Hello from Maidenhead Berkshire

[BigCol]

My youngest Son was watching Mr T's craziest fools earlier.

I'm one of them, how on earth can I not have thought about doing this before.

I've got a Coopers dark ale kit on order which hopefully will be here tomorrow. I've got quite a few few questions to ask, which no doubt have been asked and answered many times before but the main one I've got is;

The kit is coming with a bag of brewing sugar, any suggestions what might be better or, as this is my first ever go, am I better to leave it alone?

Anyway, thanks for having me ! :

 

[Mark1964]

welcome to the forum :thumb:

 

[PD]

ooh a little virgin brewer..... :lol:

dont worry we all started somewhere. Your first brew I should stick with the kit instructions and dont do variations until you understand what your doing, the brewing sugar will be fine if that's what you have got. Split 50/50 with dark spray malt would have been better.

Have fun, and welcome to the forum.

 

[Sean_Mc]

Use the brewing sugar over standard sugar the kits will be better for it. If I were to offer one tip it would be aerate the wort properly.
Mix up the kit as per instructions then whisk the bejesus out of it, if you arm only hurts whisk some more, then pitch the yeast

Welcome aboard BC :

 

[BigCol]

Thank you Gents and thanks for the quick 1st post approval.

Am I good to go now ?

 

[Sean_Mc]

Keep everything clean an sterilized and your good to go :thumb:

 

[dennisking]

Hi and welcome, ask away.

 

[joe1002]

Welcome to the forum :

 

[LeedsBrewer]

hello and welcome :thumb:

 

[BigCol]

Thank you Gents for your very warm welcome.

Have to say I'm very excited about getting into this. A good thing for a mid 40's bloke with 2.4 children.

Strangely the Wife has been neutral like Switzerland on this, which is nice.

 

[Sean_Mc]

Wait til she understands words like 'corny' , 'gas management board', 'shiny from France' or 'All Grain (AG)' then she'll tell you where to get off :lol:

 

[Kyle_T]

Hello and Welcome :

 

[Wendy1971]

Hi and welcome to a great forum :thumb:

 

[BigCol]

Well the kit arrived yesterday, had a row with the Mrs as I "had" to sort out the understairs cupboard. :cry:

Not the best start.

This evening, got the kit sterilsed and went for it, mixed up to 23L at 22c, just ready to measure the gravity and the damned hydrometer was in bits :evil:

Anyway, I had no choice but to add the yeast, shut the lid and put the airlock on.

A few quick questions about that;

1, Can I take an SG reading tomorrow, assuming I can get hold of a new hydrometer?
2, If so what would likely to have happened to the SG in one day?

The kit is a Coopers dark ale and as it was / is my first ever brew, it was the can plus brewing sugar only.

Sure I read on here about the schoolboy error on the broken hydrometer thing happening. Just my luck :rofl:

 

[Kyle_T]

I assume it would be alright to take a hydrometer reading assuming you can get a new one, the reading may be a little inaccurate as you have already pitched the yeast and started the chain reaction of fermentation, I could imagine it would have been around 1.042 to 1.045 for the can and sugar only.

The SG would have possibly dropped by a couple of points but only by a couple, Remember to test the calibration of your hydrometer by putting room temperature water into a trial jar and dropping it in and give it a little spin to stop it sticking to the side. It should read 1.000 for water at room temperature, if yours is different make a note so you can adjust the reading accordingly, you would also have to take into account the curvature of the water and mine adds around 2 points to the reading.

According to my maths it would be +3 to your reading, 2 for the curvature and 1 for the temperature adjustment. Example 1.040 + 3 = 1.043 modified, My Coopers finished at 1.008 and that would give you 4.6% ABV.

Some of the others will have better knowledge or advice but that is what I've learn't so far, hope it helps.

 

[BigCol]

Kyle,

Many thanks for the advice.

I'll see if I can source a new one tomorrow.

 

[Kyle_T]

No worries, like I said the others will know more than I do and the possible SG is only a guess as I did the same kit recently but had 200g more dextrose and 500g DME, so it maybe closer to 1.040 and 1.042. The yeast will of turned some of the sugar into alcohol already but I doubt it will be much.