My second brew isn't looking so right

[Gent]

So I have brewed the 15kg/23L Coopers DIY IPA kit with 1.5kg of Thomas Coopers Malt Extract which I was told would be the only fermentable sugar I should need to add by a guy from the-home-brew-shop.co.uk.

This is my OG reading before adding yeast:

And this is my FG after the bubbles/co2 stopped after 7 days of fermentation at 22c/23c:

And this is what I calculated the ABV to be, knowing me I am probably reading the hydrometer completely wrong or doing the calculation wrong but I'm pretty sure I should have a much lower reading on my FG:

Anyone help would be greatly appreciated, I've bottled it all up with 1 carbonation drop regardless if it's going to be weaker than a Shandy Bass.

 

[Covrich]

IMO you have bottled too early, Most people bottle leave it a minimum 2 weeks as the yeast will finsih munching on the smaller sugars and clear up the off flavour compounds created during fermentation

1016 seems a little high and should probably go down a fair few points..

Assuming your readings are 1041 and 1016 you should have about 3.2% , you can add 0.2% on for priming (0.5 is over estimation I think)

Problem is you have suffered what a lot of people do when new to brewing is following the instructions which do not contain the best advise

 

[MyQul]

IMO you have bottled too early, Most people bottle leave it a minimum 2 weeks as the yeast will finsih munching on the smaller sugars and clear up the off flavour compounds created during fermentation

1016 seems a little high and should probably go down a fair few points..

Assuming your readings are 1041 and 1016 you should have about 3.2% , you can add 0.2% on for priming (0.5 is over estimation I think)

Problem is you have suffered what a lot of people do when new to brewing is following the instructions which do not contain the best advise

If thats a wilko hydrometer (and it looks very similar to the one I have) the reading is actually 1.014. On the wilko one the reading is taken at the top of the meniscus not the bottom. May be they did it that way to make it a bit easier to read?

 

[Gent]

IMO you have bottled too early, Most people bottle leave it a minimum 2 weeks as the yeast will finsih munching on the smaller sugars and clear up the off flavour compounds created during fermentation

1016 seems a little high and should probably go down a fair few points..

Assuming your readings are 1041 and 1016 you should have about 3.2% , you can add 0.2% on for priming (0.5 is over estimation I think)

Problem is you have suffered what a lot of people do when new to brewing is following the instructions which do not contain the best advise

Yeah I watched a bunch of videos and some of them said they let their brew sit on the yeast cake for 1-2 extra weeks for that reason and to clear the beer up a bit more, I thought I should probably let it sit for another week after taking that FG reading as it looked very low, I normally go by the "bottling" band as a newbie does..

If thats a wilko hydrometer (and it looks very similar to the one I have) the reading is actually 1.014. On the wilko one the reading is taken at the top of the meniscus not the bottom. May be they did it that way to make it a bit easier to read?

It's not a Wilko hydrometer it's my nans hydrometer from about 20 years ago when she owned and lived in a pub, it's a Stevenson Hydrometer and from my research a very accurate one at that so I've been measuring from the bottom, the Wilko one is in the background looks and feels like a cheap piece of s**t compared to the Stevenson one..

 

[MyQul]

It's not a Wilko hydrometer it's my nans hydrometer from about 20 years ago when she owned and lived in a pub, it's a Stevenson Hydrometer and from my research a very accurate one at that so I've been measuring from the bottom..

Ok, cool. In that case what Cov says stands. One of our forumites (Dutto) picked up that although accurate, Wilko hydrometers read from the top of the meniscus rather than the bottom as normal. I tested my wilko one out with water (A reading with water gives a reading of 1.000 for anyone reading this and wanting to test their own hydrometer) and what Dutto had found seemed to bear this out

 

[Gent]

What do you guys reckon to the risk of the bottles going boom? I used 1 375ml carbonation drop in each one, I'd rather not have 47 500ml bottles go bust in the bedroom!

 

[Ale]

I bottled one of my early brews too early as well, about that FG. Using the calculator link on the green nav bar at the top of the page it said it should have been about 4%. Me and a mate who sampled it both thought it was far stronger than that, probably nearer the 7% mark or more. It will continue to ferment in the bottle if there is yeast and sugar. Just make sure you dont pour the sediment in the bottle into your glass.

My current brew has been in my brew fridge for 10 days carbonating and I'm itching for it to finish, then 2 weeks cold crashing so I have in my mind an earliest drinking date of 17th March as a Friday seems a good day to start it. Its in a pressure barrel though

 

[Gent]

Ok, cool. In that case what Cov says stands. One of our forumites (Dutto) picked up that although accurate, Wilko hydrometers read from the top of the meniscus rather than the bottom as normal. I tested my wilko one out with water (A reading with water gives a reading of 1.000 for anyone reading this and wanting to test their own hydrometer) and what Dutto had found seemed to bear this out

Hmm okay I've just tested the Stevenson one and I'm getting a reading of 1.000 from the top of the meniscus and the Wilko one is reading 1.002 from the top of the meniscus..

 

[MyQul]

Hmm okay I've just tested the Stevenson one and I'm getting a reading of 1.000 from the top of the meniscus and the Wilko one is reading 1.002 from the top of the meniscus..

I just tested mine again just to double check and mine definately reads 1.000 at the top of the meniscus. What may have happened it that the paper in the glass tube has slipped. This 'mis-reading' isnt a problem you just need to adjust for it now you know

 

[Simonh82]

This may not have finished higher than it was supposed to. I'm no expert on kits but most of the 1 can kits are designed to have a substantial amount of table sugar added to them to get to the predicted final gravity. If you swapped that out for dry malt extract, which is a good idea in terms of flavour, this will have resulted in a higher level of unfermentable sugars and hence a higher final gravity.

It is certainly a good idea to give a beer more than a week to reach final gravity and clean up any off flavours before bottling but it may not drop any lower.

I suspect that if you've only used one carbonation drop you won't end up with bottle bombs, even if it does drop a few more points in the bottle but it might end up over carbonated.

I'd crack a bottle open after a week and see what it's like. If its a gusher then you can consider chilling the rest down to near freezing and recapping them to let some gas escape but hopefully that won't be necessary.

 

[Gent]

This may not have finished higher than it was supposed to. I'm no expert on kits but most of the 1 can kits are designed to have a substantial amount of table sugar added to them to get to the predicted final gravity. If you swapped that out for dry malt extract, which is a good idea in terms of flavour, this will have resulted in a higher level of unfermentable sugars and hence a higher final gravity.

It is certainly a good idea to give a beer more than a week to reach final gravity and clean up any off flavours before bottling but it may not drop any lower.

I suspect that if you've only used one carbonation drop you won't end up with bottle bombs, even if it does drop a few more points in the bottle but it might end up over carbonated.

I'd crack a bottle open after a week and see what it's like. If its a gusher then you can consider chilling the rest down to near freezing and recapping them to let some gas escape but hopefully that won't be necessary.

Yeah I think I'll leave my brews to sit on the yeast cake for 1.5 - 2 weeks in the future, and I think I might be okay on the carbonation side of things I'll just keep checking the bottle pressure by squeezing them every couple of days, these are the recommended fermentable sugars below, when it says sparkling ale I presume it means very carbonated thusly the 500g Light Dry Malt and 300g Dextrose aren't necessary unless I want really carbonated ale?

Coopers Wort Concentrate, Yeast Sachet (under lid) and Coopers Light Malt Extract. (other recommended
fermentable sugars may be used) In addition to 1.5kg Coopers Light Extract, the Sparkling Ale recipe requires
500g Light Dry Malt and 300g Dextrose for optimum results.

https://club.coopers.com.au/static/media/uploads/tc-_under_lid_instructions.pdf

 

[Covrich]

Are they in pet bottles?? in that case IF they are over carbonated you could I suppose just twist a pinch out anyway. Even in glass I wouldn;t be worried about exploding.. Exp[loding would need seriously over carbing or wild yeast

 

[Gent]

Are they in pet bottles?? in that case IF they are over carbonated you could I suppose just twist a pinch out anyway. Even in glass I wouldn;t be worried about exploding.. Exp[loding would need seriously over carbing or wild yeast

Yeah they're in plastic PET bottles I figure if they do build too much pressure I'll just let a little out..

 

[Slid]

Yeah they're in plastic PET bottles I figure if they do build too much pressure I'll just let a little out..

When I first started using PET bottles, I never tightened them enough to give a good seal. Beer was a little flatter than fully desirable, but if you loosen the caps a little whilst the are in the warm for a week or so, no harm will actually come to it. Beer will continue to carbonate for while even in the cool. Also, you can't hurt a PET bottle by putting beer in it. No way.

I don't know what you did to your hapless calculator, but an outline calculation would go:

41 minus 7 is 34.
34 divided by 7.46 is 4.56% ABV.

Add on a bit for the priming sugar, say 0.2%, gives about 4.8% ABV.

This an approximation based on two guesses at hydrometer readings and the whole calculation thing is not really very reliable. When you get used to the good hydrometer you have inherited, it will get better!

As a rule of thumb: a two can kit made to full brew length will give you about 4% ABV if nothing goes too wrong. So if you want another guess, that's it. 4% ABV, as nothing seems to have gone too wrong.

 

[Jakeyboi]

Hi, I made the coopers innkeepers daughter sparking ale last year with 1.5kg dme. After one week my SG was 1014 and I considered it done, the air lock was still and the Krausen had sunk. I left it for another two weeks to condition in the bucket and the FG turned out to be 1010. My bet is urs isn't finished.

 

[Gent]

When I first started using PET bottles, I never tightened them enough to give a good seal. Beer was a little flatter than fully desirable, but if you loosen the caps a little whilst the are in the warm for a week or so, no harm will actually come to it. Beer will continue to carbonate for while even in the cool. Also, you can't hurt a PET bottle by putting beer in it. No way.

I don't know what you did to your hapless calculator, but an outline calculation would go:

41 minus 7 is 34.
34 divided by 7.46 is 4.56% ABV.

Add on a bit for the priming sugar, say 0.2%, gives about 4.8% ABV.

This an approximation based on two guesses at hydrometer readings and the whole calculation thing is not really very reliable. When you get used to the good hydrometer you have inherited, it will get better!

As a rule of thumb: a two can kit made to full brew length will give you about 4% ABV if nothing goes too wrong. So if you want another guess, that's it. 4% ABV, as nothing seems to have gone too wrong.

It seems Chuck Norris himself made PET bottles in the fires of a mountain and infused them with his strength, and I really do need to learn how to use the hyrometer correctly haha..

Hi, I made the coopers innkeepers daughter sparking ale last year with 1.5kg dme. After one week my SG was 1014 and I considered it done, the air lock was still and the Krausen had sunk. I left it for another two weeks to condition in the bucket and the FG turned out to be 1010. My bet is urs isn't finished.

Yeah more than likely not I'm always a little hasty when it comes to getting my next pint! :P