I am new to lager making

[shall]

I an new to lager making, usually brew wine, but fancied a change, what a mistake that was, the beer barrel has bulged at the bottom, I followed the instructions, it is a gordie kit, please help, don't know what to do now, its still fermenting as its only been in the barrel for 3 days, I have losened the lid as it was trying to spit out the tap, what a pain!!!, I have had to put it in a box just for it to stand up , what do I do now please, going away on Friday for easter, so need to sort it out before then!!!.
Any help appreciated,
Shall. new to all this!!.

[shandypants5]

Hello, and welcome to the wonderfull world of beermakin...

When you say its still fermenting, did you use a brewing bucket first for about a week, and then put it in the barrel?

Or did you actually start the kit off 3 days ago IN the barrel?

If you are doing the first MAIN fermentation in a pressure barrel then you will need to leave the lid loose so that the Co2 can escape. (theres LOTS of it and it will overpressurise your barrel.)

Once the main fermentation has finished, and the beer is starting to look clearish (About 7 to 10 days,no more bubbles rising), then you can add priming sugar and seal up the barrel to let the beer develope some fizz.
(although it would be better to siphon the beer into a CLEAN pressure barrel to get it off the yeast bed)


Either way if the barrel is bulging you need to let out some pressure.

Does your barrel lid have a PRV (Pressure Release Valve) as this should relieve the pressure if it gets too high.

[shall]

Thanks Shandypants5,

I did start it straight in the barrel as the kit told me to do, it has got a pressure valve at the top, but I have had to losen the lid to release the pressure,
Is it always better to start the brew of in a plastic container first? and would that need a pressure valve?.

Shall.

[shandypants5]

Yeah, the usual method is to make the kit up in a plasic brewing bucket (this must be food grade plastic) and let it ferment for about 9 or 10 days.

The bucket just needs a loose fitting lid or cover to keep bugs out, some people just use a towel as a lid, some like me, use a bubbler airlock .

Then syphon it into a pressure barrel, add a little priming sugar and then seal the barrel.
Keep it warm for around 5 days so the "secondary" fermentation builds pressure, and then keep it cool so it clears and matures.

The longer you can leave it alone the better it will taste, but 2 weeks is a rough minimum, 2 months would be better.


Take a look at the green buttons at the top right of this screen.
The one that says KITs will give you a lot of good tips to get you started.

[shall]

Thanks Shandypants2,

I will remember to do this with my next brew, or can I transfer the lager in the barrel now to the fermention bin?, or will it spoil it?. It has been in the barrel for 4 days.

Shall.

[shandypants5]

Its up to you really, personaly I would let it finish fermenting in the barrel, and then CAREFULLY syphon it into a clean bucket, then clean out the barrel re sterilize it, and then CAREFULLY siphon it back into the barrel with the priming sugar. seal it up and let it pressurize.

That way you will be back where you should be at that point and your beer should come out just fine.

Try not to splash too much during the transfers as air is your enemy at this point and can oxidize the beer and make it taste funny.

you will need a hydrometer if you dont have one yet, so that you can tell when the beer is ready to go in the barrel, but usually it takes about 8 to 10 days.

[shall]

Thanks Shanypants2,

very kind of you to help, the instructions say nothing about priming suger, apart from the bag of ordinary sugar I added at the begining, then they say add
half a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle proir to bottleing. What does priming sugar do please? sorry to be a pain!, and is it wise to buy some and how much
should I use in a 5 gallon barrel ?.

Thanks Once again,Shall.

[nik_g]

The half a teaspoon that they tell you to add to each bottle is the priming sugar. The sugar is fermented by the remaining yeast, and since the beer is in bottles (or a pressure barrel) rather than an FV, the CO2 cannot escape and thus carbonates the beer (though it sounds like you inadvertently found this out during the primary fermentation!).

General advice seems to be 80g sugar in a 5 gallon barrel. Normal household sugar is fine. Dissolve in about 100ml boiling water, then heat in the microwave to bring back to the boil in order to sterilise. Add this to the barrel before syphoning the beer in.

sorry to be a pain!

Not at all! We're all here to learn, and everyone would much rather you ask questions and get it right than do something wrong and be put off homebrewing forever!

Hope that helps
Nik

[shall]

Thanks Nik for the advice, very kind of you.
Shall.