My first brew...i've started ! (but have some more questions)

[shd]

Hi all,

So some will hopefully remember my newbie post First brew questions and i'm please to say that yesterday (Sunday), i've finally joined the team of master brewers !
All went according to plan and so here are a few pictures of my setup etc :

I've got an Inkbird and set currently at 19.3c with a 0.3c either way HD and CD so all is looking nice
Ideal temp according to the instructions is 18-20c
I'm getting some bubbles from the airlock also so all seems cushty
SG was smack on 1040 which i believe is a great starting place and i'm aiming for 1014 as per the instructions on this St Peters Ruby Red Ale in 4-6 days

My plan is on Wednesday evening (day 3) is to increase the temperature up to 20 degrees as the box says it will be ready in between 4-6 days but i will leave until day 10 (next Wednesday) before taking next SG reading and then hopefully the final reading on day 11 before bottling !

So :

1. I assume my pictures all look good yes ?
2. Secondly, i have brown PET 500ml screw tap bottles. Home Brew Online say to use a little petroleum jelly in the cap to get a better seal otherwise the beer can go flat. Does anyone else use petroleum jelly or something else instead please as i've never heard of using it before ?
3. Sugar for the bottles......the box says "half a teaspoon per pint" but the glucose drops says 2 drops per 500ml. Would that equate to roughly the same please ?

Could anyone offer some suggestions here please as i want to be ready to bottle asap

TIA for any replies

 

[nickjdavis]

1) Pictures look fine but those stick on strip thermometers are potentially unreliable. Not sure where you have placed your Inkbord temp probe but at the very least tape it to the side of your FV and then stick some bubble wrap or perhaps some of that foil backed insulated wrap over the probe to isolate it from the ambient air temperature.

2) Dont mess about with petroleum jelly. I've never used it ever and never had an issue with beer going flat when using PET bottles. However.....when you fill the bottle....tighten the lid as much as you can.....give it a couple of hours and try to tighten it a little more (often you can get another 1/8th of a turn).....then 24hrs later give it another twist to see if it tightens any more.

3) Wouldn't know about Carbonation drops or similar.....havent used them in years myself.

 

[shd]

1) Pictures look fine but those stick on strip thermometers are potentially unreliable. Not sure where you have placed your Inkbord temp probe but at the very least tape it to the side of your FV and then stick some bubble wrap or perhaps some of that foil backed insulated wrap over the probe to isolate it from the ambient air temperature.

2) Dont mess about with petroleum jelly. I've never used it ever and never had an issue with beer going flat when using PET bottles. However.....when you fill the bottle....tighten the lid as much as you can.....give it a couple of hours and try to tighten it a little more (often you can get another 1/8th of a turn).....then 24hrs later give it another twist to see if it tightens any more.

3) Wouldn't know about Carbonation drops or similar.....havent used them in years myself.

thanks for the reply Nick !

i've taped the Inkbird thermometer half way up the barrel on the outside, underneath 2 squares of car headliner material using some metal tape so its cosy
You will see from picture 6, my wife kindly made my barrel a nice winter hat from the same material to keep its head warm
I have made a box from 100mm Kingspan including a base and a lid too
I have a separate Thermopro thermometer in the box also to keep a watch on the outside temperature in the box which is around 17.5 at a minimum

Thanks for the advice re: bottles

Are glass bottles and metal lids the preferred approach then ?

 

[nickjdavis]

thanks for the reply Nick !

i've taped the Inkbird thermometer half way up the barrel on the outside, underneath 2 squares of car headliner material using some metal tape so its cosy
You will see from picture 6, my wife kindly made my barrel a nice winter hat from the same material to keep its head warm
I have made a box from 100mm Kingspan including a base and a lid too
I have a separate Thermopro thermometer in the box also to keep a watch on the outside temperature in the box which is around 17.5 at a minimum

Thanks for the advice re: bottles

Are glass bottles and metal lids the preferred approach then ?

I prefer glass. I've been involved in many homebrew swaps and seen huge variation between comments, when discussing or judging the beers, from experienced brewers/drinkers about the same beer, to have come to the conclusion that there may be significant bottle variation when using PET bottles, as opposed to glass, where my experience is that glass bottled examples are a lot more consistent.

Many will no doubt say that they have experienced no issues with PET. I will not say that they are wrong....just that my own personal experience means that I would never send a sample of a PET bottled beer to a competition. It may well simply be down to bottle lids being poorly tightened....I know of one beer judge who will always check whether the lid on a PET bottle, that he is about to judge, can be tightened any further.

I do use PET...each batch I bottle I fill two or three PET bottles so I can monitor the carbonation in the bottle....but that is all I use them for.

At your stage of your brewing journey however, I wouldn't worry too much about this....it is more important to learn/improve your craft/process. You may indeed decide, as many do, that ultimately bottling is not for you....and you go down the kegging route...and the effect of PET bottles will be irrelevant for you.

The above is just my opinion based on my own experiences....others may rightly say they have seen no such issues.

 

[shd]

Thanks again Nick

Can anyone share some thoughts on adding sugar please ?

My question was :

1. Sugar for the bottles......the box says "half a teaspoon per pint" but the glucose drops says 2 drops per 500ml. Would that equate to roughly the same please ?

 

[Clint]

Also..4/6 days is nonsense...leave it 2 weeks.

 

[RichardM]

Thanks again Nick

Can anyone share some thoughts on adding sugar please ?

My question was :

1. Sugar for the bottles......the box says "half a teaspoon per pint" but the glucose drops says 2 drops per 500ml. Would that equate to roughly the same please ?

I'd go with half a teaspoon of sugar.
Keep the carbonation drops for when you are brewing a lager or something that needs more carbonation. Even then, one should be enough.

 

[RichardM]

Also..4/6 days is nonsense...leave it 2 weeks.

Then two weeks conditioning somewhere warm after bottling. Then two weeks somewhere cool before trying it....if you have enough will power.

 

[Stan's Brew]

Carbonation drops are good because they are easy to handle, when faced with 80 bottles to fill it makes life just a bit easier, I've found one drop per 500ml bottle to be enough for Ales, just experiment, use one drop for some bottles and 2 for others and see how they turn out - just don't mix the bottles up afterwards

Oh and reseal any partially used packets, any moisture will turn them into a sticky lump!

 

[shd]

Then two weeks conditioning somewhere warm after bottling. Then two weeks somewhere cool before trying it....if you have enough will power.

Enough willpower…..doubtful !!!!

 

[shd]

Carbonation drops are good because they are easy to handle, when faced with 80 bottles to fill it makes life just a bit easier, I've found one drop per 500ml bottle to be enough for Ales, just experiment, use one drop for some bottles and 2 for others and see how they turn out - just don't mix the bottles up afterwards

Oh and reseal any partially used packets, any moisture will turn them into a sticky lump!

Thanks Stan for your input
This may sound like a daft question but does the sugar have any other purpose other than to sweeten ?

 

[Clint]

Sweetening is not it's purpose! It's there to cause secondary fermentation in the bottle to produce c02 to make the beer fizzy.

 

[Haversham]

Enough willpower…..doubtful !!!!

I'm no expert, having made only 3 brews so far. But patience is vital. The kits I’ve used so far have all claimed to need only 3-4 weeks. This is absolute rubbish. This week is Week 12 for my first two kits (counting the first week of fermentation as week 1), and both are now finally clear and delicious. I tried them on 6 and 8 weeks but they still tasted like homebrew so I left them alone. They were clear enough then but didn’t taste quite right. 10 weeks, definitely better and 12 weeks? Spot on. Both have lost the homebrew 'twang' completely. One is very lively so I must have overcarbonated but it tastes great once it settles.

So don’t be tempted to drink your beer before it tastes right. Just as you wouldn’t take food out of the oven halfway through its cooking time because you were too impatient. Treat beer the same way! It will be ready when it’s ready. Once this first batch is bottled, think about brewing a second batch to ensure you start to have a continuity of supply. This will reduce impatience. Good luck.

 

[shd]

I'm no expert, having made only 3 brews so far. But patience is vital. The kits I’ve used so far have all claimed to need only 3-4 weeks. This is absolute rubbish. This week is Week 12 for my first two kits (counting the first week of fermentation as week 1), and both are now finally clear and delicious. I tried them on 6 and 8 weeks but they still tasted like homebrew so I left them alone. They were clear enough then but didn’t taste quite right. 10 weeks, definitely better and 12 weeks? Spot on. Both have lost the homebrew 'twang' completely. One is very lively so I must have overcarbonated but it tastes great once it settles.

So don’t be tempted to drink your beer before it tastes right. Just as you wouldn’t take food out of the oven halfway through its cooking time because you were too impatient. Treat beer the same way! It will be ready when it’s ready. Once this first batch is bottled, think about brewing a second batch to ensure you start to have a continuity of supply. This will reduce impatience. Good luck.

Thanks haversham

My St Peter’s ruby ale says 4-6 days and then bottle !!!!

 

[shd]

Sweetening is not its purpose! It's there to cause secondary fermentation in the bottle to produce c02 to make the beer fizzy.

Ah ok thanks clint !
Any particular type of sugar ?
I’m guessing not to use normal granulated that you stick in a cuppa ?

 

[RichardM]

Ah ok thanks clint !
Any particular type of sugar ?
I’m guessing not to use normal granulated that you stick in a cuppa ?

Yes, just white, granulated sugar. There is so little of it that it doesn't effect taste.

 

[Old Fart At Play]

+1 to leaving it a couple of weeks before you bottle.
With the priming sugar, I don't know what your bottling method eill be, but prefer to rack into a separate vessel and bottle from that. If you do it that eay, easiest method is to disolve 20 tsp (for 40 pints) in a little hot water and add that to your bottling vessel before you rack the wort in from your fermenter.

 

[shd]

+1 to leaving it a couple of weeks before you bottle.
With the priming sugar, I don't know what your bottling method eill be, but prefer to rack into a separate vessel and bottle from that. If you do it that eay, easiest method is to disolve 20 tsp (for 40 pints) in a little hot water and add that to your bottling vessel before you rack the wort in from your fermenter.

thanks OFAP
I am planning to leave around 12 days before bottling just short of the advised 2 weeks which most seem to advise and prefer so i'm guessing that wont be an issue
i've got a bottling wand so was planning to attempt my first bottling from the primary vessel but i do like the idea of the 2nd vessel approach
That said, I did see that some transfer and then bottle from there, but equally i saw mentioned the possibility of a transfer could introduce the risk of contamination
Obviously, clean it properly its not a problem but there could be a possibility of contamination albeit small

 

[Old Fart At Play]

thanks OFAP
I am planning to leave around 12 days before bottling just short of the advised 2 weeks which most seem to advise and prefer so i'm guessing that wont be an issue
i've got a bottling wand so was planning to attempt my first bottling from the primary vessel but i do like the idea of the 2nd vessel approach
That said, I did see that some transfer and then bottle from there, but equally i saw mentioned the possibility of a transfer could introduce the risk of contamination
Obviously, clean it properly its not a problem but there could be a possibility of contamination albeit small

Main thing is not to worry. A lot of the things we do are intended to reduce risk of a problem, and increase consistency. So yes there is a risk of contamination with racking to a secondary vessel before bottling - but I would say a tiny one. I've been bottling that way for over 40 years and not had an issue yet - but it could still happen!

A risk with bottling from FV is that you get true from FV bottom into bottles. Depends a lot on what kind of FV you have, and what level of wastage you are willing to accept.

If you stay on here for a while you will see that for all sorts of things there is no one 'right' way - but there is always a way that works for you with risks you are willing to accept.

So long as you get beer that you enjoy at the end - which you almost certainly will!

 

[shd]

Main thing is not to worry. A lot of the things we do are intended to reduce risk of a problem, and increase consistency. So yes there is a risk of contamination with racking to a secondary vessel before bottling - but I would say a tiny one. I've been bottling that way for over 40 years and not had an issue yet - but it could still happen!

A risk with bottling from FV is that you get true from FV bottom into bottles. Depends a lot on what kind of FV you have, and what level of wastage you are willing to accept.

If you stay on here for a while you will see that for all sorts of things there is no one 'right' way - but there is always a way that works for you with risks you are willing to accept.

So long as you get beer that you enjoy at the end - which you almost certainly will!

thanks again OFAP

you mention "A risk with bottling from FV is that you get true from FV bottom into bottles."

true ?????
are you referring to sediment ?

i am brewing in a traditional FV bucket with a tap low down for taking SG samples and was planning to use the bottling wand from that

can anyone share approx how much *rubbish* you typically get at the bottom of the FV please ?