Just Started

[Greenhorn]

How you going fellow Brewers...beer lovers. Just knocked out first batch of beer from coopers kit. 'Lawnmower Lager'. Not too bad for first go (new to brewing). Just got a few questions for anyone who'd like to help as I'm having fun doing this and want to go further.

1) trub still present in bottom of bottles probably giving it a bit of a coppery slight off taste. How do I avoid this? (All instructions/timeframes followed)

2) is a fermenting fridge important for next step?

3) thinking of doing extract Brewers course (2hrs) for advancement so is it worth graduating to a good SS fermenter and upgrade equipment? Probably wanna still keep things simple at this point.

4) please suggest good simple upgrade from present coopers starter kit?

 

Thanks heaps for reading. Happy NY from GH

[Anzacpaul]

Hi mate, you'll get loads more help from people far more experienced than myself, but I may be able to offer some insight.

 

1) How long have you had the beer bottled for? It should clear up over time, or at the least ensure you stand your bottles up in the fridge for a few days prior to drinking which should help the sediment "settle" when you pour, and just leave the last little bit.

 

2)If you want to have exact temperatures, then yes. Not sure where you're from, but if you live somewhere really cold you may require a heater, and vice versa for warm climates. Seeing as some beers ferment best really cold (10-12c) then a fridge is likely required.

 

3)I wouldn't bother with SS fermenter, almost everyone here that I've seen uses the coopers/generic fermenters, or even simple buckets/containers. if down the line you want to go all grain, you will likely need a SS urn however.

 

4)Changing from sugar/dextrose to dry malt (either liquid or powder), adding some hops either boiling a tea of them or dry hopping at the end of fermenting would be the 2 easiest ways to start upgrading.

[King Ruddager]

First, check out my

video

 

So, to your questions ...

 

1) Someone may correct me on this, but usually we refer to the layer at the bottom of the fermenter as "trub" and what's in the bottle as "sediment". That's not an answer though, I just hope you didn't stir up the trub before bottling ...

 

2) No

 

3) No

 

4) Recipe-wise, check out some recipes that use a small amount of grain and/or hops, and start using light dry male extract instead of other sugars. Other than that you probably already have everything you need to succeed.

[Otto Von Blotto]

1) You can't avoid sediment in bottle conditioned beer, it's simply the leftover yeast that has dropped out of suspension after fermenting the priming sugar to give the beer carbonation.

 

2) Yes and no. A fermenting fridge is the easiest way to achieve reasonably precise temperature control in a home setup. Your beers will improve by paying attention to this facet. However, it's not a necessity either, especially at this stage, and there are other ways to achieve temp control without a fridge. Probably better to focus on the basic processes first.

 

3) Not necessary. As stated, most of us are still using the plastic fermenters, either Coopers or otherwise. Besides, those SS fermenters are conical bottom things on a stand and would be rather difficult to fit in a fermenting fridge if you got one. Some guys on AHB use olive oil drums to ferment in, though. Similar size and shape to a conventional plastic fermenter, but made from stainless. They also come with a tap.

 

4) It really depends on the types of beers you like to drink. There are a number of kits of all different styles, but one thing I'd recommend is, use malt extract in place of brewing sugars/enhancers etc. Generally speaking, using more malt and less 'simple' sugars usually ends up with a better beer. You can use 200-300g dextrose as well to dry it out a bit if you wish and it won't negatively affect it, but any more than that may be excessive and ruin it. Depends on the beer too, though. Also take no notice of the temperature instructions - for ales the optimum temp is around 18-20 for clean flavours, though it can be raised up to 21-22 for a bit of ester influence from the yeast. Any higher than that generally results in a few unwanted flavours.

[Greenhorn]

Lads thanks so much for your time and help. Already a few good tips ie malts, etc. still a bit worried about the white creamy 'trub' in bottom of bottles even after recommended 2 weeks secondary fermentation. Think I might have to store for longer?

 

Thanks again lads and to any further advice. GH

[Otto Von Blotto]

Storing for longer will probably help to compact that sediment in the bottles. Also storing the bottles in the fridge for longer before drinking them should help with that too.

 

Another thing you can do if/when you get a brew fridge is to drop the whole fermenter down to about 0C-2C for a week before bottling. This is known as cold crashing, or crash chilling, and helps drop out more yeast in the fermenter before it makes it into the bottles. It still leaves enough yeast for carbonation but you end up with less sediment in the bottles.

[Mark D Pirate]

Just how much white sediment is in your bottles ?

 

With bottle conditioned beer it is unavoidable (that's the yeast that made the bubbles) this is why we pour bottles into clean , cold glasses (steal the headmaster ones from your local pub )

Coopers even consider it a trademark and suggest rolling the bottles before drinking but maybe the simplest method to reduce it might be having a bottling bucket or second fermenter so you can move the clean beer to it before bulk priming instead of the carbonation drops .

 

Another option is to buy kegs and force carbonate the beer . I bought a starter set (2x 5l kegs , tap and CO2 bulbs for $120 at brewcraft )

 

Having a brew fridge will let you control temp to a precise degree , you'll hear term like cold crashing which would be great for lager where you expect a very clear beer .

 

It will all come down to your budget ,space and what you want from your homebrew

 

Hope I've not confused you any more

Marko

[Greenhorn]

Anzacpaul thanks mate. I live in Sydney so temp fluctuates a bit that's why considering fridge.

Champ of the world thanks for video.

OTTO mate thanks for your time and effort into your answers... You clearly love what you're doing and I'll be looking out for you. Again, this first batch was fermenting in quite warm temps (23-35deg variable sydney weather).

Marksman thanks mate. There's not much trub in bottles but didn't know it would appear in my bottles after storage. Thanks again fellas.

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

Can you tell the rain down there to bugger off please? I'd like to see at least some of this last Test match...

 

Anyway, no worries mate. I do love brewing and learning as much as I can about it and it's nice to be able to pass that on to new brewers. We've all been there and it can be quite confusing to begin with.

 

If you can put the fermenter in a tub of water or even just a saucer large enough to hold it, and then drape wet towels around it, this will help keep it cooler while you don't have a fridge for the purpose.

[Beerlust]

Hi Greenhorn & welcome to the forum.

 

Already some great advice given by my brewing comrades & I have very little to add.

 

Using a high flocculation yeast in your brewing will help compact sediment to some degree that can minimize the amount of trub transferred when bottling as well as helping compact the trub that was transferred into the bottle hold in place once the beer bottles are refrigerated. This all adds up to being able to pour more beer from the bottle into a glass before the trub at the bottom begins to break away into the pour.

1) trub still present in bottom of bottles probably giving it a bit of a coppery slight off taste. How do I avoid this? (All instructions/timeframes followed)

1) You can't avoid sediment in bottle conditioned beer' date=' it's simply the leftover yeast that has dropped out of suspension after fermenting the priming sugar to give the beer carbonation.[/quote']

However, if you are a lazy buggar & like to drink directly from the bottle without worrying about sediment then as Kelsey stated, you can't avoid sediment in bottle conditioned beer, but if it bothers you that much, you can separate it for drinking from the bottle.

 

Sed-Ex Brewing: BRODIE Home Brew Sediment Extractor

 

 

I hope that helps.

 

Lusty.

[Greenhorn]

Hey lads. Hope Ye have all been well. Another quick question....... Just bought a fermenting fridge (all fridge fisher Paykel 270L) and also a keg King mk II temp control unit. Question is:

 

What do I need to do to thermostat in fridge itself? Does the temp control unit over ride the fridge thermostat if I set perimeters to sa 18-21deg?

[ben 10]

 

What do I need to do to thermostat in fridge itself? Does the temp control unit over ride the fridge thermostat if I set perimeters to sa 18-21deg?

 

Nothing.

As the fridge power plugs into the Keg King temp controller that is the new thermostat.

[Otto Von Blotto]

What Ben said.

 

To add to that, they act like a computerised version of you standing at the wall turning the power on and off to maintain temps, not by overriding anything in the fridge itself.

 

I also find a more accurate way to keep a stable temp is to tape the probe to the side of the FV underneath some packing foam or similar, and set the temperature difference on the controller to the lowest it can go. On mine that difference is 0.3C, but I don't know what the KK ones are.