An inauspicious start to my brewing career!

[mnp14pc]

I'm 9 days into my first ever attempt.. A woodford's wherry kit. 5 gallon plastic FV. Well sterilised (I believe!). However, I'm not too sure how well I mixed the syrup in with the boiling water so may left some some stuck to the bottom of the vessel. There was certainly some left in the bottom of the tins that I wasn't sure if I should 'rinse' into the vessel (it was all rather a bit of a panic trying to focus on keeping things sterile to be honest). Anyway.. the OG before pitching was 1.037. This was after adding cold water to the mix but I didn't take an exact temperature so haven't adjusted that reading. 9 days later.. no krausen at all.. no airlock activity (the FV was a bit warped so it's probably not particularly air tight) but there is some scum around the side and on the underside of the lid. The reading I took tonight was 1.015 which I've calculated is a mighty 2.89%. The temp in the room has been between 63F and 68F so how accurate any of those readings/calcs are is debatable. I'm not really sure what to do next. Leave it a bit longer? Give it a stir? Add some more yeast? Add somesugar? Bottle it? Pour it down the sink? Anyway, whatever I do with it and however it tastes I've thoroughly enjoyed it so far and I'll certainly be trying again. Any advice or comment on any of the above would be much appreciated.

 

[rodabod]

You may be able to get as low as 1012 or 1010. Keep the fermenter somewhere warm, say 20c if you can, for another week. Also, with the lid on, swirl the contents of the fermenting vessel by rocking it in a swaying motion. This will rouse the yeast. Just try to avoid lifting the lid often as this increases infection risk.

 

[mnp14pc]

Thanks for this. Yes, from reading a number of threads it does seem the general advice is to leave it a bit longer. I'll definitely move it somewhere warmer and I guess that will agitate it slightly. I had been wondering if the yeast provided in the kit was too old? Although my readings do indicate there's been some activity so maybe its just been too cold and slow.

 

[dave_walton]

Rinse your cans out with a couple of kettle fulls of boiling water. The Wherry is renound for sticking, you could always get a pack of yeast from Wilkos and repitch if your worried.

 

[thegoatboy]

I gave mine a stir and managed to get it down to about 1012.

 

[Cwrw666]

If your malt isn't properly mixed with the water then your OG reading is bound to be low. It'll still ferment though. Lots of brews finish fermenting at 1015 so I shouldn't worry, just leave it another week before bottling.
You should have rinsed the cans out with boiling water to get everything. But your fermentation looks fine to me - the krausen is usually only there for a few days, it then dissapears leaving some scum round the top of the FV. Fermentation then continues at a slower rate.
When you bottle your beer have a taste - it won't taste like the final product but it will give you a clue as to how good it's going to be after conditioning.

 

[wheazy_joe]

I wouldn't worry too much, it sounds like you are doing a good job and will end up with some decent beer.

I did my first brew (Coopers Draught) before I joined this forum so really had nothing to go on but the destructions on the packet. I must've made a million mistakes, heaven knows how I didn't end up with an infected beer! But in the it looked, smelled and tasted like beer, and was even fizzy!

Looking back it wasn't great, but I drank the lot of it and learned a huge amount.

Every brew since has got better and better, and so will yours!

Don't fret, leave the beer in the FV for another week or so, have a good think about bottling/kegging day. If bottling it WILL take longer and make much more mess than you expect, so try to get the house to yourself for a few hours.

Then get planning your next brew, an empty FV is no good to anyone!

 

[geratcha]

Having my 2nd go at coopers system. Last time their lager, this time Canadian Blonde. First batch was ok but was a bit murky and lacked depth/flavour id say. 3 days in to new batch, should I remove the collar first or give it a swirl with the collar still in? Going to leave it for a full 3 weeks before bottling as well.

 

[mnp14pc]

Update: Many thanks to all for the advice! I bottled this morning after 15 days in the FV. As suggested by rodabob I moved the FV somewhere slightly warmer for a week, covered it with one of the kids sleeping bags and agitated the brew a bit. I've been quite careful taking the final gravity and its at 1.013 (at 19C). The bottling went very well indeed but I'd made sure I was well organised from sterilising, adding the priming sugar and syphoning. I used a 'Little Bottler' that came with the kit. I had a cheeky taste after I'd run out of bottles and pulled a pint off to see what it looked like in a glass (as it obviously looked very light through the syphoning tube). It actually looked and tasted like a bitter which was a pleasant surprise. My wife got rather worried that I got excited about the lovely looking yeast bed I found at the bottom of the FV! I'm wondering if these kits, while not exactly fool proof, are quite forgiving as long as you don't do anything too stupid! I've learnt a huge amount from this first effort.. and raised a few more questions which I'll search for answers for or post in separate threads. Looking forward to trying it in a few weeks time! Thanks all.

 

[Twostage]

Brought it over the line :)

The yeast cake at the bottom can be fascinating. I've had one that looked like a yellow/brown brain. It tends to be lost on our other halves though.

You don't have to worry too much about mixing the extract perfectly, the yeast will find it. I did a brew recently where I didn't mix it at all (on purpose) and they worked their way through it, as the layer of extract was consumed it was like a fermentation gauge

Beer making tends to be quite forgiving - beer wants to be made :)

 

[rodabod]

Well done. Now read Clibit's guide to brew in the bag.....

 

[Cwrw666]

" I'm wondering if these kits, while not exactly fool proof, are quite forgiving as long as you don't do anything too stupid!"

It's not the kits - beer making in general is pretty forgiving. Believe it or not, yeast in the presence of malt actually wants to create beer. If it didn't I guess beer would never have been invented.

 

[MyQul]

Cwrw666 is right, being able to respire anaerobically enables yeast to exist and reproduce in one more enviroment - strangely enough, noone actually knows why yeast produce ethenol as a byproduct