First brew - how much bubbling should happen in the airlock?

[Gough]

Top darts Franky. The added bonus of the extra fermenter is as you say, the ability to bulk prime. Rack to secondary (dry hop if you want to) and after a fortnight or so(if the temp can be kept reasonably cool) rack onto your bulk primimg solution. If you have 23 litres of brew, approx 160-170 grams of dextrose mixed in 4-500mls of boiling water will give you heaps of carbonation. If you use dry malt extract (DME) you'll need to use more. Racking and bulk priming as next steps will improve your brewing, but you can brew perfectly good beer in a single fermenter. Keep the temps steady and on the cooler side of the range for your yeast and it'll all be good

Hope your beer comes out fine,

Gough.

[Franky]

okay - I have bottled my first brew. As I was drawing it out, it looked and smelt more like beer than I have seen it to look so far! It was pretty clear too (apart from the very dregs, which I bottled anyway to see what it would taste like). I think the finings must have worked! Might not be such a bad brew after all!

I had a motley range of bottles which made the task interesting, but I managed in the end - so glad I bought a bench capper.

For future reference, how much gap should I leave at the top of the bottle? Will the brew expand as it gasses up? I didn't want to fill it too full just in case the bottles exploded, but I hear that oxygen affects beer, so I didn't want it too low either. I ended up with about 2-3 inches form the top of a longneck and a couple of inches from the top of a stubby.

I found when I drew out the beer it would foam up and the bottling tap would take up some room in the bottle, so when I took it out the level dropped a bit.

[Isaac]

For future reference, how much gap should I leave at the top of the bottle? Will the brew expand as it gasses up? I didn't want to fill it too full just in case the bottles exploded, but I hear that oxygen affects beer, so I didn't want it too low either. I ended up with about 2-3 inches form the top of a longneck and a couple of inches from the top of a stubby.

An inch on the top of a longneck and a half on top of a stubby is plenty. Use commercial beer as a guide.

[Franky]

Howdy all,

Well I have now tried a couple of bottles of my first batch.

The first (after one week in the bottle) was pretty flat, no head and very fruity tasting - my wife said it was nice but didn't really taste like 'normal' beer.

The second (after 1.5 weeks in the bottle) had good carbonation and the sweetness had died down a bit. It had a thin, short lived head that dissipated pretty quickly.

All in all not a bad beer and it'll probably improve with more time in the bottle.

Thanks for all the help, advice and tips gents.

Next up - I have a stout that's ready to bottle....

[Matty]

Hi ya Franky,

Using a 'little bottler' helps with the bottling process, just fill the bottle and the space taken up by the bottler when removed is plenty, about an inch for long neck, 1/2 inch for stubbies.
Also, with heat belts, instead of turning on and off for temp control, you can just adjust the height which you have the belt on the carboy, higher up the carboy the less liquid it heats

Matty