The rest of my questions (for now...)

Hi again,

Sorry for the multiple posts, I'll try to condense all the questions I have at the moment into one big (hopefully not rambling) post.

So I'm pretty new to the actual brewing process, although I have been reading about it for a while. I picked up a home brew kit with a keg system after coming into some money so I was able to finally get going on something I'm very passionate about, although having an English Literature degree, knew nothing about chemistry-wise. Anyways, my first brew, a coffee porter, is in the secondary at the moment. First question, in my haste, I never properly aerated the wort before pitching the dry yeast that I did not start early. Is this going to lower the alcohol and/or make the beer overly sweet?

Second question- today I transferred the beer to the secondary fermentor, where instead of letting it ferment again for a week or so, I tossed the coarsely ground coffee in right away. How bad is this? (Sad to think I spent a college career reading, yet can't handle simple instructions, eh?)

Third question- Is it better to keep with the kits for a while and stick to them completely? Or is it OK to tweak the recipe? I picked up BeerSmith about 45 minutes ago and need to play with it before I'm totally comfortable, but that should be before I brew again. I like recipes, but after reading the first part of "How to Brew" I don't want to be the inconsistent lucky guy. Yet I find myself fighting the urge to stick to the recipe. Or is it dependent on the type of beer maybe (fourth surprise question!)?

Thanks in advance,
J

By not aerating your beer, your yeast my not be as healthy as they could be so its possible they could quit early.  I have found, however, that it doesn't take a lot of agitation to areate beer enough so you may be OK.  I don't pump air through my worts.  I flow the beer through a funnel into the primary so there is lots of surface area exposed to air and then let it splash into the carboy to further promote aeration.  I always hydrate my yeast in boiled/cooled water add a tablespoon of Goferm to it before pitching an my fermentations take off like rockets.

I wouldn't think the coffee would hurt your secondary fermentation, but it might mean extrating more coffee flavor than the beer figured on because of longer exposure.  But don't cut your secondary short to try and make up for it.

Each person learns at a different rate.  I only did one kit before going to all grain.  I just did a kit that I highly modified with a partial mash.  I think as long as you have good cleanliness habits, whatever you do in home brew will come out way better than most anything at the beer store.