I'm brewing some bitter for the first time but i threw the instructions away with the tin!

After 6 days in the bucket, I've transferred it into the keg and added another 4oz of sugar so how long does it have to stay in the keg. I remember it saying 4 weeks brewing time but can't remember if this was time in the keg or total time?

thanks

it stays in the keg until you've drunk it all, assuming the keg is a pressure barrel. might take a week or 2 to clear first though

you'll need to top up the barrel with CO2 later though

1 week at room temperature to allow for priming, then move to a colder environment for conditioning.

Should be drinkable after 2 weeks in the cold, but better to leave it as long as possible.

Being your first one it's bound to be an object of curiousity, if you're anything like me it'll be started fairly quickly. It gets far better with age and can take a fair few weeks to clear, not that that will stop you 😛

Got 80 pints sitting in the garage currently 🙂

Just opened a bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gine

40 pints of IPA, 40 pints of a nice light golden ale and half a keg of my christmas beer (modified kit)

Also have about 12 bottles of Belgium Abbey, with another 40 pints of IPA to bottle next week.

Merry Christmas 😀

Its going to be one big Haze for Haze this Christmas 😉

Yep Hazey is what it will be.
As the only brewer on here I think you have almost got it right. I would have fermented it for 4 days in teh warm, then put it outside for another 4 days before priming and kegging.
Then you really should wait at least 2 weeks for the yeast to drop out of suspension and re absorb the nasty flavournoids produced during fermentation.
What you have now is green beer. Wait a while and it will soften and mellow out. If you can avoid O2 pickup it should stay drinkable for at least a month, if not 2.

I normally ferment from anywhere between 10 to 14 days at as close as possible to 20c before kegging.

Longer if using a secondary, dry hopping etc.

we've got 1000ltr of IPA on the go 😯

And thats not a misstype either !

Now that is a brewing set up NZCol!

I keep meaning to get a brew on. Brought all the stuff down from Scotland when we moved (including all the grain and stuff), and it has been sittin idle ever since! Hopefully I can get the utility room cleared out over Christmas and get a 60l brew on… have Cornie Kegs at the ready!!!

1000 litres, that's a lot of beer 😯

I'd have some serious garage converting to do to produce those kinda quantities

RobS, if you don't get brewing again soon, first dibs on your cornies ta!

40 litres on the go at the moment, typing currently affected by the last batch- hic. I stuck some All Spice and Ginger into my Christmas brew. can't wait to try it out.

mate makes stainless tanks and has 2 damaged ones – tick
other mate is a brewer – tick
access to good hops at cost – tick
warehouse space available free – tick
like beer – tick tick tick
the $ cost to bottle and sell though is stupid so we are going to systematically drink it and give it away 😀

just waiting for brew ii to mature – a belgian beer from kit. thinking off getting frisky with the brew iii.

how big is the step up to doing things "properly", rather than adding water and sugar to some stuff from a tin?

1000l – chapeau!

last 3 'proper' craft breweries we've seen start (and all fail) were (in order) 450K, 600K and 550K 😯

You can get thos all in one machines which are actually quite good, James May used one in that series with Oz Clarke…

I'm going to start this Xmas – it's something I've always wanted to do but never had the space/time.

From my understanding there are 3 stages to the professionism?

1 – add water and sugar to a tin.
2 – Extract, where you can control the flavour a bit.
3 – Mashing and all that involves but you make full on proper beer.

I'm keen to get to stage 2, does it need much extra kit over 1? I've saved 120 hefeweisse bottles (extra stong as the beer ferments in the bottle) and tbh I'm only interested in brewing german wheat beers.

any advice?

Go straight for stage 3, it aint difficult and the beer is head and shoulders… and then some… beyond anything out a tin 😉 The kits, even modified, have a "homebrew" taste to them which I find a bit off putting, hence I went to full mash after a couple of kit attempts.

Well that's 3 weeks from weds, so a bit early for xmas but great for new years eve!

If this goes well, i'll look into doing it 'properly'

I have got some finings(?) that came with the kit to clear it, when do i add these.

Also when do i ad the gas, just before drinking?

There's plenty of CO2 produced from the priming sugar you kegged with and the yeast still in suspension, which will see you okay to about halfway down the keg.

You'll need to add gas to fill the increased headspace as the beer level drops. The flow from the tap dies down and shortly after the keg starts to 'glug' (you'll know what I mean when it happens)

Just a quick 1 or 2 second blast will be enough.

Finings should have been added prior to kegging, but it's no problem. I only ever used them on my first brew, cleared no quicker than any other.

Plenty more info here 🙂

That's here of course 🙂

Cheers, dunno what happened there!

Ah, http bit

thanks, i'd come across that site the other night, fingers crossed for 3 weeks!

Scrumpy all the way.