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Date: 02 Jun 2006 21:18:43
From: Franco
Subject: Two newbie questions
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Hi,
I'm fermenting my first batch of beer. I've fermented wine before, but
no prior experience with beer. Anyway, I'm not sure if what I'm using
is conidered a kit or not. The store sold me the following ingredients:
a tub of malt extract, a bag with grains, and three small packages with
hops in the form of tiny sausages. On to the questions:
1) The directions say to ferment in primary for 5 to 7 days and then
transfer to a carboy. Right now it's been three days and the
fermentation has peaked and slowed down considerably. Should I still
wait another two days or should I rack now? My house is pretty warm,
about 78 degrees, and I'm guessing that's the reason why fermentation
has proceeded so fast.
2) I made 5.25 gallons of wort which, after discarding the sediments,
are supposed to fill a 5-gallon carboy. Well, I presently only have a
6-gallon carboy, so if I use it there would be a good amount of empty
space. The directions say to keep the beer in the carboy for another
week and then bottle. So is it OK to use the 6-gallon carboy, or do I
risk spoiling the beer with oxygen?
Thanks in advance.
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Date: 03 Jun 2006 08:00:29
From: John 'Shaggy' Kolesar
Subject: Re: Two newbie questions
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On 2 Jun 2006 21:18:43 -0700, <cuminato@yahoo.com > wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm fermenting my first batch of beer. I've fermented wine before, but
> no prior experience with beer.
If you haven't seen it yet, I would highly recommend http://www.howtobrew.com
for some great basic brewing instructions.
> 1) The directions say to ferment in primary for 5 to 7 days and then
> transfer to a carboy. Right now it's been three days and the
> fermentation has peaked and slowed down considerably. Should I still
> wait another two days or should I rack now? My house is pretty warm,
> about 78 degrees, and I'm guessing that's the reason why fermentation
> has proceeded so fast.
There is no rule on when you have to rack to secondary. Now is fine, later
is also fine. However, 78F is *really* warm for fermenting beer. Personally
I would consider anything over 70F to be too warm, unless it was for a
style that specifically called for lots of esters and fusels. At temps
that high you'll get a lot of by products from the yeast during fermentation.
Not to mention that fermentation creates heat, so the temp of your wort
during primary was very likely in the mid 80s. Yikes!
> 2) I made 5.25 gallons of wort which, after discarding the sediments,
> are supposed to fill a 5-gallon carboy. Well, I presently only have a
> 6-gallon carboy, so if I use it there would be a good amount of empty
> space. The directions say to keep the beer in the carboy for another
> week and then bottle. So is it OK to use the 6-gallon carboy, or do I
> risk spoiling the beer with oxygen?
It's no big deal. The beer will still be creating CO2 which will help
push all of the oxygen out of the carboy.
John.
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