New member/new brewer

[Manners]

Hi guys, I’m new to brewing and decided to take the plunge and ask Santa to bring me a brew starter kit for Christmas. He did and also a Festival Belgian Pale Ale kit which I thought would be a good starter for ten.

i’ve been lurking in the background, developing my knowledge with some good information here so thanks for that, but the obvious reason I’ve joined is I have a question that I haven’t been able to find the answer for!

Having followed the kit instructions (ahem more or less) I am now 9 days into the brew, 4 days after the addition of hops. I have taken a sample and have a gravity reading of 1.011. The kit instructions call for transferring the brew for secondary fermentation into the barrel at 10 days with no mention of FG level for this. However for bottling they state it needs to be at or below 1.007 FG.

Now I understand the need for the fermentation to be finished prior to bottling to avoid the potential of bombs, but if Im not at the FG stated above is it worth holding on a little longer in primary prior to barreling to squeeze out a little more ABV? Or do I run the risk of the hops (pellets) being in the brew longer than recommended and possibly ending up with undesirable flavours?

Also, having got my Gravity reading I tried my sample after a little cooling. It tasted a little sour, perhaps slightly acidic. Am I just being a nervous newbie and it should probably taste like this at this stage, or has it possibly picked up some bacteria (despite what I thought was decent sanitation). Im not thinking of dumping it and will wait and see anyway, but curious as to how close to the conditioned flavour its likely to be at this stage?

thanks and look forward to learning much more!

 

[damienair]

Hello,

I am a Newbie too. I started my first kit brew around the 7th of December. It was a Simply Lager kit, so I had no hops in it. My original gravity was 1.040 and I left it to ferment in our hot press so as the temperature would be a constant 20 degrees C. On the 16th of December i took a reading of 1.002, then on the 18th I checked again, it was still 1.002 and so I bottled the batch. I was like you, very concerned as I expected the final gravity reading to be around 1.010 , but it seemed fine. It is currently in my garage now conditioning.
My second brew was started on the 24th of December much to my wife's dismay. It is a Coopers Hefe Wheat kit. I checked it today, I had presumed that it was no longer active and was planning to take a sample tomorrow. However at lunch time I witnessed a couple of bubbles in the air lock. So I will now wait until Wednesday to take a sample.
The advice I got from here was 2+2+2 , 2 weeks in the initial fermentation vessel, check after 10 to 12 days and again 2 days later. If the FG reading is the same after 48 hours then it is safe to bottle away. Then 2 weeks in the same place so as to do a second fermentation in the bottles with the priming sugar and 2 weeks to condition in a cool dark place away from direct sunlight.
I understand where you are coming from, I too was nervous with my first brew. I have not touched it since and plan to try it at the beginning of February. From my very limited experience I would not be too concerned about reaching an FG of 1.007, just as long as the FG reading remains the same for 48 hours. With my second brew I have not touched it since starting. It is now on its 11th day and appears to be still actively fermenting, albeit very slowly. I am not the one to be offering advice, but just replying to let you know that I am in a similar boat. I am sure someone with far better advice and knowledge with give you the information you need.

Best of luck,

Damien

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

Hi Manners and welcome to the forum

Two thoughts from me

- Well done for becoming a home brewer
- What temperature have you been fermenting at? - this time of year if you are fermenting in your garage/shed maintaining a good temperature is a challenge, have you been able to maintain the temperature advised in the recipe. If not, of course, fermentation will be slower
- Leaving hops longer will make no discernable difference but suggest you should rack into a second vessel if that is what the recipe says
- Best advice is leave it and take the SG again in a couple of days, see if it moves down
- Too soon to know if the taste is off - most people don't leave beer long enough to condition
- I've been brewing for 30 years and have only once had an infection (the beer not me, and as far as I am concerned it's cleared up since I attended that "special clinic")
- What was the OG?
- I can't count to two

 

[Manners]

Hi Manners and welcome to the forum

Two thoughts from me

- Well done for becoming a home brewer
- What temperature have you been fermenting at? - this time of year if you are fermenting in your garage/shed maintaining a good temperature is a challenge, have you been able to maintain the temperature advised in the recipe. If not, of course, fermentation will be slower
- Leaving hops longer will make no discernable difference but suggest you should rack into a second vessel if that is what the recipe says
- Best advice is leave it and take the SG again in a couple of days, see if it moves down
- Too soon to know if the taste is off - most people don't leave beer long enough to condition
- I've been brewing for 30 years and have only once had an infection (the beer not me, and as far as I am concerned it's cleared up since I attended that "special clinic")
- What was the OG?
- I can't count to two

thanks for the response....

- Ive managed to keep it at between 18 and 20 ambient thanks to a little portable heater and it being left undisturbed (apart from some idiot keep checking the temperature!) in my study. This is slightly lower than the instructions which say 20-25. Obviously this would explain why Ive not quite got their expected FG but the yeast was pitched on the warmer end and it hit 26/27 on initial ferm
- So if i rack it to secondary is there a chance of it getting the extra .004 of a gravity do you think?
- Relieved about the taste...
- OG was only reading 1.050 which I was concerned about, but reading up on here it seems like a lower OG reading is not unusual given mixing irregularities etc/rookie methodology!
- glad to know they got the infection under control!

 

[Manners]

Hello,

I am a Newbie too. I started my first kit brew around the 7th of December. It was a Simply Lager kit, so I had no hops in it. My original gravity was 1.040 and I left it to ferment in our hot press so as the temperature would be a constant 20 degrees C. On the 16th of December i took a reading of 1.002, then on the 18th I checked again, it was still 1.002 and so I bottled the batch. I was like you, very concerned as I expected the final gravity reading to be around 1.010 , but it seemed fine. It is currently in my garage now conditioning.
My second brew was started on the 24th of December much to my wife's dismay. It is a Coopers Hefe Wheat kit. I checked it today, I had presumed that it was no longer active and was planning to take a sample tomorrow. However at lunch time I witnessed a couple of bubbles in the air lock. So I will now wait until Wednesday to take a sample.
The advice I got from here was 2+2+2 , 2 weeks in the initial fermentation vessel, check after 10 to 12 days and again 2 days later. If the FG reading is the same after 48 hours then it is safe to bottle away. Then 2 weeks in the same place so as to do a second fermentation in the bottles with the priming sugar and 2 weeks to condition in a cool dark place away from direct sunlight.
I understand where you are coming from, I too was nervous with my first brew. I have not touched it since and plan to try it at the beginning of February. From my very limited experience I would not be too concerned about reaching an FG of 1.007, just as long as the FG reading remains the same for 48 hours. With my second brew I have not touched it since starting. It is now on its 11th day and appears to be still actively fermenting, albeit very slowly. I am not the one to be offering advice, but just replying to let you know that I am in a similar boat. I am sure someone with far better advice and knowledge with give you the information you need.

Best of luck,

Damien

thanks Damien, appreciate the response. The silly thing is our ancestors have been brewing for hundreds of years without all of our tech and managed fine - we have step by step instructions and worry like anything!

I suppose the barrel is far more forgiving than bottles so it cant go too badly wrong, I just want it to taste ok so the mrs doesnt think Ive wasted all that time (despite her being mostly supportive)!

 

[obscure]

Initial fermentation can be very rapid but it came take some time to drop the last few points. My most recent batch (a stout) went from 1.045 to 1.012 in three days, it has now dropped about .001 point yesterday and the same today (it will probably finish out about 1.008). So even if you don’t rack I wouldn't be at all surprised if it drops a few more points over the next week.

 

[damienair]

.

 

[damienair]

thanks Damien, appreciate the response. The silly thing is our ancestors have been brewing for hundreds of years without all of our tech and managed fine - we have step by step instructions and worry like anything!

I suppose the barrel is far more forgiving than bottles so it cant go too badly wrong, I just want it to taste ok so the mrs doesnt think Ive wasted all that time (despite her being mostly supportive)!

Ha Ha, yeah. I just want my first one to be drinkable. I want the second brew to be a step up. My wife is not impressed with my latest bottle collection hobby. My glass recycling bin has never been so empty following Christmas. It’s been a fun process so far, and that’s without even drinking the stuff!

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

thanks for the response....

- Ive managed to keep it at between 18 and 20 ambient thanks to a little portable heater and it being left undisturbed (apart from some idiot keep checking the temperature!) in my study. This is slightly lower than the instructions which say 20-25. Obviously this would explain why Ive not quite got their expected FG but the yeast was pitched on the warmer end and it hit 26/27 on initial ferm
- So if i rack it to secondary is there a chance of it getting the extra .004 of a gravity do you think?
- Relieved about the taste...
- OG was only reading 1.050 which I was concerned about, but reading up on here it seems like a lower OG reading is not unusual given mixing irregularities etc/rookie methodology!
- glad to know they got the infection under control!

My infection is now under control thank you but my psychiatrist has changed is mind and I may not be able to assure people about my mental condition for too much longer

I think the lower than predicted gravity is fairly and squarely down to fermentation at lower than ideal temperatures - fermentation is simply taking longer than it should

The best single thing you could do is to move the vessel to a warmer environment (if your partner will allow)

If you rack, as advised in the recipe, try and splash it around as much as you can - this will help "rouse" the yeast. Although the process of fermentation is anaerobic (takes place in the absence of oxygen), yeast needs oxygen to duplicate itself. More yeast will help speed up fermentation. More splashing will introduce more oxygen. To be converse though you need to try and exclude as much oxygen as you can at conditioning phase

Temperature is the key here