Hello

[Tripod-surf]

Hello everybody, my names Richard I'm 25 and live in Norfolk. I've been meaning to get a homebrew beer kit for ages now and bought myself a woodfordes wherry kit last week, I think so far so good, I started the kit on Thursday the 2nd, so it's still in the fermenter, not sure on a couple of things, 1 do I need anything to help release gas from the fermenter at this stage and 2 I went to a mates house today and his dad brews a few beers and on his pressure kegs he had a c02 thing, do I need to put one of those on my keg ( I did buy some rubber bungs and valves) any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[Grumpy Jack]

Welcome on board. :

Quick answers... no, you don't really need to do anything to release gas, unless you think it's going to blow... if your fermenter doesn't have a bubble release airlock, the gas will normally build up between your beer and the lid and it may balloon a little, but to be honest, any excess gas will release when you come to take the lid off.

As for kegging... is that what you're planning or have you considered bottling? It depends on how often and how much you drink really. I tend to bottle almost always now.

In my experience, the keg, without a CO2 injection top, will normally let you draw 2 or 3 pints a session and then you'll need to let it sit for a day or so so that the gas builds up again. You can speed that up by using a gas injector, small or large depending on the valve you have on the lid.

Bottling gives you the option of variable storage space and putting some aside to see how they taste after longer maturity, my beers are almost invariably much better at 6 months than 6 weeks, if they last that long... but I try to put a few of each brew aside.

Hope that that helps, but it's only my experience and my view and others on here are far greater and wiser than me and may be able to offer you much more detailed, informed and technical advice... don't be afraid to ask away with any random question.

 

[Twocson]

Welcome along :

I used mine with out a airlock for a long time with no harm done and it was fine,
I put a airlock but I use a tot of whiskey in it instead of water I love watching it bubbling away for fun.

 

[joe1002]

Welcome to the forum :

 

[rpt]

Hi and welcome. I don't bother with an airlock - the CO2 manages to escape anyway. You'd only need one if you are fermenting in a properly sealed FV such as the ones with screw lids. The Wherry is good but you need to give it time. It takes much longer than the 6 days they say in the instructions, plus mine wasn't really good until about 8 weeks in the cold after bottling.