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Newbie - open call for advice and whatnot...
Hello all... I am an avid lover of forums in general, and when seeking out information on my brand new hobby and passion this is where I ended up. The trick about forums is that when you join everybody already knows each other, and you can quickly get to know everybody, but you yourself are harder to get to know 
... so I thought that I would put myself out there, and then in the future I won't be a total stranger when I come running to the forum in a panic over whatever I think I just messed up.
Please feel free at any time to point me at other posts I should read instead of asking common questions. I have a thick skin and it will probably take me a while to get the hang of this place. Now... more about making beer...
My husband and I jut bought our first house. He got his garage and I got the jacuzzi room, or as it has quickly become, the brewery 
. Shortly after we moved in I hit the nearby brewery supplies store and bought a whole bunch of starter gear. The owner reassured me that I really would be saving money in the long run as he totaled up the cost of the starter equipment. Knowing that I would break even on two successful batches I was already sold.
I live in Newfoundland, where we have our very own time zone and are limited in what we can buy because we are a low population island in eastern Canada. I know a number of people that make their own beer, but I have only run into people that use the kits you can buy in the stores. Thus that is where I am stuck for now. However I hope that once I start producing a couple of successful batches I might find a way to get what I need in order to start brewing from scratch.
What I have done so far - I have made a batch of American Light (Muntons brand) which is at the ready to drink stage, but should be aged for a few weeks. I have a batch of IPA (Coopers brewer's selection) currently carbonating in bottles, as well as a second batch in the secondary. I also have a Pilsner in the primary (also Coopers).
One of the major issues so far is the timing of the brew days, and I am wondering how much I can play with and tweak stuff... any advice would be appreciated. So far what I am doing is setting up the primary, leaving it 10 days, racking to a secondary and adding Isinglass, leaving that for 10 days and bottling. So on a brewing day I rack a batch, then bottle a batch, then start a batch. All takes about 2 and half to 3 hours. Not so bad on a weekend, but timing has it in the middle of the week every second bottling day, which is a bit too much with the workday and our commute. Any thoughts?
All in all everything seems to be going smoothly so far, and I am wondering when I get the panicked "omg how bad have I messed this up?" moment. Of course that might come later when I get a little deeper into the brewing process...
Looking forward to any advice as I move along in this process, as well as digging through the forums for useful tidbits and experience.
-Andrea
drea_raye wrote:
So far what I am doing is setting up the primary, leaving it 10 days, racking to a secondary and adding Isinglass, leaving that for 10 days and bottling. So on a brewing day I rack a batch, then bottle a batch, then start a batch. All takes about 2 and half to 3 hours.
Welcome aboard eh!
We are a big happy family here, so feel free to ask away with as much as you want.
Your timing process looks about right, however you want to avoid scheduling the finishing of your beers if you can. For low gravity beers, again they should fall within that, but there are many yeast strains that may not cooperate, and a primary may last 2-3 weeks until fermentation is done. Do not rush it. Secondaries if you do them, work best as cold as you can get them, and as long as you can wait. If lagering, 4-8 weeks is good.
Your American light and pilsners- are they true lagers? meaning with lager yeast? If so lager fermentation temps are very important.
So as far as nOOb advice, the most discussed and in order of priority are:
1. Sanitation. Make sure everything that touches the beer after the last 10 minutes of boil is completely sanitized. A spray bottle filled with no-rinse sanitizer is a key tool on brewday.
2. Temperature control. Make sure you are within the particular yeasts temp range while fermenting. High temps can produce off flavors, and most ales should not ferment over 70 deg, and lagers over 58. (the exception being Belgian strains). If too low howver you will have a slow or stuck ferment.
3. Yeast pitch amount. Check out starters if using liquid yeast, OK if using dry.
4. Relax and be patient. As stated earlier, beer has a tough time being on a schedule. If you are unsure- wait a little longer. Properly made beer ALWAYS gets better with age. My advice- brew as much as you can in the beginning, so you make a stockpile while waiting for future brews to come around.
Thanks for the quick feed-back I am enjoying everything on this site quite a bit so far.
I read the Coopers Pilsner info and it did mention the longer fermentation time, as well as the lower temperature required, so I am already prepared to keep an eye on that. Fortunately our climate is fairly cool, and only in mid summer do we have an outside temp above most ideal yeast conditions. Normally I have to have the heat on in my brewing room in order to keep it ideal. I didn't know about the secondary being at the lower temp. Is there a particular reason for this? I guess you aren't really expecting your yeast to do any work at this point, it is just supposed to go be dormant, waiting until it is time to carbonate.
As for the American light it is apparently a light lager... I have been keeping all my brews at around 68 degrees (or for me 20C ) the pilsner is currently sitting at 65 or so. I have to say for the first one I just followed the instructions my brew store owner gave me and crossed my fingers.
As for sanitizing... I have been going thought that, but whatever it was I was given at the shop was a powder (white) to be made into a solution and then rinsed. We are on an artesian well which we had tested and comes up with 0 ppm for all tests. I think that should make us good and the first of the beer that I tried doesn't seem at all funky.
In any case keep the advice coming... I really am toying with the idea of going a little cracked and making a full brew, for some reason the pumpkin idea keeps pressing on me...
Happy brewing (and enjoying the fruits of the labor!)
Andrea
Well, I don't do lagers so I can't tell you much about them. But I can say that I think your temps are a bit too high. Lagers are supposed to be a clean beer that doesn't have the esters and phenols that ales can have. Cooler temps for fermenting and lagering help to keep these flavors from developing. As I said, I don't lager at the moment due to the fact that I lack the temp control to do them, but I'm sure that others on this forum can give you a good idea as to what temps to ferment and lager at.
The instructions that came with the Coopers kit, I'm sure, assume that you're fermenting and lagering at cold temps. Because you're fermenting on the warm side, it may not take as long to finish up.
As for the "white powder" that your shop gave you, are you sure it's actually sanitizer? A lot of the time that white powder is only a cleanser and not a sanitizer,i.e. it won't kill any germs. I think that most homebrewers prefer Iodophor or star-san to sanitize. I myself prefer star-san but have been using iodophor lately because it's cheaper at my homebrew store. I'm presently unemployed, so cheaper is better. I'd prefer to still use star-san, but the iodophor seems to work ok.
Both of these products come as a liquid and don't require rinsing. Rinsing carries a risk of recontaminating the item you just santitzed with your water, so if you ask me you're better off with a no-rinse product.
You can order your supplies from Midwest or Northern Brewers and get them in good time. There may be an online supplier colser to you but if not Midwest is one I would reccomend. I use them exclusivly for mail order homerew supplies.
It won't hurt to extend your timing so that all your brewing needs form actually brewing, to transfering to secondary to bottling are all done on weekends. You'll learn as you get experience that you might not need secondary at all with some beers and can go from primary to bottling.
pay close attention to the temp requirements of the yeasts you're using. Most of the time you want to stay on the lower side of the temp range to get a cleaner less funky beer. Some yeasts get their trademark flavors from higher end temps but for the most part lower is better. 68 for a lager seems on the high side. upper 40's to mid 50's is ideal for most lager yeasts. mid 60's to mid 70's for ales. There are exceptions depending on the beer style you're trying to make. that's not to say if you ferment on the high side of the temps your beer is ruined. it will just have much different flavors than beer fermented on the lower temp range of the yeast.
Welcome to the group. It's a lot of fun making the different styles of beers and the people here are a gold mine in giving valuable information when you need it.
DC
I have to say that after hitting the forums and getting some answers back I am ready to approach my brewing with a few more questions, which is awesome.
I think that I am pretty lucky in that I can control my temps really well, the temps that have been reporting may not always be right, as I usually go with celcius (evil Canadians )all in all I am keeping my fingers crossed that I haven't messed anything up yet...
At this point the biggest thing I am wondering about is the sanitizer, have to go back and figure out what it is that I have been using. I did some chem in university (including organic chem, which means my dad incorrectly thinks I plan on making some very concentrated alcohol) so I understand the importance of proper sanitation. Have been intrigued by some of the things that people have been using, and am going to have to look into that more.
Keep it coming... the more criticism I get the better I will do next time
Brew well!
Andrea
I use Iodophor. It's no rinse, and dependable. I've tried a couple others but switched back to Iodophor.
Star San has their own brand of it in a measurable bottle. Really makes it easy
DC
Whoa, slow down everyone, your going to get her into a panic, and she's not going to be able to sleep tonight. I'm pretty sure the yeast that you used in the kits would not be a true lager yeast. Probably a steam yeast, or a clean west coast yeast. Most of these pilsner yeasts in the kits do fine at room temp, and it's up to you if you want to cold crash them at 38F for 4 months. That being said lagers are extremely difficult to make, let alone wait for. I've made a few lagers using my sink to keep the temp at 38 degrees, but only for beers that are impossible to get here like a Bock, or a dark Lager. Every beer around here is a lager, and you can pick up a 30 rack for 15 dollars, so why bother. Where you are Molsen makes great lagers and have many different varieties, and it's as cheap as water, Not worth the 4 months to wait for a lager if you ask me, and you definatly do not save money this way.
On the other hand Ales are great, they will ferment, and condition at room temp, and can be ready to drink in as little as 2-4 weeks. The yeast with the kits will be an all purpose yeast, and most of these dry yeasts can tolerate temps as high as 75F with no problems at all.
When you start using the liquid yeasts, that's when you need to focus on the temps, again the ale strains are very forgiving, but the lagers need to be babied ALOT. I would stick with the ales, there is certainly many more varieties of ale yeast, and you can get very creative with them. (Fruit, Candy, Vegetables).
Don't worry your going to be able to drink your beer trust me, and it's going to be better then any beer you can buy. I just wouldn't worry about Temps that much right off the bat.
I am not the type to spiral into a panic, so I wouldn't worry about freaking me out too much. I am using dry yeast, and following the temp guidelines given by the company. Most of them are recommended to be at 21C-27C (70-80F) and the pilsner is recommended at 13C-21C. I am not patient enough at this stage to wait on it for 4 months so I will just be really careful in making sure that it is done before I put it in bottles. No need to spend several weeks waiting on it only to have it explode.
Thinking of picking up some literature on the whole process. Recommended reading? I thought the joy of homebrewing might be a good place to start. Any other suggestions for the beginner?
drea_raye wrote:
I.
Thinking of picking up some literature on the whole process. Recommended reading? I thought the joy of homebrewing might be a good place to start. Any other suggestions for the beginner?
For basics Palmer's Hpw to Brew is the classic go to- it is online as well for free http://www.howtobrew.com/
Once the basic process is down and you want to further understand exactly how and why beer works, Ray Daniel's Designing Great Beers is the best.
Then if you are an obsessive freaky nut who NEEDS to know exactly what is happening from the molecular level per ingredient, then get George Fix's Principle of Brewing Science. It is a slow and complex read, however you can not say it isnt thorough!
There are some great book out there, along with some good online reading too!
I put this page together for my website visitors.
Hope this helps.
Cheers & Happy Brewing!
thirsty wrote:
Then if you are an obsessive freaky nut who NEEDS to know exactly what is happening from the molecular level per ingredient, then get George Fix's Principle of Brewing Science. It is a slow and complex read, however you can not say it isnt thorough!
Who you calling a nut?
I don't even own Fix's book....yet!
Better brewing through science!
Best of luck and welcome to the board drea_raye!
I am on my second batch. A blueberry wheat. I did not leave enough room in the second fermentation when I add blueberries to the carboy. The air lock bubbled off last night. Not a huge mess but a little flow over. I re sanitized the air lock and put it back on. Should I take some beer out and is the beer ruined? I hope not. The blue berries covered the top of the fermentor. Thoughts.
I'd say you're good.
Usually when the airlock is compromised by too much pressure, that pressure keeps the bad stuff out.
Should I take someout? Im worried its going to do it again. I added double the blurberries and forgot about the headroom in the carboy. beginners mistake.
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