First time brew 17 days in.

[Johnbeer]

I have just syphoned my first ever brew into a barrel, St Peters golden ale, after 17 days in the FV.
I took a reading with my new hydrometer and got a reading of 104. There was around 2 cm of sludge in the bottom of the FV, I take it this is normal? I got a slurp from the tube as I was sucking the syphon through and well it tasted like beer...promising. :grin:
Now have a bulldog Evil Dog double IPA on the go too... so I do not run out of beer during barbecue season. I have moved the Evil dog FV to a cooler room as the temp was getting up to 23 C where it was and forecast to get hotter.

 

[Gerryjo]

I have just syphoned my first ever brew into a barrel, St Peters golden ale, after 17 days in the FV.
I took a reading with my new hydrometer and got a reading of 104. There was around 2 cm of sludge in the bottom of the barrel, I take it this is normal? I got a slurp from the tube as I was sucking the syphon through and well it tasted like beer...promising. :grin:
Now have a bulldog Evil Dog double IPA on the go too... so I do not run out of beer during barbecue season. I have moved the Evil dog FV to a cooler room as the temp was getting up to 23 C where it was and forecast to get hotter.

104 makes no sense so I assume it's 1.004 or 1.040 though most likely the first.
What was your ABV from your reading.

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[dan125]

I have just syphoned my first ever brew into a barrel, St Peters golden ale, after 17 days in the FV.
I took a reading with my new hydrometer and got a reading of 104. There was around 2 cm of sludge in the bottom of the barrel, I take it this is normal? I got a slurp from the tube as I was sucking the syphon through and well it tasted like beer...promising. :grin:
Now have a bulldog Evil Dog double IPA on the go too... so I do not run out of beer during barbecue season. I have moved the Evil dog FV to a cooler room as the temp was getting up to 23 C where it was and forecast to get hotter.

Good to see another Medway brewer on the forum :thumb: an well done for getting your 1st brew kegged :hat: and for forward planning enough to get the next one on quickly!

The sludge is normal, but you havn't read the hydrometer correctly.
Do you mean 1.004 or 1.014 or 1.040!

 

[Johnbeer]

I did not take an OG at the start as I did not have a hydrometer. I did get a nice bulge on the lid of my FV so something must have been happening.

 

[Kharon]

I have just syphoned my first ever brew into a barrel, St Peters golden ale, after 17 days in the FV.
I took a reading with my new hydrometer and got a reading of 104. There was around 2 cm of sludge in the bottom of the FV, I take it this is normal? I got a slurp from the tube as I was sucking the syphon through and well it tasted like beer...promising. :grin:
Now have a bulldog Evil Dog double IPA on the go too... so I do not run out of beer during barbecue season. I have moved the Evil dog FV to a cooler room as the temp was getting up to 23 C where it was and forecast to get hotter.

Should be fine if you followed the recipe. I've only just bothered to get a hydrometer, but I do know you won't learn much from one if you only take one reading as you're making a before/after calculation.
The sludge at the bottom is yeast cells and protein and can be used again though apparently you should process it first.

 

[mr_bridger]

Looking at your hydrometer, and going on that red band, 104 seems to look in the 1.038-1.040 range. 1.040 seems a bit high.

(The 10, 20, 30, 40 etc will be 1.010, 1.020 etc.)

According to the instructions for that kit, FG should be about 1.014, so 17 days in it should have hit that.

Can you check a sample of plain room temperature tap water and post a pic of the reading?

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[dan125]

Yep, the numbers going up in 3s are for a different scale - its the one going up in 10s you wanna be using for specific gravity - 40 = 1.040.

 

[Johnbeer]

Ok, here are two photo's the first is my hydrometer in fresh water from the tap so a bit cooler than room temp. The second is from some freshly drawn beer from my St Peters golden ale. Now the beer has had 18 teaspoons of brewers sugar added, it's a 36 pint kit, so will show a different reading to when I was about to syphon into the barrel.

 

[mr_bridger]

Ok, water looks about spot on 1.000 give or take a few points which is fine. Your new reading looks about 1.014 - 1.016 from that picture, which is pretty much what the instructions say. But you say that was AFTER adding 18tsp of sugar?

Have you just added the sugar? Or did you add it before the reading you took in post 1?

If you add sugar to prime, it needs bottling or kegging immediately after and sealing to carbonate. If you added sugar and then took a reading, the gravity will go up, and then ferment back down as it carbonates.

 

[Johnbeer]

I took the 1.040 reading after the beer had been in the FV before I syphoned off into a keg. The reading I took today 1.014 is from the keg after I had added the sugar.

 

[sdt7618]

Take care with that evil dog,,,,,,that Can be evil the next day. At 7+% it's wicked on the head.


Oh and welcome.

 

[dan125]

The reading I took today 1.014 is from the keg after I had added the sugar.

All looks about right - now just be as patient as you can before tucking in.
I trust you sampled the trial jar?

 

[Johnbeer]

The only taste I got was from the syphon as I sucked through, tasted fine. I shall endeavour to be patient... probably 2 weekends time. I feel a beer n' barbecue session coming.