7 years later.. I brewed my first batch

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pjw

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So, hi everone. In 2009 I bought all my brewing kit and posted on here for basic advice, and then, well, life got in the way. Work, kids, you get it. Anyway..

I find ally got round to doing a Coopers Stout. I followed a recipe on YouTube, and it went:

One can coopers stout
500g dark malt
500g sugar
1 tin black treacle.

I brewed it all about 36 hours ago and didn't see any airlock activity, but put it down to a pap seal on my bucket. A few questions though. Firstly, I forgot to take an SG. Newbie error. I had a look today and it looks like it's fermenting well.. But took a hydrometer reading and it was at 1055. Is this usual for the amount of sugar I put in? This seemed quite high.

I intend to leave it for a good week now and let it ferment. The temperature it's sat at is about 17 degrees C. Is this OK? Thanks for reading!
 
So, hi everone. In 2009 I bought all my brewing kit and posted on here for basic advice, and then, well, life got in the way. Work, kids, you get it. Anyway..

I find ally got round to doing a Coopers Stout. I followed a recipe on YouTube, and it went:

One can coopers stout
500g dark malt
500g sugar
1 tin black treacle.

I brewed it all about 36 hours ago and didn't see any airlock activity, but put it down to a pap seal on my bucket. A few questions though. Firstly, I forgot to take an SG. Newbie error. I had a look today and it looks like it's fermenting well.. But took a hydrometer reading and it was at 1055. Is this usual for the amount of sugar I put in? This seemed quite high.

I intend to leave it for a good week now and let it ferment. The temperature it's sat at is about 17 degrees C. Is this OK? Thanks for reading!
Top work...just bottled mine and a very similar recipe to you'res. Mine took at least 24 hrs to kick off but don't worry. I wouldn't keep taking a peep and taking a reading..just let nature take its course. Give it a good 10 days and have a look...if it looks flat take a reading and bottle if necessary. One VERY IMPORTANT POINT for all forum members..lets us know what it tastes like please, so others on here can learn.
 
So, hi everone. In 2009 I bought all my brewing kit and posted on here for basic advice, and then, well, life got in the way. Work, kids, you get it. Anyway..

I find ally got round to doing a Coopers Stout. I followed a recipe on YouTube, and it went:

One can coopers stout
500g dark malt
500g sugar
1 tin black treacle.

I brewed it all about 36 hours ago and didn't see any airlock activity, but put it down to a pap seal on my bucket. A few questions though. Firstly, I forgot to take an SG. Newbie error. I had a look today and it looks like it's fermenting well.. But took a hydrometer reading and it was at 1055. Is this usual for the amount of sugar I put in? This seemed quite high.

I intend to leave it for a good week now and let it ferment. The temperature it's sat at is about 17 degrees C. Is this OK? Thanks for reading!
What quantity have you brewed, 23 litres?
It's the sugars in the treacle that will have raised the OG. If you had not put that in (and at about 22/23litres) it would have started somewhere in the range 1.040-1.045.
Also 17*C is a bit low. Try for 19*-20*C. It will probably keep going at 17*C but will take longer to finish the primary. There also is a slight concern that at 17*C the fermentation may stick i.e finish too soon.
 
I brewed to 20 as I read it was a little thin, and wanted it to be as thick as possible, much like Guinness or Murphys. I tasted it when I took my reading today and it's quite bitter with a lot of treacle taste. Worried I've used too much treacle, but hoping it will settle. Might try and move it to somewhere a bit warmer.
 
I brewed to 20 as I read it was a little thin, and wanted it to be as thick as possible, much like Guinness or Murphys. I tasted it when I took my reading today and it's quite bitter with a lot of treacle taste. Worried I've used too much treacle, but hoping it will settle. Might try and move it to somewhere a bit warmer.

Flavours mellow and blend the longer you leave them to condition. If your finding the treacle flavour too stong after 2-4 weeks conditioning, just leave it a bit longer
 
Hi guys, bit if an update from me. I never really had any bubbles from the airlock throughout the last nine days, but a lovely smell and a reduction in the foaminess of the FV.

So today I decided to check levels with the hydrometer, and happily it's gone down to 1020ish. I still want to leave it a little more, maybe a few weeks but will continue to monitor now every four days. A taste at this stage is pleasing, the overpowering taste of black treacle has now gone, opening to what I can describe as Murphys stout only a bit more bitter. It's thinner that Guinness too, however of the same thick black colouring. It's not unpleasant now, however I'd like the bitterness to cool down a bit. I'm off to work out the percentage now for the first time.
 
Worried now as I worked it out at 5.25 percent, I dont really want it to be any higher than that. I think I'm aiming for a FG of about 1010 which gives me just shy of 6 percent. Strong!
 
So today I decided to check levels with the hydrometer, and happily it's gone down to 1020ish. I still want to leave it a little more, maybe a few weeks but will continue to monitor now every four days.
My experience with Coopers kit yeast is that it usually attenuates to about 72% ish. So if you used the kit yeast and your OG was 1.062 you should expect an FG of around 1.017/1.018 which is about 5.8%.
Personally I would go ahead and bottle when you have a stable gravity, and let it condition in the bottles. But try it early since the ones I have done are just as good to drink then although the flavours are different compared to the 'aged' ones which are more mellow.
 
I posted the above gravity incorrectly after looking at my notes, the last reading was 1.027. Today it's at 1.020. I tasted it and strangely it seems to taste a little more like the black treacle again. I'll give it another four days and see if it settles out. Time to prepare some bottles I think.
 
I posted the above gravity incorrectly after looking at my notes, the last reading was 1.027. Today it's at 1.020. I tasted it and strangely it seems to taste a little more like the black treacle again. I'll give it another four days and see if it settles out. Time to prepare some bottles I think.

Hi pjw

I don't think it is strange that the treacle taste is now more pronounced. The yeast has converted more fermentable sugars and left the slightly burnt ones, hence the more treacly taste.

Treacle in beer is pretty much an acquired taste, but it does fade with time.
 
So, bottles washed for the first stage. I've scrubbed, boiled and washed them and I'll be doing it again tomorrow to see if I can get labels off.

bWZv9pK.jpg


Last reading today took me to 1018 which is exactly the where I wanted it to be. The taste is superb, although due to the heat in Scotland this week the temp of the FV has gone to 23 degrees. Not good, so I want it out. It's now been in FV since 20th April, so a good three weeks and a bit.

Need to research how much sugar I need for the bottling stage now, but some nice bottling pics should be up tomorrow! Not entirely sure where I can put it as there's not a lot of places that are cold at the moment. I'll work it out.
 
Heat in Scotland

:-) :-) :-)

I try my bottled beers on week 2-4-6 when it tastes what I'm looking for I dive in. (Edit after 2 weeks in the warm, then 2-4-6 in cold)

If you like treacle then it will be fine. Smoked stout is the one with the biggest yes/no line.
 
So 2 weeks in the warm when it's bottled? The kit says to basically put half a spoon of sugar in each bottle. As I added more sugars to the initial brew, should I add less sugar?

What temperatures do you class as warm and cold?

And yeah, warm Scotland. Were as suprised as everyone else..
 

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