[bornin1775]

Good morning!   Day one after my first batch ever last night, but I was hoping for a little advice from you the veterans here!

1.  I ordered the Kama Citra and the Amber Ale... and brewed the Kama because I'm anxious to drink it!

2.  I also ordered the starter kit.  It was missing the siphon (but has the tubing).  Also... I received 2 buckets.. both with the bottle filling spigot.  I thought I was only getting one regular bucket and one the siphonless bucket. 

3.  I threw the spigot on and turned it to the side... and it is good and tight.  But I read the instructions that say to  do a secondary fermentation for the Kama.  Do I somehow port it from one bucket to the next (using the siphon tube?).  Do I conduct the secondary fermentation in it's current bucket, just adding the extra hops 10 days before bottling?  It's my first batch, and I'm really concerned that looking at the bucket - I have almost 2/3 gallon of sludge like stuff at the bottom (assuming fermentation will reduce that).  The fermentation has started and all looks great for now!  I'm headed to the Army War College as a prior Marine, and hope to take this batch as an offering... lol. 

For some reason I was expecting to get a siphon and thought I'd be moving the wort from one bucket to the next for stage 2, and bottling straight from there. 

Second question:  for bottling day, I bought the fizz drops.  But I also see instructions for a priming solution.  Does it matter? 

[spurviance]

Transferring to another vessel for a secondary fermentation isn't practiced much by homebrewers any more unless you wanted to let it condition for a lengthy period.  The effects of exposing the beer to oxygen during transfer seem to outweigh any benefits.  One exception, since you're fermenting in the plastic bucket, would be if you planned to keep it in the bucket for over 3 weeks before bottling.  Oxygen can permeate plastic and brewers wanting to condition for longer periods will transfer to glass or stainless.  For your IPA you're probably not going to want to wait that long before bottling so I would skip the secondary. 
Priming sugar does the same thing as the carbonation tablets, just adds a bit of sugar that the yeast still suspended in the bottled beer can nibble on and produce CO2 for carbonation.  Others with more experience bottling can chime in on which method seems to work best.  Typically when using priming sugar you would dissolve the sugar in water and place at the bottom of an empty bottling bucket.  Then transfer the beer into that solution (while minimizing splashing which oxidizes).  This mixes the sugar and beer and allows you to leave the 'trub' (stuff that sinks to the bottom of the bucket) behind as you don't want to bottle that.  In your case you could bottle straight from your fermentation bucket and add the appropriate number of tablets to each bottle.

[bornin1775]

Wow!!  Fantastic information!!  Thank you so much!!

[bornin1775]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10216978588753112&id=1118366985

So... original gravity was 1.052. Final gravity is 1.010.  I'm not sure if the picture will show up, but it is 2 weeks later and I skipped secondary fermentation.   Wort tastes good!!  Actually like an IPA...lol.  I was shocked. 

I appreciate the original guidance - it seems to be spot on. 

So, there is still a lot of sludge in the bottom.  So, I really need to be careful and leave as much at the bottom, even if it means leaving beer behind - right?  I'm opting to make a priming solution to add further clarity vice the fizz caps.  Does all of this sound right?  I'm really excited - I'd hate to mess it up now! : )

Thanks!! 

[Semper Sitientem]

Yes, what you’v explained is correct. leave as much trub behind as possible. A little into your bottling bucket won’t hurt given it will be distributed across all your beer. I bottle condition with priming solution as Spurviance described with continued success, but make sure you add the right amount of sugar for your batch. There are calculators on the web.

I bring 1 cup filtered water to a boil, add sugar, and let boil for another 5 minutes. I then cool down my priming solution to within 10 degrees of the wort before mixing. I’ve only read that bad things can happen mixing with hot priming solution, but never wanted to risk it.

[BrewBama]

One priming calculator: https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/


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[bornin1775]

Appreciate the gouge from both of you - very helpful!  And I should know that a fellow leatherneck would be providing some help!

[spurviance]

So, there is still a lot of sludge in the bottom.  So, I really need to be careful and leave as much at the bottom, even if it means leaving beer behind - right?  I'm opting to make a priming solution to add further clarity vice the fizz caps.  Does all of this sound right?  I'm really excited - I'd hate to mess it up now! : )

Thanks!!

Yes.  I used to try and get every last drop of beer from the bucket into a bottle.  Invariably my last bottle or two ended up with some of the trub from the bottom of the bucket and made that beer cloudier and less tasty.  I learned to make sure an make a small notation on the last couple bottles so that I didn't give away or share those and saved for personal consumption as they were 'flawed' a bit.  Nonetheless I could appreciate them for what they were.