I brewed up a batch of Caribou Slobber a couple months back with the essential starter kit (http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brew … r-kit.html) left it in primary for 3 weeks, skipped secondary, and let the bottles sit for 2 weeks (I’ll probably wait 3-4 weeks next time). It turned out pretty good, with the only problem being that some of the beers I cracked opened were VERY foamy - sometimes foam shot out of the bottle like lava when opened. Several people have told me that I didn’t stir well enough when mixing the beer and sugar after fermentation. Others said that it was the yeast I used (I used dry yeast and put it in the fridge for a few hours before topping it on the beer and closing the bucket for fermentation). What can be done to prevent this next time?
For the next brew, I believe I am going to brew either the Chinook or Deadringer IPA (recommendations? currently sipping on a Sierra Nevada Celebration and love it, so anything close to that would be ace). What’s the difference between the “all-grain kit” and the “extract kit w/ specialty grains”? I have everything that came with the starter pack, so what is included in the different kits, different options I have? I know I need new bottle caps, hops, yeast and maybe some priming sugar.
I don’t use all of the priming sugar when I’m bottling. I only use 3-3.5 oz for an American style beer. The other thing that I do when bottling is to add the priming solution before racking the beer into the bottling bucket. The flow of the beer into the bottling bucket helps mix the priming solution into the beer and all (or most) of my bottles have identical carbonation.
As for getting a kit to make SNCA, buy the Chinook IPA and two ounces of Cascade. Add a half ounce of cascade to each of the last two hop additions. It will be just a little lighter in color than SNCA, but should be in the ballpark, flavor-wise.
another thing to think about if you have a few bottles that spew, is your sanitation of the bottles.i’ve had some that volacnoed on me because of that.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone, but still the “all-grain kit” and “extract kit” confuse me. What are the differences between the two? The all-grain kits are cheaper.
+1 to the Chinook. Ive made that all grain kit (with slight variations) a few times.
There is not a huge difference between the AG kit and extract. AG allows you to tweak the recipe a bit if you like. If you have the equipment, I’d try the all grain, or make one of each and compare for yourself.
The AG takes a bit longer on brew day, but you are correct in that it is cheaper. Reuse yeast and it is cheaper still.
[quote=“dforlow”]+1 to the Chinook. Ive made that all grain kit (with slight variations) a few times.
There is not a huge difference between the AG kit and extract. AG allows you to tweak the recipe a bit if you like. If you have the equipment, I’d try the all grain, or make one of each and compare for yourself.
The AG takes a bit longer on brew day, but you are correct in that it is cheaper. Reuse yeast and it is cheaper still.[/quote]
The AG kit and extract provide different pdf instruction files on their respective pages
[quote=“klowd”][quote=“dforlow”]+1 to the Chinook. Ive made that all grain kit (with slight variations) a few times.
There is not a huge difference between the AG kit and extract. AG allows you to tweak the recipe a bit if you like. If you have the equipment, I’d try the all grain, or make one of each and compare for yourself.
The AG takes a bit longer on brew day, but you are correct in that it is cheaper. Reuse yeast and it is cheaper still.[/quote]
The AG kit and extract provide different pdf instruction files on their respective pages
But I guess I’ll assume they come with the same ingredients[/quote]
Different ingredients… extract kits come with extract syrup or powder, while all grain comes with grains. You have to make sure you are set up for all grain if you order that… sorry if that’s an obvious answer, just making sure you don’t order an all grain kit without having the wherewithal to mash/sparge/all that jazz…
Since you started off by calling yourself a noob brewer:
I would assume you do not have the equipment for an ‘all-grain’ kit. With a typical ‘starter kit’, you are probably set up to do extract brews. With the extract kit, you will get the liquid malt syrup, hops, and some specialty grains. The specialty grains just get steeped in your boil kettle for 20 minutes around 160 degrees.
If you go with the ‘all-grain’, you get grains instead of the malt syrup. It requires that you mash and sparge; which require some additional equipment. (NB sells an ‘all-grain’ setup with some rubbermaid coolers that you can look at to get an idea of what is involved) All-grain also means that you will need to be able to do a full boil of the entire batch; which most beginners don’t start with a large enough pot for that.
In regards to the volcano bottles, my guess is that it is from ‘dirty’ bottles. I’ve only seen that occasionally. Make sure that the bottles are totally clean, and then they need to be sanitized with something like a star-sanz or similar before the beer goes in them. Sanitation is near the top of the list when it comes to good brewing. Everything that touches the beer has to be cleaned and sanitized, or you risk getting infections and nasties that will do crazy things with your brew.
Well I did use tub tap water. Does buying bottled water (in gallons) make a difference?[/quote]
What do you mean by this? What exactly is your sanitation/cleaning procedure?
Ideally, what you should be doing is:
Rinsing bottles.
Cleaning bottles in PBW, Oxyclean or something similar
Rinse bottles
Soak bottles in starsan right before bottling
Empty, but don’t rinse them
What is your procedure?
It could be poorly mixed sugar in the bottling bucket. But I think sanitation could be a culprit too. Especially if they are ALL foaming. If the sugar was not mixed right, some of them should have too much carbonation - but that means others should not have any, or not enough. Foaming is often a sign of infection. Another possibility is that the beer was not done fermenting when you bottled it - but that does not seem likely if you had it primary for 3 weeks (unless temps were real low (50’s) or something).
If I were to guess in my limited experience, I’d say you over-carbed. I did this to my first two all grain batches. Both foamed like a bastage. I’ve gotten better at measuring out priming sugar, as well as using the priming calculator on here…
According to Northern Brewer tech support, the fermentation and bottle conditioning temperatures of my first batch were too low (62F and 67F, respectively), and the fermentation wasn’t finished, which caused massive amounts of foam/carbonation. I was told that 68-72F for fermenting and 70-74F for bottle conditioning was recommended for the Chinook IPA. They also recommended refrigeration for at least 24 hours before cracking one open. Any thoughts? About to begin brewing now. Took Barliman’s recommendation of adding a half oz of cascade to the last two hop additions (thanks dude!). Will post results when done.
I totall disagree with needing to be that warm for fermentation. If you are patient, you will get good results at low to mid 60’s. Sure you could warm up the bottle temps, but they should do fine at those temps if you wait long enough.
Also, when you are bottling, do you add your priming solution to the beer, or beer to the priming solution? I always pour the primer in the bottling bucket, then siphon the beer on top of it. I mixes pretty well that way. No need to stir.
+2 to this. Most ale yeasts ferment well and give their cleanest results in the low-60’s. In fact your fermentation and conditioning schedule is pretty much identical to what I do for APA’s & IPA’s.
Biggest tips for successful bottle conditioning:
Gently stir in the priming sugar mixture after you have added it and racked your beer to the bottling bucket. This will ensure that it is mixed in well so each bottle gets an even amount of sugar and the whole batch should carbonate evenly. Try to minimize splashing so you aren’t introducing too much O2.
Use a priming sugar calculator and weigh out the exact amount of priming sugar needed. The full 5 ounces of corn sugar that comes with most recipe kits is probably a bit much for an IPA at 62F. You probably only need about 4 ounces to hit the carb level you’re looking for.
The Chinook IPA is fermenting now. Turned the apartment temperature down to 62 before I leave it for a week. Since I am skipping the secondary fermentation, I was going to leave it in the primary for 3 weeks (should it be longer), and invest in a hydrometer so I can see the gravity and make sure it is consistent before I bottle.
If the only way you’re controlling your temp is by bringing your apartment down, you might run into some issues with your beer fermenting a too high of a temp.
The fermentation process generates heat and can easily bring the temp up 5-10 degrees.
For me, controlling temps was the biggest improvement I made in my beer. The absolute best solution is a chest freezer and a temp controller attached to it (though that can be spendy). Otherwise, look into a swamp cooler. A Google search will yield hundreds of great results.
Since your ambient is 62, you might be okay for a while. My ambient was around 68 in a dark closet before I knew any better
