I tried my first go, a beer kit, before Christmas last year (Tom Caxton Real Ale), but it hadn't stopped bubbling before I was due to go away and I didn't think that I could just leave it so I added some more sugar and left it til I returned in the New Year. Shortly after I got back it seemed to have stopped fermenting so I racked it into a keg. After a few weeks I drew some beer but it was very cloudy and it stayed like that for weeks so I racked it into a bucket to see what would happen. Nothing really did until it started getting what looked to me like a white wrinkly mould on top. I poured it away and started again. This time I used a John Bull IPA. It took about 10-11 days for the bubbles to stop and I racked it into a keg, plus 3 into bottles so I could see if it cleared. After a week I put the bottles into the fridge. After a few more days I took the out as they looked a bit cloudy and they had sugar on the bottom (I put about 3/4 tsp in each bottle for priming). After 2 or 3 days they seemed a little clearer so I opened one. It wasn't very lively and whilst it smelt ok it wasn't something that I would want to drink, if anything it maybe tasted a little of the steriliser I used to swish round before I rinsed in clean water.
I washed all equipment, then put the sterilising powder into water and swished it round inside for 10 minutes (left the bottles immersed in the sink), then rinsed then all (I thought quite thoroughly). Do I need to be VERY thorough in rinsing this stuff out after? Is it killing my beer? Or am I just not meant to be a brewmaster?
I washed all equipment, then put the sterilising powder into water and swished it round inside for 10 minutes (left the bottles immersed in the sink), then rinsed then all (I thought quite thoroughly). Do I need to be VERY thorough in rinsing this stuff out after? Is it killing my beer? Or am I just not meant to be a brewmaster?