Well, I can finally put a post in the Beer Brewdays bit! Not AG, not even extract but I'm pleased I've finally got round to it! My missus bought a Youngs Harvest Yorkshire Bitter kit and FV for me as a father's day present. I've ended up buying numerous other bits & pieces and put them into use. So brew 1 is the kit + 1.5kg of medium spraymalt + Safale 04. Pitched yesterday at 25C and a few hours later bubbling happily - even kept me awake for a bit!
A couple of things I've lived & learnt -allow space for the spraymalt when adding it to some hot water in a pan to get it dissolved (or not bother sticking it in a pan - just throw it in the FV); check your hydrometer trial jar is tall enough for your hydrometer! I've been unable to find the OG, which is a bit of a shame -I could've stuck the hydro in the FV after I realised, but I thought I might as well leave it alone.
A quick question about temperatures - overnight I had the FV lagged with bubblewrap and I've got a temperature probe stuck to the outside of the FV. The highest temp that was reading was 23C, I imagine it's a bit warmer in the brew. At the moment the ambient temp is 18 and the probe's reading 22C. This evening ambient will be up to 20 as we'll have the heating on for a bit. I know maintaining a stable temperature is ideal so I was wondering if it might be worth keeping it a bit lagged during the day, removing the lagging when the heating's on, and then lagging it again overnight. I think I'd rather not have it lagged when the heating's on in case it gets a bit too warm in there. Mind you I doubt the temp variations I'm playing with are going to have a great effect one way or the other.
Anyway, my plan, assuming fermentation finishes as expected, is to leave it in the primary for 11 days total as that's a Wednesday which is a convenient evening for the next stage. I'll be transferring to a keg+primer*, but bottling about half of it (I must test the little bottler in advance!). I'll gas & vent the keg a couple of times to try and reduce the amount of air in there. We'll then be off to Spain over Christmas, so there should be a decent conditioning time without the temptation to keep sampling!
*as to this, the kit instructions are 1/2 tsp sugar per bottle or 2oz sugar for a keg. I'm wondering if I'll end up with under carbonated bottles if I use the keg amount for what I'm planning. So, for 23L beer, what mass of sugar would people normally batch prime with, if going into bottles?
Cheers
Chris
A couple of things I've lived & learnt -allow space for the spraymalt when adding it to some hot water in a pan to get it dissolved (or not bother sticking it in a pan - just throw it in the FV); check your hydrometer trial jar is tall enough for your hydrometer! I've been unable to find the OG, which is a bit of a shame -I could've stuck the hydro in the FV after I realised, but I thought I might as well leave it alone.
A quick question about temperatures - overnight I had the FV lagged with bubblewrap and I've got a temperature probe stuck to the outside of the FV. The highest temp that was reading was 23C, I imagine it's a bit warmer in the brew. At the moment the ambient temp is 18 and the probe's reading 22C. This evening ambient will be up to 20 as we'll have the heating on for a bit. I know maintaining a stable temperature is ideal so I was wondering if it might be worth keeping it a bit lagged during the day, removing the lagging when the heating's on, and then lagging it again overnight. I think I'd rather not have it lagged when the heating's on in case it gets a bit too warm in there. Mind you I doubt the temp variations I'm playing with are going to have a great effect one way or the other.
Anyway, my plan, assuming fermentation finishes as expected, is to leave it in the primary for 11 days total as that's a Wednesday which is a convenient evening for the next stage. I'll be transferring to a keg+primer*, but bottling about half of it (I must test the little bottler in advance!). I'll gas & vent the keg a couple of times to try and reduce the amount of air in there. We'll then be off to Spain over Christmas, so there should be a decent conditioning time without the temptation to keep sampling!
*as to this, the kit instructions are 1/2 tsp sugar per bottle or 2oz sugar for a keg. I'm wondering if I'll end up with under carbonated bottles if I use the keg amount for what I'm planning. So, for 23L beer, what mass of sugar would people normally batch prime with, if going into bottles?
Cheers
Chris
