RealBeer.co.nz

Thought I'd start a discussion where any newbs can post questions or ask for advice from more experienced brewers.

Remember to check out this discussion before posting as there is a ton of information there and chances are it'll answer your question and more.

Tags: advice, newbies, questions

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Yes Michael, I was very surprised the first time I fermented an AG wort, it shows you how unfermentable those kits and extract really are eh :o)

Wait till you do a high gravity beer, youll need a baseball bat to keep the krausen at bay ;o) haha

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Almost done cleaning (PBW) and sterilising (Star San) my bottles for a couple of batches that are ready to bottle tomorrow and later in the week. Is it ok to leave the star san in the bottles until bottling time, then just empty and use or am I better off draining now and leaving them dry and empty until bottling time?

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I reckon it'll be sweet as.

I bottled a Barleywine yesterday and I didn't even steralise or rinse the bottles at all.

Damn I'm lazy.

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I have been reading about how some people use a Jerry can for natural cooling since they do not have a chiller, and cannot use a bath tub to cool. (Partners probably :) )

I was wondering if there is any reason why one should not just let the wort cool in the fermenter, assuming it is a food grade plastic fermenter. It would seem that if the fermenter has a good seal, and an airlock installed, the chance for infection is rather low. Once the temp falls to an acceptable level the next morning, just pitch the yeast.

What do you guys reckon?

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Yup, that's pretty much what I'm doing at the minute. I haven't sorted out a chiller for my new keggle so I leave the wort to cool (with the lid on) for an hour or so then run it into a sanitised fermenter and pop an airlock on. Pitch the following morning. I've not had any problems.

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there are quite a few discussions about this on homebrewtalk, i think you have to adjust your hop additions to take into account the extra time it spends at high temps, apart from that they don't seem to experience any downsides.
i did this on my last brew as the hose to my chiller split,water was going everywhere, it was late and i couldn't be bothered trying to fix it so i went to bed, came back the next morning and it was still at about 35oC, it took forever to cool to pitching temps,which wasn't a problem for me, i'm just a bit impatient!

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I am experiencing other failures today. The three ring burner I bought only has two working rings. Too bad I didnt notice this beforehand. I am tempted to stop the whole brew and disassemble the burner to see what is going wrong.

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Did you sort this problem out mate? Sounds like there is a bit of shit in the Jet...? Maybe a bit of casting?

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If the whole ring is out maybe the valve is stuck?

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It was brand new, and yup, the valve was stuck. Eventually I got this sorted.

Do you guys know if there is a way to cut down on the amount of carbon that ends up on the pot? I have carbon all up the side, and caking the bottom. Whilst I would not normally care, I moved the pot into the house, and poured into the fermenter to cool naturally over night. (I do not have a chiller or access to a tub down stairs.) During this step, I put the pot down on the carpet. Momma ain't happy. :/

Whilst I am at it, I used Koppafloc...good stuff for clearing the beer, but seems to work best as the beer cools. Stupid me pouring the batch into the fermenter did not think about this. Hopefully everything still works out ok when I pitch the yeast in the morning.

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To minimise the carbon did you try adjusting out those washers by the valves?

If you have you tried, you'll either need to find a way to get more oxygen or less gas in your mix.

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ok...so too much carbon means the mixture is running to rich? I can probably swing something to get some air in there. Perhaps I can play with this during the week before my next batch.

Cheers DG!

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