Home brew beer (Page 3)

Once I switched from bottles to mini-kegs (those 5 Liter kind), I never went back to bottles, except maybe to bottle a few each batch for gifts, etc.  Mini-kegging saved me hours and hours, the only problem was that the tapped keg in the fridge is reallllllllly convenient.

What kind/brand do you have?  How much?  I may look into it because it's bottling that bugs me the most about the process.  I was going do drop 80 bucks on 24 Grolsch style 32oz bottles but this may even be better.

Very pretty boxes.  But you aren't going to use those while bottling the beer, right?  Bottling is a messy business...I always end up with beer on the floor...which my dogs are more than happy to lap up for me....

I assume you can use the bottling wand you use for bottling wine and keep the mess down?  Do you just use a funnel?

Lets talk about sediment...  Is it a problem?  One of my friends used to make beer on a regular occasion, and always had sediment/sludge at the bottom of bottles.  Is that the norm and you just be careful with your pours?

It's one of the reasons you never drink out of the homebrew bottle...it stirs up the sediment...always pour.

You can minimize sediment as you transfer and bottle, but you will never get rid of it entirely....

WRT the trubb at the bottom of a bottle conditioned beer.  Don't drink it, it messes you up.  If you pour make sure you pour into a glass big enough for the beer and foam so you don't have to tip the bottle a second time.

Unless you filter, yeast is going to settle on the bottom.  If you pour it into a glass, you can leave most of it in the bottle.  But if you drink from the bottle, the act of tipping it back and forth to drink stirs it back up.  So one pour into a glass is the way we (my friend and I) would drink it to avoid drinking yeast/sludge/sediment.

It's not as big a problem with wine only because you let it settle and rack it (change carboys) over 3-6 months until it's all settled out and removed before bottling.  You NEED it out for wine because unless you want a sparkling wine, residual yeast (if it's alive) will carbonate it.  But that's EXACTLY what you want in beer, residual yeast to carbonate naturally.

Personally I hardly notice the sediment.  Often I drink from the bottle and it does not bother me at all.  Afterall, it's the stuff beer is made of. 

Yeah...  It could add some bitterness or off tastes.  And if it's still sludgy, will it feels sludgy!  If you want a nice clear beer without yeasts floating around, better to pour off.

When you bottle, you are doing what's called bottle conditioning.  The beer is not carbonated when it's done fermenting, because while it was producing CO2 during fermentation, you were letting it all escape through the air lock on the fermenter.  You add some more sugar, put it in a bottle, and then cap it.  The yeast that's still in the beer wakes up, eats the sugar, and produces a little bit more alcohol and more CO2.  In the bottle, though, the CO2 can't escape, so it carbonates the beer.  Once that's done, the yeast and other sediments settle down to the bottom of the bottle.  The longer you let that happen, the clearer and better tasting your beer will be.  As a result of the sediment, you have to be careful to not shake up the bottles and when you pour, you need to do so in a continuous fluid motion.

Add to the reasons for kegging.  When you keg, you let the CO2 used for dispensing carbonate the beer, so there's no need to add more sugar.  The carbonation process is also a lot quicker with kegs.  Finally, while there's still going to be some sediment in the keg, you draw it all off in the first glass or so and never have to worry about it again.  Bonus: you can still bottle some of the beer if you want for easy transport and there won't be any sediment in those bottles!

I have a very good Scotch Ale recipe that is pretty close to Founders Dirty Bastard but some, although biased, thing is actually better, so if you like that kind of beer I can send it to you.  It is a all grain batch, so you would need the proper equipment.  

As far as temps go, it all depends on what you are brewing.  Lagers need it COLD, you will need to be able to ferment in the mid 40- mid 50 range and then secondary in the mid 30's.  If you are doing ales you can get away with higher temps, but I usually keep mine in the low 60's, temp of the actual wort/beer, so that I minimize some of the off flavors you can get with higher temps.

A guy I went to high school with just did that.  He started brewing in college, kept it up, and they officially started selling a few months ago.  We've actually gone from one brewery to four in about six months.  All started at home.