1st kit just underway

new2homebrew · Jan 19, 2019

Just started backout with the hobby.

Called in at Brewmart im Sheffield today and picked up a Festival Belgian kit, just topped up to the 23L mark as i type and waiting to add the yeast. Strangely... ive used bottled water to fill it up, ive used 20L and the bucket reads a few mm under the 23L ?

Ill keep you updated with progress !

terrym · Jan 19, 2019

Welcome back. athumb..

If you have bathroom scales the easy way to check the scale on the FV side is to weigh it empty then progressively fill it with water, so every kg of water you add should up the volume measure by a litre.
Why are you using bottled water?

new2homebrew · Jan 19, 2019

So i can resuse the bottles it came in for the brew.

Portreath · Jan 19, 2019

Lots of FV come with marking that are not even close to true. As suggested, make you own marking to be sure you have the correct volume. I do this for all my container. What bottles do you plan to put your beer in once it's fermented?

new2homebrew · Jan 19, 2019

Portreath said:
Lots of FV come with marking that are not even close to true. As suggested, make you own marking to be sure you have the correct volume. I do this for all my container. What bottles do you plan to put your beer in once it's fermented?

The 2L water bottles i used to fill the fv with.

Portreath · Jan 19, 2019

As you will be carbonating your beer you will need to make sure you have bottles that will be able to hold the pressure.

new2homebrew · Jan 19, 2019

Portreath said:
As you will be carbonating your beer you will need to make sure you have bottles that will be able to hold the pressure.

The guy in the shop said they would be fine. Im not after too much fizz anyway.

Pavros · Jan 19, 2019

If you added 20 litres of water, you also have to add the volume of the kit extract so 23 litres will be about right.

I wouldn't use the still water bottles to hold your beer. They aren't designed to hold any pressure. You may be lucky and they will hold but you don't want to risk them splitting and losing your beer!

new2homebrew · Jan 19, 2019

Pavros said:
If you added 20 litres of water, you also have to add the volume of the kit extract so 23 litres will be about right.

I wouldn't use the still water bottles to hold your beer. They aren't designed to hold any pressure. You may be lucky and they will hold but you don't want to risk them splitting and losing your beer!

Ill have a think on the bottles.

The kit ive used says you can cut back to make another style of ale . At 20L mine is inbetween the 2 so hopefully have a mixture of the 2 styles and a little more strength and flavour maybe.

terrym · Jan 19, 2019

new2homebrew said:
Ill have a think on the bottles.

The kit ive used says you can cut back to make another style of ale . At 20L mine is inbetween the 2 so hopefully have a mixture of the 2 styles and a little more strength and flavour maybe.

If you have made up to 23 litres you will get a less flavoursome and lower strength beer than if you made up to 20 litres. It's all based on the start volume of the brew not how much liquid you have added.
And irrespective of what' the guy in the shop' said, it is wise to package your beer into bottles that are designed to hold a fizzy drink. You might be fine with still water bottles, but if you are uncertain buy some cheap supermarket fizzy water @ 17p for 2 litres and use those bottles, or scrounge some good condition second hand beer bottles and get a capper and caps.
And for kit beers and extract brews mains water from the tap is fine for brewing unless it doesn't taste or smell of anything slightly unpleasant. Mine doesn't, so I use it to brew with.

new2homebrew · Jan 20, 2019

terrym said:
If you have made up to 23 litres you will get a less flavoursome and lower strength beer than if you made up to 20 litres. It's all based on the start volume of the brew not how much liquid you have added.
And irrespective of what' the guy in the shop' said, it is wise to package your beer into bottles that are designed to hold a fizzy drink. You might be fine with still water bottles, but if you are uncertain buy some cheap supermarket fizzy water @ 17p for 2 litres and use those bottles, or scrounge some good condition second hand beer bottles and get a capper and caps.
And for kit beers and extract brews mains water from the tap is fine for brewing unless it doesn't taste or smell of anything slightly unpleasant. Mine doesn't, so I use it to brew with.

Ive only actually added 20L of water, 10 x 2L bottles. I cant see that the 2 pouches of extract were 3L's worth ?

Good idea on the fizzy pop bottles

Frogbrew · Jan 20, 2019

I use the 2 ltr still water bottles sometimes for part of my bottling, never had a problem.

Pavros · Jan 20, 2019

new2homebrew said:
Ive only actually added 20L of water, 10 x 2L bottles. I cant see that the 2 pouches of extract were 3L's worth ?

Good idea on the fizzy pop bottles

Unless I'm mistaken, 3kg of liquid malt extract equates to 3 litres

new2homebrew · Jan 20, 2019

Pavros said:
Unless I'm mistaken, 3kg of liquid malt extract equates to 3 litres

Yes. I think you are right. My mistake .

new2homebrew · Jan 20, 2019

Frogbrew said:
I use the 2 ltr still water bottles sometimes for part of my bottling, never had a problem.

Thanks for the info

new2homebrew · Jan 20, 2019

I cant remember from my last brew ( 5+ years ago) when should the airlock start to bubble . Its been 23 hours since i started the kit. Its sat at 21 on the temp gauge and has a few small bubbles starting to form in the water or the airlock.

Chippy_Tea · Jan 20, 2019

This is asked fairly often here and the answer is usually that a lot of FV's are not airtight so you may never see a bubble going through the airlock and 23 hours is not a lot of time for it to get going and produce enough CO2 to do it even if it is.

new2homebrew · Jan 20, 2019

Chippy_Tea said:
This is asked fairly often here and the answer is usually that a lot of FV's are not airtight so you may never see a bubble going through the airlock and 23 hours is not a lot of time for it to get going and produce enough CO2 to do it even if it is.

Thanks for your reply, is it a problem if its not an airtight lid ? Should i tape it up ? It is a propper fv bucket im using. However thinking about it... i dont think the lid snapped shut like the old one i had.

Chippy_Tea · Jan 20, 2019

I have two FV's and on one the lid snaps shut an is airtight the other lid is quite floppy in comparison and doesn't snap shut and it isn't airtight.

Its not a problem some members don't have FV's with a hole for an airlock so just lay the lid on the FV which is fine, if you are determined to make it work you could put sterilised cling film round the edge to make the lid seal better some also use Vaseline .

new2homebrew · Jan 20, 2019

Chippy_Tea said:
I have two FV's and on one the lid snaps shut an is airtight the other lid is quite floppy in comparison and doesn't snap shut and it isn't airtight.

Its not a problem some members don't have FV's with a hole for an airlock so just lay the lid on the FV which is fine, if you are determined to make it work you could put sterilised cling film round the edge to make the lid seal better some also use Vaseline .

Ill ride this one out as it is then, maybe make a few adjustments on the next.

Thanks

1st kit just underway

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