Hi, wanted to introduce myself and say that I just did my first batch this am, White House Honey Ale I got as a Christmas present - the one gallon kit.
I followed all the instructions after watching the DVD twice so I hope I did ok as far as the mechanics of brewing.
Couple of ques/observations tho’ -
I didn’t get a whole gallon, maybe some of the water boiled off during the cooking process? Also, despite watching, reading about, and then trying to be careful - I think I sucked up all the yuck at the bottom of the pot into the gallon jug.
There appears to be a pretty thick layer of stuff at the bottom of the jug. I guess I’ll have to be careful when I bottle to not suck this up again into the bottles.
Right now it’s just kind of sitting on the counter doing nothing - should it be bubbling or something?
Sorry if this is the wrong place to post - I looked on the FAQs and around the board before I registered.
I’m not sure what the instructions say, but normally you’d start with more water than you need to account for boil off so you’d end with 1 gallon.
No worries about sucking all the stuff from the kettle to the jug . As you said, be careful when you bottle to leave as much behind. It’s not the end of your beer if you collect some, but the less you get, the clearer your beer will be.
You will have some lag time before fermentation starts. It could be 8 hours, it could be 24. Yeast needs to ferment at particular temps, so try and keep your beer in the right range, and keep it constant.
Welcome to brewing! Sounds like you did everything right. Fermentation should be pretty active within 24 hours. That airlock will be bubbling away in no time.
Try to keep your fermentation temps well below 70* if possible. You will get better beer. The instructions are not usually very accurate with regards to fermentation temps
Thanks everyone, it’s bubbling away now. Do I have to worry about it bubbling over? Should I put a bucket or something underneath so I don’t have a big mess?
Might not hurt, but you probably dont have anything to worry about. Search Blow Off on this forum and read about what can cause it, how to avoid it, etc… But you’ll probably be ok if you keep it in a cool place.
Wow, reading about the blow off is kind of scary… :shock:
I’ll keep an eye on it - is it going to bubble like this for the next week or so? I think I’ll put it on a big plastic garbage bag in case the top explodes off. :?
Most likely active fermentation will be 3-5 days. The foam will start to drop then, but stuff will still be happening. I leave my beers for 3 weeks before packaging. it appears that’s fairly common. Beer is best when not rushed!
[quote=“BrewmasterFlash”]Wow, reading about the blow off is kind of scary… :shock:
I’ll keep an eye on it - is it going to bubble like this for the next week or so? I think I’ll put it on a big plastic garbage bag in case the top explodes off. :? [/quote]
If it hasn’t exploded yet, it probably won’t. +1 to waiting three or four weeks before bottling. You may not be able see active fermentation, but the yeast is working hard still.
Something I’ll never forget after my first batch was bottled - I opened a bottle and it was flat and didn’t taste very good. I was pretty frustrated. But, after waiting a couple more weeks, the beer matured in the bottled, carbed up nicely and was pretty delicious.
Thanks everyone!! We made it thru the night and it’s stopped bubbling now, all the foam has gone down, and it looks like a jug of thin mud…lol
From the posts here it sounds like need to leave it for the next 2-3 weeks and then bottle and leave for another 2 weeks. Wow, good thing there is a store nearby so I can buy some beer while I wait… :mrgreen:
[quote=“BrewmasterFlash”]Thanks everyone!! We made it thru the night and it’s stopped bubbling now, all the foam has gone down, and it looks like a jug of thin mud…lol
From the posts here it sounds like need to leave it for the next 2-3 weeks and then bottle and leave for another 2 weeks. Wow, good thing there is a store nearby so I can buy some beer while I wait… :mrgreen: [/quote]
Yep. Buy beer, but more importantly brew more. It will get less difficult to wait if you always have something carbonating up and a batch fermenting. So brew the day before or after you bottle this batch, and you’ll be glad you did.
[quote=“BrewmasterFlash”]Thanks everyone!! We made it thru the night and it’s stopped bubbling now, all the foam has gone down, and it looks like a jug of thin mud…lol
From the posts here it sounds like need to leave it for the next 2-3 weeks and then bottle and leave for another 2 weeks. Wow, good thing there is a store nearby so I can buy some beer while I wait… :mrgreen: [/quote]
It’ “might” be ready after 2 weeks in the bottle. But it might take 3-4 weeks before carbonation is done.
As I mentioned in another post: 1 gallon is ~10 bottles. To much work for so little reward. Look to getting some 7g pails to do a full 5 gallon batch in. You can always make 3 gallons in the same equipment if you don’t want 5 gallons of a particular beer around.
So far so good I guess - it’s just sitting there with the occasional bubble. Since the gallon only yields about 10 bottles maybe I should just drink it straight from the jug and skip the bottling process … lol
[quote=“BrewmasterFlash”]Since the gallon only yields about 10 bottles maybe I should just drink it straight from the jug and skip the bottling process … lol[/quote]I like the way you think!
Hi everyone, thanks so much for the advice and I have been lurking here reading all the posts I can about this process however, here’s another newbie question.
I’m coming up on 2 weeks in the carboy - other than the first night it hasn’t been that active. I have a thick layer of yeast on the bottom and the liquid itself looks quite muddy and yucky.
Should I leave it in the carboy for another 2 weeks and then bottle and leave for another 2 weeks (total of 4 more weeks) or should I go ahead and bottle and then leave that for 4 weeks?
[quote=“BrewmasterFlash”]Hi everyone, thanks so much for the advice and I have been lurking here reading all the posts I can about this process however, here’s another newbie question.
I’m coming up on 2 weeks in the carboy - other than the first night it hasn’t been that active. I have a thick layer of yeast on the bottom and the liquid itself looks quite muddy and yucky.
Should I leave it in the carboy for another 2 weeks and then bottle and leave for another 2 weeks (total of 4 more weeks) or should I go ahead and bottle and then leave that for 4 weeks?
How would one know if the beer went bad? :? [/quote]
Two weeks is probably enough time. Being that it’s a gallon, you probably aren’t going to want to take a gravity reading, so another week wouldn’t hurt.
If the temperature was on the warm side, you can see fermentation in a day.
Beer will taste and smell sour if it has an infection; sort of like vinegar. Since it’s your first batch, be careful of dumping it too early. New beer isn’t always great tasting at 2 weeks.
If I were you, I’d bottle in another week, let them carbonate for 2-3 weeks and see how they turn out.
Good luck!
:cheers:
Well, tomorrow is 4 weeks since I brewed and it’s been in the gallon jug the whole time. I am planning on bottling this weekend. Then I leave it for another 2 weeks, is that right? I’m going to enlist some help and try not to suck up the stuff at the bottom of the jug.
