December 31, 2012

Bubbles = Alcohol  =

We left off with my first home brew being put into the fermeter bucket.  By the next morning the airlock was alive with activity.  Those lovely bubbles are an indication that the yeast is doing it’s job and turning the sugars from the malt into alcohol.  A good sign – I didn’t want my first brew to be O’Douls.  What good is beer if it can’t get you hammered, right?

The CO2 being forced up through the airlock (whose purpose is to allow gas to escape, but no air or outside contaminants to get in) is also an indication that my fermenting bucket is airtight.  Assuming everything was properly sanitized and the cats failed at their attempts to ruin my Christmas present, we should be on our way to a healthy beer.

 The yeast is binging on sugar and farting up a CO2 storm!

By day 3 most of the activity in the airlock has ceased.  The yeast has served it’s initial purpose and created alcohol.  (Edit – do not use an airlock as an indicator of fermentation.  Use gravity readings).  At this point, I’ll follow the guidance of the guy at the brew supply store and leave the bucket alone for at least another week.  My new friends in the forums at www.HomeBrewTalk.com agree that no harm can be done by leaving the beer this way for a while longer.  I’ve read that it’s safe to leave it for up to a month (Edit – I leave it for as long as 6-8 weeks at times with no ill side effects)… I’m far too impatient for that, though.  I could be hit by a bus in that time and never get to taste my first home brewed beer.  Then I’d be forced to walk the earth for eternity, a sad spirit with unfinished business.

Oops!

My research and help from the nice people in the home brewing forums has uncovered a few oversights up to this point.

First – the brew kit did not supply me with an adequate number of buckets.  By giving me a combo fermenting / bottling bucket, they leave me with a bunch of sludge at the bottom of the bucket which will make it’s way out the spigot and into my bottles.  I guess that’s what the 6-gallon carboy was actually for.  I’ve ordered a second bottling bucket that I will siphon the beer into at bottling time.

Second – I should have taken a hydrometer reading when the wort first went into the bucket.  This is done to determine the gravity (or density) of the beer.  A second reading should be made right before it goes into the bottles.  From these 2 numbers I would have been able to calculate the alcohol content of the beer.  It also let’s me know whether or not fermentation is complete.  Now I’ll just have to make a guess.

Edit – Extract has a known gravity.  Your OG should always be exactly or very close to what the kit or brewing software calls for.  If it’s off, you likely used too little or too much top off water.

Third – I may never stop needing new equipment.  One brew at a time is not going to satisfy my new addiction.  Having the spare bottling bucket will help, but I’m probably going to eventually need more buckets, bottles, airlocks, carboys, etc…  I may have found a way to get a lot of this stuff on the cheap, however.

I’ll cover these issues in more depth in my “What I’ve Learned” post.  Until then, happy drinking and happy New Year!

Next Article:  What I’ve Learned (Some Tips & Shortcuts – Part 1) 

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