Questions from a new homebrewer

Clear beer happens with a combination of different things while brewing. Adding Irish Moss in the last 15 minutes of boil, cooling the beer after being bottled. Not pouring out the sediment into the glass. I'm not sure what the plastic brewing bucket has to do with it, but it has no effect on clarity of beer. Some people like to transfer to second ferment container. This mostly helps in controlling the fermentation process and off tastes. Oxygen while transferring is bad, so try and minimize that. Activity sounds normal. It's nice to have a bottling wand. It's cool that you used clarification tablets toward the end...

I think I covered everything that was mentioned.

Welcome to Brewing!!

 

In my experience, unless there is something in the beer that specifically makes it hazy (such as unmalted wheat, hefeweizen yeast, etc.), most beers clear up pretty nicely when they've been in the refrigerator for a while. For a beginning homebrewer, I would focus on other issues. Clarity is unlikely to be the most important variable for a while. (For many people, clarity never becomes an issue.)

For most beers, there is no need for a "secondary fermentation." Most people on this forum (including me) will tell you not to bother unless you are aging the beer. You only need a bottling bucket or similar setup (unless you are kegging).

Your fermentation sounds normal. The yeast are probably done with the vast majority of the alcohol production, but they are still working on fermentation by-products, and so you should let them work for at least a week more before bottling.

 

Most beers will settle out and become clear in a two week period. Some of the lack of clarity (or the speed of it) will depend on the yeast that you used. Was this an extract batch or all-grain recipe? Some beer styles are designed to be cloudy, so I'll also ask what beer style? After two weeks, if your beer is not clear by then, that's generally the time to learn why and take steps to prevent it for future batches.

P.S. Welcome to the BA site and to the Homebrewing forum. Hang around as much as you'd like.

 

It's probably the most common way to do things and is usually fine if you avoid splashing. There are ways to transfer without oxygen exposure, but they typically require a kegging setup.

For adding the priming sugar, boiling it in a small amount of water will make it easier to mix and will reduce the chance of contamination.

 

Great questions! I literally just brewed my first batch this past weekend, so some of these questions were ones i had myself- cheers

 

That yeast should drop out well, and if you got any trub in your fermenter during the transfer, it should also drop out soon so that in two weeks you'll have clear beer.

Instructions that come with kits are notorious for being very general in their wording, etc. so be aware that you don't have to follow them explicitly. The best way to decide when to package your beer is to wait until you think that fermentation has stopped, and then take a hydrometer reading. If that reading is close to your recipe's projected Final Gravity, then wait 2-3 days and take another reading. If the first reading is still a ways above the projected FG, wait longer to give the fermentation more time to finish. (Calendar days have nothing to do with when the yeast are done, but the age and health of the yeast when pitched will be the deciding factor for speed of fermentation.) Once you take a FG reading and it is close to the target, take another in two days to validate that the beer has stabilized and is done. Most homebrewers will wait a few more days to allow the yeast to clean up the things that they left in the beer, and this usually coincides with waiting for a weekend to bottle the beer anyway. (At least it gets me to a weekend because I like to purposely take my final reading on a Wednesday.)

When transferring to your bottling bucket, siphoning is an okay method. Just be sure that the exit end of your hose is sitting on the bottom of the bottling bucket so that there is no splashing when the beer touches bottom.

As mentioned above, boil your priming sugar in some water. Try your best to know how much beer you will have in your bottling bucket so that you can calculate your priming sugar to that amount. If you have a 5-gallon recipe, odds are that you won't end up with exactly 5 gallons of beer in the bottling bucket (wort is lost due to boil-off and being absorbed in the hop trub). If you are short a bit of liquid, use that estimated difference amount to boil your priming sugar, then it will serve as your top-off. If you are over a bit, then you'll need to add a bit more priming sugar. Use a priming sugar calculator to figure out how much you need. Be sure to gently mix your sugar solution into the beer when bottling or you'll have some inconsistent carbonation due to differing amounts of sugar in various bottles. Give your beer a few more gentle stirs during the bottling too because that heavy sugar solution with try to drop to the bottom of your bucket.

Give your beer some TLC during the brewing process and you'll be rewarded with good beer.

 

All of the above is true. As mothergoose said make sure fermentation is complete before you bottle by use of a hydrometer. When you eventually get a keezer, that will help too. But for now, after your beer has bottle carbonated, throw it in the fridge for a few days before you open it. And when you pour it in a glass, don't let is slosh around and stir up the yeast cake at the bottom of your bottle.

I think it also bears being said that not all beers are clear. Wheat beers for instance are usually cloudy. Personally I think having super clear beers are over rated and really not worth worrying about so much. I'm really more concerened about taste.

Good luck on your batch,
Prost!