home brew heaters

[thomasMc]

Hi all. Does anbody know where I can get a thermostatically controlled brew belt or fermentation mat ?
Also,
I am new to this home brewing and althought to date (3 batchs of from 'kits') it is proving to be a distaster I am not prepared to give up. My main problem to date is the the cider/bitter is not sparkling i.e. it is just plain flat. any thoughts/feedback would be much appreicated. I have a 5 gallon drum and a keg (I do not use bottles).

[grabman]

if you're not bottling then couple of things to check:

what pressure are you gassing keg at to prime? I use around 35-40 psi then drop to around 15 to pour.

Check that your lines etc are spotlessly clean and that fridge is at right temp, around 5C is good. Remember that liquid doesn't "absorb" gas at room temp etc so chill keg before gassing for best results.

As for the heat belt, most brew shops stock normal belts etc, just watch temp yourself and maybe use plug in time to cycle unit on and off as needed.

Grabman

[Oliver]

... in regards to the "cidery" taste, what ingredients are you using?

If you're using just a kilo of sugar, try using dextrose (or glucose) or a dextrose/malt mix instead of the sugar. Cane sugar is often blamed for a cidery taste in beer.

But if you can give us the recipes you've tried that have had the cidery taste, we might be able to suggest another cause/solution.

Let us know.

Cheers,

Oliver

[Thoamsmc]

grabman

thanks for you reply. I do not understand what you are referring to when you mention "what pressurre are you gassing keg at to prime?". I am using homebrew kits to which I add sugar and leave to fermenat untill I reaches a specific gravity. I then shpion the contents into my keg, leave it at room temp. for about 2 weeks and then leave it in a cool place.

I use natural spring water from a country well and all the gear is cleaned with a cleaning agent untill very clean. Not sure what else I can do!

[Merlin]

When you mentioned that you keg the beer i think everyone has assumed that you mean that you hook your keg up to a carbon dioxide bottle and pressurise the contents in order to carbonate your beer, or make it "sparkle". If you are letting the beer ferment out and then simply transferring it to the keg, its only going to sit there flat because its not producing its own carbon dioxide. I don't keg myself so maybe one of the other guys can advise if instead of presurising with CO2 whether you can prime kegs with sugar or dextrose the way you do with bottles?

[Shaun]

ThomasMC you need to do one of two things that I know of to carbonate the beer in the keg.

First you can add about 200g dextrose dissolved in water to the keg then siphon the beer into the keg insuring it gentle mixes. Seal the keg and it will then carbonate the same as in bottles. You can read more on this in the thread Priming sugar.

[ThomasMc]

The kind of keg/pressue barrel I am using is known as a 'king keg'. it is the first barrel you see at this URL: "http://home.btconnect.com/thefear/beer-and-wine/barrels.htm". I have an O2 gas cylinder which can be screwed onto the top of the lid. I was led to belive that this gas was only to be used to help push the beer up from the bottom of the barrel.

Just to confirm what you said: I should allow the beer to frement as normal, then "... you can add about 200g dextrose dissolved in water to the keg then siphon the beer into the keg insuring it gentle mixes. Seal the keg and it will then carbonate the same as in bottles."

I can only try all of this when I locate a heater. Many thanks for you feedback. I hope to aquire somekind of heater in the coming days and given that it should take about 1-3 weeks for the cider to frement I hope to let ye know in about 5 weeks time how your suggestions went.

Many thanks in advance.
Thomas.

[Shaun]

Thomas I am not familiar with this type of keg system and have not been able to find a lot of info on it.

You may want to have a look at the threads on this forum site.
http://www.homewinemaking.co.uk/cgi/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=beer

They have lots of threads pertaining to the King Kegs. You may also get a better answer from this forum were the brewers are familiar with the system.

I also found some info here
http://www.girlsstuff.co.uk/product.asp?id=12024

The instructions on this site do not make a lot of sense though as you brew the beer in the keg and then drink. There is no mention of how the beer has been carbonated.

The amount of dextrose may also change depending on the amount of beer made. I can not tell you how much to use as I do not bulk prime (200g is for 23l).

Hopefully there is someone else that can answer your questions better than I.

[NRB]

Why can you only try this when you've got a heater?

[grabman]

Sorry Thomas, not familar with the "king keg" setup so can't offer any clues on this one other than make sure you prime the keg if not force carbonating with CO2 and keep temp steady for at least two weeks to prime.

good luck!