bid of advice please « Brew UK Forum

bid of advice please

9 months ago | sibo (Member)

Hi all new to the forum and newish to the home brew life style.

Ive had my kit a while now mainly do the coopers lagers, currently sipping one of my coopers european lagers did it with spray malt this time and wow very nice.

Just need some advice please, i've always used the coopers drops for the bottling stage wich was fine for the bottles but i'm about to add a new kit to my collection one just for ales and i've decided on teh st peters ruby red for my first one, but this time i want to barrel it how much sugar would i need for this?? or do i need any at all. I bought the kit (well about to) that has the presurised barrel and the canister to add a charge so just really curious to what sugar part i would need for secondary fermentation.

Can spray malt work for ales aswell??

Thanks all

Great site loving it.

Read responses...

Responses

wildbrew:

Posted 9 months ago by Member

Hi sibo
yes spray works for ALES,and all beers :-)
you can use golden syrup as well,like they do with san miguel.

sibo:

Posted 9 months ago by Member

thanks mate, what about the sugar for the secondary stage.

cheers

peter:

Posted 9 months ago by Member

about 2 oz should do it sibo

5 gal geordie bitter
5 gal St Peters Golden Ale as per tin
Youngs Harvest Mild
all a bit moded

saracen:

Posted 9 months ago by Moderator

Hi Sibo. The amount of sugar you need depends on how you want to dispense your beer. The purpose of the sugar is to produce a fermentation in the barrel (conditioning) which will give a layer of CO2 over the beer to help prevent oxidisation and to allow some CO2 to dissoolve into the beer. Some people like their beer virtually flat, with no 'fizz' to it at all. Normally, you use between 60 and 80 grams. The more you use, the more CO2 is produced. The problem comes with dispensing it. You will get a glass full of foam and have to allow it to stand for the beer to separate out, and the more sugar you use, the worse the issue. You can fit a rigid plastic tube to the tap and put this right into the glass when you pour and the foam will be much less. The other way is to put only 25 gms of sugar into the barrel and use the CO2 pressure bulbs for dispensing, adding 1 bulb when the initial pressure runs out. To do this you must have the Pin Valve cap fitted. Much less foam this way.

If you're not living on the edge..... you're taking up too much space!!

Planning: - To get some more brews on now the weather's a bit cooler
Fermenting: - Ginger Beer experiment
Conditioning: - A normal bitter with Styrians
Drinking: - All of it!!

E-mail: arnyfris@gmail.com

neil dm:

Posted 9 months ago by Member

I was led to believe (a long time ago, admittedly) that the secondary fermenting helped the beer to last longer. Is this not the case ?

saracen:

Posted 9 months ago by Moderator

Hi Neil. Scondary fermentation, done in the bottle or keg, will make the beer last longer for lots of reasons. One of the worst enemies of beer is oxygen. If it dissolves into the beer it will send it off rapidly. Conditioning, and secondary fermentation is part of it, allows the beer time to mature and allows the yeast to produce that protective layer of CO2 which prevents deterioration. This will tell you all about conditioning.

http://www.beer-brewing.com/beer-brewing/beer_chapters/ch14_beer_conditioning.htm

Reply

You must log in to post.