LME kits questions

[Alain24601]

Hey guys,
New to the hobby, took a year to educate and equipped myself.
I did everything backwards, I started doing all grains, I wanted to learn the process and understanding each step. Made some mistakes along the way but the worst so far is a bitter that turned flat but still tasty.
I now have 9 batches under my belt.

since winter is here, brewing all grains outside can be a pain so I decided to try those cans of LME and bought 2 kits.
My first one was a light lager. I couldn’t believe how easy it was, boil a gallon of water, dumped 2.2 pounds of sugar add water to desired 5 gallons pitch yeast ferment and bottle. Easy right?
In my kit, it said after pitching the yeast, ferment with a hard bung or full cover NO airlock for 5 days then rack into secondary with an airlock for 15 days. Fermentation ends when no bubbles or same reading over 2-3 days. Simple.
However, when I racked into secondary and applied the airlock there was NO movement whatsoever in the airlock. I must say my lid looked like it was about to explode In those 5 days with a full lid but it held on to my amazement, I was even considering burping it!
I’m bottling this batch next week, I’m really curious how it turns out.
Is it normal to have no activities in the airlock? Should I be worried?

My 2nd kit is a Muntons Connoisseur Wheat Beer and I am baffled by the instructions.
Same kind of process, really easy. This kit says
Fermentation with airlock (ok that’s normal) and fermentation will be done in 4-6 days.
Then you rack into bottling bucket with sugar to bottle the batch. Then let bottle condition 14 days and enjoy.

I’ve always used 3-4 weeks as rule of thumb for carbonating ales.
So in all grains I would ferment for a month then bottle and condition for a month (3-4 weeks) and enjoy it.
I’ve always had good success and never had too much carbonation. My pattern is easy, 2 months from grains to drinking.
With this kit I’m looking at 20 days for the entire process which seems extremely short.
I’m afraid to have under carbonation, should I be worried?
In my all grains, should I take it off the fermentor faster than a month?

compared to the lager kit, it was 5 days in primary, 10-15 days in secondary and 3 weeks to carb. For a total of a month and a half...roughly
This kits is 4-6 days for fermentation and 14 days to carb for a total of 20 days?!?

thanks for the comments!
A.

 

[Donoroto]

Welcome. No, that's not at all backwards. All-grain is the most flexible method and, once mastered, makes the rest seem too easy.

Light lager: Fermenting under pressure vastly speeds up the fermentation process; a typical lager might be a week or two of active fermentation, and t weeks of conditioning, followed by a month of lagering (which is a mechanical settling process to clear up the beer). Fermenting under pressure as you did (sounds very scary, I'd not have the nerve to try it like that) means almost all the CO2-producing stuff happened in 2 or 3 days, and so not seeing airlock activity is no cause for alarm. The yeasties are basically done with alcohol and are now eating Diacetyl and stuff. 2 weeks before bottling is reasonable here.

Wheat beer: Yup, that easy. Most bubbling for 3 days, let it rest for another 3 (or longer if you like) and bottle it.

Carbonation should be nearly complete in 14 days, but longer can be better and is not harmful.

Fermentation speed also depends on temperature, so really cold can seem like no activity at all.

Some data points for you:
I brewed an all-grain hefeweitzen last Wednesday. Most of the bubbles stopped Saturday. I plan to package it tomorrow. (I use kegs exclusively; carbonation takes under 24 hours and can be precisely controlled)

I brewed a lager Octoberfest last September, underpitched the yeast (not on purpose) and it took 12 days for the bubbling to slow down. I let it condition for 2 weeks, kegged it to lager and after a month (Novemberfest) it was pretty good, albeit with one minor off-flavor I still have not identified. But over 2 months to drink a beer was far too long.

A friend brewed an IPA Monday evening, pitched it with Kveik yeast, and at 90 F fermentation was done in under 24 hours (1.060 to 1.010). He will let it condition 2 days and be drinking it Friday.

 

[Craigerrr]

Hey guys,

In my kit, it said after pitching the yeast, ferment with a hard bung or full cover NO airlock for 5 days then rack into secondary with an airlock for 15 days. Fermentation ends when no bubbles or same reading over 2-3 days. Simple.
However, when I racked into secondary and applied the airlock there was NO movement whatsoever in the airlock. I must say my lid looked like it was about to explode In those 5 days with a full lid but it held on to my amazement, I was even considering burping it!
I’m bottling this batch next week, I’m really curious how it turns out.
Is it normal to have no activities in the airlock? Should I be worried?

A.

Couple comments for you here.

One
Secondary, in 99% of brewing is not necessary, and only serves to add an opportunity for infection.
I have personally never transferred to a secondary vessel in 51 brews.

Two
It baffles me that they would recommend sealing the fermenter completely for 5 days.
I would recommend fixing an air lock from the beginning, or a blow off tube if you don't have much headspace in your fermenter.

Three
The fact that your bucket lid was bulging tells me that you had active fermentation. Bubbles are not necessarily an indicator as your bucket lid may leak (which yours clearly did not, or at least not to a point).

Welcome to Brewers Friend!

 

[Hawkbox]

Yeah don't seal a fermenter with active fermentation or you just created a beer bomb.

 

[Alain24601]

Hey guys,
New to the hobby, took a year to educate and equipped myself.
I did everything backwards, I started doing all grains, I wanted to learn the process and understanding each step. Made some mistakes along the way but the worst so far is a bitter that turned flat but still tasty.
I now have 9 batches under my belt.

since winter is here, brewing all grains outside can be a pain so I decided to try those cans of LME and bought 2 kits.
My first one was a light lager. I couldn’t believe how easy it was, boil a gallon of water, dumped 2.2 pounds of sugar add water to desired 5 gallons pitch yeast ferment and bottle. Easy right?
In my kit, it said after pitching the yeast, ferment with a hard bung or full cover NO airlock for 5 days then rack into secondary with an airlock for 15 days. Fermentation ends when no bubbles or same reading over 2-3 days. Simple.
However, when I racked into secondary and applied the airlock there was NO movement whatsoever in the airlock. I must say my lid looked like it was about to explode In those 5 days with a full lid but it held on to my amazement, I was even considering burping it!
I’m bottling this batch next week, I’m really curious how it turns out.
Is it normal to have no activities in the airlock? Should I be worried?

quick update, beer turned out great. So much so that I got another kit that I intend to keg this summer...one thing that is still bothering me is the full closure of the fermentor, my knowledge and the comments are all in line with the fact you don’t do that unless you want a beer bomb.

so I got another kit and sure enough, I didn’t read the instructions wrong...I even compared to the French version and they do indeed recommend full closure!
The instructions are posted below.
This time I’ll stick to my knowledge and apply an airlock and leave it in primary, I only use a secondary to batch age for long periods of time.
Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[Minbari]

Yeah don't seal a fermenter with active fermentation or you just created a beer bomb.

exactly what I was gonna say. my father in law did this with a carboy of wine. lucky no one was in the room

 

[Craigerrr]

Nobody who has ever brewed beer would ever suggest to seal the fermenter, you can just put that out of you head from here out.

There is an excellent resource on this site for the new brewer, I highly recommend you spend some time going over this, and refer to it often.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/forum/threads/beginners-brewing-illustrated-tutorial.10627/

There is also an online version of John Palmer's "How to Brew", the free online version is an older publication of the the book, but is also a great resource for the new brewer as a learning tool.
http://www.howtobrew.com/

Another great resource is this forum!
Feel free to post any questions you may have. There are many seasoned veteran brewers here that are happy to offer advice and guidance.
We were all beginners at one point who received help and advice along the way, and we are pleased to pay it forward. The help and advice I received from the good folks here has been invaluable in my journey. It is actually pretty cool for me to have gone from being a nervous rookie, to a frequent advisor in a relatively short period of time. Even cooler for me is seeing others develop from newbie inquisitive brewer into advisor here on the forum as well. The only stupid question is the one you don't ask!

Good luck Alain!

 

[GFHomebrew]

quick update, beer turned out great. So much so that I got another kit that I intend to keg this summer...one thing that is still bothering me is the full closure of the fermentor, my knowledge and the comments are all in line with the fact you don’t do that unless you want a beer bomb.
Next batch wack an airlock in

It says to cover with lid or plastic sheet and tie down I think this is a broad generalised statement. Not a great one for a new brewer following instructions.

If you fermented in a bucket for sure the gasses escapes somewhere out the seal around the lid. The lid would have blown off otherwise .
Fermenting under pressure with a spunding valve helps reduce esters in fermentation and allows for a higher ferm temperature.

 

[Hawkbox]

Yeah they're either explaining it badly or setting people up for a disaster. Glad you have that figured and are proceeding.

Congrats on your successful beer!

 

[soccerdad]

Those kits are often called Kit And Kilo (kit with a kilo of sugar). If you search that you will find a thousand ideas .. Half the sugar, or a half kilo of dme, or an extra ounce of hops. There are as many variations as there are brewers. Enjoy!