sgandtg
New Member
I started my first brew on 3rd February which was a coopers Australian lager made with 1kg of brewing sugar and the hydrometer was showing 1.047. Within 24 hours, I could see that pressure was building up inside the barrel and the temp was always between 20-24 degrees. I never seen the airlock bubbling but the water in the airlock was always being "pushed" to one side (due to the pressure in the barrel). On the 7th of February, the water in the airlock was sitting evenly & the hydrometer was showing 1.005. On the 8th, the airlock was just the same and the reading was 1.005 again. There wasn't an awful lot of froth at the top of the FV and when it was bottled, there was a lot of white/grey"sludge" sitting on the bottom of the FV.
So my queries are:-
1. Was I right to bottle when I did? The instructions say 4-7 days but looking on this forum seems to suggest leaving it a bit longer.
2. Should there be a lot of froth at the top of the FV prior to bottling? The reason I ask is that the strawberry cider I'm doing now has a fairly thick layer of froth after just 48 hours.
3. Is there normally much sludge at the bottom? I'm just worried that some/much of the "sludge" could have been sugar and so the brew might not be as strong (ABV) as it should be.
4. Assuming I'm just panicking and the above is normal (I hope), the bottles are sitting in a box at 22 degrees and I intend to leave them that way til 22nd Feb and then store them in a cool area (at about 6-10 degrees) for another 2 weeks at which point I intend to try a couple of bottles. Is this correct in terms of timings and temperatures?
All advice is appreciated.
So my queries are:-
1. Was I right to bottle when I did? The instructions say 4-7 days but looking on this forum seems to suggest leaving it a bit longer.
2. Should there be a lot of froth at the top of the FV prior to bottling? The reason I ask is that the strawberry cider I'm doing now has a fairly thick layer of froth after just 48 hours.
3. Is there normally much sludge at the bottom? I'm just worried that some/much of the "sludge" could have been sugar and so the brew might not be as strong (ABV) as it should be.
4. Assuming I'm just panicking and the above is normal (I hope), the bottles are sitting in a box at 22 degrees and I intend to leave them that way til 22nd Feb and then store them in a cool area (at about 6-10 degrees) for another 2 weeks at which point I intend to try a couple of bottles. Is this correct in terms of timings and temperatures?
All advice is appreciated.
