Stu's Brewing Blog - Slow and steady does it!

[Asalpaws]

Hi Stu, a week isn't nearly enough time to carb. An inch of headspace is plenty, the more space then the more gas is in the head space and not in the beer where you want it! A smaller headspace will mean higher pressure in the gas above the beer and consequently more CO2 will stay in solution.

I have at times worried about there not being enough yeast in the bottle, especially after long secondary. However it always carbs up if enough sugar is added. T

 

[stu]

Cheers. That makes me feel slightly better.

I've realised the temperature of the bottles isn't going to be high enough.

I know how to keep an FV warm. Anyone any ideas how to keep bottles warm?

 

[stu]

So today, I popped out to get the bits and bobs for my next mini project.

I've realised that since I started to brew 20 odd years ago, things have changed a lot. But Coopers Aussie beers are still the best kits I've used. I love 'em - always give a consistently good brew.

So following the Aussie Stout thread , I popped out and bought a tin of this.
However, my local Wilko and general-hardware-LHBS-type-sells-everything-and-anything shop don't stock DME. I thought all Wilko's stocked it (I usually use a big one) which gave me an opportunity to pop down to a friend's wife's shop which sells bespoke furniture, paints, hand painted items as well as home brew gear (particularly medium and high-end wines). Obviously, not being a stack-em-high-sell-em-cheap type of shop, it wasn't the cheapest, but as a good local shop should do, they have time to chat about everything home-brew wise.

In case you're interested, it's called making the best(Clicky link) just south of Milton Keynes.

Whilst I was there, the owner's husband pointed me in the direction of Wine Expert's LE2012 (clicky link)
These kits look pretty tasty - 18L of liquid already in the kit - add just 5L of water.

The wife is strangely interested as she thinks we should brew one of these and give a bottle to friends and relatives as we never really did anything to celebrate our wedding last year.

Thing is, I'm a big fan of Californian and Australian reds (My favourites are things like the better end of Wolfbass and Gallo). So if they bring one of these out with the right Aussie Shiraz or Californian Cabernet, I may well consider it.

So getting back to brew day (after all, this is the "Brewdays" forum), I used the following:

1 Coopers Stout Kit
~22 litres water
1kg Dark DME (Ritchies as this is what the shop stocks)
400g Light muscovado (it's what I had in)

Because I wasn't convinced the Muscovado and DME would easily mix, I boiled up some hot water and mixed it in really, really well with a whisk.
Definitely no lumps.

Then I threw the tin in - I thought I may as well as it gets the DME and sugar mixed in with the can and gives me the opportunity to get every last drop out of the can.
Just as well I did because it slipped out of my hand. I only lost a spoonful, but I'm worried now it might not be "quite strong enough" (I'm being paranoid, of course it's normal).

I then mixed some cold (very cold - it's freezing today!) water in and topped it up to ~21L. I was carefully watching the temperature strip when it suddenly dropped to 18c. Gah! Too cold to pitch!

Fortunately, I had a kettle boiling in case this happened so topped it up to 23L with boiling water whilst furiously mixing. Temperature went up to 22c and I pitched the yeast.

So all is looking good. Put a heater in it - I'm going to raise this one slightly higher temperature as I'm told it can actually stand it. Kit instructions say 21-27 although I think that would be slightly too high. I normally keep my beers static around 20-21.

Oops and while I remember, the OG was 1042@21c.

 

[stu]

Yeah, so that was a good idea

 

[stu]

As I've put throughout this, whilst it may seem mildly interesting to some and annoyingly tedious to others, I'm using this as much as a reminder to myself to what I'm brewing!

Having bought a soda stream, and using the instructions of others, I've just about got a happy medium to where I think my beer needs to be carbonation wise. I had a surprise last night that one of my 500ml PETs that were sat in the kitchen was absolutely rock hard. I opened it and to my delight it was perfectly fizzy - not too much, not too little.

I have found that you can over fizz even lager with a sodastream btw. I wouldn't recommend any more than 6 pumps per litre on a modern Genesis sodastream.

With the Pear Cider, I've done absolutely everything I can to get the FG down. I've put it into secondary and tested it thoroughly. It's been kept at strictly 19c (it fermented at 21c), but it's still at 1006. I guess that's it.

It was far too cloudy for my liking - I went to put it into the original FV for bottling and it was muddy, to say the least.
I've bunged a load of pectolase in there to see if I can clear it, if only a bit. Hopefully racking should clear it a bit. I'll leave it another week before bottling. Tastes good though, almost like a scrumpy (well, no pears were hurt in making the pear cider).

And to the Stout. It's only been going for about 9 days and the gravity is still around 1012 so I'll try and hope it gets a little bit lower than that. I gave it a good, but not vigorous, stir. It did look like it had finished initially, but after this stir, it's gained its mucus-like head back again so it's still fermenting. The airlock isn't bubbling that much, although the pressure in the FV is against the lid so I'll check again at the weekend.

Any idea if stout clears? Should I go to secondary as I'm intending to keg this one?

 

[Asalpaws]

Those final gravities are what you should expect. In fact you probably don't want the stout to go much lower as it would be too dry. The cider is a result! usually it ends up far too dry with FG of > 1.000. A lot of people end up back sweetening their cider. T

 

[ScottM]

Those final gravities are what you should expect. In fact you probably don't want the stout to go much lower as it would be too dry. The cider is a result! usually it ends up far too dry with FG of > 1.000. A lot of people end up back sweetening their cider. T

I wouldn't expect those gravities at all. You also contradict yourself by saying that cider normally ends up less than 1.000 (I'm guessing you meant < rather than >).

Stout I would expect around 1.010 depending what it's been brewed with (adjuncts). Cider I would expect around 1.000, although higher or lower isn't uncommon depending on ABV and sweeteners.

Cider kits are normally just over 1.000, turbo cider is normally on or just under 1.000.

Nothing to worry about though, IMO. If it tastes good and fermentation is definitely finished then you're good to go :)

 

[stu]

I left the Canadian Blonde in the airing cupboard for 2 weeks and it's completely transformed into a very fizzy, light but easy drinking lager.

Not too much THT (That homebrewed taste), certainly one of the best brews I've ever made (that's not saying much - I'm really surprised I haven't brewed vinegar in the past - I never used to worry about hygiene and sterilising).

I've still got a fair bit of it left, but also quite a few empty bottles. I've filled them back up with the cider.

Talking of cider, so far, I'm quite unimpressed with it. It tastes very watery (I know from the hydrometer it should be ~4.5% so it's not weak). Not as much body as I hoped. But also it's not very peary either.

I've racked the WOW, although it tastes a bid odd. Not vinegary or anything, just a bit odd - I don't know what I'm quite expecting. I've also put the Stout into secondary for a week - I'll probably keg some of it next weekend and bottle the rest.

Which brings me to my latest project - some ribena wine. I've guessed most of it, but I've put the recipe up at http://www.homebrewbuddy.co.uk/viewreci ... ibena+Wine

Let me know if you see any obvious flaws to my plan. It looks like it'll be ~12.5% which is slightly higher than I was aiming for.

So as always, I leave a question... when is the latest you can back sweeten WOW?