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Chippy_Tea said:
Ignore times in instructions they are always optimistic, if you haven't got one get yourself a hydrometer then you will know for sure when fermentation has finished and you can also work out the ABV of your beer, wine or cider.

Wilko hydrometer and trial jar - http://tinyurl.com/h7dchsv


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Very good pieces of kit these, I have both.
 
b_smith_90 said:
Some advice from a newbie to other newbies:

easy way to control temps:

Buy one of those green 40L flexible gardening buckets (£5 from my local "we-sell-everything" shop).

Order a cheapo fish tank heater from amazon.

Ta-da! Consistent 21�C fermentation.
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Just a thought. If you sanitize the fish tank heater thoroughly, couldn't you just drop it into the wort?...:whistle:
 
You could but you cannot sterilise dirt so you would have too be 100% sure it was spotless in all its little hidden places before sterilising it, the water bath method is much more popular as you can heat more than one DJ or FV at a time and no worries about how clean the heater is, a good tip is to put a little bleach in the water bath water to stop it going manky.
 
Remember to loosen the fermenter lid before you take a sample from the tap. For some reason, this is the one cock-up I just can't purge. And I discovered yesterday that I'd left both my fermenter lids loose since I last did this a week ago. My brain must be somewhere else at sampling time.
 
I have read this thread and there is some excellent advice here. I bottled my first (beer kit) brew a week ago with a Coopers carbonation drop in each one, and am just trying to resist the temptation to sample one of the bottles. Holding a bottle up to the light, the contents seems to be very clear already and there is a very thin layer of sediment at the bottom of the one I looked at, so the process seems to be doing well.

I presume now that it is just down to developing the taste?

How many weeks or months would you say before the gunge in the sediment will affect the taste of the beer, in a bad way?
 
Bar-Steward said:
I have read this thread and there is some excellent advice here. I bottled my first (beer kit) brew a week ago with a Coopers carbonation drop in each one, and am just trying to resist the temptation to sample one of the bottles. Holding a bottle up to the light, the contents seems to be very clear already and there is a very thin layer of sediment at the bottom of the one I looked at, so the process seems to be doing well.

I presume now that it is just down to developing the taste?

How many weeks or months would you say before the gunge in the sediment will affect the taste of the beer, in a bad way?
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Depending on oxidisation caused by air getting into your beer during bottling it should keep for many months, it may even be drinkable after a couple of years, this could depend on several things, strong beer tends to get better with age
The grunge in the bottle is yeast and it played a big part on the flavour of the beer and it is still working on that now so don't worry to much about it
 
Thanks.

It is just that having made lots of wine in the past, but never any beer I have been 'conditioned' to not letting wine stand on the sediment for a length of time.
 
Bar-Steward said:
Thanks.

It is just that having made lots of wine in the past, but never any beer I have been 'conditioned' to not letting wine stand on the sediment for a length of time.
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I wouldn't worry too much. I used to collect bottle conditioned beers, then one day about twenty years after beginning my collection I realised that beers were for drinking and started to drink my way through 120 bottles of old beer. Some of the weaker ones were undrinkable, but nearly all of the strong beers were fine, even twenty years after their sell by dates.
 
Bar-Steward said:
Thanks.

It is just that having made lots of wine in the past, but never any beer I have been 'conditioned' to not letting wine stand on the sediment for a length of time.
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unlike wine where you sterilise the product prior to bottling to ensure no active yeast continue munching on the residual more complex sugars.

beers are a live product the active yeast in the bottle or cask not only providing the condition of the finished product, but also with some heavier beers positively influence the flavour through long time laying down the imperial stout being the prime example.

with lighter beers after about 6-9months some thinning can be noticed as the body contributing sugars are consumed.
 
Thanks for the excellent info. I will stop panicking, even though my fv contents was up to 28C on Tuesday even with all the doors open to try and get some air movement. It did not help that it was 31 or 32 outside.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that the sudden rise in temperature (it is back to 23 now) will not have harmed anything.
 
Another problem I have found as a newcomer who bought a complete brewers kit online, is that with lively fermentation the gases seem to prefer to distort the lid of the fv rather than exit through the airlock.

I couldn't quite figure this out in respect to my school physics lessons, but a quick inspection of my plastic airlock showed that it had a taper at the bottom end, thus restricting the quantity of gas which could escape in that direction.

I chopped the tapered end off with a sharp knife and after sterilising the new cut end of the airlock, replaced it through the hole in the lid.

This has not been the perfect solution but it does appear to allow twice as much fermentation gas to escape than before, thus relieving the pressure on the lid.
 
Another problem I have found as a newcomer who bought a complete brewers kit online, is that with lively fermentation the gases seem to prefer to distort the lid of the fv rather that exit through the airlock.
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I have 2 FV's one is a Richies version i bought in my local home brew shop, this has a lid that snaps shut and is airtight and the airlock always works as it should, the second is a cheap one off ebay, the lid is very floppy (for want of a better description) it doesn't snap shut and i never see bubbles coming through the airlock.

The simple fix is to put a heavy weight in the centre of the FV lid, works every time.

If you try this method let me know how you get on, if you use another method post it in the thread.
 
I tried the heavy weight in the middle, well it was a 1.5kg can of my next brew on the waiting list; but that just seemed to distort the sides of the lid, and when the foam was at its height it had less room to spread out under the lid.

So I took the 'weight' off again and made sure the lid was as tight a fit as I could get it all the way around. I dreaded leaving the fv overnight, expecting to find a brown oozing froth all over the brewing room floor this morning, but the lid was still in place and the airlock was (and still is) bubbling away nicely.

I think I have a cheap fv and may get a more expensive one when I next visit the brew-shop, leaving this one for the 30 pint brews which will have more top space.
 
what you can do to try and reform the lid better is put it on the best you can and pour boiling water over it .. obviously do it outside
 
I think I have a cheap fv and may get a more expensive one when I next visit the brew-shop, leaving this one for the 30 pint brews which will have more top space.
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With the two i have the Richies (the one that bubbles) has a lid you have to fight to get off and if you turn it upside down when sanitising it does not leak at all the other you could probably remove by flapping a tea towel close to it, if the lid doesn't snap on walk away.
 
My tip is designed to help speed up bottling.

I keep a litre spray bottle of Starsan 5ml in 1L made up at all times under the sink. While Mrs Chemist does from time to time use this to sterilise the work surfaces and pretty much anything else she decides needs it, it serves a purpose for my empties.

I wash the bottles and lids every evening when I clean up after the little monsters tea, I grab the bottle and spray some into the bottle, then push the cap back on by hand. Once 12 appear in my little bottle storage area, they get moved to the outhouse and go into a box. This speeds up massively the bottling day chores by ensuring that the bottles are already cleaned and simply need a rinse and a spray to be ready to accept more delicious beer!

I reckon it cuts an hour off bottling day easily, and keeps me in SWOGI's good graces as she says she hates helping with the bottling, but got very very annoyed when I did one without her strangely...
 

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