HELP

[shauno2000]

Hello, im new to brewing, got my 1st batch of larger on the go at the moment.

It will have been in the ferminter for 2 weeks this friday, my hydrometer readings for the last few days are just below the "bottle" mark.
When you open the lid small bubbles are still rising.

Ive tatsed the sample and it doesnt taste off.


Shall i keep waiting or bottle the beer as the readings dont seem to be changing???


Help please

 

[StubbsPKS]

What is the actual reading, and did you take a reading before it started fermenting?

 

[shauno2000]

http://www.biggerjugs.co.uk/images/prod ... 6087-2.jpg

i have one of the above.... the reading is just touching the bottom of the yellow, but not fully into the yellow yet, just on the boarder.
It was bang smack in the middle of the red zone when i started

 

[StubbsPKS]

That's an annoying hydro

If it's been the same for the past few days, I would go ahead and bottle it on or around the 14 day mark.

 

[shauno2000]

Exact start was 1.035 now its about 1.008

 

[shearclass]

that's an absolutely fine gravity for bottling - if it's been the same reading for a couple of days.

 

[RobWalker]

those bubbles rising would be co2 from the fermentation. if you taste it, it'll be slightly carbonated. :p

 

[shauno2000]

Cheers, il do another reading tonight and bottle...
By working out the % using online methods it seems this is going to be a very weak beer... about 3.5%,
but if i go by the method on coopers instructions it works out as 5 % ??? what one is right??

 

[shearclass]

Coopers have a slightly different calculation as their calculation adds extra alcohol from priming sugar.

However, there is not that much of a difference, couple of tenths of a percentage point at most, so you must be doing something wrong? :wha:

If you post your figures here then someone can get back to you with the abv approximation. I cando the coopers clc for you later, to see how our figures comare.

 

[shauno2000]

thats going on the figures i gave above......

 

[shearclass]

Apologies, my spreadsheet on my home laptop calculates strength based on cooper's formula, so I'll see what i get later and let you know.

With that OG though, I'd say the 3.5% looks more accurate.

 

[shauno2000]

Thanks,

Why would the OG be so low? could i have added too musch water? or maybe the reading was taken atv the wrong temp??

 

[denishoffman]

my best guess as to why your og was too low is perhaps you didnt mix it up properly the heavier gravity concentrate that you make up your wort with will have a tendency to sink to the bottom of your fermenter if not mixed and thus diluted properly

 

[RobWalker]

If you stuck to the instructions just go with the instructions. Once you get to extract brewing it's actually quite destructive to the beer quality if you mess with it after boiling imo, hence why we have the likes of coolers to get it into a sanitized environment asap. Any brew that I top up with water, I only give it a quick stir so as to not expose the wort to much air. If you can guarantee the sugar's in there, then go with that calculation, and don't worry about fermentation because the yeast will find it for sure. It's a very common issue so don't worry about it.

Oh, and by the way. There's only one real test to see how strong it is, and that's to drink it and see how many it takes you to get plastered. My honey beer came up 3.8% with the gravity reading, but 4 pints later at just over 5%, I realised I was wrong

 

[shauno2000]

good advice, however on the instructions i got about home brewing from the store i got all my start kit from, it says once the boiling water is added then the cold water to stir fast for 10 mins to let air into the beer....

Everyone seems to have different ways of doing things it seems...

Trying a bitter next this weekend, hopefully that will go a bit smoother :)

 

[StubbsPKS]

good advice, however on the instructions i got about home brewing from the store i got all my start kit from, it says once the boiling water is added then the cold water to stir fast for 10 mins to let air into the beer....

Everyone seems to have different ways of doing things it seems...

Trying a bitter next this weekend, hopefully that will go a bit smoother :)

When wort is hot after a boil, it is said that adding oxygen to it can create an effect known as Hot Side Aeration (HSA) which can produce off flavors in your beer (wet cardboard). You don't really need to worry too much about it when doing kits.

Some people claim that HSA is a myth, and others are EXTREMELY careful with their hot wort.

I don't know which theory I believe, but many commercial breweries drop their wort several FEET through the air from MT to boiler... There is a youtube clip of Sierra Nevada (I think it was them) doing this, but I can't seem to find it.

I did, however, find this. They pump hot worth through a strainer and as you can see, bubbles are forming on top of the hot wort just like they would if you stirred it up.

I've also found a podcast with Jamil Z and Chris White from White Labs talking about HSA. They invited a professor of brewing science from UC Davis to talk about it based upon his scientific findings. Clicky.