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First brew: Brewing a severely "expired" kit

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  • #31
    +1 always bottled ice cold beer, no problems.
    The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

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    • #32
      Originally posted by Harhm View Post
      Sorry but I dont agree, you can bottle it as cold as you like. I have done it many times and never had a bottle bomb. If there is a odd chance that it would happen what would cause a bottle to explode due to bottling below 5C vs. Bottling at 20C ?
      Then I stand corrected. I read somewhere, though cannot find where, that beer ha to be brought back to room temp before bottling...

      Thanks for the correction. I will try it myself next time.
      Slainte Mhaith!!

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      • #33
        Heh. Well I did let it warm up, but it was unintentional. Life got in the way a bit so I only bottled on Saturday afternoon, but it went well, I think. I placed a bucket under the bottle filler and went at it. Did 12 at a time. All bottles where clean (being brand new), so I just rinsed them and sprayed them inside and out with no-rinse sanitizer. Caps were dumped in the sanitizer anyway, and I also sanitized the tap (sprayed the sanitizer all over and in it) as well as the bottle filler. Then I went at it - sanitized a few beer crates, sanitized 12 bottles, place them upside down in the crate to let the sanitizer run out. Then I sanitized the next 12 so long. When done, I turned the sanitized bottles upright in another crate, added the carbonation drops and filled them one by one, setting them aside. When 12 was done, I capped them, packed them in crates and set them in the pantry. It's cool (but not cold) and dark - perfect for the carbonation. Within 3 hours I could see the yeast getting to work - it's amazing! Tiny bubbles are starting to rise to the top, slowly, and a tiny collection of yeast seems to be collecting right in the middle of every bottle now. I love it!

        Overall I got out 51 bottles. Of these, 45 are normal, brown, 440ml crown cap bottles and the other 6 are swing top Grolsch bottles. The Grolsch bottles will be my 'test' bottles to test carbonation in a week's time.


        My next batch, another expired one, will be started this week. I'll track it much better this time, and also post some more pictures. My gear is already cleaned and the fermenter is standing with sanitizer in it - will buy water tomorrow, I hope


        PS: The wait on carbonation isn't nearly as bad as the fermentation/conditioning wait...

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        • #34
          Sounds like everything went as planned.
          Get yourself some tubing to connect between the tap and wand .... that way you can take the wand to the bottles and fill then right inside the crate instead of holding a bottle up at the tap ... much easier



          Since the next batch is also a kit pre-hopped can, this time try to only top up the fermenter to 20-21 liters ....

          Yea, you get about 3L less beer, but you get a tastier (less watered down) beer (more flavour) ... I used to make all my kit beers up to 20L only
          The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

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          • #35
            First brew: Brewing a severely "expired" kit

            What beer is the next one?
            Get some style specific yeast!
            This will be your biggest improvement.

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            • #36
              My next beer is also a kit, obviously, as mentioned, and it's the Mangrove Jack's Munich Lager can with a bag of matching DME. I wouldn't mind using a style-specific yeast, but since this one is a lager, won't that take a lot of time to ferment at low temps (around 10°C)? I don't have the facilities to ferment at those temps yet (unless I hook up some sort of controller to the deep freezer, which my wife won't be happy with, IMO), so I won't be able to use a specific lager-style yeast. I will probably get a better yeast than the under cap type, since I suspect it's going to suck, even though the yeast under the cap of this current brew turned out just fine.

              Anyway, as mentioned, this weekend I bottled:


              A breakfast-type kitchen counter works like a charm, to be honest. Bottled in sets of 12, since the crates I have take 12 bottles at a time:



              First 12 done, second 12 ready to go for carbonation drops and so on after santizing:



              And the first 36. Didn't take a snap when done, unfortunately, but I got out 51 bottles in total - 45 x 440ml crown caps and 6 x 450ml Grolsch swing-tops:



              Copied from Gotmead.com - Read More at:http://www.gotmead.com/forum/showthr...due-date/page2

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              • #37
                Originally posted by Toxxyc View Post
                I figured the cold crashing would clear it better...did I make a boo-boo here? :')
                Possibly. But one thing you will learn is that beer is very forgiving.

                Originally posted by Toxxyc View Post
                If I did, how will I get the beer carbonated when bottling?
                Just follow your process as usual. Chances are good that your beer will still carbonate, it might just take a bit longer as the few cells that are awake have to do all the work.

                Originally posted by Toxxyc View Post
                I read somewhere that it's good to let it get as cold as possible as quickly as possible, to drop out most of the stuff in the beer.
                That is correct, but the part where that is true is the chilling part after boiling. You want to cool as quickly as possible to let the proteins coagulate and drop out and it stops the hops from isomerizing, so that your flavour and aroma additions do not become bittering additions.

                Originally posted by Toxxyc View Post
                Adding the carbonation drops into the bottles will still be fine with the yeast in suspension, and it should carbonate - no? O.o
                Yes. See above. If the yeast have managed to go completely dormant, then you can make a batch of yeast and drop a small amount into each bottle. Sierra Nevada does this with their beers.

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                • #38
                  Originally posted by AtronSeige View Post
                  Possibly. But one thing you will learn is that beer is very forgiving.

                  Just follow your process as usual. Chances are good that your beer will still carbonate, it might just take a bit longer as the few cells that are awake have to do all the work.

                  That is correct, but the part where that is true is the chilling part after boiling. You want to cool as quickly as possible to let the proteins coagulate and drop out and it stops the hops from isomerizing, so that your flavour and aroma additions do not become bittering additions.

                  Yes. See above. If the yeast have managed to go completely dormant, then you can make a batch of yeast and drop a small amount into each bottle. Sierra Nevada does this with their beers.

                  Thanks for this. I'm VERY cautious when it comes to brewing now, since I managed to VERY easily "mess up" a batch of mead recently. That stuff is seriously easy to get nasty. Anyway, I bottled as normal, and without adding any yeasties or anything, and I can positively announce that the beer is actively carbonating as we speak. While VERY little, there is some sediment in all the bottles I've managed to pick out of the crates yesterday, after a day of waiting. Tipping the bottles over and giving them a little mixing inside sees tiny "flakes" in all of them, which seems to collect at the top of the bottles before drifting down. Looks identical to the yeast that flurries about the brew when primary fermentation is happening, so something is going like it should.

                  I found one bottle though that I think I found where I messed up a bit (A BIT). When I cleaned the bottles, I placed a clean towel (as can be seen in my pics) under the crates, to stop the drips from reaching the clean floor (y'know, wife). I saw what looks like a piece of fiber in one of my bottles. It's floating near the top, about 10mm long, and actually looks like a fiber from the towel. I guess that fiber must have gotten in the bottle when they were standing upside-down in the crate on the towel. Doesn't bother me though, I'll just drink that one myself.

                  Now, question. When should I start opening the beers to check if the carbonation is right? One week from now, one a day or so, or can I check when the yeast activity stops (should be 4~5 days from now, at the pace this yeast works)?

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                  • #39
                    Originally posted by Toxxyc View Post
                    Now, question. When should I start opening the beers to check if the carbonation is right? One week from now, one a day or so, or can I check when the yeast activity stops (should be 4~5 days from now, at the pace this yeast works)?
                    Carbonation is usually recommended for 2 weeks at room temp.

                    What you can do, after 1 week is to place one bottle in the fridge, let it cool and then try it. If it is carbonated to your liking then you can place the others in the fridge as well.

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                    • #40
                      Originally posted by AtronSeige View Post
                      Carbonation is usually recommended for 2 weeks at room temp.

                      What you can do, after 1 week is to place one bottle in the fridge, let it cool and then try it. If it is carbonated to your liking then you can place the others in the fridge as well.
                      Heh, don't have the space to store all those beers in the fridge, so they'll all go to max carbonation anyway :P Luckily it's a wheat beer, and apparently that needs a lot of carbonation? I'm not too worried any way. It's going like it should - no bottles exploded yet and the yeasties are nice and active in the bottles. I noticed this morning that it's starting to slow down, in an identical fashion to the primary fermentation (slowing down about ~60 hours in). If the primary was anything to go by, they should be done with fermenting the carbonation drops by Thursday, so they can go in the fridge on Friday morning. Will hand out a few to mates on Friday evening

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                      • #41
                        OK, time to report back. Yesterday afternoon I stuck a bottle in the freezer to get it lekker ice cold, and then to open to test if it'll work for this weekend's braais. Here goes...

                        Nice and cold...


                        Pouring was a breeze - the 440ml bottles work perfectly with these beer glasses I have. I managed to pour the entire bottle in one go - and got NO sediment into the bottle at all. It lacks carbonation (which is to be expected from such a short carbonation period (this one was 5 days), so the rest will sit for a bit longer. The head was nice and thick though, and quite creamy:


                        The beer itself was still very dark (which we knew before). Very lightly carbonated, which isn't bad at all (since it doesn't make you gassy when you chase it down), but I would prefer it to get a bit more CO2 in there. Regarding the beer itself - it's quite clear, to be honest. Not crystal, but that's to be expected from such an old brew using old finings (guessing the proteins didn't work too lekker and all that), but I don't care. It's clear enough to see through the glass, so that works for me. The light doesn't catch it very well but I'll take better pics this weekend (when there's more light). PS, excuse the fingerprint on the glass - I was in a hurry and didn't see it until now...


                        So, my own pleb review:

                        The extract twang aged out a little bit. There's a massive difference between where it sits now and where it was a week ago (massive). This tastes almost like a different beer. It's smoother, that metallic bite is a lot less, the fruitiness is better and the bitterness bites less, and is more "mellowed". Smell is great, taste is great, I love it. Rich in flavour I don't think this will be enjoyed by the same people who enjoy crap like Millers or Budweiser, but to be honest I can see myself being happy with drinking this all the time (not that I will, but you get the idea). Even my wife said it's "really good", so I'm happy. Now I just need to take some good pictures...

                        Can't wait for the next!

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                        • #42
                          Great looking beer. Well done !!!


                          Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
                          2017 SANHC-Finals-German Pilsner.2019 Academy of Taste-1st Lager +1st Overall-German Leichtbier.2019 Free State Fermenters-1st Place-Australian Sparkling Ale.2019 SANHC-Final Round-German Leichtbier.2020 SANHC-Top 5-EishBock.2021 SANHC-Low Alcohol Cat: 2nd-2%Lager, Over All Cat: 2nd-Schwarzbier.2022 Free State Fermenters-1st-American light Lager.2022 Fools and Fans National Competition-Top 5-Dunkles Bock

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                          • #43
                            Looks Perfect, Enjoy!
                            The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

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                            • #44
                              OK so I suspect I found another issue with brewing with old stuff. I'm not sure if it's possible, but I have the slightest suspicion that the crown caps I used may have been a bit old as well. I don't think they sealed all that well on the bottles, to be honest. Why? Well, this weekend we had a family gathering so I packed in a bunch of my brews, cooled them down nice and when we got there, poured.

                              To my dismay, the lekker thick, foamy head I was expecting (and what I got from the previous bottles I opened), was...gone. There was some foam and there is carbonation, but most of it's gone. It's like it was better after just one week instead of the 2 weeks these were sitting at.

                              Beer's still not bad, but I'm a bit disappointed. It is getting slightly clearer though, but here you can see that the foam is dropping VERY quickly:



                              Is this normal? Is it possible that the caps are leaking CO2 under the pressure in the bottles? The previous bottles I opened made a louder "psst" when opening and also had that CO2/vapour "smoke" coming from the bottle, and these had none of that.

                              On the other hand, the general consensus is that the beer's not bad. The more time I spend with it, the more faults I find, sure, but overall I'm still not regretting the brew at all!

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                              • #45
                                what priming method did you use?

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