Coopers Canadian Blonde

[dermy]

Hi all.

I started a batch of coopers canadian blond (with some added honey) on Tuesday afternoon.

It's now Wednesday evening...for the first day and a half the airlock bubbled away and now its slowing down...almost to the point where I reckon that within the next 24 hours it will be finished.

Is it possible that the batch could brew within 3 days?

 

[abeyptfc]

what yeast did you use ? it is possible it could have fermented out but without giving hydrometer readings theres no real way of knowing. what was ur reading before adding yeast? even if it is finished i would still give it 2 weeks in the bucket

 

[dermy]

I think it was 1055....not completely sure about that...never really understood the whole hydrometer readings thing...
Usually I just make the batch...leave it (approx) the 5-7 days...if the airlock is still then Bob's your uncle...and thus far it has worked well.
Perhaps more analysis is needed.

 

[golder247]

Most of the kits I leave for a week too.. just to make sure, they have all seemed to come out ok!!

 

[gredawarha]

I have done approcahing 15-20 kits now and only one has bubbled (presumably my lid is not air tight). The general consensus seems to be that when your hydrometer reading is stable near to 1.10 on three consecutive days then your beer is ready.

I personally will normaly start a brew on a weekend and then leave it for 2 weeks and then bottle. As I work Mon-Fri I find this fits my lifestyle prefectly. I have only had one beer that wasnt great which was the canadian blonde (as per instructions). I found it to be too flat but I think I left it in the bottles too cold to quickly.

 

[golder247]

gredawarha

2 weeks??? I thought that if you left it for too long on the yeast it went awry?? Not knowing myself if it does genuinely make a difference, did you always do 2 weeks or move to it after some 1 week cycles? Any flavour differences? In fact any differences?

 

[gredawarha]

I found that when I started earlier in the year after a week mine had not finished fermenting, as I work in the week I just left it till the following weekend. Mine tastes fine.

 

[golder247]

Well that's good to know, I have had to lapse slightly and bottle a couple of days later on one, got two to bottle on sunday, before starting another ginger beer batch!!! Huzzah!! :)

 

[dermy]

Unbelievable....the airlock stopped bubbling after 2 and a half days...I left it overnight...came back the next day and its bubbling away again.
Maybe the yeast fell asleep??!!

 

[golder247]

Trapped wind?

 

[dermy]

Sod it. Once the bubbling dies down again I'm bottling!
If you hear a news headline saying "Belfast man killed by exploding beer bottles" then you'll know it was a bit premature.

 

[philip5660]

Take it easy Dermy - there's enough suspect devices knocking about over here at the minute!

Seriously though get a hydrometer and learn to use it - you basically drop it in and read the numbers off the side. There's a calculator at the top of the page to take any brain work out.
I've noticed as time goes on airlock activity is less evident due to the lids on the buckets becoming less tight.
Hydrometer removes the guess work

 

[golder247]

Philip is right, get yourself a hydrometer. A monkey could use one, really. That said, I have not bothered with doing readings for my last 3-4 batches. I tend to leave them be for a week and then I know (from a kit anyway) that they have finished.

It's like having a baby but not finding out the sex first. I open the bottles, drink then find just how hammered I will become shortly after opening the bottle I should have left closed. :drink:

With kits to be fair , on the whole anyway, they are so very simple you can't really go wrong. It isn't like AG where these guys (all you AG guys out there, I salute you) spend time, effort and money honing a real skill. We just pour in the kit and get hammered for so much less with a far superior beer/lager etc.

Not condoning getting hammered as such, drink responsibly and all that (after 3 pints of lovely homebrew and a final tipple of Fiery ginger beer)