Help? First brew. Instructions differ a lot from books...

[glassgiant]

2 questions (sorry if they're stupid :

Boil
I'm doing my first brew. A Piccadilly Porter kit from Grape and Noble. The instructions say to steep the grains in 4-5 litres of water, then boil add malt and glucose/honey or whatever the unlabelled little container of sticky stuff is and boiling hops. Most of the reading I've been doing talks about topping the boil up to 3 gallons. It seems I'll be well below 3 gallons. Is this right?

Sanitizing
I don't have enough non-rinse sanitizer so I'll have to use the powdered chlorine. Do you just rinse this with tap water?

[GAM]

2 questions (sorry if they're stupid :

Boil
I'm doing my first brew. A Piccadilly Porter kit from Grape and Noble. The instructions say to steep the grains in 4-5 litres of water, then boil add malt and glucose/honey or whatever the unlabelled little container of sticky stuff is and boiling hops. Most of the reading I've been doing talks about topping the boil up to 3 gallons. It seems I'll be well below 3 gallons. Is this right?

More boil is better but for the first time I'd follow the instructions

Sanitizing
I don't have enough non-rinse sanitizer so I'll have to use the powdered chlorine. Do you just rinse this with tap water?

Yep. I use bleach and rinse with potable water.

Sandy

[CorneliusAlphonse]

Rinsing the chlorine off with water works well enough. Give it three rinses to be sure

As for the boil: I top it up with water as high was my pot would hold (about 3 gallons in a 4 gallon pot to make sure it didn't boil over). If you dont top it up, the sugars will darken a bit more when you boil it (because they are more concentrated). Which wouldn't be a problem for a porter, but might make your pale ale look more like an amber (although the taste wouldn't be too much affected).

[glassgiant]

Cool, thanks. If it won't hurt my porter, I'll just follow the directions, then. I don't have a wort chiller yet, so I guess the smaller amount might work in my favour for this one...

[berley]

I'd always recommend boiling with as high of a volume as you can manage. If this recipe is supposed to be produce quite a bitter Porter, your hop utilization will be less affected by a higher-volume boil.

In simpler words, the less volume you boil with, the less IBUs your beer will have in the end.

[glassgiant]

I'll give that a try next time. 10 min left on the boil. I seem to recall there's a site a lot of people use as a brew log/diary. Can someone point me to it? Just making notes around the instrustions for now...

[GAM]

I am making the assumption they adjusted the recipe to the volumes in the instruction.

A hilroy scribbler for notes.

Sandy

[berley]

I am making the assumption they adjusted the recipe to the volumes in the instruction.

Sandy

Yeah, very possible. I've never used one of those kits before, so I definitely couldn't say.

[glassgiant]

Well, that's that. Time to clean up. The books were NOT exaggerating the boilover risk

[Jimmy]

Well, that's that. Time to clean up. The books were NOT exaggerating the boilover risk

fun times!

Grab yourself some of this:

http://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/product_p/fermcaps.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[glassgiant]

Thanks, I'll do that

[ethier.sc]

Here's a pretty simple brew log from NG.

http://noblegrape.ca/wp-content/uploads ... ng_log.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Steve

[glassgiant]

Unfortunately, I don't know what went into the kit, everything but the yeast was unlabelled or not specific. I assume I could ask at the NG.

The instructions said not to snap the lid on the bucket. That's kind of freaking me out. Will the airlock still bubble if I don't snap the lid? If not how do I know when fermentation stops? I'm resisting the urge to constantly open and peek/sample.

[mr x]

If your hearing is good you can hear fermentation by putting your ear against the bucket if it's quiet enough. And the airlock will not bubble if the lid isn't tight. Sometimes the lids leak anyway. To know for sure, look for bulging on the lid, and action in the airlock if you press down on it.

[LeafMan66_67]

NG has copies of all their in house steeping grain kit recipes - they usually throw in the recipe sheet. If it wasn't with yours, I'm sure they would give it to you.

Also, the instruction that comes with the kits assume you don't have an airlock on your primary fermenter - that's why they mention not snapping down the lid.

[glassgiant]

Good to know about the listening, thanks. But I've got 2 small kids and one large dog. My house is never quiet.

I snapped down the lid. The lock is bubbling now. I'm surprised at how much (1/2 hour after snapping it down). I was afraid the kids would knock the loose lid or that I had killed the yeast somehow.

[glassgiant]

I just racked my porter. I got less than expected. I think there's only an inch or two at the bottom of the bucket. Should the cane have touched bottom, or been slightly above (it has about a 1/2 inch thing on the bottom, presumably to leave 1/2 inch of sediment? I've read the reason for the carboy is to reduce oxygen headspace. Is what I've done wrong? If so, how can I fix it?

Thanks in advance,
Shawn

[jeffsmith]

How long did it ferment in the bucket before you racked it to the carboy? Might have been a bit too fast if you just brewed on Saturday. I've never seen a beer ferment out completely in 2 days I don't think…

[Jimmy]

I'm with Jeff on that one. Did the NG instructions say to transfer it already?

There's generally no need to secondary..

[GAM]

Did you add the yeast?

Did you take a gravity?

Yes if I secondary I take all I can get from the primary.

Sandy

[glassgiant]

It's been about 2 and a half days. The lock didn't bubble after 2 minutes of looking at it. It was bubbling a lot yesterday.

I pitched and added the yeast at 23 degrees and had good fermentation for 2 days. Gravity was 1.042 when I put it in the bucket. Tonight it was 1.012. I have no idea if these are good. Tasting the beer: it has an initial unpleasant sweetness that goes away very quickly (never tasted a beer at this stage, so I don't know if it's normal).

NG instructions said to transfer it after 2 to 3 days. In bold, black, underlined letters they said failing to do it after this stage will mess up my beer. They said under no circumstances should it stay in the primary longer than 5 days.

Next time I'll put the cane to the bottom. I had it up about an inch. Is it okay for it to go in on an angle or does it have to be straight?

[mr x]

Holy christ NG gives out bad instructions with a lot of their brewing kits. 23 is a bit high to ferment at, and those numbers look like it could be done.

[glassgiant]

Sorry, 23 was temp in the primary when I added the yeast. Room temp has been about 20. When you say 'done', do you mean 'done for', 'sleeps with the fishes', 'shuffled off its mortal coil'? Or do you mean finished?

[Jimmy]

Most people tilt the bucket to make it easier to get the last little bit out..just stick something underneath it to prop it up.

As for the transferring after 2-3 days - there's probably a greater chance of "ruining" your beer by transferring too early, rather than letting it fully ferment in your primary. The only time I secondary is if I'm going to age the beer on something..I've even started dry hopping in the primary after fermentation is complete.

And x is right..that temperature is on the warm side for fermentation. It will make the beer ferment quicker, but will produce more off flavors than a cooler fermentation.

[glassgiant]

If you don't secondary, do you do the whole thing in a bucket or carboy?

Thanks for the tilting trick. I was concerned I'd get stuff I didn't want.

The instructions say to leave it 7 to 10 days until the air lock has slowed a lot and gravity is less than 1.020. Should I leave it that long? Should I just dump this and start over? Maybe take up knitting instead?