It's been three weeks since I started the Edmond Fitzgerald Porter. Since then, all I have done is racked the beer from my primary fermenter to my secondary fermenter. The main purpose of the secondary fermenter is that when you transfer the beer from the primary, you leave behind a lot of the yeasty gunk and it helps improve clarity and reduce sediment. It also frees up your primary so you can get another batch going, which is what I did because the porter has a longer conditioning time (wait for flavors to get better time) than some other types of beer. My original goal wasn't to have two beers going at once, but I have two kegs and I'm not incredibly patient. The second beer I started is supposed to be like a Fat Tire Amber.
As I'm going through my photos, I remember that the porter had somewhat of an aggressive fermentation the first couple days. A smarter person than myself could probably tell you exactly why it happened, but my guess is that it either had something to do with the temperature of my house or magic. As far as I know, that has no effect on the beer, it just made a sticky, beery mess on my floor.
After one week in the primary, I racked the beer into my secondary. (I also started the Fat Tire Amber.) I then let the porter continue fermenting in the secondary for two weeks, which brings us up to date. Kegging time.
There is nothing special about kegging beer, other than it is much less time consuming than bottling. Rather than cleaning and sanitizing over 50 bottles, I just clean and sanitize one keg. The kegs I use, and most other home brewers use, are called cornie kegs. They are just old soda kegs (before restaurants switched to the plastic bags) that hold five gallons, which is the same amount of a typical batch of beer.
The only thing to remember is to sanitize everything. I then put keg lube on all my o-rings and racked, or siphoned, the beer from my secondary fermenter into the keg. Keg lube is just a food grade Vaseline that preserves the o-rings. You don't have to apply it every time, but I hadn't done it since I got them, so I figured tonight was as good a night as any.
After I filled the keg, I put all my fittings in and closed it up. The next step is to put the keg in my freezer/kegerator and hook up the CO2 (that's two oxygens for every carbon). I set the regulator for around 20 psi. and just let it set for a while. The porter needs to set for a couple more weeks, but the amber should be ready to drink by the end of the week. I also might add, it helps to label the kegs or bottles so you remember which beer is which and when you bottled/kegged it. That's pretty much it, so if you want to come by the house, I have roughly 10 gallons of beer on tap.
