Post by Bob McGill on Feb 13, 2007 21:08:59 GMT -5
Mad Mike and I bottled our Red Ale Sunday (extract + grains). Color was good, big roasty flavor (maybe overly), little hops (expected) 5% alcohol. I will bring a liter bottle to next meeting. Mike brought over a 22 oz of his pale ale and ask for tips. My only negative comment on the beer was that it was cloudy, a good first beer. Looking at his procedure, Mike fermented in a acid carboy (6.5 gallons) and used a plastic bucket for a secondary. Mike: I would have suggested you just use just the glass fermenter since you bottled quickly. If you wanted to age more in the secondary, the recommended way would have been plastic first and glass second. The reason for this is that the shape of the glass carboy better expells oxygen and prevents air born yeast from entering. Also, plastic is permeable to oxygen. You took a risk in transfering to a plastic bucket as a secondary of getting unwanted yeast in your beer. The big surface area and problems in expelling air born contaminants is the reason for risk. If you drink the beer young (keep in frig), you will never know if this happened.
