Hi Guys, Just joined this site after starting to homebrew. I'm brewing an oktoberfest using a true brew ingredient kit. I just have a couple questions. 1. I cooled my wort (2.5gallons) to 70 degrees before putting it in my fermentation bucket and adding 2.5 gallons to get it to 5 gallons. I pitched my yeast and placed it in my cupboard. I looked at the temp gauge I have on the bucket a few hours later and it said 77 degrees, is that too hot? I cooled my house down and it dropped to 68-70. 2. Today it's 12 days after I pitched the yeast. During fermentation I haven't seen many bubbles, but I don't think my bucket is quite airtight and the lid just domes (so at least I know it's happening). But I check the SG and it's 1.019. Target range is 1.016. The lid isn't doming any more and I don't think it's fermenting any more...should I still leave it? 3. I'm fermenting in the same bucket I wish to bottle it out off. I intend to add priming sugar and then bottle. Is that okay? Any advice would be great. I'm really excited to start making great beer, I know this one may not be fantastic, but I at least want it to be drinkable. Thanks, George
What yeast was included with your kit? I'm going to assume it wasn't a lager yeast, so not a real oktoberfest, but in this case, it helps you since you don't have temp control. 77 is pretty warm for most any yeast, other than maybe souring bacteria. It got warm like that because of the heat generated during fermentation. 12 days isn't very long. I'd give it a couple more days, check the gravity again, and compare. If there is no change, then it's probably done. Chances are you probably had less volume that you expected, a higher than expected gravity because of it, and the FG slide up a little due to those variances. You COULD bottle from primary, but you have the issue of stirring up all your trub, yeast and junk in the bottom of your bucket, which will then be put into your bottles. Not what you want to do. You will need to transfer to another bucket to bottle, and mix in your priming sugar solution gently.
You'll have beer, but the higher-than-normal fermentation temp could give you unwanted flavors from the esters. Your bottling situation from your fermentation bucket is not a good situation like FATC1TY says. You'll need to get another bucket or you'll have to live with a heavy sediment in your bottles.
Well, beyond heavy sediment in his bottles, one could almost predict he will have less bottling volume than planned, use all 5 ounces of priming sugar, and have bottles with tons of nucleation points. Would lead to lots of foamy pours. Beyond the yeasty pours, I'd venture to say, the large amount of particulate that would be bottled would be gross and cause carbonation problems.
Your particulars have been covered well above. For more general advice I know it seems a bit "dickish" to just say read these...but every one of these links have great info that I wish I would have known a long time ago. You will notice 90% is repeated. This is mostly due to the fact that every new brewer that post this question never does their own research so the great advice they seek is just repeated. http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/wanting-to-start-home-brewing.194902/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...commendation-all-extract.195591/#post-2606607 http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/best-style-for-first-time-brewer.190894/#post-2603440 http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/rookie-needing-home-brew-help.190733/ http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/recomended-materials-for-beginners.72840/ http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/homebrew-novice.79446/ http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/just-another-noob-recipe-recommendations.78667/ http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/want-to-get-into-homebrewing-what-to-get-and-tips.76666/ http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/homebrewing-where-to-start.70838/ http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/absolute-noob-here.56172/ http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/how-do-i-start-homebrewing.62630/#post-853379 http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/absolute-beginner.22189/ http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...ewing-where-to-shop-online.49108/#post-632027 http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/start-up-cost-for-home-brewing.43242/#post-544831 http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/best-beer-to-brew-for-a-first-timer.82162/#post-1228253tt http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/first-attempt-at-homebrew.103200/#post-1513648 http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/help-a-noob.102983/ http://beeradvocate.com/community/t...reads/first-time-brewing.205630/#post-2718225 http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...et-into-home-brewing-need-help-advice.199931/ http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...threads/wanting-to-start-home-brewing.194902/
1. Consistent fermentation temperature for fermentation is one of the biggest things you can do to make great beer. If you don't your beer will suffer a little, but time can be very forgiving to many styles--especially malt-forward beers like an Okt. You can still make something very drinkable and lesson learned for next batch. Ambient air temp and temp in the fermenter ARE two different things. Fermentation adds a few degrees. It's best to get a large tupperware/bathtub of water with some frozen 2-liters into the equation. If you're feeling industrious, a spare fridge/freezer and an external temperature control work nicely. It depends on how far you want to go with this. 2. I usually just leave my beer alone for 3 weeks before bottling. Let it ride for a little while so you can accurately prime your bottles. 3. I would add a scant 1/4 tsp of table sugar to each bottle before I'd try to mix sugar into a primary fermenter. You need an even distribution in your beer without pulling a lot of trub (sediment) into the equation. You can't do this from primary. Your best bet is to rack to a bottling bucket, or prime each bottle separately.
As others suggest, stirring priming sugar into the primary would stir up a lot of yeast. inchrisin's advice about adding sugar to bottles might be a better idea. Better yet, rack off the yeast into a bottling bucket, stirring the sugar in the bottling bucket.
Just as defense....I have in fact done a ton of research but it's nice to have some personalized answers especially when starting out. And I've done a lot about bottling from primary and had no good answers so I thought I'd ask. I apologize if you think I'm spamming, I just like to have individual answers based on my scenario.
But thanks everyone for the advice. I'll probably buy another Bucket or rack it to my glass Carboy then bottle from there.
Does the bucket that you are using for fermentation have a spigot? If you are going to get another bucket, and your current bucket does not have one, then your new bucket should. To me, it's a lot easier to bottle with a spigot, tubing and a filling wand than it is to bottle while using a racking cane.
