Brewferm Abdij

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Frazinho

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Brewed a few weeks ago, transferred after 7 days to a second fermenting bin. Bottled after another 7 days. Two weeks in the bottle and I cracked a tester open. Nice brew, will get better with age. Caramel flavours, not too dissimilar to other dark Belgian abbey beers. This is the fourth brewferm kit I've made and success each time. Not much in the way of fizz with this one, head isn't the greatest but did sustain itself when drinking.

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I think you are supposed to leave it in the a bucket at least 3 weeks then another 10 in a bottle. That's what I did and it is really nice. Only drunk 2 bottle so far and it's bloody lovely although mine came out at 9.6%
 
OK so I know its my first post here, (Hi all).. though after searching around this seems like my best place to ask?

I've tried one of the brewferm kits for the first time as a complete newbie to beer brewing. I have made meads, red and white wines before, and thought I would give this a try so see how it goes and made up 9l of the ABDIJ on Saturday (19/09) in a 30l bucket (It was all I had clean and free)

Now while my initial SG was 1070, I didn't seem to get much activity out of the airlock. I did check to be sure that everything was sealed fairly well in the bucket, and pressing on it lightly did cause bubbles.. but I never saw anything else and think I only saw one bubble... until like the meads I have going that are bubbling away constantly at 12 BPM in the same conditions . I have had it at a constant temp of ~22°C but decided to just leave it alone. Now I took reading this morning and found I was sitting at 1020. I checked again this evening and then double checked again after finding it at 1010...

So I have racked it off to a secondary carboy right away... but I cant understand why/how and if I have don't something monumentally wrong. This of course lead me to searching on line and the best responses / posts I found ended up being here...

SO.... Hi again.. and hope somebody can help.. and I guess I might be around some more

PS: Sorry for the hijack
 
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OK so I know its my first post here, (Hi all).. though after searching around this seems like my best place to ask?

I've tried one of the brewferm kits for the first time as a complete newbie to beer brewing. I have made meads, red and white wines before, and thought I would give this a try so see how it goes and made up 9l of the ABDIJ on Saturday (19/09) in a 30l bucket (It was all I had clean and free)

Now while my initial SG was 1070, I didn't seem to get much activity out of the airlock. I did check to be sure that everything was sealed fairly well in the bucket, and pressing on it lightly did cause bubbles.. but I never saw anything else and think I only saw one bubble... until like the meads I have going that are bubbling away constantly at 12 BPM in the same conditions . I have had it at a constant temp of ~22°C but decided to just leave it alone. Now I took reading this morning and found I was sitting at 1020. I checked again this evening and then double checked again after finding it at 1010...

So I have racked it off to a secondary carboy right away... but I cant understand why/how and if I have don't something monumentally wrong. This of course lead me to searching on line and the best responses / posts I found ended up being here...

SO.... Hi again.. and hope somebody can help.. and I guess I might be around some more

PS: Sorry for the hijack

The yeast supplied with the kit does seem a bit lazier than other yeasts I've used. I brewed mine with sg of 1070 on 21st dec transferred to secondary on 4th jan and bottled at 1014 on 11th Jan. So you seem to be right on the money. Mine is ready to drink now and is lovely. just need a little more willpower to keep for xmas!
 
From most of the posts I've seen, that appears to be the norm. However mine was anything but lazy.. it went from 1070 to 1010 in 5 days? Even though I didn't see any bubbles in the airlock... That's why I am not sure what is going on.
 
From most of the posts I've seen, that appears to be the norm. However mine was anything but lazy.. it went from 1070 to 1010 in 5 days? Even though I didn't see any bubbles in the airlock... That's why I am not sure what is going on.

That quite often happens - co2 is lazy and will find the easiest escape route, so if the lid on the fv is not 100% sealed it will find a way out, which is not necessarily the airlock. Best indication is your hydrometer, and your readings show a good fermentation.
 
Probably the best kit i've ever brewed, left mine for 9 months before drinking, and as SteveJ has already said "it will blow you away". It's a real sin to be drinking that already, you don't know what your missing. Hide it up for a least 6 months, you won't regret it.....

"I would give up beer, but i'm no Quitter"
 
That quite often happens - co2 is lazy and will find the easiest escape route, so if the lid on the fv is not 100% sealed it will find a way out, which is not necessarily the airlock. Best indication is your hydrometer, and your readings show a good fermentation.
I'm inclined to think you are right. I thought that having so much extra headroom in the bucket might of effected it, but after racking it into a 11L carboy last night, its bubbling at ~15 bpm from the airlock. Now I'm worried that it wont stop. I'll take a spray bottle to the bucket with my next batch I plan for this weekend to check for any obvious leaks.

Even after only 5 days, the test taste I took last night was pretty good and tasted very promising.

Could I back sweeten as I do with mead if it runs to "dry"?
 
I'm inclined to think you are right. I thought that having so much extra headroom in the bucket might of effected it, but after racking it into a 11L carboy last night, its bubbling at ~15 bpm from the airlock. Now I'm worried that it wont stop. I'll take a spray bottle to the bucket with my next batch I plan for this weekend to check for any obvious leaks.

Even after only 5 days, the test taste I took last night was pretty good and tasted very promising.

Could I back sweeten as I do with mead if it runs to "dry"?


No need to back sweeten, brewed this kit loads of times and its quite sweet anyway, dont worry just give it time before you start to drink it:p
 
That quite often happens - co2 is lazy and will find the easiest escape route, so if the lid on the fv is not 100% sealed it will find a way out, which is not necessarily the airlock. Best indication is your hydrometer, and your readings show a good fermentation.

Agreed, but the same fv for abdij didn't trouble the airlock/fv combination whereas other brews did bubble the same setup a lot.:eek:
 
Yes that's true. But each brew is different, in that perhaps this time the lid wasn't on as tight, or the airlock has moved a bit, or who knows. It's a bit like a light bulb - it worked the last time you turned it on....
 
So... 6 days in from start, and things are stable at 1010 at least its been there for the last 36 hours. Now this is meant to be bottling SG... so do I still let it sit for 2 weeks, or should I bottle now? There seems to be a lot of experience here with this kit, so hoping I'm not just a freak ;)
 

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