It is always exciting to open up the bucket of beer after the initial fermentation process. It already smells like beer.
You can see just how violently the beer was bubbling in the first stage as it is stuck to the lid and up the sides of the bucket.
One item we are a little lax on is checking the gravity with a hydrometer. This is a measure of the alcohol content by measuring the amount of sugar left in the beer. We are a little bit under where the recipe says we should be. (This could be due to us having to use different yeast because our beer supply shop was out of the variety the recipe called for.)
Content with the reading, we proceed by siphoning the beer from our 5 gallon brew bucket, into a large 5 gallon glass jug.
We do have a tap on the bottom of our brew bucket, but I recommend siphoning it over from the top. As you get to the bottom, there is a lot of sediment. Even though it is healthy and fine to eat, it is just not as appealing to have floaters in your beer. It is said that a lot of this is B vitamins and it is supposed to help with not getting your usually headache/hangover.
Once we reach the "sludge" on the bottom, we remove the siphon so we don't suck it up. We then put the normal bubbler on top of the jug. It sits in this next stage for a week. It will still be bubbling but not as actively as the 1st stage as it continues to ferment.
Continue to keep the beer in a dark area, with consistent temperatures. We want to brew beer and not make anything else. Sunlight can cause other unwanted bacteria to grow.
It is also recommended in all stages of the beer process to not bake bread or other foods with yeast. As it can come in contact with the beer and change the flavor.
Next step is bottling the beer! Stay tuned!