Help for newbie

[Ajdpilot]

Hi all,
I'm very new to brewing, Infact I have only just started my very first batch and I seem to have confused myself with over thinking and could do with a little help.
I'm currently brewing an extract, dilute in the FV kit. Namely the St. Peters Ruby Red ale kit. I have also been reading the how to brew book by John Palmer and watching a few YouTube videos.
I seem to have conflicting info from all the above sources.
I want to do a secondary ferment and then rack to my pressure keg and store in the keg taking straight from there to glass.
The kit says after primary fermentation (4-6 days at 19'C until gravity remains below 1014) to add sugar for conditioning then store in a warm place for 2 days then leave for 14 days to clear in a cool place.
The book and videos seem to say 1-2 weeks primary fermentation then 2-4 weeks secondary to clarify and age followed by priming and 1-2 weeks for conditioning.

My questions are:
1, after primary fermentation what temperature should I leave the FV for secondary fermentation and for how long?
(I have temperature control device)
2, should I continue to take hydrometer readings after primary fermentation and what would I be looking for if so?
3, when is FG taken, at the end of primary, secondary or after conditioning in the keg?
4, when should I rack to the keg, is this the correct time to add priming super and at what temperature should it be left at to condition and for how long?
5, at what point is it OK to drink and when would it be best to drink?

Any other helpful info would be much appreciated, no matter how obvious the info seems as I am a newbie after all.

Thanks for your help
Cheers,
Andy

 

[strange-steve]

The reason for the conflicting advice is that there are lots of ways, methods, techniques of brewing. Most of them will give you drinkable beer but not all of them are best practice. The instructions on the kit are almost always optimistic regarding timings.That online John Palmer book is mostly good however some stuff in it is out of date.

So your questions:
1. Same as fermentation temperature
2. Leave the beer for a week before taking a sg reading. Then transfer to secondary and leave for 2 weeks then take another reading, this will be the fg.
3. As above, it's taken just before bottling/kegging.
4. After the 3 weeks (1 primary, 2 secondary), yes add the priming solution to the keg then syphon the beer on top, leave at room temperature for 2 weeks to carbonate.
5. You can drink it whenever you like, but it'll take a couple of weeks to fully carbonate and it'll continue to improve in flavour for weeks or even months.

As for other info, using a secondary isn't really necessary, lots do it but lots don't. I leave the brew in the primary for 3 weeks or so then transfer to a bottling bucket, prime and bottle.
Since you say you have temperature control, if you can lower the temperature to 2 or 3° for the last couple of days it'll really help clear the beer before kegging.

 

[terrym]

Ignore the kit instructions.
Carry out the primary fermentation in your FV and leave it there for about two weeks. This a) means the primary will have finished and b) the yeast will have cleaned up the beer and c) the yeast will have mostly cleared from your beer.
Alternatively take SG readings when it looks like the primary has finished and when the readings are the same on two or three consecutive days its ready to bottle or in your case put into a PB.
Put your brew into a PB, with about 90g sugar. If your kit comes with priming sugar use that, otherwise table sugar is fine.
Leave in a warm place for another 14 days or so whilst the priming sugar carbonates the beer.
Find the coldest place you have and leave it another two weeks.
Then draw off your first pint.
If its still cloudy or you think it tastes a bit 'raw' leave it another two weeks and then try again.
By then I guess it should be ready to drink but it may be worth going steady with it to see how it improves with age.

 

[Ajdpilot]

Thanks for the info that has cleared it up in my head I think now.
Cheers

 

[DoctorMick]

The reason for the conflicting advice is that there are lots of ways, methods, techniques of brewing. Most of them will give you drinkable beer but not all of them are best practice. The instructions on the kit are almost always optimistic regarding timings.That online John Palmer book is mostly good however some stuff in it is out of date.

So your questions:
1. Same as fermentation temperature
2. Leave the beer for a week before taking a sg reading. Then transfer to secondary and leave for 2 weeks then take another reading, this will be the fg.
3. As above, it's taken just before bottling/kegging.
4. After the 3 weeks (1 primary, 2 secondary), yes add the priming solution to the keg then syphon the beer on top, leave at room temperature for 2 weeks to carbonate.
5. You can drink it whenever you like, but it'll take a couple of weeks to fully carbonate and it'll continue to improve in flavour for weeks or even months.

As for other info, using a secondary isn't really necessary, lots do it but lots don't. I leave the brew in the primary for 3 weeks or so then transfer to a bottling bucket, prime and bottle.
Since you say you have temperature control, if you can lower the temperature to 2 or 3° for the last couple of days it'll really help clear the beer before kegging.

I'd just add that transferring to a secondary isn't strictly necessary and I wouldn't recommend it for a first brew (K.I.S.S.), you can just leave the beer in the primary FV for 2-3 weeks. Once you've nailed down your sanitisastion etc you can decide if the benefits of transferring to a secondary FV outweigh the risks.

 

[strange-steve]

I'd just add that transferring to a secondary isn't strictly necessary and I wouldn't recommend it for a first brew (K.I.S.S.), you can just leave the beer in the primary FV for 2-3 weeks. Once you've nailed down your sanitisastion etc you can decide if the benefits of transferring to a secondary FV outweigh the risks.

Quite right, I did mention that after point 5 :thumb:

 

[ericmark]

The K.I.S.S. approach keeping it simple silly is really good to start with. In order to make it easy at least double the times given on the kit. I consider 20 days about right, but even that is too short if I allow the temperature to drop. First I did I took over from my wife, it was in fermentor for around 2 months before I stepped in, one of the best brews I have done.

 

[DoctorMick]

Quite right, I did mention that after point 5 :thumb:

So you did...that'll teach me to skim read posts! :lol:

 

[Graz]

Must be pretty difficult getting into brewing without having been taught some of the basics by someone else. Luckily for me my Dad was a keen brewer.

Even though I learnt a lot from him it has evolved over the years. He always led me to believe that a kit should be finished up fermenting in 5-7 days and that leaving it in the FV any longer would lead to off tastes or the beer getting infected. I now know different. A lot of the newer breeds of beer kits e.g. Festival & Youngs Craft range are better in their instructions and say it will need at least 2 weeks in the FV.

I've never moved a beer from a primary into a secondary fermenter, just think it's usually unnecessary as I rarely have problems with the clarity of my beers. But I do plan to do a Brewferm belgian beer kit sometime soon and their instructions do advocate the use of a secondary fermenter so will probably do it for this as I want the end result to be top notch.

So back to the OP:

Make up your kit in the FV, regulate it's temperature if you can, and leave it for at least two weeks. After two weeks you can take a hydrometer reading to see if it has achieved its target FG. Now kits that have dry hop additions I tend to not add these until the fermentation has pretty much finished up as otherwise the flavours will be driven off. So at the two week point provided the gravity is okay I'll add the hops and leave it for however long is recommended (3-5 days typically).

After this I'll syphon the beer straight from the primary into my keg with the priming sugar added to the keg. Be careful with the syphon so as not to stir up too much of the sediment.

I'll then stick my keg back in the brew fridge for another couple of weeks at the fermentation temperature to prime. After that I'll take it out and store at ambient until I'm ready to drink it.

Finally back in the fridge (set to "cellar" temperature) to chill it down to drink, will crack into it after a day or two of cooling. The first pint or two maybe a little cloudy but it normally settles down after that.