1st brew kegged

[anita]

At last its done. Half full when I realised that I hadn't put the sugar in. Remembered reading on here about 85 grammes, so that what I tipped in half way through, for 40 pints

Smells good already and frothy.

Hubby, who will drink majority of it, is very useful for prying off FV lid when I want to do anything. Now also disposes of sludge in bottom and is a first class keg mover. :clap:

Next brew on on Friday

 

[carl_saint]

Did you dissolve your sugar before you put it in your keg? Otherwise it might not have mixed properly!

 

[anita]

No, I didn't realise I needed to, I used caster sugar.

 

[Mark1964]

in future dissolve sugar in pre boiled water and add to keg before
you add beer you may have to keep it warm and stir it a little to dissolve the sugar or :pray: it dissolved

 

[anita]

Have the heat belt on it at 22 which is how I kept it while fermenting. How can i tell if its desolving or not?

So its alright to add hot water/sugar solution to beer!, how hot do you have the water when you do this.

 

[Mark1964]

no you dissolve the sugar in pre boiled hot water let it cool then add to keg before you add beer. You wont tell if its dissolved you may have to stir. Also fermentation belts keep the beer too hot you really need to use a thermostat to keep beer at the right temp

 

[anita]

So more preperation next time, was only my first go at it, also my first go at sloe gin. So fingers crossed for both.

I have the belt on a timer and on and off 1/2 hourly. I monitored it over some time before coming to this plan it seemed to keep it at about the right temperature. As we have a wood burner we don't use the central heating so any where warm tend to get to warm and its definately not warm anywhere away from it. I keep it on the kitchen side and planned to leave this there until Friday when I will retire it to the pantry for a cool dark place for 4 weeks.

What sort of thermostat can be used for home brewing. I've had some experice of fish tank heaters sticking on. Not something I want to happend in a small volume of liquid while I'm not about to keep and eye on it.

 

[Mark1964]

you need an aquarium heater stand your fermenting bucket in a larger bucket fill the larger bucket with water then put the aquarium heater in the water set to 22 deg c your better off doing this a day before your due to start making your kit then the water will be warm. I wouldnt advise using a heater belt around a keg though. Once your beer is kegged leave somewhere warm or wrap a duvet around the keg, it only needs a couple of weeks for it to carbonate. Then move somewhere cool and store :thumb:

 

[PhatFil]

your caster sugar will probably disolve n get eaten by the yeast without any probs.. next time tho to take any doubt out of the equation do as suggested above, i use spray malt instead and its rather a dry material which clumps n makes mixing with water a lil bit of a task at times so i have been known to ignore the sage advise and just dump it in,, no problems so far :)

brewing is a pretty forgiving passtime, and a learning experience I know loads of things i shouldnt do primeraly cos ive done them.. and litle er's now and again just go to adding character.. anyway i dont think you will forget to disolve your primming sugars again :)


I used to use a fish tank heater in the winter, but have learnt recently in here of a better way of utilising it, rather than heat your fermenting wort directly pop your fermentation vessel into a bath/bucket/builders bucket, big enough to hold it and fill it with water, now use your fish tank heater to heat the bath your fermentation bottle is sitting in. the water needs only cover the bottom 3rd of your vessel tho more is better, as convection currents will carry the heat up within the wort.
voila gentle heating and no more burnt wort on your heater



happy supping when its done