the kit doesn't provide any more information.

So a week has passed now, which is what the kit recommends. It smells strongly malty, and this is how it looks:

Clearly some activty has taken place, but I can't be sure exactly how much. The kit didn't come with a hydrometer, so I have no way of comparing it now to how it was a week ago. Nor do I know what this means if fermentation hasn't taken place as it should - do I just wait a bit longer and hope for some activity, or is the whole thing a write-off? Do I try and increase the temperature of the space without having to shell out £20-odd for some specialist heating device? Do I still go ahead and bottle it with a spoon of sugar as the kit suggests, and hope fermentation completes properly in the bottles? The kit has no other information.

Any help you guys could offer would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!


Lots of questions that cannot be answered Terobi due to the fact you didn't get yourself a hydrometer before starting your brew,not that its critical as I brewed for years and years before getting one, so my advice? It looks as though you have had fermentation taking place,are bubbles still rising to the top? If so wait,ideally 14 days and look to see cessation of the bubbles and the beer starting to clear in the FV,that's your visual guide as when to keg/ bottle.the kit should tell you an approximate ABV% should you have brewed closely to its instructions.try also to keep your lifting of the FV lid to a minimum prior to packaging to avoid contamination,bottom line is if your sanitation prior to brewing the kit was good you will get a decent beer.finally get yourself a hydrometer should you continue on this hobby it'll be a tool you will always wonder why you never bought one
Edit,as regards the temperature don't fret as this time of year its ideal rather a tad lower than too high with most kit yeasts having a wide range of temperature tolerance

 

[terobi]

Hi, thanks for the responses!

I actually do own a hydrometer, since it's one of the things I looted from someone else's bits of unwanted kit - however I don't have a test jar, so decided to skip that step for the time being. I also have a couple of airlocks, but the kit didn;t come with one, nor did it have a hole in which to insert one. I figured for my first brew I should just stick to the instructions and just leave the fermenting bin without the lid fully sealed, rather than start drilling holes in it.

The water amount is what was specified in the instructions - it's only a 20-bottle kit, but comes with a full-size fermenter for reuse purposes. It specifies to fill it to 11.5 litres rather than up to 23 or so, which is what I did (though annoyingly the bloody thing doesn't have any volume markings so I had to add my own with a marker while filling it up a litre at a time). Will the smaller amount of liquid affect the fermentation time, or will the (presumably) appropriately scaled down amount of yeast make the fermentation time broadly similar to a full-size brew? Might this be why the kit says one week while the advice here keeps saying two?

 

[Godsdog]

Hi, thanks for the responses!

I actually do own a hydrometer, since it's one of the things I looted from someone else's bits of unwanted kit - however I don't have a test jar, so decided to skip that step for the time being. I also have a couple of airlocks, but the kit didn;t come with one, nor did it have a hole in which to insert one. I figured for my first brew I should just stick to the instructions and just leave the fermenting bin without the lid fully sealed, rather than start drilling holes in it.

The water amount is what was specified in the instructions - it's only a 20-bottle kit, but comes with a full-size fermenter for reuse purposes. It specifies to fill it to 11.5 litres rather than up to 23 or so, which is what I did (though annoyingly the bloody thing doesn't have any volume markings so I had to add my own with a marker while filling it up a litre at a time). Will the smaller amount of liquid affect the fermentation time, or will the (presumably) appropriately scaled down amount of yeast make the fermentation time broadly similar to a full-size brew? Might this be why the kit says one week while the advice here keeps saying two?

Airlocks? Another piece of kit I managed fine without for years and years,just a lid on the bucket slightly cracked is more than fine,at least you won't get stressed by not getting airlock activity as what is most often happens with a bucket

 

[LarryF]

Wherry's a great kit but it's yeast is notorious for sticking at an SG of 1020 (for future reference, bin the yeast and either get one online or grab a Wilko Gervin yeast for �£1.75, it's a great yeast) but there are loads of posts on here about rousing the yeast if it sticks. Keep your fermentation temps at 20-21c if you can, insulating your FV will protect it from external temperature changes (I use bubble wrap my deliveries have come wrapped in), you can get a �£1.99 digital thermometer on fleabay and you tape it to the side of the FV and then tape folded tissue over it to insulate it from external temps and being under the insulation on your FV it'll give you a good reading of the temp inside your FV. I agree with Godsdog about airlocks, I haven't used one in a couple of years, I sellotape folded piece of tissue of the grommet hole, it lets the CO2 out and no nasties in. Let it ferment for a minimum of 2 weeks, I go for 3 weeks and when bottling a Wherry I'll use 1/2tsp of ordinary sugar per 500ml bottle. Leave the bottles in the house for two weeks and then two weeks in the shed and you're good to go. A couple of pointers, stop opening the lid of the FV!! When I've pitched the yeast I crack the lid to dry hop after 16 days, if I'm not dry hopping I crack the lid just before I bottle to see how it smells otherwise I don't open the lid at all.....ever. With SG readings, I take one before I pitch the yeast and as it's in the FV for 3 weeks I take another when I'm bottling otherwise I just leave it all alone and it just gets on with it just fine. Any worries, just post a question and you will get answers.

 

[terrym]

Try this it might be useful
Basic beginners guide to brewing your own beer from a kit - The HomeBrew Forum
You don't need a test jar to check the SG of your beer. I just lower a sanitised hydrometer into the beer in the FV and read off that.

 

[GerritT]

Airlocks? Another piece of kit I managed fine without for years and years,just a lid on the bucket slightly cracked is more than fine,at least you won't get stressed by not getting airlock activity as what is most often happens with a bucket

"Open fermenting" is what Papazian called it, and it works very often.
"Open fermentation is a method of fermenting your beer in a loosely covered, cleaned and sanitized plastic container."
Charlie Papazian. The Complete Joy of Homebrewing (Kindle Locations 863-864). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

 

[RichieBeer]

I started with the very same starter kit and my beer is now in bottles in the shed conditioning. I intend to have my first taste next week.

I left my beer in the fermenter for two weeks (with the lid 'loosely' on top) until the hydrometer read 1.010 for a couple of days. As it's my first brew I'm not to sure what to expect but it smelt fairly beer like before bottling. I read so many different opinions regarding priming that I decided to prime half of my bottles with a sugar cube and the rest of the bottles with a teaspoon of Wikos brewing sugar. I'll then compare the two.

Hope your's turns out fine. I'd be very interested to hear your results.

 

[terrym]

I read so many different opinions regarding priming that I decided to prime half of my bottles with a sugar cube and the rest of the bottles with a teaspoon of Wikos brewing sugar. I'll then compare the two.

If you primed the two halves at the same equivalent rate you will notice no difference in carbonation and certainly no difference in taste. Just use table sugar, its cheap, readily available and priming quantities can be easily adjusted to suit the style of beer.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Hey all!

I've helped out friends with brews and stuff over the years (even spent a day in a local microbrewery when a friend wanted to scale up his recipe for his wedding), but this is my first time trying it out on my own now that I actually have space for it.

I got my hands on one of these kits from Wilko's, and the instructions were simple enough to follow.

The main problem I've had is that the instructions are really quite vague in some places. Fermenting temperature, for example, it just says "room temperature", without any specific information about ideal temperatures and so on. It also doesn't include an airlock, instead telling me to put on the lid (but not push it closed fully) for the fermentation process.

One thing that this meant immediately is that I have no way to see if the fermenting process is actually happening. Having bought a couple of stick-on thermometers, I can see that the temperature in the place I have set aside for fermenting is a steady 18°C, which fits MY definition of room temperature, but I have no idea whether this is the right temperature for the yeast to work since the kit doesn't provide any more information.

So a week has passed now, which is what the kit recommends. It smells strongly malty, and this is how it looks:

Clearly some activty has taken place, but I can't be sure exactly how much. The kit didn't come with a hydrometer, so I have no way of comparing it now to how it was a week ago. Nor do I know what this means if fermentation hasn't taken place as it should - do I just wait a bit longer and hope for some activity, or is the whole thing a write-off? Do I try and increase the temperature of the space without having to shell out �£20-odd for some specialist heating device? Do I still go ahead and bottle it with a spoon of sugar as the kit suggests, and hope fermentation completes properly in the bottles? The kit has no other information.

Any help you guys could offer would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

Jonny

I've never done a wherry but know it often sticks at 1020. Perhaps a forumite could post what the FG usually come out at, then if you've followed the part of the instructions that tells you how much water to use and assuming you got all the extract out of the can.... you should be able to do as terrym says and float your hydrometer in the wort. ignore the 7 days claim 2 weeks as a minimum is better. can you remember how big the packet of yeast was if it was 6g then for 10 or 11 litres it might not get stuck!

For samples I use something like this...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B013QO8MKQ/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

so there is a minimum of interaction with the wort.

 

[terrym]

Perhaps a forumite could post what the FG usually come out at, then if you've followed the part of the instructions that tells you how much water to use and assuming you got all the extract out of the can.... you should be able to do as terrym says and float your hydrometer in the wort. ignore the 7 days claim 2 weeks as a minimum is better. can you remember how big the packet of yeast was if it was 6g then for 10 or 11 litres it might not get stuck!

I have done two Wherries, both at 21 litres start and OG about 1.044. The first using kit yeast struggled down to 1.014 having first stuck at 1.020 the second using GV12 ended at 1.010. And I used the 6g yeast from the second kit to brew 12.5 litres of extract mild and it was fine. From my limited experience I agree with the theory about Muntons 6g packets of yeast, there's nothing wrong with the yeast itself, there is just not enough for a 20 litre plus brew to guarantee it will not stick