Andris Posted August 26, 2010 Share Posted August 26, 2010 well, last Saturday I put in a Coopers heritage lager batch mixed with canned light malt extract, as advised on the kit can. kit was to expire in few months so I was bit worried about yeast, but oh well, gave it a try. I used spring water to mix it all and it sat at 20 degrees for whole 30 hours without any noticable signs of fermentation, next morning it went ballistic and was shooting bubbles for next 48 hours at very rapid paste. So, today (5 days fermenting) I scrubbed my hands and went in with test jar to check it out, satisfied with results so far - its still fermenting, bubbling and whirling in test jar, color is great, I gave a taste from a test jar.... then another... ended up slowly drinking it all down with yeast bits, warm and all. Damn, it tastes great already and smells wonderful - no homebrew dangs that are so common here with homemade stuff, very lovely hop aroma and that hoppy bitter yet gentle aftertaste that lingers for few minutes in mouth after is just wonderful. So, if I wont screw it up, it will be fantastic batch. And, thank god my fermentation vessel is without a tap or I'm afraid, beer might experience some unknown evaporation effects :D I'm very impressed so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted August 27, 2010 Share Posted August 27, 2010 It's great to hear your story, Andris! Yes, the fresher the ingredients the better [wink] Your method of sampling increases the risk of spoilage, regardless of how scrubbed up and clean everything might be. For this reason, keep the sampling to a minimum. Once the brew looks very still, has cleared (may look darker because it no longer has material in suspension, reflecting the light) it's time to bottle.[biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andris Posted August 28, 2010 Author Share Posted August 28, 2010 oh well, the only way to keep me off sampling is to make more beer! *grin* But its true, first time is a hard not to fiddle with brew - a true excercise in patience! Btw, was wondering what are storage times for bottled beers in PET and glass bottles - storage temp may flux between 12-26 during storage time (12-16 in winter, 22-26 in summer) and, whats the "safe upper storage temp limit" for glass bottles? no direct sunlight, just tad warm in summer :-/ presuming, I did all right during the bottling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PB2 Posted August 30, 2010 Share Posted August 30, 2010 The higher the temp the quicker that aged characters develop in the beer - not to mention pressure increasing with temperature, stressing the pressure vessel. For long term storage, years rather than months, cellar conditions are best - but if you can, keep them below 30C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andris Posted September 6, 2010 Author Share Posted September 6, 2010 Alright, so reading all those posts about tasty beers made my patience very short. I bottled my very first brew - it happened to be Heritage Lager - just 3 days ago. Bulk primed it with spray malt, about 190g to whole batch, bottled - got lovely 2 crates and few white glass 0.33l "little buggers" to check color/ect and, sample. So, I chilled one of the 0.33 samplers and gave it a try. I got pleasant hiss when I popped cap, very little head, huge bubbles, and pretty decent carbonation already! Taste is already excellent, very mild, clean, not a single cidery smell (I was really worried about lager yeast fermentation in higher temps) no matter how I wanted to imagine it and surprisingly long and mild hoppy finish. Just the way I like it! And, to my surprise, it has a good kick! Oh boy, now how will I ever wait till it matures??? I think this beer is in serious trouble of premature evaporation! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andris Posted September 6, 2010 Author Share Posted September 6, 2010 The higher the temp the quicker that aged characters develop in the beer - not to mention pressure increasing with temperature, stressing the pressure vessel. For long term storage, years rather than months, cellar conditions are best - but if you can, keep them below 30C. Thanks PB, my main goal is to get enough beer made trough winter to have a good supply for next summer - I can store it in the garage, temp now there will mildly flux between 5 and 15 degrees C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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