Tweet
Good morning ladies and gents. As per my intro, I recently came about a full brewing kit (one of those starter kits, like this one). It's not ideal, I agree, but for me as a starter I think it's a great way to get used to the brewing process, including the attention to detail (like cleaning and sanitizing). I aim to go full grain in the near future. Anyway, back to topic.
I got a kit. In this kit were two "batches" of beer, in the form of extract tins and malt extract (the dextrose "beer enhancer" like they're called). The two variants are both from Mangrove Jack's, the first being their Bavarian Wheat tin and matching malt extract bag (1kg), and the other being their Munich Lager and matching extract bag (1kg). I checked the dates on these kits, and found that the Bavarian Wheat one is the oldest. The malt extract bag expired in November 2017, and the extract tin had an expiry date on it as January 2016 (or sometime around there, not 100% sure anymore). The yeast had no date on it, but I suspect it has "expired" a long time ago as well.
So I did some reading online on plenty of places, and since it is expired and I got it for free, the general consensus was "go for it". So I went for it. My process was as following:
1. Cleaned and sterilized the fermentation vessel, PROPERLY. It was very dusty and dirty all over (since it's been lying in a cupboard for so many years), so I cleaned it, inside and out, and then sanitized it with the no-rinse sanitizer. Tapped off some of the sanitizer and also cleaned the brewing spoon, a new cloth and the hydrometer (and tube).
2. Took the fermenter to the local water shop (Simply Water) and had them fill it to the 23l mark. This water is purified, with reverse osmosis and then ozonated, so it's pretty much free of funky stuff. When I got home, I tapped off 5l of that water (to use), and stuck the fermenter in the deep freezer for a couple of hours to get the water temp down.
3. After waiting a bit, I placed the tin in a pot of boiling water. In another pot, I placed some of the tapped off clean water (boiling), and added the malt extract. I had to heat it up and keep it very hot (but not boiling) for about 20 minutes, since the dextrose clumped together and I was basically sitting with a 1kg chunk of sugar that I had to dissolve.
4. When the extract was dissolved, I opened the extract tin. I might add, I had to open it with my damn Leatherman because the tin is too big to go into our electric tin opener (and we don't have a manual one). Poured in the extract from the tin, poured some hot water into the tin to get out all the extract and mixed it all in.
5. When it was properly mixed together, I took the pot off the stove and placed it in an ice bath in a basin. I left it in there for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure it cools down evenly.
6. When it was cool enough to touch, I took the fermenter out of the deep freezer, dumped in the extract mix and mixed it properly. I stuck the thermometer to the side of the fermenter, topped up to the 23l mark with more cold water and waited for a few minutes for it to stabilize. 22°C. Good enough.
7. I pitched the yeast, and stirred vigorously to introduce some oxygen into the mix. Screwed the lid on the fermenter and tried to fit the air lock - nope. Won't fit. Great.
Dug up my mead-making air lock, found it's slightly smaller than the included air lock from the kit. Sterlized and test-fitted it. Perfect fit. Poured sanitizing solution in the air lock and put it aside. Through the tap I tapped off half the test tube of wort. Dumped in the hydrometer and got a reading dead on 1.040. Checked the instructions and they said to add 0.014 for every 2°C the wort's temp is over 20°C. Got my Original Gravity - 1.054.
Took the fermenter, stuck it in the back of a cool kitchen cabinet (only one I could find that would fit the fermenter), placed the damp cloth over it and packed the cabinet with ice. 12 hours later the bubbling started, and a nice krausen was on the top a day later, with constant bubbling through the air lock. Temps are steady at 22°C, and I replace the ice blocks in the cabinet 3 times a day. Today marks Day 4 for the fermentation (will be 96 hours at 15:30 today).
In the mean time, I have been looking at storage options. I obviously would ideally want to keg, but kegging equipment is hellishly expensive. I don't have the world's most space in fridges/freezes either, so if I do keg, it'll probably be those 5l party kegs, at most. Anyway, since I do have a capper and a bag of caps, I decided to bottle the first batch. Yesterday my box of bottles from BrewCraft arrived (my brother picked up for me in Centurion), so I have 48 x 440ml amber bottles now. Should be enough for initial bottling, since I do have a few Grolsch flip-tops at home as well I'll use as well.
Now, this marks my progress so far. I have very little bad smells coming off the fermenter, with the smells that do come off reminding me a lot of just plain fermenting beer. Doesn't smell bad, just like it should, I guess. I don't mind the smell at all, so it can't be bad.
On to questions, though, if I may?
1. What are the chances that this brew would be "off"? I tasted the tin's contents before doing anything, and it tasted sickly sweet, almost like molasses, with a bite of bitter in the finish. Not bad at all, I guess like concentrated beer?
2. The instructions say the following: When air lock activity dies down, take hydrometer readings. When it's stable for two days, pitch the finings, wait another day and bottle. Now, I read up on other forums as well as bit and one oke pointed me to an article that says I should rather wait with the finings, and that I should leave the beer on the yeast for another week. Apparently, the article claims this forces the yeast to "smooth out" some of the flavours in the beer. It allows the yeast to consume some of it's own (negative) by-products it dumped in the beer, and will result in a better beer. Now, while I would like a better beer, I'm an impatient man (this is learned with the mead making thing), and I would really like to bottle ASAP (specially since it's my first brew). Suggestions?
EDIT: Holy crap, wall of text! My apologies, didn't know it would be this big... O.o
I got a kit. In this kit were two "batches" of beer, in the form of extract tins and malt extract (the dextrose "beer enhancer" like they're called). The two variants are both from Mangrove Jack's, the first being their Bavarian Wheat tin and matching malt extract bag (1kg), and the other being their Munich Lager and matching extract bag (1kg). I checked the dates on these kits, and found that the Bavarian Wheat one is the oldest. The malt extract bag expired in November 2017, and the extract tin had an expiry date on it as January 2016 (or sometime around there, not 100% sure anymore). The yeast had no date on it, but I suspect it has "expired" a long time ago as well.
So I did some reading online on plenty of places, and since it is expired and I got it for free, the general consensus was "go for it". So I went for it. My process was as following:
1. Cleaned and sterilized the fermentation vessel, PROPERLY. It was very dusty and dirty all over (since it's been lying in a cupboard for so many years), so I cleaned it, inside and out, and then sanitized it with the no-rinse sanitizer. Tapped off some of the sanitizer and also cleaned the brewing spoon, a new cloth and the hydrometer (and tube).
2. Took the fermenter to the local water shop (Simply Water) and had them fill it to the 23l mark. This water is purified, with reverse osmosis and then ozonated, so it's pretty much free of funky stuff. When I got home, I tapped off 5l of that water (to use), and stuck the fermenter in the deep freezer for a couple of hours to get the water temp down.
3. After waiting a bit, I placed the tin in a pot of boiling water. In another pot, I placed some of the tapped off clean water (boiling), and added the malt extract. I had to heat it up and keep it very hot (but not boiling) for about 20 minutes, since the dextrose clumped together and I was basically sitting with a 1kg chunk of sugar that I had to dissolve.
4. When the extract was dissolved, I opened the extract tin. I might add, I had to open it with my damn Leatherman because the tin is too big to go into our electric tin opener (and we don't have a manual one). Poured in the extract from the tin, poured some hot water into the tin to get out all the extract and mixed it all in.
5. When it was properly mixed together, I took the pot off the stove and placed it in an ice bath in a basin. I left it in there for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure it cools down evenly.
6. When it was cool enough to touch, I took the fermenter out of the deep freezer, dumped in the extract mix and mixed it properly. I stuck the thermometer to the side of the fermenter, topped up to the 23l mark with more cold water and waited for a few minutes for it to stabilize. 22°C. Good enough.
7. I pitched the yeast, and stirred vigorously to introduce some oxygen into the mix. Screwed the lid on the fermenter and tried to fit the air lock - nope. Won't fit. Great.
Dug up my mead-making air lock, found it's slightly smaller than the included air lock from the kit. Sterlized and test-fitted it. Perfect fit. Poured sanitizing solution in the air lock and put it aside. Through the tap I tapped off half the test tube of wort. Dumped in the hydrometer and got a reading dead on 1.040. Checked the instructions and they said to add 0.014 for every 2°C the wort's temp is over 20°C. Got my Original Gravity - 1.054.
Took the fermenter, stuck it in the back of a cool kitchen cabinet (only one I could find that would fit the fermenter), placed the damp cloth over it and packed the cabinet with ice. 12 hours later the bubbling started, and a nice krausen was on the top a day later, with constant bubbling through the air lock. Temps are steady at 22°C, and I replace the ice blocks in the cabinet 3 times a day. Today marks Day 4 for the fermentation (will be 96 hours at 15:30 today).
In the mean time, I have been looking at storage options. I obviously would ideally want to keg, but kegging equipment is hellishly expensive. I don't have the world's most space in fridges/freezes either, so if I do keg, it'll probably be those 5l party kegs, at most. Anyway, since I do have a capper and a bag of caps, I decided to bottle the first batch. Yesterday my box of bottles from BrewCraft arrived (my brother picked up for me in Centurion), so I have 48 x 440ml amber bottles now. Should be enough for initial bottling, since I do have a few Grolsch flip-tops at home as well I'll use as well.
Now, this marks my progress so far. I have very little bad smells coming off the fermenter, with the smells that do come off reminding me a lot of just plain fermenting beer. Doesn't smell bad, just like it should, I guess. I don't mind the smell at all, so it can't be bad.
On to questions, though, if I may?
1. What are the chances that this brew would be "off"? I tasted the tin's contents before doing anything, and it tasted sickly sweet, almost like molasses, with a bite of bitter in the finish. Not bad at all, I guess like concentrated beer?
2. The instructions say the following: When air lock activity dies down, take hydrometer readings. When it's stable for two days, pitch the finings, wait another day and bottle. Now, I read up on other forums as well as bit and one oke pointed me to an article that says I should rather wait with the finings, and that I should leave the beer on the yeast for another week. Apparently, the article claims this forces the yeast to "smooth out" some of the flavours in the beer. It allows the yeast to consume some of it's own (negative) by-products it dumped in the beer, and will result in a better beer. Now, while I would like a better beer, I'm an impatient man (this is learned with the mead making thing), and I would really like to bottle ASAP (specially since it's my first brew). Suggestions?
EDIT: Holy crap, wall of text! My apologies, didn't know it would be this big... O.o
I've actually gave some feedback over at the MyBB forum. Im sure this beer will turn out perfect even if expired products were used.
Save a few to drink every week for 2 months or so to see how the beer improves with time. 
I will answer the 2 questsion.
In my experience I would recommend leaving your beer to ferment for 2 weeks. All beers (less than 1.100 in my experience) will be finished by then. The obvious part is that you have had to see some form of fermentation taking place! I do not take any readings until bottle/kegging day. I take a reading of the wort before I start, then I confirm it has fermented out.
Enough complaining from the old people
Comment