Quick hello

[kwakamat]

Hi to all,

Got a coopers brewing kit for xmas and starting slow and steady so to speak but really enjoying it.

First batch was the coopers australian lager, found that most of the lids had worked themselves loose at secondary fermentation so that resulted in a very flat beer :-(

Did an alcoholic ginger beer and that tasted great but some very flat and the odd one or two very fizzy (yum yum) so i'm trying to work out what's going on as i go along.

Now got a coopers canadian blonde in there, going for first F.G measurement today. As you can probably tell I'm nowhere near as advanced as a lot of you but I hope in using the forum etc to learn and try new things as i go along.

I already invested in a brew belt to keep a more continuous temp delivery in the first stages and use 1/2 teaspoon of sugar at bottling stage (it's been brown sugar though as that's what I have had in the house!)

Anyway, looking to learn new things and always happy to hear suggestions.

Cheers
Matt

 

[graysalchemy]

Welcome to the forum Kwakamat :thumb:

You say your first beer ended up going flat at secondary stage, What had you put it in a keg or just in the fermentation vessel (FV)?

Your best bet is probably bottling you will get good carbonation with 1/2 tsp per pint or 5-6g per gallon if you batch prime. Batch priming is where you add the sugar to the beer in bulk before bottling. There is plenty of info on here if you use the search facility on the top right hand side.

Hope that helps

 

[oldbloke]

Flat beer? You weren't using those plastic caps on your bottles were you? Only time I failed to get carbonation was when I used those. Real crown caps on glass bottles, or plastic bottles with good screw caps are the way to go, if you're not kegging.

 

[charlie_mead_face]

fizzy water bottles are fool proof (but you'll have to drink a butt load of it)
welcome to the forum
charlie

 

[kwakamat]

Hi Guys many thanks for the replies.... i made some headway here.

The ozzie lager from the first batch was because i didnt tighten the caps on the Coopers PET bottles tight enough - you live you learn and these PET bottles are what I have been using since i started (buying a couple more batches of them in order to store what I'm making.

What I have really taken notice of now is the importance of everything after primary fermentation - on bottling the canadian blonde I made sure I kept all the bottles in the utility room for a good week, in the warmer environment in there the bottles all firmed up in different stages) perfectly over the course of that week whereas many from my first batch were still soft enough to squeeze easily.

I then moved the blonde to a cupboard in the kitchen, plenty cooler and left it there for another week before trying one - i was amazed.....After 3 weeks I have near enough 'tried' the whole lot - every one of them has been stunning with no failures and a great tasting beer/lager. I'm staggered at just how well it's turned out!

I had another go at the ozzie lager and just tried one of those the other night after two weeks of being in the bottle (everything i have made so far has been bottled in PET and primed with 1/2 tspoon sugar in 500ml bottle) - it was great/fizzy etc just needs a couple more weeks to take a little bite out of it!

I didn't know that fizzy water bottles worked Charlie cheers I will give that a go!

On another note - i was going to buy some more PET bottles before someone suggested kegging which i hadn't even thought of nor did i know anything about so after some reading I have just bought two cornelius kegs and enough parts/bits to make a home-made kegerator which I think has to be done in my lifetime!

I'm really learning as I go along but have picked up the differences in force priming so I'm hoping I can get it right and get some good brew on tap in the house - I'll be amazed if I pull it off!

On a side note, when your specific/final gravity do you take the first reading you get as soon as you have filled the tube? i ask because the kit I use is from the coopers starter kit and i find i get some pretty wild readings by taking them at different times so readings taken as soon as I have filled the tube vary very much from readings taken 1-2 minutes after filling the tube.

Does that make sense?

Cheers
Matt