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yoda porter... need help stuck bung...

tws

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greetings beersmith...

everything went well on my first ever brew - a porter.

until i put the wort into my glass carboy... when i put my sanitized cork/bung thingy into the bottle neck it kept slipping out... steep sided rubber cork which my beer supplier assured me was the correct size... anyway i kept pushing it down until i felt no more resistance but it was WAY below the bottle neck line and tho it is working fine (good seal) i have no idea how i'm going to get it out?!

does anyone know how to deal with this problem? how can i get the cork out when i'm ready to rack the beer into a second fermentation carboy?


yodaporter2.jpg



yodaporter3.jpg



yodaporter1.jpg



and a final question...

how do i know when the wort/beer is ready to move to a second carboy then when do i know it is ready to rack into my corny keg?

thanks for any help...

a newbie...

tws









 
Welcome to the sport.    ;D

Use something with a hook/edge on the end to reach through the hole and catch the bottom edge of the bung....then pull it out.  Something like a paint can opener.  Sanitize it and the top of the bung first...just in case it slips on in.  The sanitizer will also help lubricate the glass carboy neck.

As far as when to transfer...that depends(ish).  How long it will take depends on your fermentation temperature.  If you are trying to go as fast as possible, then you can take gravity readings (once you get the bung out), and transfer after it has stabilized (plus a few days). 

If you are feeling more patient, you can wait a sufficiently long time (3 weeks or so).  The longer you wait the clearer the beer will be, and the more likely it will not have any funky flavors. 

No matter what, I wouldn't transfer any sooner than two weeks.  As long as you transfer within 8-12 weeks your beer will be fine.  So, that's your window. 

Its hard with the first couple of brews to wait the proper amount of time...because you are still having to buy beer at the store.  I cure that itch by brewing another batch while I wait 8).  Be patient and you will be rewarded.  On the other hand, do what you want...be impatient, drink some of it too soon...learn what green beer tastes like.  Wait another few weeks, try it again...see how it ages.  As long as you enjoy it (and learn something from it...if that's your thing)....it's all good.

I've got 5 gallons in a corny that I'm drinking (a 2 year old Robust Porter), 7 1/2  that JUST went into bottles, and another 7 1/2 in primary fermenters at the moment (5 1-1/2 gallon micro-batches).  The micro-batches in primary right now are about done (maybe another week or two)...so, I'm feeling like another brew day is in order.

If you think in terms of having a pipeline, you'll never run out of beer and won't feel the "rush" to finish each phase of the process. 

Another tip: always put some beer in a bottle or three---I like the 1 liter flip tops, I also like champagne bottles with 29mm caps.  Keep the bottles for aging.  Try one in 6 months, try another in a year, try another in two years.  Bottle enough so that if two years from now its FANTASTIC...you have more.  I just had some IPA that I brewed 3 years ago.  its not really an IPA anymore because the hop character has faded...but, it was a gorgeous and delicious mellow golden, round and smooth hoppy ale.  You can't buy that kind of stuff.


 
PS: don't bother racking the Porter into a second carboy.  The only thing that would do is risk infection or oxidation. 

Leave it to sit in the primary until you are ready to keg it.  Then, transfer straight to the keg.  Just be careful to avoid sucking the trub.  Since this is your first beer, you WILL suck up some trub.  Don't worry about it. 

Let it sit in the keg and carbonate.  when you are ready to serve, just know that the first few glasses will be cloudy, and be prepared to pour them out or ddrink them cloudy.  Part of being a brewer is drinking some cloudy beer every once in a while.  Just don't force it on your friends!

Are you naturally carbonating or forcing it?  If natural, just put your priming agent directly into the keg (after boiling it, of course)...then transfer on top of it.

 
PPS: Get several of these:

http://morebeer.com/view_product/16655/102272/Universal_Stopper_With_Hole

I think I have like 10, and I always seem to be looking for one.  You can't have too many.
 
wow thanks Tom!

what a great bit of info. indeed i've been trying to study the bottling of beer. your explanation adds a lot to my sparse knowledge.  i went directly to kegging since my experience with bottling beer goes back to the sixties when i helped my dad... lots of exploded bottles in the basement i'm afraid.

so putting some aside (with the proper amount of sugar or tablets per bottle for carbonation?) would definitely be worth my while.

i've always wanted to brew my own, so now iam!

and thanks for the link to the Universal Stopper With Hole. it is exactly what i need.

here is my minor contribution in reply.

bung rescue from CraigTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j7q2oGQQhI&feature=youtu.be

quite an ingenious method of extracting a bung passed along to me today from another brewer.

tws
 
Tom,

you said:

"Are you naturally carbonating or forcing it?  If natural, just put your priming agent directly into the keg (after boiling it, of course)...then transfer on top of it."

i've got a Cornelius keg and planned to clean and sanitize it before racking the porter into it - being careful to omit the trub.  then based on my limited knowledge i'll force CO2 @ 20lbs into it for 24 hrs and carry on from there - wait until it is ready - relieve the pressure and reapply CO2 at between 5 and 8 lbs.

i need to read up on naturally carbonating and what constitutes a priming agent... i didn't know one could naturally carbonate a 5 gal corny keg.

i've got a small chest freezer that i've attached a controller to and it makes a wonderful cooler where i can keep up to 3 corny kegs @ 38 degrees.

thanks again.

tws


 
I think by naturally carbonating he is speaking of adding priming (corn) sugar to the fermented wort.  The left over yeast converts the sugar to co2 and carbonates the beer.  If I was kegging I would force carbonate the beer.  It will be ready quicker!
 
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