Home Brew Kits

[Wormius]

Umm. Who was it here that was using a juicer for the crabapples?

https://globalnews.ca/video/4679363/...rabapple-cider

[Nufy]

Bump...

I bought a Brewers best kit from Amazon and am getting ready to start...

How would one get the wort from the pot into a glass carboy for the fermenting process ?

Large funnel ? Or go get a fermenting bucket instead.

Thoughts ?

[Fuzz]

Absolutely get a fermenting pail with an air lock(primary fermenter). Otherwise you know those science fair volcanoes and the mess they make? Ya.

You may also want to get a heat belt, depending on the temp of your brew room. Yo do have a separate brew room, right?(jk, mine is the corner of the kitchen).

[agulati]

Ended up going with a brew kit for the first round. Picked up a blonde ale wort from Grapes to Glass. Picked up their base brewing setup (Primary bucket, carboy, siphon, hydrometer, thermometer cleaning supplies etc).

Been fun so far. Currently the beer is bottled and on the clock. We tried the beer prior to bottling, and it is definitely very promising.
We also picked up an oatmeal stout wort which we are going to use for our second beer.

Excited to move to the next stage which would include picking up an actual kit and making our wort from it. Eventually would love to start it from grain etc, explore kegging the beer.

Definitely a fun hobby.

[agulati]

Originally Posted by Nufy

Bump...

I bought a Brewers best kit from Amazon and am getting ready to start...

How would one get the wort from the pot into a glass carboy for the fermenting process ?

Large funnel ? Or go get a fermenting bucket instead.

Thoughts ?

We ended up doing fermentation in two steps. Primary in the bucket/pail. After measuring the density and seeing it was steady for two days, using a siphon we moved it to the carboy.

[Nufy]

I have an air lock for the glass carboy...

Logistically its a problem trying to pour a pot of hot wort into a 1.5 inch opening...

I'll look into getting a bucket.

I'm gonna wrap it in old sleeping bags and keep in my TV room in the basement. I'm the only one who uses it and its close to where my WFH desk is.


Thanks.

[Canadianman]

Originally Posted by Nufy

I have an air lock for the glass carboy...

Logistically its a problem trying to pour a pot of hot wort into a 1.5 inch opening...

I'll look into getting a bucket.

I'm gonna wrap it in old sleeping bags and keep in my TV room in the basement. I'm the only one who uses it and its close to where my WFH desk is.


Thanks.

Don't pour hot wort into a glass container. It will explode!!

[Tron_fdc]

Originally Posted by agulati

Ended up going with a brew kit for the first round. Picked up a blonde ale wort from Grapes to Glass. Picked up their base brewing setup (Primary bucket, carboy, siphon, hydrometer, thermometer cleaning supplies etc).

Been fun so far. Currently the beer is bottled and on the clock. We tried the beer prior to bottling, and it is definitely very promising.
We also picked up an oatmeal stout wort which we are going to use for our second beer.

Excited to move to the next stage which would include picking up an actual kit and making our wort from it. Eventually would love to start it from grain etc, explore kegging the beer.

Definitely a fun hobby.

It's been a while since I did it, but if you are using the Brewhouse home brew wort kits, FOR SURE toss that garbage yeast in the trash and get a better one. The Vineyard used to have them all in a fridge beside the kits, along with all kinds of stuff for dry hopping, or even steeping different additives to create a better wort.

Hack the kit using one of these

http://www.thevineyard.ca/making-beer?articleid=90

I made some really good beer using that method before going all grain.

[agulati]

We got festa brew from Grapes to Glass, but that's a great tip. Will look into the yeast as well as changing things up in the wort for our next batch.

[McG]

Originally Posted by agulati

We got festa brew from Grapes to Glass, but that's a great tip. Will look into the yeast as well as changing things up in the wort for our next batch.

You are going to enjoy the double oatmeal stout. It’s very forgiving! I have one of them about to move to secondary myself.

I’ve been doing a few ciders as well as beer. Brewers best on Amazon is the easiest way to get kits in!

[Boreal]

Ontario beer kegs is another wonderful option for ordering kits. I’ve used it several times.

https://www.ontariobeerkegs.com/5_Ga...Kits_s/590.htm

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by McG

You are going to enjoy the double oatmeal stout. It’s very forgiving! I have one of them about to move to secondary myself.

I’ve been doing a few ciders as well as beer. Brewers best on Amazon is the easiest way to get kits in!

Why do you secondary? There's no reason to, and its just a waste of time I go primary to keg, and leave the time factor dependent on the yeast and style, or if I've pressure fermented or not (ie: Kolsch will sit for 4 wks min in primary, kveik IPA will sit 5 days in primary, Porter 4 wks, lager dependant on my cold crash schedule). I even had a speed IPA that I dumped 1L of yeast and hop trub from the bottom, and nothing more! I dispensed that whole amount from that same vessel because I was out of keg space, and it was just as good from glass 1 to the end.

The idea of sitting on the yeast causing a problem is completely unfounded until you get to macro volumes where pressure causes yeast lysis. At the homebrew volumes, they just have a nappy poo and don't cause any issues, off flavors, or anything to your beer. I promise. In fact a little extra time sometimes lets them take care of some of their unfinished business, and also allows the yeast cake time to develop so its less likely to cloud your beer when you move it!

Also, and MOST importantly, your beer is sensitive to oxygen, and the way to quality beer is an oxygen free process (pressure fermenting, closed transfers, C02 flushing, etc). Transferring to a secondary does nothing except oxidize your beer making it taste bad.

Stop secondarying!

[McG]

Originally Posted by Aleks

Why do you secondary? There's no reason to, and its just a waste of time I go primary to keg, and leave the time factor dependent on the yeast and style, or if I've pressure fermented or not (ie: Kolsch will sit for 4 wks min in primary, kveik IPA will sit 5 days in primary, Porter 4 wks, lager dependant on my cold crash schedule). I even had a speed IPA that I dumped 1L of yeast and hop trub from the bottom, and nothing more! I dispensed that whole amount from that same vessel because I was out of keg space, and it was just as good from glass 1 to the end.

The idea of sitting on the yeast causing a problem is completely unfounded until you get to macro volumes where pressure causes yeast lysis. At the homebrew volumes, they just have a nappy poo and don't cause any issues, off flavors, or anything to your beer. I promise. In fact a little extra time sometimes lets them take care of some of their unfinished business, and also allows the yeast cake time to develop so its less likely to cloud your beer when you move it!

Also, and MOST importantly, your beer is sensitive to oxygen, and the way to quality beer is an oxygen free process (pressure fermenting, closed transfers, C02 flushing, etc). Transferring to a secondary does nothing except oxidize your beer making it taste bad.

Stop secondarying!

This is definitely something that I’ve been considering for some time. I tend to have quite a number of beer and cider sitting in carboys for awhile to do exactly what you describe. Unfortunately my primary fermentation lids don’t have airlocks on them and the kreizen explodes out of the carboys if I do primary beer in them. I do the ciders directly in the carboys so they are essentially in the primary as you describe.

I see that I can drill the solid lids and use a grommet and airlock. Maybe I will try that one one of my primary lids.

[Fuzz]

I drilled my plastic lid and stuck an airlock it. Works fine.

[Aleks]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

I drilled my plastic lid and stuck an airlock it. Works fine.

I was going to say the same. Don't worry about a bunch, just drill the hole for the tail of the airlock if you're still using pails. The airlock is imperfect anyhow, as is the lid for the pail. Over the years I've gone through a number of different things to ferment in, and if you're still wanting to just do simple fermenting look at the fermonster (the vineyard carries them locally, but Amazon is an option too). They're PET, they have a nice big kid opening for cleaning, a spigot for draining which is much nicer than syphoning. I keep a couple for doing brews I don't want to pressure ferment.

I've also designed and 3d printed a blowoff tube adapter for the lid so you don't have to use an airlock specifically for the fermonster (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3996336)

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[agulati]

Running into limited bottles. Did you guys buy yours, or just repurpose?

We had enough bottles for the first batch, but waiting for more bottles to become available to start the second one.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by agulati

Running into limited bottles. Did you guys buy yours, or just repurpose?

We had enough bottles for the first batch, but waiting for more bottles to become available to start the second one.

I have a friend who was happy enough to drink Grolsch for a few months, and I return him some full ones from every batch for awhile. Maybe you have some heavy drinknig friends you could recruit?

[Aleks]

I have a ton of grolsch bottles still I'm not using. Some have beer in them still but its super old. I'd sell them off if you're looking

[Nufy]

I'm slowly collecting those grolsch style bottles.

I use corona ones until I complete my collection.

[northcrunk]

Clear and green glass is the worst choice for bottling beer unless you like skunky beer. Get some flip top weiss beer bottles or buy some from the wine warehouse. $20 for 24 500ml or 12 1L PET bottles. They have glass too but after having a couple kveik bottle bombs I only use swing tops or PET plastic for homebrewing.