[nomates]

Hello all ,
hope some of you more experianced can give me some advise,I bought a king keg with top outlet a co2 canaster and a coopers lager kit yesterday,just want to know if i'm going about things the right way ,as, all the instructions i've got for various things seem quite contradicting.
I firstly steralized the keg ,then I poured 1 KG of granulated sugar ,the coopers wort and 2 liters of boiling water into the keg and stirred the mixture to dissolve then topped up to 20 liters of cold water .made sure the liquid was about 25 degrees C and then added the yeast ,stirred again and fitted the top (forgot to put vasaline on the seal)

Is it too late to open the top and put vasaline on the seal or shouldn't the top be opened?

how long before I can drink the lager?

secondary fermentation is mentioned by bottling and adding a different kind of sugar ( I was going to pour and drink it straight out of the keg,will this mean it be be flat if I don't bottle it?)

[BierNewbie]

Usually the keg would be used AFTER fermentation that took place in another vessel. I am worried that you may be making a bomb since you didn't mention an airlock.

Please go and read Palmers How to Brew at: http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

[nomates]

it has a special pressure release valve to vent excess pressure

[salgy]

this scares me a little...

Originally Posted by nomates

Is it too late to open the top and put vasaline on the seal or shouldn't the top be opened?

you usually can open the lid off a fermentor for a short period of time with no ill effects... just remember to sanitize everything that will make contact with the inside of the vessel (including your hands)

Originally Posted by nomates

how long before I can drink the lager?

true lagers (fermented at low temperatures 40-55 degrees F) take any where from 6-8 weeks before bottling... if you are brewing a lager style beer with an ale yeast (room temperature fermantation) it will be done fermenting faster... this style is like german kolsch beers. and should complete fermentation in about 10 days... if you are using a lager yeast but ale temperature (california common or steam beer style)... it will be done somewhere in between the other 2

Originally Posted by nomates

secondary fermentation is mentioned by bottling and adding a different kind of sugar

secondary fermentation is not done in bottles... it would involve siphoning your beer into another vessel and waiting a few weeks for the beer to age, mellow, and clarify... the "different kind of sugar" is corn sugar or dextrose and since it is 100% fermentable, the remaining yeasties in your brew consume this and produce co2... since your beer at this point would be in an airtight environment, it produces the carbonation...

Originally Posted by nomates

( I was going to pour and drink it straight out of the keg,will this mean it be be flat if I don't bottle it?)

this sounds to me like you were planning on fermenting and storing, and then serving and drinking the beer in the same original keg...since this is your first batch, you don't know the ammount of spent grain, dead yeast, and other nasty nasty stuff that collects at the bottom of a primary fermentor... please rack your beer over to another vessel...

[Llewner]

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwww. Icky

[Jstevens]

I agree with the other folks, you defiantly want to do your primary fermentation in a different vessel. I would take it a step further; I would start out in a primary fermentation food grade bucket or glass carboy, then rack to a secondary carboy and then add your priming sugar when you go into the keg. It sound like more work, but I think the result will be worth it to you. The other thing to consider when your talking about using a keg for you primary fermentation, is the mess. The keg your using may be different than mine(I use soda kegs), but it takes a lot more effort to clean and sanitize the keg than to clean and sanitize a bucket or carboy. I agree with salgy, the flavors you get from the dead yeast and spent grain is not going to be anything you want to share with your buddies.