Day 1

[Heyzy]

Thanks for that. Will have to put sugar in bottle first unfortunetely. Cant wait for it to be finished but will leave it in the bottles till the end of january which will hopefully be long enough.

 

[shearclass]

I will have to do it by putting the sugar directly into the bottles as i dont have a second bucket and cant really afford to by another before it will need bottling as its the end of the month.

If you have electric scales, stand your bag of sugar on top of them and just take out how much you need for each bottle. Work out approx how much you need to use beforehand for each bottle.

I can't rememebr what kind of brew you are doing, but 10g sugar per litre will give a very fizzy brew, 3 or 4g per litre will give a mildly carboanted brew.

Alternatively if you do not have scales: 8g per litre (assuming you want something pretty gassy) is near enough 4g for your pint bottles. 1 teaspoon is (I think) roughtly approximately 4 g, so use a tea spoon of sugar per pint bottle. If you are doing an ale style beer, then use a half tea spoon.

Also, one of the best purchases i ever made was less than £1 on a bucket clip. It attaches the siphon tube to the bucket, meaning you do not have to have 3 hands to hold tube in beer with 1 hand, hold tap in bottle with other hand, turn tap on and off with other hand.

I bottle with no issues using a siphon tube with a tap on 1 end, and a 'racking cane' and 'u-bend' on the other end.

Good luck with this! :thumb:

 

[Heyzy]

I brewing a lager kit, i have got a tube click just need to get a tap now. What is a racking cane and the u bend for? I will use the tea spoon method even though it will take me a while but will have the misses helping me.

 

[Heyzy]

Now on day 8 and the gravity reading is down to 1010.

Should i check it for the next 3 days to see if the reading is consistant? Would it be ok leaving the brew in the fermentation bucket until sunday as that my next day of or should i bottle it before?

Next question is it ok to clean an sterilise the bottles the day before a put the brew into them
Or does it have to be the same day?

 

[Dave1970]

it should be OK until Sunday as long as you don't go opening the lid all the time, keep what protective gas you have.
You'd be ok cleaning your bottles anytime you want, but it would be better to sterilise them as near to bottling as you can

 

[Heyzy]

Right, managed to get a syphen tube tap, a bargain bottle capper(£4 tesco no box) and all my bottles are steralised ready for filling tomoz.

What is the best sugar to put inside my bottles? Not going to be easy to get to my local brewing shop as its 12 miles away so should i wait till i can get there or would normal sugar be ok?

Really looking forward to trying once its conditioned.

 

[Green Ninja]

Normal sugar's fine but I'd re-sterilize the bottles tomorrow.

It doesn't take long for an infection to get going.

Once the caps are on leave the bottles in a warm room (20 degrees or so) for a week or 10 days.
Then move them to a cool place for 4 weeks (if you can last that long, I can't)

While they are conditioning buy more kits, barrels, bottles etc.

Welcome to the most addictive, value for money, fun and friendly hobby there is.

Terry.

 

[Heyzy]

I will pop to asda in the morning after work for the sugar and a little funnel then.

Im defo going to pick a bottling bucket up for the next one i do and maybe a little bottler depending on how easy bottling is tomoz without one.

Going to do the coopers european lager next time, anyone get any changes they have made to get this perfect or is it good just doing as i have done this time?

 

[Heyzy]

All bottled up this morning and i had a little taste and it seems nice but would be better once its got its fizz.

Will it clear whilst it in the bottle as its still a bit cloudy?

Just a waiting game now.

 

[Green Ninja]

It should clear down fine.

If you used finings it will clear quicker but I've never bothered with them. Less extras you put in the less there is to go wrong I reckon.

Keep the bottles in a warm room for a week to 10 days and then into a cool place for a month (if you've got the patience, I never have).

Enjoy!


Terry.

 

[Heyzy]

I have just realised i have made a right mistake, i have gone and put 1 teaspoon of sugar into each 568ml bottle instead of half a teaspoon.

Will this cause any problems with my brew or cause any bottles to explode. I have read that lager kits do need more than bitter kits.

Cant believe i have made this mistake at the last stage.

 

[Green Ninja]

I use a teaspoon of sugar in my pint bottles as I like the extra fizziness.

they'll be fine.

Probably (I've never had a problem yet)