Did you do this in such a way as to exclude as much oxygen as possible?

Ummm, no. It had a two foot drop. I tilted the second bucket until there was a gallon of so in then just let it fall into the bottom. Have I messed it up?

I like the idea of gently transferring it to a second bucket, adding finings and waiting a week though. That appeals to me.

As stated that bottle is no where near full enough and is too yeasty.

Can I recover from this in any way? I can leave them an extra long time in a warm place if that will help.

Dont worry too much .

You will have reduced your head stability slightly . Each time you move beer and fob it some of the protein chains that make the foam anre broken down .

There is the potential to introduce spoilage bacteria and oxygen by dropping beer from a height into another container.

Best to exclude air by sending it down a pipe to the bottom of the bucket.

The live, still active yeast will absorb and use some of the oxygen you will have introduced. Introoducing or exposing finished beer to alot of air can produce cardboard flavours. Or all manner of bacteria ,although the low ph ( should be 3.9 – 4.0 ) will kill off alot of them , as will the ABV.

HTH

It does help, thanks very much.
I appreciate the help all have given but I am thoroughly enjoying the education. I’m quite proud of the dark ale, it really does taste like a pint from a good pub.
It’s clear I need to continue with a few more kit beers to get the processes nailed before I consider investing in mashing equipment. I think I’ll get another barrel.

26 years and 8million pints and Im still learning .

Dont worry about your PETS . There is nothing you can do that will undo anything that has been done.

Leave them be in a cold dark place for 2 weeks or maybe 3 . there might be a christmas miracle and there will be a bright ,polished ale waiting for Santa . You will have loose bottoms and pouring will be tricky .

Sometimes you have to pour when very cold say 3-5’C then allow to warm to stop gushing and yeast turbulance once opened and de-pressurised.

26 years and 8million pints and Im still learning

wow, there’s hope for all of us! i’ve brewed probably just over 100 since June. great hobby and very rewarding.

No need to leap to all grain straight from kit brewing. Try some extract brew recipes first with a speciality grain mini-mash.

Basically use dry or liquid malt extract – the stuff you get in the kits – for the bulk of your wort, but steep a few hundred grams of grains according to whatever recipe you’re following (crystal malt is the most commonly used) and add your own hops.

There are loads of recipes on sites like Jims Beer Kit forum.

Also, I can highly recommend a book called Radical Brewing.

Welcome to your new obsession!

I (gently) disagree with the previous, BIAB is so easy, there’s not much point going half way. Don’t worry too much about cloudiness, it doesn’t actually affect the taste (well not enough to worry about), and you’ll get better with practice. Also, don’t just “start off” the secondary fermentation, complete it before you cool and store the beer. The fermentable sugar should all be finished – sweeter beers have a higher proportion of non-fermentable sugars, this can be controlled by the mashing temp etc when you are using grain.

I have a cupboard full of bottles going free to a good home if anyone’s interested?

Pick up only, West Mids…

The bottles have been left in the study where I’ve decided to leave them for a couple of weeks. Clearing very nicely, apart from a little sediment they look almost commercial now, if a little flat.

So the wife saw me drinking a pint of dark ale from the barrel (still very nice by the way) so she assumed that was the lager. So when I was out at work yesterday, she gave a bottle of the lager to each of her sisters, the guy next door and her friends husband with instructions to ‘try this, Jon says it tastes great’.

1. Will they die?
2. Is anyone replacing a patio under which they need some extra ballast?

Won’t die, they will taste it if it is off.

I use kits too, I normally use coopers brew drops for the secondary fermentation in the bottle. But as you decant into a secondary FV, you could make up a priming solution (dissolved sugar mixture) and add it into the secondary FV with a gentle stir before bottling to give a consistent amount of fizz..

I do a lot of cheat ginger beer (use cider yeast btw, not champagne), which involves making a “wort” and once my new shed is in place I’ll be trying grain mashing,

quick q for the extract brewers – what size of stock pot is big enough for boiling up the extract? I gather you only boil up a relatively small volume i.e. a few litres, but a bigger pot helps avoid boilovers. any recommendations on size / materials I presume stainless steel is best.