homebrew help

Welcome to BA! I don't homebrew but if you post your questions here, someone will definitely be able to help you:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/forums/homebrewing.8/

 

1. It's not the worst. It isn't the best. It's a good practice to minimize the trub, especially if you intend to primary for longer than 2 weeks.

2. Avoid aerating the beer beyond 12 hours after pitching.

3. No, unless you want more trub in the beer. See #1.

 

Generally, it's best to skip the secondary unless you have a really good reason to use a secondary. Sitting on the trub for an extra week isn't a really good reason.

You can bottle when the gravity is stable and near the expected final gravity. For example, let's say your beer is supposed to finish at 1.012. You sample the gravity after 10 days and the result is 1.014. You measured gravity three days later and it was the same. Then you bottle. No secondary needed. Most 5-7% beers should be ready to bottle within two weeks. If not, something wasn't proper with the yeast or fermentation temperature.

Even if you have all the trub from the kettle in the primary, don't worry about it this time and don't obsess about minimizing it in the future, but maximizing the amount of trub in the fermentor isn't going to improve your beer.

Dump all the trub in the primary if that is the most convenient way to make beer at the moment. The more trub you have in the primary, the less time you can occupy the primary before a penalty. I should have said longer than three weeks in my first post (item #1).

This probably contradicts purchased instructions if you are brewing from a kit. The kits don't have a perfect game plan in terms of instructions.

 

By evidence do you mean airlock activity? If a bucket lid or a carboy stopper isn't airtight, sometimes you won't see bubbles in the airlock even though fermentation is happening.

 

The yeast WILL make beer unless you killed them before pitching. Be patient. Beer happens.

 

Since you are using a carboy you'll start to see small bubbles collecting on the surface of the beer. These bubbles should continue to accumulate and get bigger to produce a brownish krausen that will cover the top of the beer, and can rise into your airlock if you are brewing a high alcohol beer if your head space is inadequate. When the krausen begins to die down the fermentation is doing the same thing.

Those are very good answers above for your questions, but a procedural note regarding your question #3 -- after chilling your wort, pour it through a sanitized strainer that is sitting in a large funnel on top of your carboy. (Another set of hands is advisable here to stabilize the funnel while pouring.) Stop pouring when the strainer gets too clogged and use a sanitized spoon to scoop and clear the strainer. Keep pouring and repeating this process until you get down to the thicker trub in the bottom of the pot. Send the rest of it down the garbage disposal, add to your compost pile, etc. The pouring and straining process has always been enough aeration for my beers, and a warning: it's a hazardous process to risk breaking a carboy by rocking it to aerate.

P.S. Welcome from another Michigander to the BA site and to the Homebrewing forum. Where in Michigan do you live? I'm in Battle Creek.

 

One other thing regarding using a funnel and strainer in the carboy -- if your funnel fits fairly tight against the side of the carboy's opening, you'll need to put something in the opening with the funnel to create some space for the displaced air in the carboy to escape around the funnel. This is why I mentioned above that an extra pair of hands becomes essential because the funnel and strainer are precariously balanced on the carboy and the force of pouring the wort into the funnel will tip the funnel over. (I use a sanitized serving spoon that is large enough so it doesn't fall into the carboy.) Without this air channel you'll have the wort trying to back up in the funnel and jamming things up when the displaced air tries to come upward through the funnel.

 

You might want to share a picture of your carboy so the smart folks here can look for evidence of fermentation that you might not be able to recognize.

 

That pic looks to me like some fermentation bubbles that are trying to get organized. Are you able to move the carboy to a place where it is a little warmer to help those little buggers think they are on a balmy vacation? Just getting it 3-4 feet off the floor is likely to raise the temp 2-3 degrees.