2nd Brew - Youngs I.P.A

[Gioginnelli]

Hi all,

First post here as I've just embarked on my second homebrew. My first was one of my favourites 'Woodfordes Nelsons Revenge' which the Woodfordes brewery in Woodbastwick is local to me and visited a few times, even to take a trip to the pub attached to it and to drop in the shop to pick up goodies! This turned out OK, but think there could've been a few things I could've done to make it better.

I'm on my second homebrew and decided to try an IPA as I wanted something lighter and hoppier in the summer rather than a darkish ruby ale that the Nelsons Revenge would offer.

All well so far except a couple of questions which I'm wondering if it'll cause me issues.

I took the first SG reading using my tall sample glass but ended up getting my clean hand in there a bit.

I also came down in the morning to the wort and there was a visible froth line that was higher than the liquid line. After which I'd learned my 4 year old banged the top a couple of times which most likely made the froth 'drop'.

My two questions are:

Is my hand going into the wort likely to cause any contamination? My hand was clean.
Is a dropped froth on the wort likely to cause issues? Will it rise again? Does it need to rise again?

Thanks

 

[terrym]

Is my hand going into the wort likely to cause any contamination? My hand was clean.
Is a dropped froth on the wort likely to cause issues?
Will it rise again?
Does it need to rise again?
Thanks

In short
- Extremely unlikely
- None whatsoever. The froth or krausen as its more often called does drop in the end anyway
- More unlikely than likely, but the yeast will still be working.
- No

Provided you keep the FV and the beer inside above about 19*C the fermentation will just progress to completion. Add your hops guided by the SG in the instructions not how many days its been on the go, And sometimes it takes nearly three weeks to finish so be patient
There's along thread about this kit here.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/youngs-american-ipa.45221/

 

[Gioginnelli]

In short
- Extremely unlikely
- None whatsoever. The froth or krausen as its more often called does drop in the end anyway
- More unlikely than likely, but the yeast will still be working.
- No

Provided you keep the FV and the beer inside above about 19*C the fermentation will just progress to completion. Add your hops guided by the SG in the instructions not how many days its been on the go, And sometimes it takes nearly three weeks to finish so be patient
There's along thread about this kit here.
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/youngs-american-ipa.45221/

Excellent, i guess you know when you go through the whole process and when things don't go 100% as you think they need to go you get a bit paranoid. Especially for me as it's only my 2nd time, but having done a lot of research and watched many instructional youtube videos, certain situations and scenarios aren't covered.

Thanks. I will check out the link!

 

[terrym]

Excellent, i guess you know when you go through the whole process and when things don't go 100% as you think they need to go you get a bit paranoid. Especially for me as it's only my 2nd time, but having done a lot of research and watched many instructional youtube videos, certain situations and scenarios aren't covered.

Thanks. I will check out the link!

This might still be of use if you are still on the first part of the learning curve
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...de-to-brewing-your-own-beer-from-a-kit.57526/

 

[Gioginnelli]

Great, these links are very useful.

The air lock has been bubbling away since starting fermentation, and I've had it at a pretty constant 21 degrees.

Since starting it 3 days ago

Low: 19.4
High: 23.5

The air lock has now stopped bubbling since I moved it to a slightly cooler place, around 1 degree lower. Is this an issue, should i not have moved it, although i did it carefully.

Will it start bubbling again.
Does it need to start bubbling again
or
Do i need to restart fermentation?

Thanks

 

[Gioginnelli]

Now have a bit of airlock action but it's once every 5 mins approximately.

I just hope my children haven't been pissing around with it which means something isn't right!

 

[terrym]

You can't really upset a fermentation by simply moving your FV from one place to another. However yeast likes a steady background temperature, and moving fron a warm environment to a cooler one may not be the best thing to do. As far as lack of airlock activity it is quite possible that your fermenataion is chugging along but the lid to FV seal is leaking. It looks sealed but it isnt, and after the initial part of the fermentation has died down the path of least resistance is through the leak area not the airlock. Its a common problem.

 

[Gioginnelli]

You can't really upset a fermentation by simply moving your FV from one place to another. However yeast likes a steady background temperature, and moving fron a warm environment to a cooler one may not be the best thing to do. As far as lack of airlock activity it is quite possible that your fermenataion is chugging along but the lid to FV seal is leaking. It looks sealed but it isnt, and after the initial part of the fermentation has died down the path of least resistance is through the leak area not the airlock. Its a common problem.

Great! So what should I do about it now?
Day 4 now and how often should the airlock be working?
Before issue it was about every 30 seconds.

 

[Gioginnelli]

No airlock action for over 20 minutes.
There is water droplets forming on the FV lid. Is that normal is that the zone of the leak as it's only to one side of the lid!?

 

[Gioginnelli]

Apologies, double posted there. Editing the post now, as I've removed the airlock and filled it some more and resealed it [pushing it into the openining further to try get a tighter fit].

Whilst i took the airlock out i got a photo of the top. Anything here that looks like it shouldn't?

Whilst writing, airlock has just gone crazy, bubbled away and some of water has transfer across to one side of the chamber [rather than being on both sides] and expelled a little bit from the top.

Looks like it's sort of back to business as usual.

 

[terrym]

Your top picture shows a healthy krausen (yeasty foam) on top of the beer. I now suggest you forget all about about it for another 10 days.

 

[Gioginnelli]

Your top picture shows a healthy krausen (yeasty foam) on top of the beer. I now suggest you forget all about about it for another 10 days.

Thanks, I will do.

I had taken the airlock out and reinserted further and tighter and it's been bubbling away all afternoon!

Much happier now!

 

[Gioginnelli]

Any help out there as to what temperature I'll need to keep the bottles at to condition. We've got a bit of a heatwave coming up, but I should be able to maintain a consistent 22degs and below.

Also with regard to priming, I'd rather not add a teaspoon to each bottle and would rather pour the sugar in the tub.

The contents is still in the fermentation tub and I'm soon going to transfer to the barrel with tap. If adding priming sugar when is best to do this if adding to the whole lot?