Youngs Brew Buddy

[Chris_1984]

Just a question for those who have used Youngs Brew Buddy kits (but if anyone else can help....great!)

After brewing in the bucket, is it better to:

a) syphon straight to bottle
b) syphon to keg for extra fermenting THEN bottle
c) any other suggestion


Bearing in mind, I'm all for waiting & am in no rush

 

[puravida]

Once fermentation has finished, you are usually best to syphon to a second container so you leave all the yeast and other gubbins behind in your fermenter.
Leave at least for a few more days to allow any further the yeast to drop out and then you are good to prime and bottle.

If you put it somewhere cold it will help the yeast to drop out.

 

[Chris_1984]

Do i prime both the keg AND bottles?

 

[puravida]

No - one or the other.

If you are using sugar then you dissolve into boiled water and add to the bucket before you fill your bottles.
Or you can use carbonation drops or tablets instead that are put directly into each bottle.

 

[Heyzy]

My first kit this and im just about to botte (tomorrow), im going straight from fv to bottle by putting the sugar straight into the bottles before the brew. I have bought a syphon tape to make bottling easier then i plan to leave it for 4 weeks to condition. This is only what i have learnt on here over the past couple of weeks but there are other ways and im just trying this way before i spend any more money on equipment.

 

[Chris_1984]

Are you using ordinary sugar for the bottles or something a bit more special?

 

[Fergmeister]

My first kit this and im just about to botte (tomorrow), im going straight from fv to bottle by putting the sugar straight into the bottles before the brew.

That's what I have been doing for ny first few brews. I used 2 litre PET bottles, and the easiest way to get the sugar to dissolve is to swirl the beer around while you are siphoning, and then give it a good shake after capping the bottles. First time I never swirled and it took A LOT of shaking to dislodge the sugar from the bottom of the bottle and to get it to mix. Only problem with going straight to 2 litres from the fv is the sediment because there is about 5mm in the bottom of the bottle which gets agitated when you pour the first pint - resulting in a rather cloudy last drink! I think a second bucket will be my next investment and I am looking forward to seeing how much of a difference it makes.

 

[Chris_1984]

Fergmeister, (or anyone else for that matter)


Is it better to prime the sugar beforehand (i.e. boil sugar & water) then add to the beer before siphoning OR
just add sugar to the bottles, then gently shake to disperse before allowing further fermentation?

 

[Fergmeister]

It depends. I personally add my granulated sugar to the bottles at a rate of 1 teaspoon per 500ml and swirl as I siphon the beer onto the sugar, but I only have one fermenting vat so I have no alternative. If you are using 2 vats then I would leave it to settle a week, then siphon the beer off the sediment (known as racking) and into the second bucket, then mixing the sugar and beer in the clean bucket before bottling.

 

[stu brew]

I would use two fv and add your priming sugar 1/2 a tea spoon per pint should be fine into your bottles /keg but iv found the best way to get rid of most of the dead yeast is first change the yeast to some think like a heavier yeast like Nottingham yeast as this will pack down better so it stays in the fv/ bottles then after 10 days of bottling put them in a fridge for a lest a week this will give you a clear beer and the yeast will stick to bottle better . Then enjoy :-)


---
I am here: http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=52.576621,-1.213996

 

[Chris_1984]

Cool, thanks for your help so far.
I FINALLY got round to making it up on Sunday; OG was 1043, yeast was added at 20 degrees centigrade.
It's bubbling away under the stairs under a black binbag - since Sunday, i've personally scrubbed about 40 old beer bottles i've collected from friends & family over Christmas.

I'm already looking at what i'm going to do next. Possibly get a barrel and maybe try something a bit more adventurous...

 

[Fergmeister]

If you like strongbow then I would definately give turbo cider a go; I did some just before Christmas and it was pretty good really. I only used apple juice (it was called 'just juice' I think) and yeast as I wanted to see what sort of flavour it gave off without anything added and within a month it tasted quite similar to shop bought fizzy stuff. There are plenty of recipes on here but just make sure you buy the 'from concentrate' Apple juice (the really cheap ones) to avoid preservatives. Works out at about the same cost as a one can kit brew and makes a nice change.

 

[Chris_1984]

Thanks - definitely going to have a look at turbo cider after i googled it. Looks pretty straightforward.

I was thinking of buying another kit but changing it round a bit (i.e. use mixture of enhancer & spraymalt, different yeast)

 

[Chris_1984]

Bottled it all on Sunday; decided to test one of the smaller PET bottles today; gravity reading is coming out at roughly 1015 - so i make it roughly 3.2%. Not bad considering it's only 3.5 days old!
Beer is still cloudy, but the yeast smell is not as prominent as it was when bottling. Nice head on it.