by way of an update: I ended up drinking the flat beer and it was delicious (was expecting either a sugary taste or a yeasty one but got neither.) I have no idea why there was no (or very little secondary fermentation but it’s happened again with a recipe for a Russian Imperial Stout. I’m...
I put them inside a bucket, on a heat pad for a couple of weeks before moving them to the cellar. Maybe I should keep them for longer on the heat pad. I’ve still got a stout from Dec 21, which has been in the warm for an entire year with no signs of secondary fermentation at all. Reckon that one...
My last 2 brews (latest being an imperial stout) don’t seem to be secondary fermenting in the bottles. Is there a chance that my decanting is leaving too much fermentables behind?
I was always led to believe that drinking the sediment would get you even drunker than normal and would give you a bad belly. Never thought to test that theory though
I’ve started decanting from the primary fermenter to a clean bucket, getting as close as I dare to the sediment and then bottling from there. I still get sediment in the bottles but nowhere near as I do from bottling straight from the primary fermenter.
I made two different batches. stupidly, for one batch I used only glass Grolsch style bottles so can’t get a gauge from squeezing them. The second batch (with two PET bottles) hasn’t shown any sign of secondary so I added some more yeast today. I was going to add more yeast to both batches but...
Still no apparent secondary so will try adding some champagne yeast as you suggest. I've bought some Lalvin EC-1118. How much should I add to each 500ml bottle? I'm guessing only a pinch.
I couldn’t work out the sg scale - it seemed different to my newer hydrometer (which I broke). Seeing you convert the numbers in that way makes it much clearer. It’s obvious now!!
The full measurements were: 16.5 at 22C then 1.5 at 25C
The other side of my hydrometer suggests 16.5 is 110 and 1.5 is 22 (see image)
I reckon I need a new hydrometer!!
I used an old hydrometer which gave an initial reading, pre-fermentation, of 16.5% potential abv on 21 Nov then, on 3 Dec and on 6 Dec it read 1.5% so I’m guessing the difference is the likely abv. I was hoping for a rather tamer stout but threw in 1kg spray malt after the boil. A second batch...
I used 5g US West Coast Yeast (Mangrove Jack M44) for a 5L batch. I chose that one as it is supposed to be able to cope with high abv beers.
i think I’ll leave the bottles on the heat pad for another week then transfer them to a dark cupboard to condition. Maybe try one mid-February for my...
I bottled my Black Forest stout beer with 1tsp sugar on 6 Dec 2021 and placed the bottles in a fermenting bin, on a heat pad and lagged the inside of the bin with bubble wrap. The temp variation is negligible and stays around 20c but, judging by the “give” in the plastic bottle, no secondary...