First ever kit

[mdex]

Afternoon all.

I'll be starting my first kit tonight an all malt 3kg muntons gold pilsner. http://www.thebrewmart.com/f-continenta ... 01366.html

Do the kits come with instructions?

I'll have 2 FV's. One for fermenting and possibly one for priming before bottling. Unless I should do the priming in the bottles?

Whats the deal with finings and finishing hops? Would I need to use either of these?

Sorry if these are beginners questions but that exaclty what I am.

Cheers

[chairmanmaw]

Afternoon mdex,

Yes, the kit should come with instructions. You normally have to carefully peel the label off the container and they are printed on the back! Make sure you sterilise EVERYTHING though. That's a massive point in the process.

I believe that if you are going to bottle the lager, you wont need the finings or the finishing hops. I did my priming in the bottles, which seems to have worked a treat.

Hope this helps! Im also new to this myself though, but I'm sure the good folk on this very useful forum will be able to answer in depth

Maw

[mdex]

The reason I thought priming in the bucket would be better was to get an even taste after bottling. When putting sugar in each bottle i guess you could inadvertently but differing amounts in?

[chairmanmaw]

The reason I thought priming in the bucket would be better was to get an even taste after bottling. When putting sugar in each bottle i guess you could inadvertently but differing amounts in?

Yes I see you're point. Without a weighing scale of some sort you risk varying each amount placed in to each bottle. I didnt have a weighing scale but thought to myself "each bottle will be unique" which seemed to appeal to me!

I have now purchased an additional FV, one with a tap so I may give that technique a go in a few weeks. Looking back at my first attempt, I wish I did have an additional FV and syphoned the lager off to reduce the overall sediment left in the FV before bottling. I do have sediment in some of my bottles, but I guess I will just have to be sure not to drink it/pour into glasses and leave the sediment in each bottle.

[Marts]

You will pretty much always get yeast sediment in your bottles. In fact we rely on it to carbnonate the beer. When you add priming sugars they need yeast in suspension to ferment out and produce the gas. Just pour carefully, or decant into another jug and pour your beer from that. I usually find the sediment at the bottom is pretty solid and mostly stays put so long as you're not shaking the bottle all over the place.

You can let a beer fall bright (completely clear) and then force carbonate it, but i've no experience of this - I think its cornelius keg territory.

My preference is to dissolve all the priming sugar in 100-150mls of hot water, blast it in the microwave just to be on the safe side and tip it into the second fv. Then syphon the beer from the primary into it - the beer will mix with the sugars nice and evenly this way. I then use a little bottler to take it from here to the bottles. An invaluable bit of kit IMHO.

You shouldn't need finings or additional hops for the pilsner kit. Just brew it to instructions and it should be great (although i've no experience of that kit personally) If you want the pils to be a bit stronger then make it up 2-3 litres short (i.e 20-21 litres for a 23 litre kit). This will increase the alcohol content without unbalancing the kit. Another option (and one I also use) is to add a small amount of extra fermentables at the start - I tend to add an additional 150-250g of brewing sugar, just to tickle up the percentage.

[chairmanmaw]

You will pretty much always get yeast sediment in your bottles. In fact we rely on it to carbnonate the beer. When you add priming sugars they need yeast in suspension to ferment out and produce the gas. Just pour carefully, or decant into another jug and pour your beer from that. I usually find the sediment at the bottom is pretty solid and mostly stays put so long as you're not shaking the bottle all over the place.

You can let a beer fall bright (completely clear) and then force carbonate it, but i've no experience of this - I think its cornelius keg territory.

Ahh, great. Thanks, Marts. I was wondering whether I had done something wrong. I estimate my 1st ever lager will be ready to drink this weekend - I CAN'T WAIT TO TRY IT!!

[mdex]

How do you judge how much priming sugar to use?

Also what would you use? Brewing sugar, house sugar, Malt extracts?

[arturobandini]

Hey guys,

My Brewferm Diabolo has all been bottled up now and is conditioning at room temp for a week before cellaring till Christmas and beyond. I've got one of those Youngs Brewbuddy Lager kits that came with the FV I took off my brother and am going to crack straight on with this today. What's the strength of this kit if you make it up to standard 20l batch with 1kg of sugar? My can has no label on it and he had also lost the yeast which I suppose is a good thing. I'm using US-05 yeast and 500G Brewing Sugar/500G Light Spray Dried Malt to make it up but I may throw in some extra fermentables if it's ABV is 4% or something.

[chairmanmaw]

How do you judge how much priming sugar to use?

Also what would you use? Brewing sugar, house sugar, Malt extracts?

There is a recommeded amount, but I cant remember what it is 75gm per 1L i think. I used home granulated sugar (you're standard edition) as I didnt have any brewing sugar at the time. I will go with brewing sugar next time for certain.

[chairmanmaw]

Hey guys,

My Brewferm Diabolo has all been bottled up now and is conditioning at room temp for a week before cellaring till Christmas and beyond. I've got one of those Youngs Brewbuddy Lager kits that came with the FV I took off my brother and am going to crack straight on with this today. What's the strength of this kit if you make it up to standard 20l batch with 1kg of sugar? My can has no label on it and he had also lost the yeast which I suppose is a good thing. I'm using US-05 yeast and 500G Brewing Sugar/500G Light Spray Dried Malt to make it up but I may throw in some extra fermentables if it's ABV is 4% or something.

I think the strength is about 4.5-5% as standard. The instructions are here http://www.homebrew4u.co.uk/brewing-ins ... -lager.asp as they appear on the label. I can scan the label for you when I get home from work ( ) if you like??

[arturobandini]

No thanks mate that's more than enough help! I was just wondering really what strength it would end up at with 1kg of fermentables. 4.5% to 5.5% for a Lager is pretty acceptable by my standards I reckon. Anyone got a nice sparkling clean pint out of this one?
Cheers

[Madbrewer]

How do you judge how much priming sugar to use?

Also what would you use? Brewing sugar, house sugar, Malt extracts?

http://uk-homebrew.tripod.com/id33.html is a site written by Hornden Hillbilly who likes to chip in here and there. It's actually going to be a great read for you as well as the kit section under techniques on this site. Dave likes half a teaspoon of sugar per pint to prime an ale, a level i completely agree with. I think you can go 'up to' double this for a lager though.

[Marts]

How do you judge how much priming sugar to use?

Also what would you use? Brewing sugar, house sugar, Malt extracts?

75gm per 1L i think.

You're going to have a bomb on your hands if you do. Best insert a decimal point in there.

Kit instructions should say how much to prime for each kit - generally largers require more than ales as they want to be more carbonated. Aim for something like a level teaspoon per litre I tend to go with 120g for twenty litres of ale.

I would just use household sugar for priming. spraymalt or brewing sugar isn't going to improve body or flavour at the priming stage.

[mdex]

Went to my LHBS tonight only to find they don't actually stock when the show on the website!!!

I wanted FV's with taps and they didn't have them in the shop. Have ordered online now though.

So thats 3 FV's, 5 gallon (2 for fermenting, 1 for bottling), stirrer/paddle, hydrometer, steriliser, bottle filler, and tubing

a 5 gallon barrel with 8grm CO2 bulb system (decided I would probably barrel it aswell as bottle).

Muntons 3kg continental pilsner

Coopers 1.6kg canadian blonde

1kg of brewing sugar.

That should keep me going for a while!!

[chairmanmaw]

I sampled my first brew this evening, approx 4 hours ago. So far, so good. Im 4 litres to the good now so very happy hahahahha

Its a bit sweet to be honest but fear not. Ive launched another on th go a coopers european. all being well, its ready to rock in 4 weeks time.

Having troubl;e typing at th emonment. Cheers tho.