right track yes?(malt extract brews)

[bangers]

as a novice brewer I have started to learn more and more and even more on hb.Always asking and then applying what I've been advised to do and have had some great success with my brews.So having said that I am currently brewing a cascade mahogoney porter and with the aid of kev"s help and following his recipe all seems well (ta mate) My point is this, I got my ingredients like liquid amber malt ,chocalate malt grain(I was pleasantly suprised to have the grains milled for me by the store owner) honey ect and followed the intructions posted.And then it stared to sink in ,I have been reading Charlie papazian's the home brewers companion and alot of the recipes I've been trying are malt extract recipes with the exception I have been using some form of kit as a basis.When I use grains I usually put tem in a strelised stocking sock (less mess is best) when I removed the grain bag from my boil I noticed that there was still a fair amout o colour coming out of it so placed it in a small fine sieve I had and poured hot water over it to extract more out of it so I'm guessing that is sparging? If I was to follow 1 of the recipes in the book such as "Tits up in the mud pale ale" ( I will post the recipe ) I would be on the right track with following the recipe and the brewing process provided.
the next question is about secondary fermentation Do I wait till there is no activity in the primary fermenter then transfer it to a secondary and leave for a few days or do i transfer it at the tail end when theres about a day to go not sure on that one (I understand this only a minor thing but I feel confident enough to give it a go ).so before I commit to malt extract recipes am I heading in the right direction?

[warra48]

The process you describe will work just fine.
Yes, dribbling water through the grain and rinsing out more goodies is technically called sparging.
What are you trying to achieve by transferring for fermentation to continue in another container?
I personally don't bother. For ales etc, I just leave it for 2 weeks, and then bottle.
It's different for a lager, and I rack those to another container for lagering, but only once fermentation is essentially complete, i.e after about 2 to 3 weeks in primary.

[bangers]

Starting to get the drift just one thing on fermenting I usually after about 7 to 8 days or if my hydrometer is sitting around 10.10 i bottle and leave somewhere nice and dark for at least a month (or temptation gets the better of me) so far I havent had a crook beer should I just stick to what I know ,What I'm getting confused over is that I read that after say seven days or if fermentation has stopped that the yeast willl start to react adversly with wort and send it sour so is it safe just to leave it in my fermentation cupboard (an old freezer it sits around 22c) for at least 2 weeks or till I'm ready to bottle?

[warra48]

If you are at 1010 after 7 or 8 days you will be safe to bottle.
Leaving the beer in the fermenter for another week will do it no harm.
There has been some talk on this forum recently about yeast autolysis, but I think the chance of that happening with even a 3 or 4 week period in primary is remote (although not impossible). Can't find the thread at present unfortunately.
I wouldn't worry about it for practical purposes.

[rwh]

Paragraphs pls... *sob*

The reason I ask is that I skim-read most posts. The idea of a paragraph is that each one contains a single concept which is discussed in several sentences. This allows one to read the first sentence in each paragraph and work out what the writer is going on about. No paragraphs means I can't do that, so what I normally do is skip the post entirely.

[gregb]

Grammar Nazi thread.

Cheers,
Greg

[Pale_Ale]

the next question is about secondary fermentation Do I wait till there is no activity in the primary fermenter then transfer it to a secondary and leave for a few days or do i transfer it at the tail end when theres about a day to go not sure on that one (I understand this only a minor thing but I feel confident enough to give it a go ).so before I commit to malt extract recipes am I heading in the right direction?

Hi Bangers,

If you want to 'rack' (i.e transfer te beer to another container) I would recommend transferring just before the end of fermentation (estimated based on gravity). The rationale behind this is that the beer will continue to ferment in the secondary container and the fermentation process will create a layer of co2 above the beer, which protects it from infection. If you were to transfer the beer when it is fully fermented, there would be no residual sugar to convert and you wouldn't get that layer of protection (in theory.)

I normally rack at about 6-7 days, right before the average 1040-1050 brew is fully fermented (in my conditions).

[Chris]

If/when you start kegging, a squirt of CO2 does a great job too.

[pixelboy]

Or an additional 200gms of DEX into the secondary at racking should give you enuf CO2

[rwh]

200g seems like a lot. I just use a tablespoon, whatever that works out to...

[KEG]

Or an additional 200gms of DEX into the secondary at racking should give you enuf CO2

that's more than most people use to bulk prime - way too much, considering some people use a closed secondary without an airlock.

a tablespoon is absolutely enough. even then, you'd want to purge the secondary daily for the first few days (if you're using a sealed one).

[pixelboy]

Yeah I guess so.. I didnt think a table spoon would produce enough to fill the headspace in the average fermentor.

200gms isnt gunna add that much alc/vol nor will it affect body or head much.. and I always fit an airlock to my secondary.

So I guess 20-50gms is enough?

[Prawned]

Is racking beer pretty safe? Aslong as everything is very clean and sanatised? I just got my keg system up and running, but only have 2 kegs at the moment.. need to build up the supplys of beer as one keg will last the house about 3 days to a week.. and that is only between 2 people

[rwh]

Theoretically, it's pretty safe, especially if you do everything right. Having said that, it seems to be the one process that I've both personally and anecdotally seen introduce the most infections. You really do have to sanitise everything in the process, including the inside of the tap.

Buy more kegs.

[Chris]

Firstly, as rwh said- buy more kegs.

Secondly, I've never had an infection from racking, and I'm not that fastidious with cleaning taps etc. The fermenters are spotless, but the taps aren't really. I just replace them rather than clean them