MSU Red Cedar Message Board

I brewed my IPA today, which is probably more like a pale ale given that I missed my gravity by 12 points. Couldn't figure out why until I racked it to the fermenter and realized that I had an extra gallon of wort. Looks like I put an extra gallon in my sparge. Idiot.

Oh well.

Like a hefeweizen or an American Wheat (Oberon)?

Both are think are great starting off points, but think that a hefeweizen would be more foregiving. But why not buy both and do the other kit next week?

I'm not a huge hefe fan, but think that it would be more foregiving to brew than a pale. Also, you could make it really simple and just use 2 cans of wheat extract, an ounce of bittering hops, and a packet of dry yeast as your recipe - no need for specialty grains, multiple hop additions, liquid yeast and it like. But really the challenge in brewing is mashing technique (doesn't apply to extract brewing), yeast handling and pitching, and fermentation control. For either a pale or a hefe there are solid dry yeast options available which means that fermentation control is the last difficult variable to deal with. Given the cooler temps in MI, you should be fine if you have a basement or a cooler room in the house. A hefe, in my opinion, would have less potential for off-flavors if the temp during fermentation ramps up versus a pale ale.

Just my two cents.

excuse my ignorance here, but wtf is a smack pack?

Also, I will be doing my first brew this weekend. I figure for my first one I should use a kit, so I went to sicilianos mkt and bought a wheat beer kit. My parents used to brew beer, so I raided their basement and came back with a bunch of carboys and siphoning stuff.

Do people use secondary fermenters with kits? Should I just let it do its thing in the primary for my first try?

There seems to be a lot of debate around the need for a secondary fermenter. I think most beers are fine without it, though secondary can clear up some cloudy beers, if that is what you're after.

I use a secondary if I either want to try to clear up the beer or add flavor (coffee, fruit, hot peppers). Otherwise I just go straight from primary carboy to the keg.

When using a secondary fermenter, do you usually wait 7 days for the initial yeast activation to end, then rack it to the secondary for another 7 days, then bottle? I will be using carboys as primary and secondary fermenters, when I rack it to the secondary, do I just use a siphon straight to the bottom of the secondary? Does that create too much mix with oxygen?

I told my wife the first one I did would be a wheat + some raspberry puree in the secondary for a kind of raspberry wheat.

I can't imagine any beer is ready to be moved from primary after just 7 days. Wait at least 14, then check the gravity for a few days to make sure it's stable.

Question for those that use a carboy as a primary fermenter...

Do you pitch wort and yeast directly into the carboy using a funnel or something, or do you do it in a bucket, then siphon into a carboy?

I was brewing yesterday and I've typically used a bucket as a primary and a carboy as a secondary, but thinking I may skip the secondary on this batch and just use the carboy as a primary. Then I realized I had no way to get the wort into the carboy without using a siphon.

On a related note, do you have any problems aerating the wort in a carboy? (shaking the carboy, as opposed to some kind of aeration stone or something)

I've never checked gravity before 10-12 days, but it seems like I've seen my airlock bubbling occasionally at 6-7 days.

I could be wrong. I'm still learning here too. What part of "yeast handling" do you mean?

I would also add that dry yeast seems to take longer to get going than liquid yeast. The batch I pitched yesterday evening using liquid yeast was bubbling away this morning,10 hours after I pitched. My first few batches with dry yeast took a few days to get going.

Next batch I will use a starter.

You have to be careful with airlocks - the wort could be fully fermented (I guess it is beer and not wort at this point) and still be releasing CO2, causing your airlock to bubble. I think you are doing the right thing by not touching it for 10-12 days, but I'm guessing it is done fermenting well before that.

By yeast handling, I mean pitching the right amount of healthy yeast. I'm a big believer in using an active yeast starter - I am usually done fermenting within 3-4 days for ales, including big belgians and barley wines.

As for the guy that said something about barleywines - I'd recommend going out and buying one or two to check it out. I've brewed a few and they really aren't much different than other beers, except you need to pay special attention to your recipe (may need to add sugar), yeast (you need a lot of it) and fermentation temps (really need to ferment cool to avoid excess alcohol flavors from developing).

Good call - meant fruit extract can be added to the bottling bucket. Bottling puree would not be wise.........