pumpkin pie

The answers to many of your questions can be found easily.

 

This thread makes me want to shake a small animal. Please do a litlte more reading at the link found at the top of this page. Also please take what you read on the first page with a grain of salt.

 

There is no need to do a secondary. For ales, a secondary is an unnecessary step in my opinion.

Cheers!

 

I personally would not stir it. Let it be.

Your first batches are going to be exciting and at the same time confusing. You had airlock activity in one and didn't in the other so it is only natural to freak out a little bit. I brewed two beers on Saturday. Sunday one was bubbling and the other wasn't. But the second day both were bubbling. As long as you sanitize well, pitch healthy yeast at proper temperatures you really don't have much to worry about. Sometimes you might get a lot of bubbiling in the airlock and sometimes you won't. But in the end the beer turns out fine.

The best thing to do is leave it be next time. Once you seal up the bucket plan on not opening up for 2-3 weeks. Also next brew maybe try a simple recipe and don't add anything to it. That way if something doesn't go well you don't have a bunch of variables that could of caused the problem. Your next few batches keep it simple and focus in on your process. Once you have your process down then you can experiment a little more. Good luck I hope both batches turn out well.

 

Who said this to you?!? Traps the sugar?

If it hasn't already been said, bubbling out of the airlock is not really a good way to tell if a beer is done.

What exactly is your hydrometer reading for gravity? The fact that you are telling us it is reading "low abvs" concerns me. You should be using the gravity side of the hydrometer and calculating abv by using the original gravity and the final gravity.

Let them ride for a couple weeks to let the yeast do some clean up. Both may taste "green" (flavor of green apples) at this point. Booze is of course a given in a Belgian Dark Strong Ale and that beer may take a month or two to really hit its optimal flavor after you bottle it. If you find the beer excessively boozy and hot, it could be that you fermented at too high of a temp - what was it?

 

You are trying to run a 5k without learning to walk first.

No beginner will ever take this advice, but it really is a good idea to learn to brew the kits you buy before you start modifying them. Now if it doesn't turn out right, you will never know what caused it to not turn out right - your technique or your modifications....

First beers should be about process, not desired flavor. But its your beer, screw it up however you see fit...

 

"skimming" isnt reading and undestanding. I can tell you didnt read and understand that site because many if not all of the answers to your questions can be found there. As for being HELPFUL we are very helpful here but we expect a little effort from you to put some time and research in before asking a bunch of questions.

You would be surprised how decent the kit beer is. And even if its subpar, its more about the process and experience. The experience you get of learning the process and more or less having your hand held(which is what your asking us to do anyways) is invaluable. Its called putting your time in. 50 beans is a small price to pay. You think Kimmich just brewed heady on his first attempt?

 

There is your big problem with early batches..... Throwing a bunch of weird things into a shitty beer won't turn it into an awesome beer, especially if you don't know how to prepare or when to add those weird things. Its much easier to make awesome stuff when you actually know what you are doing and have a base beer that you understand or can design to stand up to the adjuncts (weird things) you add to it. Trying to run before you can crawl usually results in crap... take it from someone who's been there.

 

OK, you're coming across as an ass here and you're about to lose any help that we can offer.

Read How To Brew. Read it. You need to understand what you are doing, the chemistry of it, when you add something to a wort. You need to understand the terminology in order to ask questions that mean what you want them to mean. Right now you're babbling. You also need a rudimentary knowledge of the brewing process or you will not know when certain advice is bad (such as sugars getting trapped underneath pumpkin in the bottom of a bucket).

Slow down. You are not going to make world-class beers with your first kits. You just won't. I hope you do, but you won't.
There's a wealth of knowledge available here. If you want help, do your homework first.

 

Well put. As an added point to the OP, stop reporting other users who are trying, albeit in a slightly annoyed manner, to help you by directing you to a free copy of John Palmer's book.

 

1. The one that told you pumpkin will trap sugars?
3. I have helped more than you currently realize.
5. You do not. If you did, you would not say things like "going to throw a whole pumpkin pie in it", "1-rinse cleaner", and "now with being worried about the spoilage, what kind of time frames am i looking at, with 1st and 2nd ferment, along with bottling? as for "just adding sugars" the ABV was 5% to start with, so jacking it up will be a good thing."

Lighten up Francis

 

How was the ABV already 5% to start with? Makes no sense.

 

How would you know what the normal milk stout would taste like with your experience? Your jumping in and adding a bunch of shit to a beer you don't know what the base taste like, with no knowledge. Thats like making food without ever having tasted it or made it before. Think your chances of it tasting great will be positive?


You've added a bunch of shit to two beers, and have no idea what you are doing. You WILL make shitty beer, I promise you that. These two batches will suck, and I say that with much sadness. Everyones first batches were not awesome like you want to think they are. Just because you brewed with a guy who has done an extract kit means nothing. I know plenty of local guys who "brew" and think they know whats going on, but have no clue whats really going on, and their beer shows it. You might have some knowledge, but it's not coming across with your questions and posts. No one is trying to nail you down because of it, everyone had to start somewhere.

Slow it down and learn the process, read how to brew, and you will be amazed at what you learn from these two batches. Drink a couple of them and dump the rest down the drain and chaulk it up to learning. Lighten up a little bit too, lack of understand and patience don't bode well with brewing.

Give the beers around 2 weeks in primary and take a gravity reading. Use the gravity as a reading when you ask questions, thats more important than acting like a teen obsessed with the ABV. It means nothing in terms of figuring out issues with a fermentation.