Home brewing kits ....

Me again with my questions!

I started this kit last Sunday. When i mixed it all up and tested to get the gravity it was showing around 1050 which seemed high i thought.

Not really knowing what else to do i chucked the lid on and left it fermenting away which certainly seems to be happening. I checked it yesterday and it's still showing around 1030. The instructions suggest adding the hop pellets when it gets below 1010.

Is there anything i need to do here? Do i just keep leaving it and hope it drops considerable? The temperature has been in the early 20's so should be optimum. i think.

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Marvt74 said:
Me again with my questions!

I started this kit last Sunday. When i mixed it all up and tested to get the gravity it was showing around 1050 which seemed high i thought.

Not really knowing what else to do i chucked the lid on and left it fermenting away which certainly seems to be happening. I checked it yesterday and it's still showing around 1030. The instructions suggest adding the hop pellets when it gets below 1010.

Is there anything i need to do here? Do i just keep leaving it and hope it drops considerable? The temperature has been in the early 20's so should be optimum. i think.

Link
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Last Sunday as in Sunday 14th? If so I wouldn't expect it to be close to being done yet. Check it again on Friday at the absolute earliest. If it has been over a week then it's a bit slow but if it's still active I wouldn't worry too much about it.
 
Whoops, no, last Sunday as in the 7th.

I've tried checking the bubbles and i don't seem to see many. However the lid is bulging and if i press down on the lid then it does bubble through the airlock (Not sure if i should be pressing down on the lid!

I'll keep leaving it and try again in a couple days to see if it's changed.

From what i read online there's no huge issue in leaving it in the primary FV for up to 2 weeks. Just conscious of trying to make something drinkable after my initial failire!
 
Marvt74 said:
Whoops, no, last Sunday as in the 7th.

I've tried checking the bubbles and i don't seem to see many. However the lid is bulging and if i press down on the lid then it does bubble through the airlock (Not sure if i should be pressing down on the lid!

I'll keep leaving it and try again in a couple days to see if it's changed.

From what i read online there's no huge issue in leaving it in the primary FV for up to 2 weeks. Just conscious of trying to make something drinkable after my initial failire!
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Have you adjusted the gravity for temperature? That will knock a couple of points off. I would expect it to be a bit lower than 30 after over a week but these things can happen.

Generally you shouldn't be pressing on the lid/etc but it really isn't that big a deal :)

Is the FV on the floor? When you say it has been 20C do you mean the room temperature or the actual FV temp? If it's the room temperature and the FV has been on the floor you may find that the wort has been at a fair bit lower temperature the whole time.
 
No, i'll do some reading. How do you mean adjust it for temperature?

I'll avoid any pressing then :)

It's in a cupboard under the stairs and it's on some boxes to raise it up about 18". I've got one of those stick on temperature strips, although i know they're not the most accurate. I'll try getting a better reading with my thermopen tonight.
 
Looks like I managed to kill my latest brew :(

http://imgur.com/a/6CVsu

In the second photo, I've looked very closely, and there are things growing down from the skin/must that is on the surface.

I'm using a coopers fermenter, and Ironically I decided to leave in the Krausen Collar as to not risk infection by removing it. I'm guessing some air or a fruit fly has gotten down the side of the Collar, and into the beer via the Gap you can see.

That serves me right for being too busy to bottle, I've drank 4 litres of the 23 that I started off with in there :o
 
Well after struggling to find time i have finally prepped everything and had my first brew day.
I did the Way To Amarillo extract kit (although i sourced the ingredients from the Malt Miller as part of a bigger purchase) but used the late DME addition/Kiwk-Bru method (i only boiled and steeped the hops in water), which i think it made it a lot easier (no boilover issues and you can boil with the lid on).
It definitely took a lot longer than i thought, although that was mainly because i was be extremely careful and paranoid about sanitizing everything (it must be a nightmare without Starsan!) and OMG DME is sticky stuff (glad i knew not to keep it near steamy pots and the late DME addition lets you add it to relatively cool water that is not steaming).
It is all in the fermentation fridge now so i am looking forward to seeing what it is like in two weeks :)

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Agreed, i found it superb when combined with one of those squirty bottle cleaners. No more having to soak bottles in a bath like i was doing!

Can i just double check that having a bit of foam left in the bottle isn't an issue? I googled it and people seemed to suggest it wasnt an issue but when using the squirty thing quite a few suds were created from the movement.
 
FrenchTart said:
Looks good. Will be interesting to hear how it turns out :)

And you're right - Starsan is a life-saver.
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Yep. i wouldnt want to brew without that or oxiclean for the cleaning.

I was also shocked at how far out the measurements on the FV were, so i was glad i calibrated it (apparently this is a really common thing and often leads to 'long' brew lengths that can make the end result watery).

I have an all grain 1 Gallon brew from the brooklyn Brewery to do next, using my Sous Vide Supreme for the mash, with my mate (it was a present to him and we thought we would do it together) and then a 'Saracen' tweaked Wherry kit, so it will be interesting to see how they all compare again each other.
 
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FrenchTart said:
Using a sous vide for beer making does sound like fun. I might have to try it sometime :)
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Yeah i figure if brewers can use their gear to do sous vide then it should be done the toher way around.

Apart from the mash bit there is a brewer who wrote a post on the SVS site here, unfortunately the article teases a bit so i am hoping he will follow up on it.
 
Pestilence said:
Not the worst infection I've ever seen. I'd still drink it (but then I do enjoy the odd sour/lambic beer). :D
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I bottled my infected beer and moved on. Maybe it will mellow with age? Either way, It's better to throw it away in bottles than from the fermenter :p

Just started my new brew this afternoon, Managed to get the wort to 40 degrees centigrade :mad: I had the bottled Spring water kept at Room temperature (24 degrees) and completely forgot about this...

It needs to be 20 degrees for Safale S-04.. not a happy bunny.. I'll just have to wait the extra time and hope my Sanitization is spot on.
 
When boiling hops you should:
* leave the lid off - this allows some of the non desirable molecules to evaporate.
* rolling boil with the hops
* cool down as rapidly as possible - run cold water through a copper coil.

If you're using extract - heat it (it pours easier) and then use boiling water to remove the last sticky stuff from the can. Careful as it's like napalm if it's too hot!
 
NickK said:
When boiling hops you should:
* leave the lid off - this allows some of the non desirable molecules to evaporate.
* rolling boil with the hops
* cool down as rapidly as possible - run cold water through a copper coil.

If you're using extract - heat it (it pours easier) and then use boiling water to remove the last sticky stuff from the can. Careful as it's like napalm if it's too hot!
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For extract brewing if you only boil the hops in water and then add the DME after the boil (known as the 'late DME addition' method amongst other names) then you can keep the lid on, it makes it easier to keep a rolling boil and massively reduces any evaporation.
This only applies to extract brewing though, in all grain you would prevent the evaporation of undesirable molecules otherwise.
 
TaKeN said:
I bottled my infected beer and moved on. Maybe it will mellow with age? Either way, It's better to throw it away in bottles than from the fermenter :p

Just started my new brew this afternoon, Managed to get the wort to 40 degrees centigrade :mad: I had the bottled Spring water kept at Room temperature (24 degrees) and completely forgot about this...

It needs to be 20 degrees for Safale S-04.. not a happy bunny.. I'll just have to wait the extra time and hope my Sanitization is spot on.
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S05 gets a bad rep but I've used it for lots of successful brews. It's very forgiving of temperature fluctuations and the like- mostly because it doesn't really add any flavour...which isn't a big deal in the IPAs I tend to make :)

Something that occurred to me (well, if I'm honest, the guy I brew with a lot) is that if you're bottling infected beer you're inviting bottle bombs. You may want to store them in a very very very securely covered way. Just in case.

edit: I know you're on S04 but just thought I'd mention it. I used S04 for a brew recently and it's so much more demanding than S05. Despite that, it also doesn't have the best rep for really giving an english ale flavour to your beer.
 
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