My first brew

[damienair]

I started my first brew on the 7th of December. I bought a starter brew kit which included a Simply Lager Beer Kit with 1Kg of brewing sugar. I'm a complete newbie. The OG reading was 1.040. After pitching the yeast I placed the FV up in my hot press where Fermentation took place at a constant 22 degrees C. Today is day 9 and I just took an SG reading of 1.002 , the sample tastes really good already and smells good too. Calculation estimates AVG of 4.99%. I'll take another reading on Friday evening and if all is good will bottle it over the weekend. I will then place the bottles up in the same hot press for 2 weeks before storing them in a cool dark press for a month.

So far so good. Looking forward to a taste of the finished article.

Damien

 

[damienair]

Hi all, the Gravity reading I took yesterday evening was 1.002 . Is that too low? I was expecting around 1.008 or 1.006 . The sample tasted OK from the little sip I had and smelled OK too. Smelled like beer. I am new to this and this is my first brew, so I have nothing to compare it to. I will check again tomorrow evening and my plan then is to then move the FV down to my garage for the weekend where it is cool and then bottle on Monday.
I am just a bit concerned, is a Gravity reading of 1.002 OK after fermentation has stopped?

Many thanks,

Damien

 

[Gerryjo]

It's not unknown for a yeast to attenuate so low but normally would be 1.008 - 1.012.
If it's smells and tastes ok then it should be ok.
When you check again and it's still 1.002 just bottle though would be worried if it attenuates any lower.

 

[damienair]

Thank you.

 

[damienair]

Well it is in the hands of the Gods now. I checked the FG yesterday and also today. It was still 1.002 and smells good. Tasted OK too. So fingers crossed. Thanks to all the advice here and also from reading loads of different posts I bottled OK. I transferred the FV last night from the Hot Press to the Kitchen so as not to be disturbing the brew today. I sanitized the bottles and caps along with the bottling wand. I cleaned and sanitized the tap on the FV and popped 2 carbonation drops into each of the 500 ml bottles. I bottled direct from the FV. Before closing the caps tight I squeezed the PET Bottles to bring the beer up to the top of the neck and get rid of as much air as possible. The brew produced 42 x 500 ml bottles of beer. I cleaned and sterilized all the kit, FV's etc and cleaned up after myself. Ready for a new brew next week.

That is Brew No.1 done. Thanks again everyone for the advice, I really appreciate it. Two weeks now in the Hot Press again at a steady 21-22 degrees C. I will move the bottles down to a room beside the garage on New Years Day. It is cool there, they will be in a press away from sun light. And I will test at the end of January. Fingers crossed all will be OK. I will update again when I taste the first bottle. It is just a Simply Lager which came with my starter kit. I'm just hoping that it is drinkable.

Cheers,

Damien

 

[damienair]

It has been 2 weeks since I bottled my first brew. The PET Bottles are hard to press in, so carbonation I hope has done its thing. I held a bottle or 2 up to light and the beer looks crystal clear. So all is looking good. I moved the 2 boxes of beer from the Hot Press to my Garage this evening to finish off the conditioning. I'm going to wait until February to try it out. I have drank enough over Christmas. I will update again after first tasting.

Damien

 

[GhostShip]

It has been 2 weeks since I bottled my first brew. The PET Bottles are hard to press in, so carbonation I hope has done its thing. I held a bottle or 2 up to light and the beer looks crystal clear. So all is looking good. I moved the 2 boxes of beer from the Hot Press to my Garage this evening to finish off the conditioning. I'm going to wait until February to try it out. I have drank enough over Christmas. I will update again after first tasting.

Damien

I hope you get a good result. There’s a huge feeling of satisfaction when you first brew something that 1) you enjoy, 2) you would happily give to a friend, and 3) you’d be happy if it was served to you in a pub. It took me a while to get there but I’m really glad I stuck with it. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[damienair]

I hope you get a good result. There’s a huge feeling of satisfaction when you first brew something that 1) you enjoy, 2) you would happily give to a friend, and 3) you’d be happy if it was served to you in a pub. It took me a while to get there but I’m really glad I stuck with it. Let us know how it turns out!

Thank you so much. I’m looking forward to sampling it. I have another brew on its 8th day. It’s a Coopers Hefe Wheat kit and I should be bottling that brew up next weekend. So it will be nice to compare the 2 brews against each other in a few weeks time. I’ll post again when I try it out.

 

[RustyV8]

Good stuff! Having just finished my first one also (need to update my thread though) it’s been a really interesting process. 1st time needs patience though. I’ll start my second one this weekend I think (Bavarian Pilsner)..... I’ll have to empty some bottles of the first brew however before my 3rd one gets going! Otherwise too expensive to keep buying PET bottles

 

[damienair]

Good stuff! Having just finished my first one also (need to update my thread though) it’s been a really interesting process. 1st time needs patience though. I’ll start my second one this weekend I think (Bavarian Pilsner)..... I’ll have to empty some bottles of the first brew however before my 3rd one gets going! Otherwise too expensive to keep buying PET bottles

ha ha, yeah I know that feeling. My wife was shaking her head at me over Christmas. She never seen me buy as much beer. And all were bottles. I used PET bottles for my first brew and I’ll be recycling the Christmas beer bottles tomorrow evening to bottle my second brew.
I’m going to put a White Wine on next. My neighbours have been collecting wine bottles for me. Try my hand at that. Then I’ll start emptying the beer bottles again.
Good luck on your second brew.

 

[Laszlo]

Nice one! I'm on my first brew too, now I'm just browsing the forum waiting haha! 1.002 is really low, did you keep it at a constant 22C? I kept mine at <18C (not as if it would've mattered though, my boiler & central heating died last week) and I'm stuck at 1.010 but it smells great too, but not as potent as I wouldve expected.

anyway, I'm looking forward!

 

[dwhite60]

When I first started I got real enthusiastic.

I was in the kitchen cooking up a batch. At one point I turned and looked in the dining area. I had SEVEN cases of homebrew already stacked up in the corner.

Had to cool my jets for a while.

 

[damienair]

Nice one! I'm on my first brew too, now I'm just browsing the forum waiting haha! 1.002 is really low, did you keep it at a constant 22C? I kept mine at <18C (not as if it would've mattered though, my boiler & central heating died last week) and I'm stuck at 1.010 but it smells great too, but not as potent as I wouldve expected.

anyway, I'm looking forward!

I was worried about 1.002 , it was very low. I was afraid in case there was an infection or something else wrong with the beer. But it smelt OK and tasted OK. It was in the primary fermentation bucket for almost 2 weeks at 20-22C. I did not touch it until I did the FG readings and bottled it. It was then in the hot press again for a further 2 weeks and has been in the garage for the past week. One week to go and it should be good to drink. But I am tempted to leave it another few weeks until my Wheat beer is ready and try them both at the same time. I'll be bottling the wheat beer later today.
1.010 sounds right and was what I was expecting.

 

[damienair]

When I first started I got real enthusiastic.

I was in the kitchen cooking up a batch. At one point I turned and looked in the dining area. I had SEVEN cases of homebrew already stacked up in the corner.

Had to cool my jets for a while.

Ha Ha. I think I'd be the same. I'd love to do another one now but I am fresh out of bottles. So I'll just have to wait for my 2 batches to be drink ready, drink them and then start again. I am going to do a 30 bottle wine kit whilst I'm waiting. I'll continue collecting bottles so as I have a steady supply for a 3rd batch in the future. I'll try a few craft beers and collect the 500ml bottles in the meantime.

 

[JiiPee95]

Ha Ha. I think I'd be the same. I'd love to do another one now but I am fresh out of bottles. So I'll just have to wait for my 2 batches to be drink ready, drink them and then start again. I am going to do a 30 bottle wine kit whilst I'm waiting. I'll continue collecting bottles so as I have a steady supply for a 3rd batch in the future. I'll try a few craft beers and collect the 500ml bottles in the meantime.

I would suggest buying more bottles, that's what I'm doing now. We made a couple batches before with the idea of making a new batch after the previous 2 has been drank but the problem is that I find beer gets better after a couple of months. So there will be some downtime while waiting for the beer to age when you wouldn't have your own brew to drink.

 

[damienair]

I would suggest buying more bottles, that's what I'm doing now. We made a couple batches before with the idea of making a new batch after the previous 2 has been drank but the problem is that I find beer gets better after a couple of months. So there will be some downtime while waiting for the beer to age when you wouldn't have your own brew to drink.

Getting the beer bottles is not a problem. I have 6 x 500ml glass bottles and about 80 x 330ml glass bottles plus 48 x 500ml PET bottles, of which 42 are full of beer. Storing them is the issue. But what I might do is build up a supply of 500ml bottles over the next couple of months and clear some space in my garage for bottle storage. Then as you said I'll have the ability to have a 3rd brew on the go.

 

[chillipickle]

Then when you get full up with bottles and no more space, you then move on to corny kegs :)

 

[damienair]

I couldn’t resist, my first brew was officially ready to drink on Friday. I set up a little makeshift socially distanced bar in my garage last night and invited over my next door neighbor to try out the beer. I didn’t have much expectations about this. Just a Simply Lager kit brewed with 1Kg of brewing Sugar. I was just hoping it would be drinkable.
it was absolutely fantastic. Really really nice. If I got this in a bar I’d be thrilled. I was not expecting that. It was delicious we had 7 each. We had a fun night. This homebrew lark is great. I’d make this one again.

 

[JiiPee95]

Better start making your next batch, sounds like that one is gonna go fast nice foam and looks very good!

 

[Ezza]

I've found "Simply"kits to be excellent products.