First Kit well under way

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Poochops

Landlord.
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Hello all, after reading the reviews to decide on my first brew I plumped for the Woodfrods Wherry Kit and got it on last Sunday, for reasons I don't remember I added 500g of beer enhancer as well and took an OG of 1064.

I added about 15g of ale yeast which I started in a jug beforehand and pitched it when the wort was at 21 degrees. I was surprised it took a good 24 hours to get going properly and even more so when the airlock quit bubbling 3 days later, that'd be Thursday morning, anyway I took a sample today and it's at 1014. Naturally I quaffed the trial jar and bugger me it tastes very very promising! It's a tad sweet still but gently bitter and has a nice hop background and to be honest I'd happily have had a pint of it today I'm amazed really :grin:

Anyhow, am I best to give it another week in the FV? I intend to rack it into a bottling barrel to batch prime it so wondered whether to do this now or next week?
Another question is supposing it goes no lower then what ABV would it be? I like a stronger pint because I can't take the volume of a session. Is there a calculation say for each point drop in Gravity?
Cheers
Si
 
It's generally best to leave the beer for at least 2 weeks before bottling to allow the yeast to metabolise certain fermentation byproducts and clean up some wierd flavours. Some are afraid of leaving it too long because they've read about yeast autolysis but this isn't really much of an issue for home brewers.

It's fairly typical for no sign of fermentation for 24 hours or so, especially with dry yeast. And don't go by airlock activity as an indication of fermentation, just because it's not bubbling anymore doesn't necessarily mean the yeast has stopped.

Your FG might be a bit higher because you added some extra fermentables but 1.014 is probably about as low as it'll go and certainly not too high.

Don't rack until you are ready to bottle. Disolve the priming sugar in a little water, add to the bottling bucket then rack on top to help it mix, then bottle straight away.

To work out ABV the formula is (OG-FG)*131 or to put it another way, ABV goes up by 0.131% per gravity point drop, which means at the minute your brew is about 6.6%.

Hope that helps.
 
Very helpful thanks gents, well it didn't taste overly of alcohol fortunately, I was hoping for something around the mid 5 mark but as there seems to be mixed experiences about the OG of kits I think that's why I added extra, seems like too much extra though.
Is there anywhere you know where I can learn how much a quantity of X will increase the OG of a volume of liquid? If you see what I mean
 
Hello all, after reading the reviews to decide on my first brew I plumped for the Woodfrods Wherry Kit and got it on last Sunday, for reasons I don't remember I added 500g of beer enhancer as well and took an OG of 1064.

I added about 15g of ale yeast which I started in a jug beforehand and pitched it when the wort was at 21 degrees. I was surprised it took a good 24 hours to get going properly and even more so when the airlock quit bubbling 3 days later, that'd be Thursday morning, anyway I took a sample today and it's at 1014. Naturally I quaffed the trial jar and bugger me it tastes very very promising! It's a tad sweet still but gently bitter and has a nice hop background and to be honest I'd happily have had a pint of it today I'm amazed really :grin:

Anyhow, am I best to give it another week in the FV? I intend to rack it into a bottling barrel to batch prime it so wondered whether to do this now or next week?
Another question is supposing it goes no lower then what ABV would it be? I like a stronger pint because I can't take the volume of a session. Is there a calculation say for each point drop in Gravity?
Cheers
Si
Si
I am surprised you managed to get an OG of 1.064 with what you started out with.
Using the calculator http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/, and assuming your 500g enhancer is actually all dextrose (which is more fermentable than enhancer) and brewing to 23 litres you should have got 1.046 or thereabouts. Perhaps you brewed short to 17 litres with your initial ingredients which would give an OG of 1.064ish.
Otherwise its good to hear your first brew was a success. I would leave it for about a month after bottling to allow for carbonation and some conditioning before you sample, longer if it hasn't cleared.
 
Si
I am surprised you managed to get an OG of 1.064 with what you started out with.
Using the calculator http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/, and assuming your 500g enhancer is actually all dextrose (which is more fermentable than enhancer) and brewing to 23 litres you should have got 1.046 or thereabouts. Perhaps you brewed short to 17 litres with your initial ingredients which would give an OG of 1.064ish.
Otherwise its good to hear your first brew was a success. I would leave it for about a month after bottling to allow for carbonation and some conditioning before you sample, longer if it hasn't cleared.

Yes I was surprised as well to be honest and I did a bit of head scratching when I took the reading because I thought it was way off and certainly not what I was aiming for. It's quite possible I made a mistake twice (I double checked it) in my mild excitement at getting a brew on!
So a 3kg kit with 500g BE which is 50/50 DME/dextrose should be around 1.046?
I tried using the calculator myself but it's over my head at the moment:-?
It's 23L by the way
 
Well I just bottled this tonight, takes a while doesn't it! I invested in 4 dozen 500ml flip top bottles from Wilkos which were delivered earlier in the week. Got to say I'm pretty pleased with them but they need assembling first time you use them so my fingers were a bit sore

Left the Wherry for another week as suggested and it had stayed at 1.014 same as last weekend, it tasted a bit drier though and had cleared down nicely. Actually I was surprised the trub was about 15mm thick there was tonnes of it, but it had set like a rubber pad! I got 22litres off it without any sediment lifting at all, filled 44 bottles with not a drop to spare so that was good.
Primed in a bottling bucket with 100gramme of white sugar, will leave it indoors for a fortnight then fridge it for two weeks more. Next kit goes on tomorrow!
 
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