1st 4 Brews on the go, thanks for the help here!

Well, arrived home late Monday 27th June, next day off to the DHL depot to pick up my first 4 kits, keen as ever to get started.

First up, Mangrove Jack NZ Hopped Pilsener, made as per instructions, with a digital thermometer in the hot wort, jetting cold tap water into it with a new and sterilised garden gun through a food grade 3m PVC hose, the jet created so much aeration that I had to toned it down towards the end as there would not be space with all the foam, regulating the mixer to arrive at 23l exactly @ 22degrees. Pitched the yeast and sealed it up, airlock in place.

Next up 3 Bulldog Premium Brews, Evil Dog, Raja's Reward and Stawberry Pale Ale.
Started with the Evil dog, heated the Extract andadded 3 l of boiling water and then started jetting in the tap water on fully cold and the final temp ended up a tad warm at 30 degrees! Ice bath and waiting, whilst waitng for this I heated and mixed the Raja's Reward with 1,75l boiling water and did the same jetting with cold tap water carefully watching the thermometer, hit it spot on @ 22degrees without having to adjust the mixer.
Did the same for the Strawberry pale ale, pitched in the yeast and sealed it all up, super confident and then realised I was supposed to take OG readings, this all happened fast so the OG readings were taken 10minutes after pitching the yeast, does that make any difference?
Anyway, by this time the evil dog was down to a uniform 22 degrees aswell, pitched here again, took the OG reading again after the yeast went in !!!
Anyway, now the waiting began, already after 2 hours I could see the water in the airlock leaning more to one side! 4 hours later all four kits were bubbling through their airlock and 22 degree workshop was starting to smell the most wonderful Strawberry beery smell!!
So far this has been so much fun, a bit hectic doing 4 kits at the same time but all is well that ends well!
Thanks for help with questions I posted earlier, it's great to be becoming part of this great community!

Off course, any comments, tips, reprimands or questions are welcome.

Blimey!!! 4 kits at the same time :thumb: nice one!!

Are you bottling or pressure barrelling ?

Jas

Bottling, 330ml. Yes 4 kits was busy, already starting to look at recipes in the Greg Hughes book, might be a grainfather in the mail soon!

Brett74 said:

Bottling, 330ml. Yes 4 kits was busy, already starting to look at recipes in the Greg Hughes book, might be a grainfather in the mail soon!

Click to expand...

Yikes, that's a lot of bottles to fill!!!!

DoctorMick said:

Yikes, that's a lot of bottles to fill!!!!

Click to expand...

What odds for his next thread being about hating bottling?

Wilfy said:

What odds for his next thread being about hating bottling?

Click to expand...

I hate bottling and that is into 750ml bottles, i couldn't face more than twice the amount of 330ml bottles.

Chippy_Tea said:

I hate bottling and that is into 750ml bottles, i couldn't face more than twice the amount of 330ml bottles.

Click to expand...

I use 2 litre bottles and PBs
330 ml is only a mouthfull :wink:

I wonder if the OP has seen the keg thread, he may want to up his grainfather order a little.

Joking aside Brett check out the discount codes here - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=20

Was thinking of going through Ellie-claires brewshop, any of you guys delt with her?

Brett74 said:

Well, arrived home late Monday 27th June, next day off to the DHL depot to pick up my first 4 kits, keen as ever to get started.

First up, Mangrove Jack NZ Hopped Pilsener, made as per instructions, with a digital thermometer in the hot wort, jetting cold tap water into it with a new and sterilised garden gun through a food grade 3m PVC hose, the jet created so much aeration that I had to toned it down towards the end as there would not be space with all the foam, regulating the mixer to arrive at 23l exactly @ 22degrees. Pitched the yeast and sealed it up, airlock in place.

Next up 3 Bulldog Premium Brews, Evil Dog, Raja's Reward and Stawberry Pale Ale.
Started with the Evil dog, heated the Extract andadded 3 l of boiling water and then started jetting in the tap water on fully cold and the final temp ended up a tad warm at 30 degrees! Ice bath and waiting, whilst waitng for this I heated and mixed the Raja's Reward with 1,75l boiling water and did the same jetting with cold tap water carefully watching the thermometer, hit it spot on @ 22degrees without having to adjust the mixer.
Did the same for the Strawberry pale ale, pitched in the yeast and sealed it all up, super confident and then realised I was supposed to take OG readings, this all happened fast so the OG readings were taken 10minutes after pitching the yeast, does that make any difference?
Anyway, by this time the evil dog was down to a uniform 22 degrees aswell, pitched here again, took the OG reading again after the yeast went in !!!
Anyway, now the waiting began, already after 2 hours I could see the water in the airlock leaning more to one side! 4 hours later all four kits were bubbling through their airlock and 22 degree workshop was starting to smell the most wonderful Strawberry beery smell!!
So far this has been so much fun, a bit hectic doing 4 kits at the same time but all is well that ends well!
Thanks for help with questions I posted earlier, it's great to be becoming part of this great community!

Off course, any comments, tips, reprimands or questions are welcome.
View attachment 5969

Click to expand...

wow - top man that must surely be the quickest start up from zero in the history of the forum.

You don't necessarily need to bottle them all at the same time. the stronger brews could be left a week longer.

Do you have a filter on your tap or did you get the chlorine out of the water?
my tap water is **** so I use bottled.

the og would be a tiny bit different because of the yeast but not something worth worrying about.

I live in Malmö, in the South of Sweden, my wife is a Micro Biologist at the dentil uni here, she does research within ordontilogical science and recons our water here is about as clean as it needs to be, it does taste great with zero difference between the bottle stuff and the tap to notice. Crystal clear and not hard.

As far as bottling goes I will just have to wait and see when they stopp fermenting, was thinking of racking them off to a secondary fermontor for at least a couple of days before bottling, I leave to go back to work for 2 weeks, in 2 weeks time, if they are ready then they will have been on the go for 2 weeks and 4 days, I will just be patient and see whats ready, what is not ready will sit in the secondary for 2 weeks when I am away just get bottled when I return , any views on that idea?

Brett74 said:

I live in Malmö, in the South of Sweden, my wife is a Micro Biologist at the dentil uni here, she does research within ordontilogical science and recons our water here is about as clean as it needs to be, it does taste great with zero difference between the bottle stuff and the tap to notice. Crystal clear and not hard.

As far as bottling goes I will just have to wait and see when they stop fermenting, was thinking of racking them off to a secondary fermentor for at least a couple of days before bottling, I leave to go back to work for 2 weeks, in 2 weeks time, if they are ready then they will have been on the go for 2 weeks and 4 days, I will just be patient and see whats ready, what is not ready will sit in the secondary for 2 weeks when I am away just get bottled when I return , any views on that idea?

Click to expand...

Ah, if you're not using UK tap water please ignore my comments about the water!

I bottle after 2-3 weeks in the FV depending on strength of beer. 2 weeks for the weaker beers 3 for the stronger ones. I'd suggest as you will have left them for at least 2 weeks to rack the beer off into a bottling bucket and bottle. If you are going to leave some for longer then 2 more weeks in a secondary would be fine. Brewfferm abdij kit advises to do a secondary. That was for an 8% beer AND they need months of conditioning time.

Mangrove Jack's NZ Hopped Pilsener
OG =1043
Day 5 =1016
Day 7 =1013 Added Hops


Evil Dog Double IPA
OG =1064
Day 7 =1018


Raja's Reward IPA
OG =1052
Day 7=1020


Strawberry Pale Ale
OG =1042
Day 7 =1011

Smells Great!
I was surpised by the Strawberry Pale Ale as it seems to be fermenting much calmer than the others with a lot less Trub on the bottom, but the SG says it is coming along great.
All samples taste fantastic already !
Temperature is steady between 21 and 22

Brett74 said:

Was thinking of going through Ellie-claires brewshop, any of you guys delt with her?

Click to expand...

Bought the odd thing from her on eBay. Never had any bother but then we're only talking packets of yeast etc.

Good effort by the way getting four brews on the go at once. As other have said bottling that lot will be fun

I'm trying to increase my capacity but will be limited to two at a time for the foreseeable, I brew in my garage so the temperature is a bit up and down so I use a brew fridge to maintain a steady temperature. Just about to commission fridge 2 which is good but I haven't got room for anymore

Just ordered 3 more kits....

A little update, the MJ Pilsener has now come down to 1004sg, according to Mangrove Jack this kit should be finished when it gets to around 1008sg, is this normal that a kit goes so low ?
The other three brews are slowing right down but still have a way to go now on day 11, bubbling slowly and have drop to between 1011 and 1018.
The samples I have been tasting explain to me why people use the 250ml testing jars instead of the 100ml! They taste fantastic!
Got the Tykes Triple Export Ale on the go now aswell. Fun hobby!

Brett74 said:

A little update, the MJ Pilsener has now come down to 1004sg, according to Mangrove Jack this kit should be finished when it gets to around 1008sg, is this normal that a kit goes so low ?
The other three brews are slowing right down but still have a way to go now on day 11, bubbling slowly and have drop to between 1011 and 1018.
The samples I have been tasting explain to me why people use the 250ml testing jars instead of the 100ml! They taste fantastic!
Got the Tykes Triple Export Ale on the go now aswell. Fun hobby!

Click to expand...

FG readings can very from the recommended numbers for all sorts of reasons, temp differences hydrometer readings etc. That's not too far out.

If it keeps on heading down it could be an infection. In fact I have a saison thats coming up to 3 weeks and it really should have stopped by now. :-o

Hope it's not infected ! It had really died down but when I put the hops pellets in, thats when it took off again.....it still quite cloudy in the secondary too.

Wilfy said:

What odds for his next thread being about hating bottling?

Click to expand...

Did you see my thread about bottling ? Made it especially for you....
Check it out...