A few questions before i embark on this homebrew adventure...

[stuart_A]

Hi all

I’ve been reading up and have started buying equipment to start AG brewing. But there are a few questions I can’t seem to find answers to. Hopefully some of you guys can provide a few tips?

Most of the questions seem to be about fermenting but also a couple of other general questions:

1) I’m concerned about the temperature for fermenting. I’m likely to ferment in my utility room which is basically a brick outhouse out the back of my house or in the garage. The temperature a couple days ago (during the day) was 13degrees in these places. Is this going to be too cold? I guess it'll be considerably colder overnight too. Would wrapping it up in blankets be enough?

Obviously it will warm up as we move into summer months but what is the best solution at the moment? I have electricity in the utility room so I’ve looked into heating/temperature control ideas but can’t decide what is best. I like the idea of a brew fridge but I don’t think I have room for another fridge in there.
The belts don’t seem to be temperature controlled so not sure if this will give me a stable temperature that I read is best. Can these be hacked to work with a thermostat (like a brew fridge)? Same concern about the heating plate option.
An added consideration is that I was thinking of getting a SS fermenter (mangrove (Grainfather) jack 25L FV) and I’m not sure how conductive to heating these would be, being SS and all.
The I also read about the immersion heaters which sounded good but then I was wondering if I’d be able to fit the wire through the top of the FV I plan to buy and also the added concern about contamination etc.

Any suggestions most welcome re. heating needs, better options for FV (e.g. plastic, glass etc).

2) My next query is about the volume in the FV. Can i use a 25L FV to ferment say 10L? or does it always have to be full. Would i need a smaller FV if i make smaller brews?

3) Is water straight from the tap ok to use for my brews? (i live in B'ham, UK) IF not what should i do? Cheapest and simplest methods, tests i should perform (ph test)

4) Once the beer is ready are bottles a lot better than one of the plastic barrels? Barrel seems easier but are there big drawbacks? Any recommendations of cheaper end barrels for storage?

5) I read things about CO2, oxygen,adding sugar, pressurised kegs etc. What is all this about? Do i need to think about this if i dont plan to brew lagers?

Sorry for all the questions. Hopefully they make sense. Im very excited about starting but want to make sure i know as much as possible first!

I recently sold my whisky collection to fund this new 'hobby' so i treated myself to a Grainfather and the Grainfather Sparge Water Heater. but so far that is all i have, so any recommendatiosn on vital equipment that youve found you couldnt live without would be great!

Thanks all!

 

[MyQul]

Hi and welcome to forum.

1. Most people just use a builders trug fill it full of water stick the FV in it then put an aquarium heater in the water.
13C is a great temp for lagering/cold ferment so you could just lager until the summer when things warm up. You don't necessarily need to cold condition/lager if you dont have the facilities (a brewfridge to lager at 3C for 4-6weeks) to do it.
2. Doing 10L in a 25L FV is fine as the head space just gets filled up with C02.
3.Just use your tap water for the first couple of brews. If your getting any odd flavours come back here and we'll chuck you down the rabbit hole that is water adjustment
4.I dont use the bigger kegs ("barrels" and know nothing about them but I'm sure some the forumites will answer this for you) but I use 5L mini kegs which is a bit of a half way house between bottles and kegs. We have a monster thread on them for a bit of bed time reading http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=57568
5. Not quite sure what your getting at here tbh as you haven't been very specific

Hope that helps and well done for diving straight in to AG (the darkside)

 

[wfr42]

MyQul covered most of what I would've added.

I have one pressure barrel that works great. The other I had to bottle the batch I've had in there as it just hasn't carbonated in several attempts over the last two months.

To get the head on homebrew you can either force carbonate (in corny kegs) or add (priming) sugar about 4g per litre works for me (lagers need more) which the residue yeast in your bottle/barrel /minikegs eat and produce cO2. General rule for carbing with sugar is 2 weeks at fermentation temperature then 2 weeks cold before sampling.

 

[Klemay83]

Hello and welcome!

I've been brewing for about 6 weeks now, so I am by no means an expert, but I can give you some answers as a newish brewer, to your questions.

1. 13 degrees is probably too low if you are planning to brew ales etc. Ideally you want between 17 and 24. So if you are going to use the utility room or garage you need to look at how you can bump the temperature up . Knocking together a temperature controlled heating solution can be pretty simple and cheap.( one option being a water bath). There are lots of posts on this forum and how to's so do a bit of searching and you'll find an option that will work for you.

2. Yes, you can make smaller batches in a 25L FV. I make 5L and 10L batches in mine.

3. Does your tap water taste nice to drink? If it is then It's fine for your brews. If not. Get some bottled spring water from the supermarket.

4. I myself use bottles, at the moment. Because it's just my preferred method. I can get bottles for free, and caps are as cheap as chips. I think one of the main differences between bottling and kegging is the priming. With bottles you can just stick 1/2 a teaspoon of sugar in a bottle, whack your beer in and know it's gonna be carbonated like the others. Kegging requires you to batch prime which means you need to calculate how much sugar your brew needs, add this to the kg then syphon your beer io the keg. Again it's down to personal preference about what you want to do. There is a lot to think about when you start brewing so do whichever method you find works better for you.

5. Most of those are just general brewing terminology,as you start you will learn what they are and where they come into brewing and their functions...don't fill your head up with stuff that you don't really need too early on...

The grainfather is a great piece of equipment and there is a ton of info out there and how to's on getting the best results from it. As you'll be doing All Grain brewing find some nice simple recipes to get yourself up and running and familiar with the various stages of brewing.

I hope I've been of some use in answering the questions. It's a great hobby but it can become overwhelming if you try to take I too much at once.keep it simple,to start learn as you go along. As you brew you I'll find methodsthat work for you and also about how you better your techniques or methods.

I'm having one of my home brews right now. So I'll raise my glass to you and say welcome to a fantastic rewarding hobby!

 

[Leon103]

Questions have been well answered but I will add my bit.

1 - temperature control is very important. If you can't get a brew fridge in the space then a trug and aquarium heater is good or like I once did, put the heater straight in the fv.

2 - No issues with using a larger FV.

3 - Nothing wrong with tap water. Lidl/Aldi do cheap water if needed.

4 - I use bottles (from local pub) and easy kegs. I have tried pressure barrels but they always leak and the beer doesn't last as long.

5 - Not really sure what the questions is here.

If there is anything else just ask.

 

[stuart_A]

Thanks guys! very helpful

I dont think my wife will allow a trug left out with my FV in it as the space is pretty small and we're in an out of there using washing machine and dryer. Im leaning towards dangling the heater in the FV, assuming i can sqeeze it through the bung with the airlock.

Thats good news about being able to ferment smaller batches in the 25L FV. and the water, i drink our tap water and think its ok, so i'll start off with that.

The easy keg/reusing old kegs looks like a great idea. Once open how long do you find the beer could last? I note on the description of the Easy Keg they mention adding 'about 20 grms of sugar for the 2nd fermentation'. Would anyone dry hop in this also or would that block up the tap? Also, are they easy to wash?
Thanks for the link to that thread, MyQul i will continue reading through it.

Sorry my last question was very vague. I had just seem equipment for sale and discussions regarding co2, pressurised kegs etc but wasnt sure if this would apply to the stype of beer i intend to brew i.e. not fizzy lagers. Tbh i seem to have completely overlooked the priming stage but from what youve all said it seems clear that we add sugar to the beer when its racked to the final destination. Is that correct, all beer will have some sugars added at the end? the recipes i have looked at and the youtube videos didnt mention this..

Any recomendations for a FV assumign i opt to heat it via a immersion heater in the fv. id hope for somethign that cleans easy, is relatively robust and is easy to siphon out of an d good for dry hopping.


thanks

 

[Fazer]

I use Tesco everyday value bottled water, about 17p ish for 2L. Our water is very hard here so the Tesco stuff is alot better ( pretty sure its just filtered tap water but its cheap and better than out the tap).

 

[geigercntr]

Just to add to what others have said :
I ferment in a spare room which had a temp in the region of 14degC. To boost the temperature a bit I use a heat belt plugged into a timer switch to give it a little boost every couple of hours.
Similar to this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B001PQU73S/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[wfr42]

A trug isn't much bigger than your fv...

 

[Cwrw666]

For heating you could use the kind of heat mat that sits under an aquarium - from vague memory you can get 1foot square ones that use something like 20watts, so a pretty gently heat. Insulate your FV and sit it on one of those and monitor your temperature for a few days - you could use water for a trial run.
With regard to water - I think most people don't bother adjusting their water. Probably because you're used to the taste of your tap water in the first place and if that tastes good to you then any beer made with it will also be good. For example, they always say you need hard water for good stout, but I make stout quite often and our water is on the EU limits for acidity in drinking water, and it tastes fine.

 

[jayjt29]

Cant really add to others comments, I'm sure all your answers are there :) Just enjoy your brewing mate :)

Jay

 

[stuart_A]

would a electric tube heater with a thermostat do the job? Stick it on the wall of the shed and leave it on to heat the room with the FV in it?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tubular-Garage-Greenhouse-Electric-Heater/dp/B004SFRRKY

 

[Leon103]

would a electric tube heater with a thermostat do the job? Stick it on the wall of the shed and leave it on to heat the room with the FV in it?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tubular-Garage-Greenhouse-Electric-Heater/dp/B004SFRRKY

Might cost a shed load to run.

 

[Alan_H]

Tbh i seem to have completely overlooked the priming stage but from what youve all said it seems clear that we add sugar to the beer when its racked to the final destination. Is that correct, all beer will have some sugars added at the end? the recipes i have looked at and the youtube videos didnt mention this..

Correct, you add a bit more sugar when you bottle the beer, for carbonation.
Pressurised kegs / barrels are being force carbonated with CO2 tanks so no extra sugar needed there.
It's usually mentioned as priming sugar in recipes.

 

[stuart_A]

The better half has just this morning said I can use the larder off the ktcken (under the stairs) for fermenting. Don't know what's come across her, being all reasonable and that?!

So that should help me avoid issues of sub zero temp I was facing when presuming Id be using the brick outbuilding.

So a few new questions if I may;

- will my brews stink the house out? If so I think I get about 2 days before I'm banished to the outbuilding again!

- the space (amongst all the other junk in the larder) will be minimal. Should I look to split the fermenting across two smaller vessels rather than my intended 25L one? My thinking here is that it'll give me an opportunity to try out two differs yeasts/dry hops/fermentation periods with only one brew day and also splits the risk of losing a whole batch if things go wrong.

- will temp in there be stable enough without heating/cooling devices? (Based on typical uk temp. It's generally quite 'fresh' under the stairs and isn't directly heated by the Central heating). There's currently no plug sockets in there but I could add some if need be. No space for a brew fridge though (that would be puching it!). Anyone else rely on an uncontrolled room in their house?

Thanks!

 

[wfr42]

I've adopted the spare room and got am aquarium heater and trug for my last brew (first full batch ag) could you run an extension in there. Previous two ag brews I wrapped the 2 demijohns in a bit of thermawrap and sat them in buckets padded out with towels.
No reason you can't split your brew but you would then need to maintain temperature on multiple FVS.
SWMBO definitely prefers me boiling outside the house as she doesn't appreciate the smell of malt through the house. Fermentation produces fewer smells.

Good luck

 

[MyQul]

The better half has just this morning said I can use the larder off the ktcken (under the stairs) for fermenting. Don't know what's come across her, being all reasonable and that?!

So that should help me avoid issues of sub zero temp I was facing when presuming Id be using the brick outbuilding.

So a few new questions if I may;

- will my brews stink the house out? If so I think I get about 2 days before I'm banished to the outbuilding again!

- the space (amongst all the other junk in the larder) will be minimal. Should I look to split the fermenting across two smaller vessels rather than my intended 25L one? My thinking here is that it'll give me an opportunity to try out two differs yeasts/dry hops/fermentation periods with only one brew day and also splits the risk of losing a whole batch if things go wrong.

- will temp in there be stable enough without heating/cooling devices? (Based on typical uk temp. It's generally quite 'fresh' under the stairs and isn't directly heated by the Central heating). There's currently no plug sockets in there but I could add some if need be. No space for a brew fridge though (that would be puching it!). Anyone else rely on an uncontrolled room in their house?

Thanks!

- Some yeasts, in particular lager yeasts, produce sulphur compounds in large quantities so can make your house smell like dog farts but most ales yeast (although there are exceptions - I know I cultured up the brakspear strain from a commercial bottle and Mrs MQ was not best pleased at the resulting fermentation smell) don't smell and I find the smell of fermentation is minimal

- Up to you. Plenty of forumites experiment like this. I can't be bothered with the extra work

-Get a thermometer and measure the temps over 24 hours to see if there's much fluctuation. Too higher fluctuation isn't good. If its quite cold but stable temps it's better than being warm but fluctuating all over the place. You can put in measures to deal with cold temps. 23L of wort is quite good at insulating itself though, to protect against fluctuatins
. I have a brew bag (to lower temps to ferment in) but I only have one and have 2 FV's on the go. So brew in the corner of my kitchen which has very stable temps, without any temp control as well as in the brewbag on the kitchen floor

 

[Kman]

You can buy a peco immersion heater which once calibrated to your desired temp(goes to 24C) it will maintain it for you, I have one and it works great

 

[stuart_A]

Thanks guys.

I have been looking into the immersion heaters and they do sound good. That was my plan before the wife said I could bring it indoors. At this time of year I might find it a little too cold in the larder but come summer I'd think my problem may be it getting too hot in there. In which case the immersion heater probably isn't going to help.

I'm probably worrying too much about this. I'll monitor the temps throughout a 24hr period and see what I'm getting. Then I guess do the same in advance of any future fermentation to see what temp control may be needed amd make plans accordingly.

 

[terrym]

Stuart
My advice to you is keep it simple to start with. Get the basics right before you start to experiment. Many on here started with a beer kit, a 25 litre fermenting vessel, a siphon tube and some bottles and were probably very pleased with the result.
If your water tastes and smells OK it's OK for brewing.
Second if you have to ferment beer in a cool room you can use a Wilko Ale yeast which will (as was mentioned on this forum a few days ago) ferment in temperatures down to 14*C. It will just take longer to finish the primary fermentation compared to 20*C. You could try that before you decide on supplementary heating. And personally I would not put an aquarium heater tube directly into my beer (I use one but its in a trug water bath into which goes my FV). If you are really set on supplementary heating the water bath trug method does work and its cheap to set up at about £6-7 for a 50 watt heater off ebay (thats what I use) and the trug at £4 from Wilko.
If you do any kind of boiling in your brewing process, it will create a smell. If you use the kitchen for example, the solution to this is to shut the inside door and open the outside door and window. If you keep your FV in a confined space without ventilation the fermentation gas can also make the space smell.
Be positive about your brewing from the outset. Don't be looking for things that can go wrong. Just follow the basics including keeping your kit clean and sanitised before use and unless you are extremely unlucky you will never have a brew go wrong.