Home brewing kits ....

I'll give it another check when I get back home. It bubbled away for a week so there should be some alcohol in there. I may have taken the reading wrong.
 
1.000 means its done, doesnt it?

It will have started much higher, prob 1.050 or more. My kit says it can be bottled when it gets below 1.006. Anything under 1.000 is heading into dry cider.

But basically, take another reading tomorrow and if its the same then its stopped fermenting. Reading mine tonight and then again tomorrow and will be bottling if its settled :).

Anyone got an estimate on how long it takes to bottle up 40 pints?
 
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Just took a sample out of my Black Rock to see if its set for bottling tomorrow night

Its at 1.006 :)
It tastes like cider :)
But... very weak cider :(

It tastes like its been watered down. Does it strengthen up in the bottle?

Oh, and a side note, what the hell use is a bottle brush that doesn't fit in the neck of bottles :rolleyes:

Does anyone use a dishwasher to heat sterilise bottles before bottling?

Kicking off 2 turbo ciders tomorrow too :)
 
Sounds like you didn't have enough sugar.
If you're better at maths than me. You can work out how much sugar you need.
http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/recipe_formulation.htm
Be nice if someone changed that into a calculator.

Any excel gods about?
So you can work it out either way round either NPR owing sugar and what % you want, or npknowing sugar and quantities and giving you a %

Skeeter said:
1.000 means its done, doesnt it?
?
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Not really, you shouldn't get a reading of one.

For beer you roughly want a starting point of around 1.050
After fermentation you should have a reduction around the 75% mark.
So fermentation should be complete around the 1.012 mark
Now with cider, you haven't got all the other ingredients in there that's where I think the raised gravity reading comes from.

Also if it's carbonated it'll mess reading up, as will bubbles forming on the hydrometer.

Most place recommend you wait to get the same reading for three days to ensure its fully fermented.

You can use starting and end gravity to work out alcohol content. Simple calculator here
http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

My what will be root beer started at 1.062 now as its just a base, water sugar and yeast. I imagine it will get to around 1.000
Which would be 8.14%

However if it ferments like beer ~75%
That would be 6.17%

I expect it'll end up somewhere in the middle.

Once it's done I'm oing to sphon out into a fermenting bin with tap, mix in the root beer concentrate. Leave for one day, to allow more sediment to settle out. Fill bottles with a little sugar for priming an fill up and leave for a few weeks.
 
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The start (1.040) and end (1.006) are exactly what the instructions on the kit state, so I assume that's good :)

With a little sugar in the bottles it will be around 5.7% I think.
 
Yep. Suggestions for this kit include adding an apple too. I've done the first one by the book. If its good I will get more adventurous with the next lot.

How much sugar is recommended for a turbo cider in a 5l demijohn? 150g?
 
I am currently having issues with my beer not gassing up in bottles.

I know its one of two things, either:
I have become too efficient at removing yeast when transfering into bottles that there is not enough to produce the gas
I am not putting in enough sugar

To ensure its not the latter, how much do you guys usually put in? I aim for around 1/2 teaspoon of sugar per 500ml/pint.
 
It depends what I'm brewing, Fortyseven.

As a rough guide, I'd be using at least 35g per gallon, or 4g (rounding up) per 500ml bottle. Dissolve it in as little water as possible (1:1 should be doable), boil it up, let it cool a bit and then divide that syrup up equally between all the bottles. It's also best to add this syrup before you add the drink.
 
Ahleckz said:
It depends what I'm brewing, Fortyseven.

As a rough guide, I'd be using at least 35g per gallon, or 4g (rounding up) per 500ml bottle. Dissolve it in as little water as possible (1:1 should be doable), boil it up, let it cool a bit and then divide that syrup up equally between all the bottles. It's also best to add this syrup before you add the drink.
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Cheers, similar technique to what I use myself but have been using volume instead of weight.
Having just checked the interweb, a teaspoon of sugar weighs about 4g, but this is obviously very rough. It may suggest that I have been putting in half as much into my solution as may be needed.
 
I find weight to be far better with these sorts of things. Volume just isn't accurate enough. Whilst a 'cup' is a certain volume, a 'teaspoon' isn't. My teaspoons, and your teaspoons are likely to be of different volume.

To find out what works, just use different quantities of syrup in each bottle and see which one you prefer and just use that for the future. For most things though, I really wouldn't be going below 4g.
 
Level teaspoon or heaped?

Jonny69 said:
That will come out just over 6.5% if you let it brew all the way out.
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6.5% sounds good to me :)

I'm talking your recipe suggestions and grabbing some Lidl cloudy apple juice and some Princes juice tonight, and will add a double bag strong black tea to each as well.
 
My first ever homebrew bottled up :D

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And 2 turbo's fired off :D

IMAG0066.jpg
 
Nice, is that proper tops? I went for swing tops for ease.

Wahoo there doesn't appear to be any bubbles through airlock.
Have to pick up some more steriliser tomorrow and see what the gravity is.
 
Yeah crown caps. My nan has let me have all my grandads old stuff. He had about 120 brown bottles from ushers brewery and a capper and a massive tin full of caps.
 
So I've brewed some Princes apple juice with the leftover yeast from a natural cider. That is, a cider I brewed from the natural yeast in rotten apples and no other added ingredients. It's the second one I've done with leftover yeast dregs and it has consistently worked. On both of them it hasn't picked up that scrumpy cider taste I was hoping the yeast might impart, so I think this must come from somethign in the apples when they naturally degrade. Both of them have been significantly less acidic than cheap apple juice though, so it's worth stocking up when it goes on offer :)
 
The clearer of my 2 turbo's is with Princes.

Do you collect the yeast dregs and transfer to something new, or do you just fill the same container back up with fresh juice leaving the dregs in the bottom?
 
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