Home Brewing Sucks!!

[Furby]

Why do I say that? ... trying to repell all these baraging thoughts coming through the internet from many of the staunch brewers out there!
'Cause I can't retain the willpower to let the bottled brew sit long enough to gain full advantage of the final product ... Sigh!!

Ok... I'm a newbie at this, well sort of, I did really start HB when I was about 12 yrs old back in the early 70's .. but that's another story ... remind me to share that with you sometime.
Anyways, did the first Coop HB kit ... lager, brew sugar, 20C average, 6 day ferment, bottled ... 2 days later cracked the first one! I know, your all sitting back just saying .... That's not Furby .. He's just a very, very Naughty boy!!

I was just happy to see the results!! In honesty, ... a little light in mouthfeel, carbonation acceptable, surprisingly clear and good head retention. (Of course I immediately kicked over another batch but more about that shortly) As the days pass, I can notice a clear distinction in the quality changing. I'm not really that much of an experimenter as yet, but, I like to see how things change and why so as to gain a better understanding of the process ... Unfortunately, the missus dont seem to fit under this category!
Overall .... Quite Happy!

A few things I would like to share with you, if I may, is what I do when I start the whole KitandKaboodle ... Ok, maybe I'll just start with the sterilisation of bottles ....
When I finish with a session (glass commercial beer bottles) I rinse out in hot water from tap to remove any residue, then fill with water just boiled(maybe next day) and put the twist top cap on. Leave sit until ready to bottle next batch. I then empty the contents into a 25lt food grade water container I have and use this as the water for my next brew. As an added protection when bottle time, I put them in the oven (at least 100C but not too much more) to dry out any moisture of which may not be necessary, but hey, let's be scientific about this. The caps I just cover in boiling water and let sit.
I hate washing bottles .... Again, back to the 70's!!!

The main elements required for bacteria to grow or be limited (unless they are spores) are:
Time
Water
Food
PH level
Temperature

Temperature is a friend but anything between 4C and 65C will be your worst nightmare ... if given enough time.

So there kiddies, stay tuned for the next exciting adventure of 'Furby gets Fuzzy'

Ohh! ... BTW ... That's what I was going to ask ....
Got a Coop draught going, use 1kg Dextrose instead of Brew sugar, 18-20C, .... It is still fermenting slightly now @ 8 days ... Is this normal?

I will get another draught going when bottled but this time I thought I would try some light dry malt and dext. What quantities of each should I use?

Thanks in advance, and I look forward to being part of this great community.

Cheers

[Tipsy]

I will get another draught going when bottled but this time I thought I would try some light dry malt and dext. What quantities of each should I use?

Most people on this forum will tell you to go 100% malt and that is probably good advice, but if your trying to get something nearer to say Carlton draught I would suggest a 50/50 mix of malt/dextrose to give you a starting point.

Are you aiming to replicate a certain type of beer?

[Furby]

Thanks Tipsy for the reply ....

No ... not aiming at any particular type of replica ... Just BEER!

I'm so use to commercial so anything I try will be an improvement ... I would just like a nice beer that when I come home from work am able to .... sit down, relax, have a quaff and say .... Mmmmm ... I like that .. I wonder what the snobs are doing ...and who cares ... Oh BTW .. 'Honey, can you please take the remote off our sprog and put the footy back on!' ... Savvy?

Mate ... open to all suggestions, but would like to keep it simple ... 'cause I'm stupid (came top in the class at that one) ... I just want to improve, but I dont want the Quantum Leap just yet. Small steps for a little man with a big thirst!

I'm still trying to figure out how to keep the beer conditioning post bottling more than 2 days whereby mankind has already put our species on the moon!!

And yes mate, that's the next step I thought I would try .... half and half.

Thanks for your help, appreciated

Cheers

[scanman]

.... It is still fermenting slightly now @ 8 days ... Is this normal?

I recently had a lager that went for just over two weeks (then it went itno the fridge for lagering for another 3 weeks), so yes its normal. Depending on the yeast and other factors like temperature is to how long it will take to brew out.

Patience is a key thing when home brewing, thats for sure, and it does get hard sometimes. Thing is to just keep doing it and buid up lots of stock, that way when you thrid brew is ready to bottle you wont be tempted to drink it just after 2 days, you'll have stock form the first brew to chug down by them.

I only recently got back into brewing after a long stint off myself,and I just kept buying the commercial beer till i got my stocks up.
Thats sure was a tough period, have to drink that other stuff while i waitied for the brew to mature a bit. I now have 4 beers, a ginger beer and a cider in stock, with another going now, and two batched made and drunk already. Once you get a system of brewing, maturing and then consuming all is well. Just takes a month or two to get the process going.

If the waiting is troubling, best option is to get a kegging system. That way you only wait for it to brew, then wait a couple of days for carbonation before you can pour yourself one form your own tap.

[Trough Lolly]

Got a Coop draught going, use 1kg Dextrose instead of Brew sugar, 18-20C, .... It is still fermenting slightly now @ 8 days ... Is this normal?

Furby, dextrose is a small chain sugar which means it quickly ferments out in the wort. If you have a kit with a kilo of dextrose, the coopers yeast typically does its job in only a few days. It's possible that what you're seeing is CO2 that the yeast put in earlier on, leaving the beer.

The only way to accurately know if the beer has finished fermenting and is ready to be bottled or kegged, is to use a hydrometer or refractometer to tell you what the sugar content / gravity of the beer is. You will then have a decent idea of what's going on and it helps rule out certain variables when you think your beer may have an infection.

Lash out and spend a few bucks on a hydrometer and you'll take some of the guesswork out of your brewing without going too technical.

As an aside, much of your earlier post reflected my early days in brewing - a kit and some dextrose was all I needed to make a beer that would get me by. That was until I tasted some beer that had more malt than sugar in it....and all the rest is history.

Cheers,
TL

[scanman]

Buy a hydrometer from the HB shop as well. The BigW ones I think are not accurate if you ask me, and only go up to a certain amount on the scale.

[Furby]

Thanks TL ... You have given me a bit more info relating to my present brew.

I suspect it may be Co2 (from posts I have read previously) but was unsure what properties Dex has and how it reacts in a brew. In times of the 70's, all that I ever saw was just good old plain sugar.
I do have a hydrom but buggered if I can read it and understand. I see a start/finish on the beer section but it does not give indication of which is what. It came with the Coop kit I just recently purchased.

I understand from searching that if it reads about 1010, or there abouts, it is fairly safe to assume the fermet has finished ... it read that about 3 days ago but is still bubbling ... be it though slow.
I noticed when I poured out into the test tube there was a fair amount of carbonation.
Another point, I can touch the sides or top of the fermenter and it will cause the airlock to bubble ... and I'm not talking about a lot of pressure here either.

I was not game to bottle, however, if I was going to use the pet bottles I would take a chance ... but in this case, I wish to use glass.
Flashback to the 70's .... I have seen bottles explode ... not pretty!!!

You mentioned TL the ugly word 'INFECTION' .... Arghhhhh!!! ... wash my mouth out with soap!!!

Do you think maybe this might be the case?

Thanks for the help Mate ... And to the others who have posted here as well

Cheers

[Noodles]

I only recently got back into brewing after a long stint off myself,and I just kept buying the commercial beer till i got my stocks up.

And if you're going to buy commercial beer while getting your HB stocks up, you might as well buy Coopers long necks. Great beer and the best home brew bottles known to man.

[Trough Lolly]

G'day Furby,
There's another good reason as to why you take hydrometer readings - you get to taste the sample! If you have an infection, you should either smell or taste an off aroma/flavour to the beer. You can also gently remove the fermenter lid and look at the surface - if you don't have a waxy, greasy surface or spidery threads across the surface, ie, it looks like a normal glass of headless beer, then you should be ok, if it tastes ok as well.
CO2 will only be released from the wort, and pass through the airlock when the solution is saturated with CO2 - approximately 5% of the sugars have already been fermented out by the time the primary starts bubbling.
Dextrose is a highly fermentable sugar that adds alcohol and dryness to the beer - it's good for carbonating beer but I would avoid using it for the main beer recipe unless you prefer thin dry beers and you're on a budget that's got higher priority than the flavour and body of the beer!

If the hydrometer sample shows a steady gravity reading that's under 1.015, and you haven't detected any obvious signs of infection, I'd get on with the bottling.

[Trough Lolly]

You mentioned TL the ugly word 'INFECTION' .... Arghhhhh!!! ... wash my mouth out with soap!!!

Confession: In 12 years of brewing I've had one infection....it was a 1L starter of wort, sealed with glad wrap that sat next to the fruitbowl...

Cheers,
TL

[Boonie]

Welcome Furby,

Your posts give me a good chuckle, you tell it how it is

If the reading has been the same for a couple of days as you said ,bottle it.

If demand is exceeding supply, buy another fermenter or 2. I am up to 5 Fermenters and 1 for racking (Broken) and a 15 Litre one for Lagering.

This is the best way to get Bottles filled ready for Xmas and then you can rest while the temp is too hot for Brewing.

Buy bottles on Ebay and get a fair stash going.

I have 400+ Longies and about 240 Stubbies (Chucked some recently). I've filled 300 Longies so far and I am aiming to have all filled, stubbies included, in the next 4 weeks. 4 brews cooking at home as I type.

Cheers

Boonie

[Furby]

Thanks Gent's for the info .....

I did decide to bottle today (bubbling had stopped) so lets see how it goes.
It didn't have the signs you mentioned TL for an infection and the smell/looks was normal ... Geeze!! ... wish I could boast that quality!
The brew did seem fairly carbonated already when putting into the bottles (fine bubbles), with only a slight foam .... So I hope the 2 lollies I dropped in each bot will not build up enough pressure to blast off and end up being the world's first beer satelite!!

Speaking of which ... 70's Flashback ...
Dad was priming the bottles for his batch and I wandered in and says .. Hey Dad, can I help. Sure Son he replies, thinking it will get his brew down quicker. Now Son, put 1 teaspoon of sugar in each bottle. Wot does sugar do for beer Dad ... "Basically creates alcohol once the yeast feeds on it" he said.
Now, to this day I can fairly well assume he was not talking about the sugar that went into the bottles, however, at 12yrs old I was not smart enough to figure this out. So, off I go on my merry little adventure .... One for the bottle ... One for Dad .. and ...One for me! This'll get him pissed I chuckled to myself.
I think there was about 6 cartons by the time it was bedded down and these were stored under the house.
Dad was dumbstruck as to why he lost most of the bottles to exploding as it hadn't happened to him before ... Never had the heart or bravado to tell him either!

Thanks TL for the info on Dex ... I have done another batch of the draught but this time added some DLM. I also took a SG wich was close to 1060.

Oh .. BTW Boonie ... RU serious mate?? .. Get another fermenter? ... I'm livin close to death with the missus now!! My left testicle has already been sacrificed to get this kit .... I really dont want to go soprano if I can help it.
But give it time ... I'll weasle around it somehow Chrissy not far away ... hee hee
I would be alright if it just didn't taste so damn good ... and cheap.
You got 300 bottles already filled and 4 brews on the go!! ... Bugger mate ... Did you sell your soul or somethin? ... Your in beer heaven.

Cheers

[Boonie]

...nice story

Yeah I have been buying stuff off ebay. I bought 1 at HBS 1 at Big W and the other 4 have come from ebay.

I bought 125 Crown seal longies for $40.00.(turned out to be a guy I went to school with, but that's another story)
Also I bought 2 fermenters and 200 Longies (Twisties) for $80.00 with about $40 bucks worth of Malts/Cans etc included. Sold the longies for $35-$50 per 100 and made my money back. That's how I kept my wife from killing me as I told her my plan when I was bidding.

If you search and wait long enough you will get some fermenters and bottles for about $100.

Ebay is good for stuff like that. I bought 500 bottles from a guy in Sydney (Ebay) for $10.50, my mate in his truck picked up on the way through, sold all the Tooheys ones for $35-45 dollars. Only prob was I had to wash them . I was pissed when I bid on them I already had 500 bottles at that stage ..........wife was pissed at that as they filled her laundry whilst I soaked them, delabelled and scrubbed them in neopink......can be hard work if they are filthy

Cheers

Boonie

[Kevnlis]

Bunnings has 25L fermentors with tap for less than $20, bung an airlock in ($3 at Big-W, a 10mm drill bit, and half of a $1.50 pack of gromets) or just use cling wrap (the regular size fits the round fermentors at Bunnings). That is even less than eBay once you work out postage!

They are all I use and have never failed me yet. In fact the Big-W has them on special here in Bundy ATM and they are about $0.50 cheaper than Bunnings so you could get the whole lot in one place

[Boonie]

The Bunnings here never have them .

They have 20 Litre Jerry cans with taps for water, but the biggest round or square one with a tap is only 10 litres

[Kevnlis]

The Bunnings here never have them .

They have 20 Litre Jerry cans with taps for water, but the biggest round or square one with a tap is only 10 litres

Check Big-W like I say, they are cheaper there right now with the sale on...

Just bought number 5 there the other day

[Boonie]

They have them for $25.00 and the seal looks dodgy. I'll check to see how cheap they are tomorrow, on sale.

[Kevnlis]

They have them for $25.00 and the seal looks dodgy. I'll check to see how cheap they are tomorrow, on sale.

They are like $15 and change with the bung, the tap is a further $3 and change, all up it is just under $20. I use the rubber from the seal to "secure" the cling wrap to the thread and the lidd is in a box somewhere in the garage roof cavity I think

The seal on the tap is fairly ordinary (all of them are at their tightest with the tap pointing straight up in the air) but for the money...

[ryan]

When the tap is pointing straight up to get a tight seal, how do you go transferring to secondary or bottle with it in that position?
Reason I ask, one of my fermenters, doesn`t matter where you position the tap to screw in, it never tightens up until it`s on the wrong angle. Don`t ask me why, none of my other ferm. and taps do this

[Kevnlis]

When the tap is pointing straight up to get a tight seal, how do you go transferring to secondary or bottle with it in that position?
Reason I ask, one of my fermenters, doesn`t matter where you position the tap to screw in, it never tightens up until it`s on the wrong angle. Don`t ask me why, none of my other ferm. and taps do this

I don't worry about it. I just leave it a half turn loose. Doesn't leak or anything, but I suppose I could buy a better seal for it.