First Brew! Burton Bridge Bitter

[pyroboris]

Hi All,

Complete newbie here! :

Have ventured into the crazy world of brewing and got my first extract brew currently fermenting upstairs.

Have taken heed of the mountains of advice on-line, as contradictory as much of it seems to be!

Well here is what I've got going at the moment:

Burton Bridge Bitter Kit
650gr Brewers Sugar
500gr Muntons Medium spray malt

As I didn't have the facilities, or the patience to boil the water, I've used many bottles of Sainsbury's bottled water (17p a bottle)

I sanitised absolutely everything that might come into contact with the wort (including the tin opener used on the can of malt extract!)

The whole lot was chucked in the FV two days ago and it is bubbling away nicely at a stable temperature of 21 degrees.

Have also been out scavenging solid 500ml bottles for bottling.

Fingers crossed!

Oh yeah, and as a newbie I forgot to take a hydrometer reading before pitching the yeast. Oh well I'll remember next time.

I'm not sure as to when to bottle however, as on-line advice seems to vary greatly. The kit instructions say as soon as fermentation finishes (4-7 days), whilst other advice says leave it 2 weeks.

Any/all advice welcome!

Cheers :

PB

 

[Wendy1971]

Hi and welcome, if you do manage to get a hydrometer from what i remember about kits your beer should be ready to bottle anywhere between 1.010 and 1.000 :thumb:

 

[guyb]

I'd leave it two weeks - viewtopic.php?f=36&t=17743

I now leave all my beers two weeks in the primary FV, plus I normally don't have time in the week to tinker about, so it's usually at a weekend.

 

[pyroboris]

Aha! Well the kit instructions say wait for the reading to stabilise somewhere around or below 1.008, will see if it gets there!

Thanks for the advice re leaving it two weeks, shall take heed and let you know how it turns out.

Has anyone used the Burtons kits before? and can anyone recommend better ones? Looking for more of a lighter summer ale style really :hmm:

 

[pyroboris]

Right...bubbling had stopped by Sunday evening after being pretty active for 4 days.

Had the lid off for the first time this evening to check with the hydrometer. Got a reading 1.010 (I think). @ 22 Celsius not sure what the corrected reading is, as different websites give different answers. dang.

Will take another reading tomorrow and see how we go.

I know it's not an AG brew, but all in good time :drink:

 

[pyroboris]

It seems that after removing the lid to take a reading (and replacing it of course) the airlock has started bubbling again, albeit VERY slowly. Could this be due to exposure to some fresh oxygen?

 

[TheMumbler]

Could be a change in temperature causing CO2 to come out of solution. Warm liquids hold less gas IRC. Hydrometer readings are much safer than bubbling rates. Remember that you need to know what temp your hydrometer is calibrated at (mine are 20*C but some are 15). If you are getting big differences it is probably because the calculators assume a different calibration of hydrometer. Other variation should be minor, I just chose one and always use that for consistency - here at thbf.

 

[pyroboris]

Thanks for the link Mumbler!

The temperature in my spare room containing the FV seems to have remained very steady between 19*c and 21.5*c, no big variations (IMO)

I'll do another hydrometer reading this evening, and another tomorrow.

If it stays at 1.010, will it be ok to bottle?

I would leave it in longer as suggested, but as I am going away for a couple of weeks I need to get it in the bottles by Thursday.

I think impatience may be the undoing of me :wha:

 

[TheMumbler]

I'm normally happy going to bottle if the reading has been stable for 3 days (including temperature adjustments). I have had only one bottle go on me so far (touch wood). That said I normally don't even look at a gravity reading until it has been in the FV for 7-10 days so I'm generally looking at 2 weeks in the FV.

Flavour may be improved by giving the yeast more time to mop up fermentation byproducts which is probably why you are seeing contradictory advice. I would think you'll be OK bottling, if you are at all worried about bottle bombs I would keep your priming sugar low or omit it all together. You do run the risk of the beer being a bit flat but I don't like ales to be too fizzy anyway. Alternatively, bottling in 2l plastic pop bottles would make it highly unlikely that they would break due to pressure. If you use clear bottles remember that you must store them out of the light.

Your other option is to leave it in the bucket until you get back, 2-3 weeks in the FV shouldn't cause you any problems so long as it has the lid properly in place and an airlock.

 

[pyroboris]

Thanks again Mumbler!

As I suspect that it is still fermenting very slowly, I'm got to leave bottling.

I did not take another reading yesterday as I'd want to keep lid removal to minimum.

Going to leave it in the FV until I get back. Have had the lid the lid and the airlock sealed with vaseline since the beginning (apart from when I opened to check with the hydrometer)

I've got 40 odd 500ml bottles washed and ready to go, although I've yet to find out how to not look a bit skanky rooting around in other peoples recycling bins and then tearing off in my car! But now I have my bottles, I shouldn't have to do it again any time soon!

So in total, my brew will be sat in the FV for exactly 21 days.

Once bottled they will be going into my mates bomb shelter we found when he bought his house, nice and cool down there! :thumb: but only after a couple of days warmth to let the primer do its thing (in the dark again of course).

Do I run the risk of the lees imparting flavours into the beer seeing as I'm leaving it for the full 21 days? :hmm:

 

[TheMumbler]

I wouldn't worry about it being on the yeast cake for 21 days. I think that somebody around here said that autolysis is more of a problem for wine than beer (or you get the problems faster anyway). I'm pretty sure people on the forum have left beer in the FV for 3 weeks with no major issues. I don't have a definitive answer though, maybe somebody a bit more knowledgeable can chip in...

Best of luck

 

[pyroboris]

Cheers for the advice, I will duly stop worrying, enjoy my holiday, and bottle up when I return!

...then it will be time for brew #2

Many Thanks again

:

 

[luckyeddie]

I'm doing one at the moment that will be in primary for a month at least - my Christmas beer, and if it is approaching my holiday time when the fermentation starts to drag its heels, 6 weeks at least. Not worried in the slightest. You'll not have any problem with autolysis at 3 weeks. Some of the Belgian lambics sit on fruit for up to a year, and the yeasts don't commit hara-kiri.

Burton Bridge is one of my favourite 'pub' beers, and back in the day when I used to brew kits, was my favourite non-Belgian. One taste and you will be sold on home-brewing. One year (especially on here) and you will venture over to the dark side, Obi-Wan, mark my words, and then we've got you for life.

Muhahaha muhahahahahaha

(sorry, got a bit carried away there)

 

[pyroboris]

Well after several weeks of waiting, I opened the first bottle to see what monstrosity I had created.

Importantly, it doesn't taste rank, and SWMBO agrees! So that's the first hurdle conquered! No really nasty after taste either (the beer I mean!)

In all fairness, I'd like a little bit more fizz as there really isn't very much, and a little more flavour, it's not watery as such, but it wouldn't hurt if there was a bit more depth to it!

Unsure of the ABV, especially as I haven't tried it from sober, but it's not a bad colour and it has cleared pretty well! (I've added a piccie for the voyeurs!)

In short, it's perfectly drinkable, hasn't stopped me or the missus from continuing, and my first batch should hopefully provide some free alternative refreshments for bonfire night!

Brew #2 is already on the go, Coopers IPA +1kg BKE. 21 Litres in total. Got very feisty very quickly and had to clean out and replace the airlock, twice! The OG came in at 1034, is this OK? seems a little lower than I though it might be, will have to see what the FG is I guess.

 

[TheMumbler]

Glad it turned out OK :thumb: . For more depth of flavour in future brews you might try replacing sugar with spraymalt, it will give you a bit less abv for the same weight but should help with flavour. I would guess that the two can kits will have a better flavour generally. Dry hopping and hop tea might be things to experiment with too. I didn't do a lot of kits but I'm sure somebody with more experience will be able to give you more specific advice.

Also if you have bottled in clear glass remember to store them out of the light to avoid skunking.

I don't know the Coopers IPA kit, but 1034 sounds too low for an IPA. A couple of things, just to eliminate obvious mistakes to make...The kit is supposed to be made to 21 litres? Did you take the gravity when all the ingredients were really well mixed in but prior to fermentation? Also was the sample at 20*C?

 

[pyroboris]

Cheers mumbler, I'd deviated from the instructions already by swapping 500g of dextrose for spray malt. I also added a little bit of extra dextrose to hopefully make up for the slghtly lower ABV due to the spray malt. Looking back, 150g extra probably isn't going to make much difference. Ah well lesson learnt.

I only did one bottle in clear glass and kept it in the dark, but I figured it would be handy to be able to see how the beer was coming along without opening a bottle. The rest of the batch is in brown/green bottles safely tucked away in my mates Anderson shelter :thumb:

As for the IPA kit, the kit was supposed to be for 23 litres (possibly mistake #1). I did take the reading when everything was in and mixed, but prior to pitching the yeast.
As for temperature, that's unknown as I don't have a suitable thermometer (possibly mistake #2) to take the temp, I think it would have been a bit warmer than 20 degrees (to the touch it was neither warm nor cold)

 

[snail59]

I cant seem to see any mention of how you bottled and primed your brew. There appears to be very little sign of any sediment in the bottle. The lack of sediment suggests little secondary fermentation and this could be the reason you have a low level of carbonation :thumb:

 

[pyroboris]

Hi Snail59,

Agreed regarding the low level of secondary carbonation. I employed a highly accurate and scientific method to prime the 40 or so bottles that had been washed (twice) and sterilised (it's worth mentioning that this took ages!).

Used a meat basting pipette thing that had fluid ounce markers on it, to pull out 40 one ounce shots of the fermented beer into a sterilised jug. To this I added slightly less than a tsp of brewing sugar per bottle (so probably somewhere between 30 and 35 tsps), mixed it all up and then used the baster to put 1 fluid ounce of the priming liquid back into each bottle. I'm sure there is a quicker way, and that might involve getting a barrel!

As for the sediment, there is a little more in the other bottles I've opened so far.

Thanks for all the help and advice so far, the second batch I seem to be treating with a bit more of a gung-ho attitude, but I've read that this is normal...

 

[snail59]

I'm sure there is a quicker way, and that might involve getting a barrel!

...

Yes there is a quicker way and no you wont need to get a barrel. Just put the sugar straight into the bottle before the beer is added than when capped give the bottle a little shake :thumb:

In my opinion a better way does involve getting a bucket and a little bottler. Its the BATCH PRIME method.

 

[pyroboris]

Hmmm, I think I need to buy a second bucket!