Wow … ok my kit said no more than a week and it’s done. SO MUCH info and care needs to be taken … was unaware. The kit laid everything out saying bottle is in 7-8 days. Well, maybe i should check the temperature then. because it may have been a bit cool for an ale yeast. Maybe i will just let it sit the full 2 weeks till Wednesday also.
Thanks!
Yeah early mistake that all of use first timers make… Going by a calendar rather by the beer.
Beer kit directions are also very minimal, vague, and often incorrect. I think it’s to not overwhelm a new Brewer, allows the minimum equipment and time, but I also feel it’s kind of sneaky. You would really have to want to become a Brewer if the kit laid out that you would need to do the things required to make great (not just good beer).
Get a hydrometer as its the only way to tell if your beer is done. If you don’t want to do that or already have another fermentation going and want to go by calendar, then expect the beer to be finished in 3-4 weeks. It would likely be done by then.
Yep. Looking back, I wish I would have paid more attention in science and chemistry in school, a lot of it has application in brewing. Of course, if my instructors would have told me that “this is important because you can use this information to brew better beer” I probably would have paid more attention, haha!
I think a lot of it has to do with what loopie_beer mentioned, that kits try to make it sound quick, simple and easy, but it’s really a process if you want good results. When my brother got me brewing equipment for Christmas two years ago, he later confessed to me that he was afraid that after I saw just how much work went into it, that I would not really brew much. I’ll be honest and say that after the first year of brewing, the novelty wore off a little and brew days became a chore because of their length since I got into partial mash and was doing things on the stove.
Now this year, I got a good outdoor burner for Christmas and invested in the gear to do all grain batches with a 15 gallon kettle, which means I can do 10 gallons (I shoot for 11 to give me 10 into the bottle, but). Turns out with the new process, I’m looking at 4-5 hour brew days even with brewing more beer. My last brew day I enjoyed a good cigar and a beer while I was attending to my brewing and it was a much more enjoyable experience. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a process to brew beer, I’ve just found ways to make it more efficient by poking around on the forums here and seeing what others had to say.
