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new to the whole home brew scene can you give me pointers
started my first brew 12-19-10 a amber ale that comes with the starter kit. cooked it and now its been in the fermenter since have not opened it or anything looking to bottle it this sun they told me 2 weeks in the fermenter and 2 weeks in the bottles but the place i bought everything from really has not been much help. so im woundering is there any thing i need to do before i bottle it? i have a hydrometer but not sure what the to do with that can some one help or give me some pointers please thanks
Ron005, welcome to the forum and congratulations on your first beer. I'm sorry to hear that your LHBS is not being helpful. There are much better ones out there.
First bit of advice, relax, don't worry, have a beer, since this is your first, you'll have to wait on the homebrew.
Use your hydrometer to measure the fermentables in your wort/beer. Before you pitch your yeast, draw a sample of your wort into the hydrometer cylinder with your hydrometer in it as well and this measurement will give you the amount of sugar that is in your wort. Repeat this process before bottling to get your final gravity. Using these two numbers will allow you to calculate the ABV. A way to tell when your beer has completed fermenting is to track your gravity reading. If it hasn't changed over a three day period, the fermentation is complete.
Anytime you have questions, don't hesitate to post them, there are many knowledgeable and helpful members on this board.
Wild
Welcome Ron!
First thing to do would be to check the gravity with the hydrometer at least twice before you bottle. Just to be sure on your first batch the fermentation has stopped. Two successive readings that are the same would be the indicator. Be sure to sanitize a baster or racking tubing before taking your samples.
If the gravity is not changing after two readings, then go ahead with the bottling procedure. Hopefully, your gravity is somewhere in the <1.018 range.
Then two weeks in the bottle or so and you should be drinking your first brew.
Good luck, don't hesitate to ask plenty of questions.
the others have given good advice. I'll just add howtobrew.com. the whole book is online to read free, and it should help with all the basics.
ok well checked my beer today with a sample and i didnt know i needed to check it with the hydrometer before i put the yeast to know the content of the alcohol so now im shooting in the dark on that one. whats the best way to be able to pour the beer from the fermenter and not get any of the yeast or sedament from the bottom of the fermenter from the bottom? please let me know
well, you have to siphon, and man, I hate to friggin siphon. What you do is put your racking cane in your beer, hang it on the end of the bucket, and suck on the other end until you get some beer out to start the siphon. Some people don't like to ("just suck it through a hose" -Cartman, South Park). do it this way, but it is the easiest. You can also hold your siphoning line straight up, and fill it with water, or some of the beer, and start the siphon this way, it is a little tricker. If you don't have have a racking cane, you can just use the tubing suspended from the bottom of the bucked with a clamp on the side. They also have siphon starter pumps that start the siphon for you with a small hand pump, but I find this unecessary.
I use bottling spigots on my fermenters. Just drill a 1 inch hole 2 inches from the bottom of the bucket, so as to leave enough room so the spigot nozzle doesn't hit the ground when it is on the floor, then just attach your tubing to the nozzle, and drop it in your bottling bucket . This is just like siphoning, except without the siphon. This method has saved me alot of hassle, and from what I saw the only correct advice Alton Brown gave in his episode of good eats "Amber Waves". That's where I got the Idea from. It's also alot easier for taking samples. Also 2 inches keeps the samples above the yeast cake.
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