Home brewing kits ....

Ah right, that is reassuring then! it is a Coopers Mexican Cerveza! The kit does say bottle after 6 days so i was planning on doing that Saturday, i will monitor the brew and take readings each day until then.
 
@ Kimi

Did you calibrate the hydrometer ? 1.033 seems a bit low (it's been a while since i've done a brew :( ) but dropping to 1.012 in 4 days shouldn't be a problem. 24c is a bit high though.
 
Calibrate it? umm no lol, i was just following the instructions and it didn't mention anything about that, how do i calibrate it heh?

I've tried to get the 24c lower but the lowest ive got to is 22.5. The house is just abnormally hot, bring on the winter!
 
You dont need to calibrate it, just remember the hydrometer readings are based on 20c so your going to need to do some maths to get your actual reading at 24c.

Edit: Here is a calculator

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/hydrometer.html?14822505

I would try to get your brew to at least 1020, dont forget its going to be going through a secondary fermentation in the bottles, so it will probably be fine.
 
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Kimi said:
Ah right, that is reassuring then! it is a Coopers Mexican Cerveza! The kit does say bottle after 6 days so i was planning on doing that Saturday, i will monitor the brew and take readings each day until then.
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All the advice you have read says leave it 2 weeks despite the coopers instruction, stop trying to rush it :p

The 2 weeks is nothing compared to the near 2 months you are going to wait to drink it. When I tried my beer after 44 days (2 weeks in FV 30 days conditioning) I was dissapointed. To the point I thought I'd just wasted £60 on a load of rubbish I'd never use again.

Some people try a taste from hydrometer sample prior to bottling to check it's not off then leave it bottled for 4-5 months before drinking. Once you have a few batches made up this becomes easier to do.

If you are going to follow the coopers kit and FV for 6 days and condition for a week, you might as well be drinking dishwater tbh :D

I don't take a reading every day either, you are wasting brew, leave it 13 days take a reading then another on the 14th day to check it is finished :)
 
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Ha! i know what you mean, its all so tempting, out of interest. On the Coopers kit, why does it say to bottle after 6 days? and then drink after a further 2 weeks in the bottles? is it just to play to the impatients are passing and read the box?

Ive got another FV coming tomorrow so i was thinking of starting another brew, my kit came with the Coopers Larger but i also have a Coopers Caniadian Blonde, im not sure what to start next.
 
Kimi said:
Ha! i know what you mean, its all so tempting, out of interest. On the Coopers kit, why does it say to bottle after 6 days? and then drink after a further 2 weeks in the bottles? is it just to play to the impatients are passing and read the box?.
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Pretty much to sell is like you have a drink in just a few days. I guess some are happy with that, myself I did it to try to get myself beer for home and BBQ's that I wouldn't mind sharing with others and to replace my favourite two drinks, Corona and Warsteiner.

After 50 days of conditioning I'd rather drink the coopers Cerveza than Corona. After 30 days I'd rather have drunk Carlsberg watered down 50-50 ;)

The three people that have tried mine so far have all preferred it to Corona, which is what I wanted to achieve. A summer drink for 50p a bottle.

I understand it's tempting to get it out and bottled and then tasted but try one after a few weeks and I bet you hate the after taste, even the smell. Leave it 60 and you will be hooked.

My cerveza went on yesterday, I have a canadian blonde that's been conditioning for 45 days and a pils that was bottled yesterday, also a cerveza that was my first brew 6 bottles left :(.

Once you get a few going it's easier to become patient, I did my first brew on the 19th of march so it doesn't take long to get a constant flow coming and I'm using one FV. One out, one in :D

Currently surfing for what's to go in the FV next. Possibly a Coopers Indian Pale ale for something different to my normal choices I think :)
 
Pretty much the same reasons here mate, i like a Corona but its just to expensive to have it all the time, im looking forward to being able to provide multiple high quality beers for all my guests :D what brew did you find as a replacement for the Warsteiner?

I 'accidentally' bought 100 cans of Heineken the other day, so ive got more than enough to get me buy :D so once bottled im putting them out of sight in the garage and come back to them when the Heineken gone
 
I started a brew on monday that I am hoping to call 'sub30' as it should cost me less than 30p per pint/bottle. I got an ale kit reduced to £10 in wilko and bought a kilo of sugar for £1 and have some sugar left over for priming. My dad has been saving bottles so they are essentially free and caps work out at 1.5p. Think I have used less than 40p worth of vwp. Again on a flat rate for water so essentially free. With 40 bottles should be 29.5p each (usually get 43-46 bottles as they are 500ml) :D
 
Kimi said:
what brew did you find as a replacement for the Warsteiner?
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Nothing yet, see what the pils turns out like, I imagine I will always have to buy warsteiner though. I just love the stuff as you can see from all the bottles of it for my pils :D

jak731 said:
I started a brew on monday that I am hoping to call 'sub30' as it should cost me less than 30p per pint/bottle. :D
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Wow that's cheap, discounting the bottles mine comes to about 38p per 500ml. £16 for the kit, sugar and carb drops. That's for the cerveza anyway :) Maybe another penny per bottle for vwp.
 
My gravity has been at 12-13 for 3 days now, do you think its ok to bottle for a month now? also i worked it out using a formula from online and it said it is 2.29% abv. Thats not that great? am i correct in thinking that when i put a carbonation drop in the bottle it starts a secondary fermentation and boosts the %?

Thanks
 
Kimi said:
My gravity has been at 12-13 for 3 days now, do you think its ok to bottle for a month now? also i worked it out using a formula from online and it said it is 2.29% abv. Thats not that great? am i correct in thinking that when i put a carbonation drop in the bottle it starts a secondary fermentation and boosts the %?

Thanks
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Yeah that's stable and ready to bottle. Secondary will increase the %, but only by a very small amount. How much sugar did you brew with? Did you mix all the can's contents well with hot water?
 
Yea i used coopers brew enhancer 1, and the whole can of mexican cerveza, mixed it up really well. I can see quite a lot of white sediment at the bottom of the FV should i mix it up and see if it ferments again? maybe i should bin this lot and start fresh? because anything below 4% isnt really worth bothering with. Although it could be my beer to turn to when i dont want to get to ****ed :D
 
Use it as nice refreshing day time summer drink when you are doing the garden or something :)

Mine was lower than expected and in theory weaker than I would like but tbh I don't think it's that accurate because after 3 bottles I can feel it :D

These kits with ale yeasts don't seem to ferment as fully as the lager ones, my pils got a much lower fg.
 
Done a bit today,

Transfered my Elderflower Cider to a keg.

20120609_123326.jpg


So easy, just connect it to the beer out line and start the syphon then wait till the keg is full. It will be left in the keg for around 3 months before i start drinking it.

Here are my kegs, one on the left is the Elderflower cider pressurised to 20psi.
Next is a Wherry almost empty as well. Then the one on the right is full of water and a bit of VWP, means i just need to empty it and flush with water and its ready to fill, also comes in handy for flushing beer lines.

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I have then started a John Bull London Porter and made it with 500g dextrose and 500g extra dark spray malt.

Johnbull_london_porter.jpg
 
I decided im going to leave my brew for a couple more days at least, after testing it today it bought up a 1010 so im not really sure whats happening lol, i tested it last on Thurs / Friday and it was 1016 both days so i thought it was done, still a bit longer in the FV will hopefully get its strength up.
 
well managed to get some elderflower and hawthorn flower picking done :)

have 25ltrs elderflower champagne bottled
4 dj's of hawthorn wine bubbling away
25 ltrs of elderflower wine and another 25 ltrs of elder champage bubbling in fv's
works out about 15p a bottle :)

and tesco has princes apple juice half price at the moment so will start of some turbo cider this week :)
 
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