5 gallon fermenting bucket

[DeanoD]

im about to start brewing a geordie 40 pint lager its my first time brewing anything at this quantity , my fermenting bucket doesnt have a hole in the lid for a bubbler is this needed or could i just leave the lid resting on the top ? ive got a nice dark cupboard with a temp of 18c any advice would be handy

 

[PD]

just fit the lid on they are never air tight gas will escape easy enough

 

[Vossy1]

Just fit the lid and crack one corner/area open so you hear it open slightly, job done

 

[DeanoD]

lovely cheers , roughly how long do they take untill there ok to drink ? i know temps and conditions vary just a rough guess would be handy ,

 

[Cononthebarber]

I would leave it at least 10 days before even touching it again, then give it a hydrometer reading (if you have one of course) then bottle or keg...job done :thumb:

 

[DeanoD]

i do have a hydrometer , the kit tells me to take readings every day is this needed or should i wait a till next sunday then take a reading everyday after that ?

 

[bobsbeer]

No need to do it everyday. Do it at the start and again after 5 days, then 10 days. If the readings at 5 & 10 are the same, it's finished. If not leave it for a couple more days and do again. It will have finished by then so the readings at 10 & 12 will be the same, but if not leave it a bit longer. But assuming it has finished bottle and or keg. Give it another 2 weeks to condition after you add the priming sugar and you are set to go. Another couple of weeks in a cooler area will do it good, but basically the beer is ready after it has had time to condition. Enjoy. :

 

[DeanoD]

yeah the last fermenting stage is in the bottle with a little bit of sugar to fizz it up and must be left a room temp to finish hopefully i wont have any set backs as would be nice to drink it over christmas :thumb:

 

[kentmark]

My own experience with a geordie bitter kit was ignore any instructions on time in the kit it took a lot longer than their optimistic times!

 

[DeanoD]

yeah i know what you mean i followed a gallon cider to letter waited 5 weeks for a nice dry cider as per instructions , cooled it in the fridge for a bit to stop fermentation bottled it left it somewhere dak and cool for 2 weeks poured myself a pint and it was way too sweet !!! poured it away in the end not a happy man !!!!!

 

[fbsf]

That sounds like the fermentation got stuck - if you had checked the gravity at 5 or 10 days with a hydrometer, you would have spotted it and could have taken action (stir the brew, move to a warmer place) that might have avoided losing the whole brew. Still, no point crying over lost cider :)

 

[DeanoD]

could that be why there was alot of sediment that settled in the bottles after the first few days ? and possibly why my 2 batches of white wine went sour due to cold temp ?

 

[fbsf]

Possibly in the cider, although I would expect a little sediment to drop out anyway. If it hadn't properly finished, then it was probably a good thing you poured the bottles away - if you had put them somewhere warm, it could have re-started the yeast and you might have got bottle bombs!

A sour wine is either just very dry (which means it's fermented right out) or infected - storing it in the cold won't cause it to go sour. The WOW (Wurzel's Orange Wine) wines that I have done often taste quite harsh when bottling, but mellow nicely after about three months. They are still dry, as I don't sweeten them with Splenda or the like, but they lose the harsh acidic and vodka-y taste and smell once matured.

 

[DeanoD]

i would like to make more wine and cider but having them go wrong puts me off abit