some begginer questions...

[loady]

I have my woodfordes nog on its 7th day of primary fermentation, i was not able to take a measurement with the hydrometer because the place i got my kit from supplied an alcholmeter instead..any way, i measured today and it is below the recommened reading but need to do it again tomorrow to see if its the same again...the sediment was just under 1 inch deep in the vessel the other day, today i noticed it had halved !! the beer looked cloudy in the trial jar..i know that the vessel has not been knocked, moved or stirred so not sure whats going on in there..i also bought a sachet of finings and not sure whether to chuck that in tonight and give it a good stir and leave for another two days before bottling ??.

When i get to bottling is it ok to put a teaspoon of caster suger in the bottom of each bottle..or should i add the sugar after filling..i have been very maticulous with sterilising so i am hoping this is all going to come out well.

 

[jonnymorris]

I'd leave it in there for another 7 days then rack to a second FV, batch prime that and bottle thereafter.

 

[alanywiseman.]

+1 for what jonny says

I can't give you an answer as to why your sediment has been kicked up. If your SG is about 1.010 and is constant over 3 days I would gentle move your FV to a cool place. This will help your beer to clear.

If you are batch priming then rack into a clean FV that has your priming sugar dissolved in so water in it and make sure to splash as little as possible. If you are bottle priming add your sugar straight into the bottles then siphon the beer in.

Priming is generally done at a rate of 1/2 a teaspoon per 500ml for ales and a 1 teaspoon per 500ml for lagers.

Hope that help :thumb:

 

[loady]

hmm.. batch priming..thats new to me, what is meant by it ?

 

[Laurin]

Batch priming just means that you put the sugar into the whole lot of the brew rather than putting sugar into every single bottle. The sugar in a closed container (bottle, keg, etc.) gets fermented by the the yeast and the CO2 is trapped and creates the fizz in beer,cider, champagne etc.
1 tsp of sugar for 500ml is average, but varies depending on personal taste what drink it is etc.

 

[loady]

so i have turned off the heat tray on my nog brew...i cant bottle for another three days yet as i dont have a bottle tree to dry them all...should i add the sachet of finings and give it a good stir or just drop it on the top ?

 

[kentmark]

so i have turned off the heat tray on my nog brew...i cant bottle for another three days yet as i dont have a bottle tree to dry them all...should i add the sachet of finings and give it a good stir or just drop it on the top ?

The bottle trees look good and very handy, but I managed without one. Just took over the kitchen for the evening, had the FV on one side, with a syphon tube / tap on the end. Had a big bowl of liquid steraliser next to the sink, steralised the bottles in that, rinsed out in the sink, stood on the draining board with a little tin foil over the opening, took them from there to under the syphon tap, sugar in (using a little funnel - tesco value one!), fill, bottle, cap, wipe dry with a towel, job done.

Got quite the production line going. Had a pint on the go as well and some music playing, good evening's entertainment!

 

[loady]

can i use the same sterilising fluid/powder that i used to sterilise the FV and other equipment...i might do it tomorrow in that case...not sure though whether to add the finings though and wait another two days

 

[joe1002]

I have never used findings so can't comment on that side. What I will say is though you certainly don't want to give it a good stir. You need to be as careful as possible to not introduce oxygen to your brew as it will produce an off taste.

As a general guide, you want as much oxygen as possible in the wort before the yeast is pitched. After the yeast is pitched, be very careful to not introduce any.

 

[orlando]

can i use the same sterilising fluid/powder that i used to sterilise the FV and other equipment...i might do it tomorrow in that case...not sure though whether to add the finings though and wait another two days

Most sanitation fluids are more than a single use so you should be OK. As for finings I usually put mine in at the same time as racking to the bottling bucket along with the priming solution. If you put it in the FV it has so much more work to do as you will have to stir it once in which will inevitably pull some of the yeast through as you rack so it makes more sense to let the finings have a go at less of the cloudy beer. It will give you a much brighter beer more often this way and leave less sediment in each bottle so less beer left behind when you pour, which has to be a good thing, no?

 

[loady]

thats my mind made up then..bottling day tomorrow...20 mins in sterilising fluid is enough time for the bottles ?..also my syphon tube has a tap on the end which will not go inside the bottle..does it matter that the beer will be dropping into the bottle..adding oxygen ?

 

[alanywiseman.]

Ideally you do not want to do that. Try and get the beer to run down the side of the bottle rather than dropping it into the base of the bottle.

 

[joe1002]

Yes, that will introduce lots of oxygen. Take the tap off and drop the siphon tube to the bottom of the bottle. :thumb:

 

[kentmark]

I raided the left over milton we had from my daughter when we were steralising all her bottles etc. If it's good enough for baby bottles its good enough for me LOL.

 

[orlando]

Get yourself a bottling cane http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... iller.html, the difference they make when bottling is way beyond the £5 or so you spend. They will also deal with the issue of aeration and speed up the whole process and they help you judge how much ullage to leave, brilliant.