Complete HomeBrew Noob.

i'm actually having a fantastic bottle of homebrew at the moment that a customer gave me and it's got me tempted to give it a try...the only thing im worried about is the smell as i live in an apartment and would have to keep it in my room and the door is usually closed...is anybody brewing in their bedroom and if so do your clothes etc smell like stale beer? would it be advisable or should i wait until i have a bigger place?
thanks

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

I'm about to bottle my second batch, and you wouldn't even know it was there, except for the occasional bubbling (which has woken me up the odd time, despite the fact that I brew downstairs and sleep upstairs (I'm a very light sleeper!).

Threw in the yeast Thursday night and it's been bubbling away ever since!! Wouldn't advise home brew in ur bedroom to be honest it's quite loud through a bubble airlock anyway and makes you want to pee a lot!! Quite a strong hop smell too but that's probably the 100g of cascade pellets I threw into it!!better than scented candles any day!

Making a st peters ipa kit with extra wet hopping.
Also went with an aquarium heater to control the temp as a damp problem means I have to leave the window open most of the day

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Ronan cork wrote: »

Threw in the yeast Thursday night and it's been bubbling away ever since!! Wouldn't advise home brew in ur bedroom to be honest it's quite loud through a bubble airlock anyway and makes you want to pee a lot!! Quite a strong hop smell too but that's probably the 100g of cascade pellets I threw into it!!better than scented candles any day!

From reading threads on this forum, you don't really need the airlock. So perhaps just cover the hole in the fermenter lid with some clingfilm, and make a tiny hole in the clingfilm with a pin. That'll do away with the loud bubbling.

Thanks. Might try that tonight if it's still as bad

the new version of the coopers kit does not use an airlock either the lid just sits on top of it
the pressure from the gas just lifts the lid enough to let it escape and prevents any outside air from entering
have not heard it making any noise either

Learning a lot from this thread, might try some brewing over the next few months..

The Minstrel wrote: »

Just a couple of questions about the use of a Secondary in a kit-based brew:

Am I right in saying that the reasons for using a secondary container are filtration and batch priming?

Isn't the beer 100% fermented before being transferred to the secondary?

And finally, I'm adding hops for dry hopping. When exactly should I add the hops? My understanding is that they should be added before fermentation has ended, so that must mean the primary container? What is the optimum point at which I should add the hop pellets?

Thanks

Don't use a secondary myself but from what I know it's mainly for clearing up the beer, that is, getting off the sediment that sits at the bottom of the primary and trying to avoid any bits that might me floating in it. Personnaly I just couldn't be bothered

Batch priming in the primary is fine, do it myself. Just try not to disturb the bottom sediment to much when stirring.

dry hopping should be done a week before bottling in my view. So if you stick to the principle of primary for 1 week, secondary for two weeks then the you'd dry hop right in the middle of the secondary.

The Minstrel wrote: »

I thought I had to add the hops before fermentation was finished. So, the hops should be added after fermentation and batch priming?

Batch priming should be done about 30min before bottling, you don't want the secondary fermentation to start until you've sealed your beer in a bottle.

Hops aren't ferment so the fermentation process has absolutely no effect on them. It would just be my preferred taste to put them in a week before I was going to bottle. You can do it more or less depending on what taste you're going for, you can put them in for the entire process if you wish.

After 8 days in the fermenter the water in my airlock levelled out (no bubbling and no pressure) and I got 3 readings of 1018 over 3 days which is a bit high but all signs were saying it's ready to bottle so I started collecting and cleaning bottles...luckily I decided to order some starsan and leave the bottling till next weekend as after 3 days of nothing, pressure has gone up and it's started bubbling again!!i didn't move the fermenter or anything it just started again on its own!
So today I learnt to trust my hydrometer as my gut told me to bottle 2 cases of grenades!

Hi guys. I started a wheat beer kit the other day but used white labs liquid hefe yeast instead of the packet. I forgot to let the yeaat warm up and pitched pretty much straight from the fridge...other than that everything went fine. I smelt it today and its pretty stinky. Kind of rotten egg smell.
Anyone experienced this before?

Yeah ok, fair enough. I'd say this smells more than a bit though which is why I asked. Really rotten smell off it, kind of sour but eggy at the same time. Just wondered if this is normal for a weisse yeast as it actually smells disgusting or if the smell indicates infection. I'm going to bottle it anyway but it would put me off doing a weisse again if this is normal for that type of yeast.