Brewmaker's IPA & Bottling

[BrewFanatic]

Hi all,

First time poster on here.

I have just started home brews. Have finished a Cellar 7 Merlot which is bottled and ageing.

I have now started a Brewmaker's IPA. It was started on Sunday 10th, i followed the instructions to the letter. I also used Tesco branded water and brewing sugar. The SG was 1.039.
Today the current SG is 1.006 which is under the stated SG in the instructions (1.008). From the start till now there has been no Krausen whatsoever. There are a lot of mini bubbles popping on the surface. Like a fizzy drink. There is a ring of scum about a half inch about the wort. The FV is placed in a cupboard under the stairs under airlock which maintains a steady 22 degrees.

Question is, do i leave it to ferment for longer? If so, how long?

Which brings me to my bottling question. I have purchased 40 PET bottles with caps. They are 500ml sized. I bought Coopers Carbonation drops but on the instructions it says use 1 drop for 375ml bottles and 2 drops for 750ml bottles. How many do i use? Bearing in mind it is an IPA.

Any feedback is appreciated.

 

[Soton]

Your brew is fermenting quite fast due to the tempture, 22c is probably a bit over the recommended top limit. IPA's yeasts tend to recomend about 18 to 21c, if you ferment at temptures higher or lower then that the yeast acts a bit differently and gives off esters that can change the flavour of the beer slightly, sometimes it's wanted other times not so much
That said don't panic and just leave it in the fermenter for at least two weeks, that will give the yeast time to clean up after its self, once the yeast has used all the fermentable sugars it will then get to work on some of the by products it made and smooth out odd flavours
After it has been in the fermentor for at least two weeks bottle it
I don't use the carbonation drops but you could syphon the beer into another bucket ( that bucket would then be called the bottling bucket) ready for bottling and if you know how much beer have you could desolve right amount of drops directly into the bottling bucket
After that leave the bottles somewhere warm for at least two weeks ( if you can resist trying the odd one) then it's normal to leave them some where cool to clear ready for drinking

This might help with the bottling if you check what the drops are made from. http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

 

[BrewFanatic]

Hi.

Thanks for the replies. The cupboard it is in in the best place for me to have it. Otherwise it goes in the shed which is about 16 degrees depending on the weather. I'd rather have stable "higher" temps than fluctuating temps which I've read is not ideal.
I have tasted it after doing SG readings in a test jar and it tastes good. It's quite cloudy and currently looks like a £1 coin in colour.
I'm happy to leave it fermenting for two weeks but I'm worried about oxidisation due to no foam on the top.
As for the carbonation it's my first time ever to add sugar hence me going for the drops for this brew. However I'm confused on the dosage as stated in earlier post. If I racked the beer into a second bucket would the drops disolve without the wort being warm like you would need to disolve sugar in water? Also do I shake each bottle to disolve them if I bottled the beer straight away? I would rather bottle straight from primary FV but would like to know if I should use 1 or 2 drops?

 

[Soton]

The foam on top is called kräusen and is part of the fementation process so no need to worry about it, it's generally better not to keep peaking into the fermentation bucket but that said it shouldn't be much of a problem as once the beer starts to ferment it gets a blanket of co2 on top of it which will protect it from the air, as for the drops you want to use I would think they will just desolve but if you went for the bottling bucket method you would desolve them in a little boiled water
Try not to over use any sugars or drops when bottling as it can over carbonate the beer and this has been know to make bottles explode or pop there lids off

 

[Strollon15]

I always just bottle straight from the FV into 500ml bottles and I always use the carbonation drops as I find them so easy to use.

Fill the bottles, add one drop and cap, I then turn the bottle over once and that's it. Every bottle i've opened so far, mainly hoppy IPAs have had the perfect carbonation level.

Hope this helps :thumb:

Stroll.

 

[BrewFanatic]

Thanks guys. I will keep an eye on the SG over the next few days. But if it remains a constant of 1.006 or below I will probably start bottling on Sunday.
The advice to use just 1 drop helps greatly

 

[BrewFanatic]

Hi. I know you 'pros' may cringe but tonight I caved in and bottled it all.
I tested the SG and it was the same at 1.006. Tasted great too. I was worried as I'm sure my FV isn't airtight as this is my 2nd brew and I've yet to see any activity in the airlock. Although my wine had a huge krausen on it. The lid of my FV had condensation dripping down into the wort. Also I observed the wort for 15mins and didn't see a single small bubble pop on the surface.
Bottled it all into 500ml PET bottles straight from FV and got 40 bottles in total. Added 1 carb drop to each. Am now going to leave it in the cupboard for 2 weeks then move them into the shed for a further two weeks. Meanwhile just opened a bottle of my wine made previously and I'm a happy bunny

 

[Simon_C]

I've got the same Brewmaker IPA in my FV just getting ready to bottle/barrel... Don't worry too much about seeing bubbling in your airlock: it sometimes depends on the style of airlock you have used. As long as you see the krausen develop, the yeast is doing its thing. I don't think either of of FVs is airtight now, as there are so many grommets for sensors, air locks, etc...., so I tend not to see much bubbling anymore. Also, with the warm temperatures at the moment, your yeast will have been pretty vigorous once it got started, and then it goes quite quiet. As another post mentions, just be patient... I always leave my beers for at least 2 weeks in the FV before using finings, then batch priming the beer in a second vessel ready to bottle and barrel.

Good to hear that your IPA tastes good so far... I've also found that mine is coming out quite nicely when I taste the FG testers...

 

[BrewFanatic]

Hi. You mention using fining.

I was surprised to find my can didn't have anything other than the yeast and instructions.

 

[BeardySi]

You'd be better off doing your fermenting in the shed I reckon. You can keep the fermenter temp stable using a water bath and aquarium heater (should give you change from £15) which works well.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk