Hello from Fredericton (Also, help... I have pics)

[Two Wheeler]

Hey all,

Wanted to introduce myself here. I've been reading the site for a week now, along with nearly every home brew site around! There's certainly no shortage of information out there! I found interest in home brewing after visiting the Sam Adams brewery on a recent trip to Boston, and after watching a beer documentary on Netflix. Then, I remembered that when I was a kid, the father of one of my friends made his own beer. Well, after poking around for info on the web and visiting the local Noble Grape, here I am! I needed a hobby outside of my motorcycle (especially this time of year), and this seemed like a great combination of creativity, technology and well, of course, beer.

I'm starting on a Festa Blonde Lager for my first batch. My plan is to do maybe one more Festa after this and then move up the difficulty scale once I have a little experience. I'm in an apartment and will have to sort through the challenges brought on by that, but I'm very excited!

On to the help part. I followed the NG instructions and am doing my primary in the bucket with the lid loose. Here are two pictures of the fermentation:

At 18 hours:


At 53 hours:



My question is, do these look right? Also, based on the instructions, I feel like it's very close to ready to rack. I plan to do that just under the 72 hour mark. Would anyone advise against that?

Also, I have the primary bucket set up about 12 inches off the ground... I'm going to need to raise it to help with racking. How careful do I need to be about lifting the bucket and disturbing sediment?

Thanks in advance!

[chalmers]

Welcome!

Yes, those pics look fine. The early foamy one was when the beer was at full krausen, with the yeast working hard at reproducing and eating the fermentable sugar. As the fermentation slows down (due to fermentable sugar becoming scarce), the yeast will flocculate (clump together) and fall to the bottom of the bucket. Sometimes the foamy "head" will persist, even after fermentation is complete.

As for when to rack to secondary, more important than the timing from pitching to transfer is the progress of the fermentation. You want that to be pretty much over at this point, and the secondary is primarily to clear the beer (allow more yeast to flocculate), and allow the yeast to do a bit more work bringing you to final gravity.
To check this, you need to use something to measure the gravity, usually a hydrometer. Do you know the starting and estimated final gravities of the beer? If not, Noble Grape should be able to tell you. Once you are within a few points (ie. 0.003), it's a good time to transfer.

Don't worry too much about stirring up a bit of the yeast and it making it to the secondary when you have to raise the bucket. Again, you'll keep it in secondary for a while (on homebrewing scales, its very difficult to secondary for too long, ie, it could go for months, but you will probably get thirsty before then), so the yeast will have settled out again. You can help yourself by moving the bucket now, so it's got a day or two to re-settle. To save as much beer as possible for the secondary, you might consider putting a hockey puck or roll of tape under one side to allow your racking cane to get further down without aspirating the yeast cake.

Edited to add: There are many of us on here that do not do a secondary, but if you are bottling, it's a good idea to begin your brewing career doing that. What you don't want is too much yeast in the flat beer going into your bottles, as you'll end up with over-carbonated beer. I keg, and do not secondary unless it's a style that really benefits from it.

[mr x]

That is fast for the lager yeast. What temp did you ferment at?

And

How did you find us?

[Tony L]

That is fast for the lager yeast. What temp did you ferment at?
?

Welcome to the BrewNosers.

I would assume he fermented the S-23 at ale temperatures. Not ideal, but still should make a decent drop even if it is a little fruity for the style.
Most of us don't secondary, but instead leave the primary alone for a further couple of weeks after primary is finished. But as we do this, we
don't generally have our brews fermenting warmer than recommended for the yeast.

I do up a Blonde Lager for my B-I-L each year using S-23 at basement temps of 62f and it comes out alright.

[LiverDance]

[akr71]

[jeffsmith]

[Two Wheeler]

That is fast for the lager yeast. What temp did you ferment at?

And

How did you find us?

I would assume he fermented the S-23 at ale temperatures

Hey guys, thanks for the input. I used the yeast that came with the Festa brew. I threw out the packet and can't remember the specifics of it. Next time I'll be more observant! I've also been fermenting at my room temp, which has been fairly steady at 22 degrees. The instructions said 18-23 but it seems from you guys and everything else I've read so far that I'm fermenting too warm. I'm going to have to find a solution to regulate temps better.

Also mr x, I found the brewnosers by googling "Festa brew" and one of the top hits was this forum. Loving it so far!

[mr x]

I think the instructions in those kits are not so good. Lager yeasts should be fermented in the lower 50's. I did that kit before, and at 57f, it took almost 2 weeks iirc.

[chalmers]

NG can tell you what yeast it was.

[Tony L]

NG can tell you what yeast it was.

All the lagers in the Festa kits come with S-23.

[Tony L]

I think the instructions in those kits are not so good.

I don't think they are either. They, like all the instructions that come with K&K, are geared toward first time brewers and just the fact they make beer
is supposed to be good. They don't figure that people can understand simple instructions that can make the beer good.

After saying that, it's pretty hard to screw up a brew using the festa instructions.... just not the best beer those kits can make.

[bluenose]