Started first brew today..... made a booboo

Well, today I started my first brew - Festival Brigadeer, a clone of Bombardier.

Maybe it was my eagerness, excitement, stupidity or slightly unclear instructions but I made a small error.

I mixed the LME with boiling water ok, then misread the instructions. What the instructions said was to "add the packet of dextrose if supplied", then dilute with cold water to 20 L and add the yeast. What I did was to add the packet (100 g) of priming sugar, then dilute and add the yeast. The only sugar supplied with the kit is the priming sugar which was for bottling but which is now in my wort.

Now, I know I can get more priming sugar or replace it with granulated sugar when it's bottling time, but I'm curious about the effect of adding the sugar at this stage. Can anyone hazard an educated guess?

I must admit, I'm a bit annoyed at the mistake because I wanted to compare my brew with the genuine to see how the clone fared, but obviously my brew won't be as the Festival company intended, so it's not like for like.

Still, it started bubbling a couple hours ago, and temperature is holding up despite the room being on the cool side. The heated belt hasn't been required.

Don't worry,100g of dextrose won't make any difference that you'll notice. As you say just get some more sugar or dextrose to prime it.

As above all will be fine, i would suggest you now leave it for 2 weeks don't open the lid even if it stops bubbling, when you come to package it just make sure the bottles or what ever it is going in is clean and sanitised, if more advice is needed just shout up this forum has a wealth of knowledge and brewers who will guide you and remember there are no stupid questions only the one's you didn't ask

No issue at all, 100g of sugar will not make any difference at all.

Don't forget to add the dextrose. You may need to dissolve it in some hot (not boiing) water and then let it cool down a bit. The dextrose is for added body.
Not this one, though:

Thanks for your replies. Clarence, there is no dextrose for this kit, just priming sugar. Some kits do have dextrose, not this one, and the instructions cover all kits.

It's bubbling away nicely now and held temperature well, almost constant overnight, despite room going down to 18C.

I was just curious if the sugar would affect anything, eg abv.

Just to help it will add about 0.25% to your ABV if that is what you was wondering

The Baron said:

Just to help it will add about 0.25% to your ABV if that is what you was wondering

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Thanks Baron, how is that calculated? Is there any way to calculate what happends for any quantity of added sugar?

So, no affect on taste, no added sweetness, just modest ABV increase?

I think there is a calculator on the forum under calculators. I just used one of my recipes and added 100g of sugar to it on Brewers Friend and subtracted the new ABV from the previous one

Ok Baron, good to know.

It's bubbling away quite nicely now. Sun's been shining in the room and room and FV temperature gone up. I've removed insulation and left the room door open for a bit so it doesn't rise to much.

There is a faint smell of the LME around the FV. I tasted a drop of the LME yesterday and it tasted horrible! Ghastly. The smell from the FV doesn't smell much better.

I sincerely hope the end product tastes better than the LME!

Don't taste until it ferments out. Otherwise, boak fest! As others say, 100g won't do anything to the beer really.

Deadhead said:

Don't taste until it ferments out. Otherwise, boak fest! As others say, 100g won't do anything to the beer really.

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Don't intend to taste it anytime soon. It smells horrid! There is an "aroma" hanging around the bucket, so I don't think I could even get it near my face without boking.

Still, it's quite therapeutic watching it bubble away "glug, glug". I must admit though, I am looking forward to finally tasting it.

kenstel said:

Don't intend to taste it anytime soon. It smells horrid! There is an "aroma" hanging around the bucket, so I don't think I could even get it near my face without boking.

Still, it's quite therapeutic watching it bubble away "glug, glug". I must admit though, I am looking forward to finally tasting it.

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Don't give the bucket a big sniff , you will take in a lung full of CO2.

Rwilts said:

Don't give the bucket a big sniff , you will take in a lung full of CO2.

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Haha. No, it doesn't smell good enough to deliberately smell it. I can see the lid of the bucket bulging which I think might break the seal (theoretically) so I give it a push down and watch the gas come out the bubbler, then the bubbles settle down and a minute later it starts "glub, glub" again. Quite fascinating that something too small to see is making that much gas, continuously. Even if there are millions of them.

I'm please with the temperature stability though. I monitored the room temperature for a few days before I brewed, and at night the temperature was going down below 18C. It went up during the day and when the heating was on but I was still worried.

The temperature range for this yeast is 20-25C, and I pitched the yeast at 23.5C, thinking that it would hold the temperature with the help of the room heating until the fermentation started which I was hoping would keep it in the proper range, and it has. The temperature has only gone down to 22.3C in the evening/night. I've put the heat belt on manually then to nudge it up to 22.5C and during the day it's holding that temperature. All it has is a towel draped round it. This mid-morning it was 22.6C because the sun comes into that room and the heating had been on (though how long it takes for changes in room temperature to affect the bucket I don't know). It dropped to 22.5C and its been there all day. I expect it to fall slightly tonight and I'll put the belt on if required to keep it stable. Otherwise, it just need patience.

The inkbird is showing barely any change in temperature so I'm very happy with the temperature.

Noticed the last 2 days that the bubbling wasn't as vigorous even though its only half way through the fermenting time.

I increased the temperature very slightly in case the thermometer is picking up the hot temperature from the heater and wasn't representative of the whole. I also wrapped another towel round it because the room is getting quite cold at night these days. We left the heating on low last night because Mrs K feels the cold.

This morning it was back to its old bubbling ways, and I notice that the smell is less "strong" than before. Doesn't smell anything like beer yet, but at least it doesn't smell like something you wouldn't consider putting near your face.

The hops go in tomorrow, then another 5 days of fermenting. Taking a long time this...

Mrs K is monitoring the towel situation. It's sitting on one (some insulation from the desk and also in case it foams up), 2 more wrapped round it, and another available just in case...

Mrs K is monitoring the towel situation. It's sitting on one (some insulation from the desk and also in case it foams up), 2 more wrapped round it, and another available just in case...

kenstel said:

Noticed the last 2 days that the bubbling wasn't as vigorous even though its only half way through the fermenting time.

I increased the temperature very slightly in case the thermometer is picking up the hot temperature from the heater and wasn't representative of the whole. I also wrapped another towel round it because the room is getting quite cold at night these days. We left the heating on low last night because Mrs K feels the cold.

This morning it was back to its old bubbling ways, and I notice that the smell is less "strong" than before. Doesn't smell anything like beer yet, but at least it doesn't smell like something you wouldn't consider putting near your face.

The hops go in tomorrow, then another 5 days of fermenting. Taking a long time this...

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I track my fermentation with a Tilt (floating Bluetooth enabled hydrometer) and it’s actually pretty common for most of the fermentation to take place in the first 48-96 hours it often takes a while for the last bit of fermentation to take place but I wouldn’t be overly worried if the airlock has stopped bubbling at this stage.

Thanks obscure, no, it's not stopped. I did think that the most activity would be at the start but the hops go in Sunday, then it has another 5 days, so we'll see.

Just checked it, bubbling quite nicely, and whilst the room isn't exactly fragrant, it does not smell quite as bad as it did. We'll have to wait and see.
It is getting cold now, and I notice it is cooling down quicker and needing the heat on moe0.