repost: noob, Muntons American Style IPA

[Dub in Lux]

***reposting as previous post did not work***

First time poster, first time brewing.
Please help, and rate my chances of having something drinkable!?

I got the following Muntons kit. http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/150714-CRAFT_INSTRUCT_ALL_2015-1.compressed.pdf

After a few beers on Sunday I started to try and make this. I was rushed as the missus came in half way through.

Followed instructions until I put in the yeast, all seemed to be going well. I then put undiluted StarSan in the airlock as I read something somewhere. I hauled the lot upstairs 2 flights to the attic. There was some sloshing around, and the airlock was bubbling a bit. I left it three and a half days, and this morning noticed the fermentation/sloshing had caused a lot of the liquid to be expelled out of the airlock. Airlock could have been open a day or two. I topped up airlock with water this evening, but there is still pressure (fermentation?) pushing the water towards exit of airlock. I released pressure a few times and bunged in the Summit hops as per instructions.

I have a few concerns.

Airlock was potentially open for a day or two.
It's possible some pure Starsan could have dripped or vacuumed into the beer.
The crausen has brown lumps in it (infected or normal?)
I'm going away Sunday for 5ish days

It will be 11 days in the bucket by the time I get back. Plan is to Spraymalt in the bucket, and then bottle. No idea, when to do this however.

Thoughts, tips, pointers would be helpful!

***cannot attach picture***

[LordEoin]

undiluted starsan's only place is in the bottle. just use water in the airlock, it's fine. diluted starsan if you really want.
it's unlikely any stasan got sucked in unless you picked the FV up with the airlock fitted.
you should be fine with the empty airlock as all the gasses will have been pushing out and not in.
some breweries ferment in open vats.
when bottling, just use sugar. spraymalt will break your heart.
Do it just before bottling, racked to a separate bottling bucket.

[beerfly]

If it was pushed out of the airlock during fermentation your ok, there is positive pressure from inside nothing will leak in (well except flies but wrong time of the year for them).

Don't use undiluted starsan for anything, a bit of the diluted stuff won't do any harm but you don't want the neat stuff going in to beer.

The brown lumps are normal, sounds like lumps of dried yeast.

What's the idea behind adding the spraymalt? If for bottling you want to do that in a separate bucket away from all the yeast in the current fermenter. When to do it, 2+ weeks is a good timeframe.
Idealy you want to take gravity readings a few days apart and if they are the same your good to bottle.

[Dub in Lux]

what kind of sugar instead of the spraymalt? I had read that spraymalt was better than sugar...? and what do you mean "If for bottling you want to do that in a separate bucket away from all the yeast in the current fermenter. " plan was to chuck in the spraymalt into the current bucket instead of sugar and bottle straight away (from the same bucket). i'd read secondary fermentation and buckets was not necessary...?

here is the picture, after a resizing...

[Leann ull]

Did you do any reading of any of the Wikis on the front page of the NHC? Start there.

[beerfly]

That looks ok.

Idealy dextrose/brewing sugar but you can use most types of sugar.

you want the sugar to be evenly spread through the beer before bottling, usually involves disolving the sugar in a pan and adding it to the beer and giving it a gentle stir. do that in the primary and you will be knocking up a lot of yeast which you dont want going into the bottles.
people usually transfer it to a bottling bucket and add the sugar while its filling to get it mixed in without needing to stir it.
Or if filling bottles from the primary, priming each bottle individually

[Dub in Lux]

I'd like to avoid priming bottles individually. i reckon measurements would be iffy if if it would be x grams (small measurement) on a per bottle basis , as opposed to one shot (larger measurement?) basis, which I would be thinking would be preferable?

i did the first gravity measure, and it's at 1029 after 5 days (it tastes ok, tasting now). will try measure/taste before i leave, and do the same once i come back. anything else i should be doing?

beerfly, can you clarify what you mean by "adding sugar while bottling?"

[Dub in Lux]

CH,

just read the "Batch Priming – A Guide By An Idiot", not seeing any other guides for idiots! read a few (relevant) chapters of How to Brew by Palmer, and will re-read on holidays. read random blogs and forums here and there. i think part of the problem is I've taken a little bit from blog A, and a little bit from forum B.... in a mixing and matching kind of way.....

[Leann ull]

Guide to fernentables?
LE and others went to a lot of trouble to document the kit and the actual side of brewing for noobs not the bs you see on some forums or even some books!
Avoid a bit of this and a bit of that until you've done a few batches and understand what each does, focus on getting a couple right and then start messing about with differing techniques, a lot of poor info out there.

[pob]

BrewWiki

[LordEoin]

If you're gung-ho on batch priming in the primary on the trub (which i don't recommend),
- use table sugar
- put it in a saucepan with a pint or so of water (enough to disolve the sugar)
- bring to a boil
- let it cool
- add it slowly
- stir it super gently
- avoid kicking up the crap at the bottom
You'll end up with a lot more sediment in the bottles.

[Jonnycheech]

That looks like a fairly active and healthy krausen you have there, this will die down in a few days after fermentation slows. Be careful about opening the lid to check on the beer though, it can get infected when exposed frequently. Just open the lid enough to take a measurement and don't open unless really necessary. 

Depending on your O.G., the yeast you used and the fermentables in the kit your F.G. will probably be somewhere between 1.010-1.016. Measure when you come back from your trip and if it's in this range bottle away. As the others said it's better to get a second bucket, you'll only regret bottling from primary as your bottles will be full of trub which will get into your glass, no matter how careful you are when pouring.

[Dub in Lux]

OK, if its better to move to secondary before bottling I can do that. I have a second bucket (I thought that was so I could get a second batch going!).

on the sugars, i want a drinkable beer. I live on German border, and can buy Franziskaner for less than e1.50. I don't want to go to lots of effort for beer that will not be drinkable and pleasant.

On the wiki for Fermentables it says "Table sugar (Sucrose) can be used and will make alcoholic, thin beer....The downside is that the cost benefit is usually far outweighed by the reduced quality of the end result beer.
Using table sugar exclusively will produce thinner beer (lacking 'mouthfeel'), with poor head retention and a lack of malty character."

The comments about Spraymalt suggest this would produce a better beer...

Interested to know what the downsides of the spraymalt is, if more ppl are recommending sugar over it?

[LordEoin]

The quote from the wiki is talking about using sugar exclusively as your fermentable, ie "kit+kilo".
with the kit contents and the additional kilo or so of spraymalt used in the beer, the priming sugar (100grams or so) is unnoticeable.
it's just to give the yeast a kick to produce enough co2 for fizz.

[mac2k]

All looks ok. How are you heating the bucket in the Attic?  You will need to maintain a temperature of about 22C or the yeast will stop working.  The only Muntons kit I've done stalled after 6 days at 20C. I had to bump it up to 22C to finish out, which it did after 16 days.