Hello all,
Its a great forum you have here, I've been lurking and reading for a month or so now, steadily gathering information before taking the plunge and brewing my first ever batch of beer.
Well, the kit finally arrived today and I've dived right in - once all the jobs were done, kids were in bed and wife happy to let me play for a while of course :)
I've gone for a kit from an on-line shop that implies its clever - not sure about mentioning other suppliers so I'll leave it at that! I wanted an FV with a bottom tap and they were competitively priced and bundled with a bottling starter kit and a tin of Coopers Canadian Blonde. I like light beers such as lagers, blondes, wheats and summer ales etc. I'm not tough enough for the dark stuff yet.
It seems to have gone well enough tonight. No major hiccups along the way but one or two minor concerns / questions if you don't mind.
I put in about 23.5l instead of the 23 specified - major problem or just slightly weaker beer? (My FV is 30l)
My pitching temp was down to 18 degrees - according to the instructions it was best not to mess about just get it pitched and avoid infection. I did so and have whacked the brew belt on straight away to get it up to 22 degrees - is this likely to be ok?
How on earth do you read a hydrometer? I don't have bad eyesight but the best I could tell about my SG was it was in the red at about 105. I cant imagine how I would tell exactly 104.2... Incidentally, I assume I just move the decimal point to make that 1.050?
Lastly, do I leave the little red cap on top of the airlock bubbler? It doesn't seem to be a tight enough fit to be airtight but I imagine it would keep unwanted things out?
That's about it, hope its ok to combine my intro post with a load of questions!
Thanks all, hope this turns out as good as I hope - my birthday is in June and 40 odd bottles of beer seems like the ideal self pressie :
Stu
Its a great forum you have here, I've been lurking and reading for a month or so now, steadily gathering information before taking the plunge and brewing my first ever batch of beer.
Well, the kit finally arrived today and I've dived right in - once all the jobs were done, kids were in bed and wife happy to let me play for a while of course :)
I've gone for a kit from an on-line shop that implies its clever - not sure about mentioning other suppliers so I'll leave it at that! I wanted an FV with a bottom tap and they were competitively priced and bundled with a bottling starter kit and a tin of Coopers Canadian Blonde. I like light beers such as lagers, blondes, wheats and summer ales etc. I'm not tough enough for the dark stuff yet.
It seems to have gone well enough tonight. No major hiccups along the way but one or two minor concerns / questions if you don't mind.
I put in about 23.5l instead of the 23 specified - major problem or just slightly weaker beer? (My FV is 30l)
My pitching temp was down to 18 degrees - according to the instructions it was best not to mess about just get it pitched and avoid infection. I did so and have whacked the brew belt on straight away to get it up to 22 degrees - is this likely to be ok?
How on earth do you read a hydrometer? I don't have bad eyesight but the best I could tell about my SG was it was in the red at about 105. I cant imagine how I would tell exactly 104.2... Incidentally, I assume I just move the decimal point to make that 1.050?
Lastly, do I leave the little red cap on top of the airlock bubbler? It doesn't seem to be a tight enough fit to be airtight but I imagine it would keep unwanted things out?
That's about it, hope its ok to combine my intro post with a load of questions!
Thanks all, hope this turns out as good as I hope - my birthday is in June and 40 odd bottles of beer seems like the ideal self pressie :
Stu
