Have I just been lucky so far?

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ilikemysocks

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I joined the forum a few days ago and, much to my wife's distaste, I have not stopped reading the invaluable information posted here.

One thing I have come to realise is that I have been quite lackadaisical with my brewing. Although I am very cautious with sanitising all of my kit on brew day and when bottling; I think I have only taken one hydrometer reading after about 8 brews.

I use a water bath with a fish tank heater and the temperature stays pretty consistent. I have mostly been going by the amount of days given in the instructions and only leaving to ferment a bit longer if I have thought it doesn't look quite ready yet.

So far all the beer I have made has been really enjoyable. It has conditioned nicely and not been cloudy. There aren't any off flavours and nothing has been under/overly carbonated. It's all I can do not to drink it all before its really peaked. Maybe my pallete is being masked by my enjoyment of the fruits of my labour.

My question really is, have I just been lucky with the beers I have made so far? I know I should be taking more readings with the hydrometer to make sure fermentation is complete but what I'm really interested in is the complete cycle of the yeast. Many people have spoken about leaving a brew for another week after fermentation is complete to let the yeast 'clean up' but I'm not sure what this means or if it is really nessecary.

As I've said, I've really enjoyed the beer I have made and I've had good things said by those I have shared with. I am going to have a go at a AG brew next week and I want to make sure it's the best it can be... well for a first go anyway.

Also as a side question how do you go about reusing yeast? Do you just pour your wort over the 'sludge' (not sure what you call it) left at the bottom of the FV after bottling the last batch?
 
I joined the forum a few days ago and, much to my wife's distaste, I have not stopped reading the invaluable information posted here.

One thing I have come to realise is that I have been quite lackadaisical with my brewing. Although I am very cautious with sanitising all of my kit on brew day and when bottling; I think I have only taken one hydrometer reading after about 8 brews.

I use a water bath with a fish tank heater and the temperature stays pretty consistent. I have mostly been going by the amount of days given in the instructions and only leaving to ferment a bit longer if I have thought it doesn't look quite ready yet.

So far all the beer I have made has been really enjoyable. It has conditioned nicely and not been cloudy. There aren't any off flavours and nothing has been under/overly carbonated. It's all I can do not to drink it all before its really peaked. Maybe my pallete is being masked by my enjoyment of the fruits of my labour.

My question really is, have I just been lucky with the beers I have made so far? I know I should be taking more readings with the hydrometer to make sure fermentation is complete but what I'm really interested in is the complete cycle of the yeast. Many people have spoken about leaving a brew for another week after fermentation is complete to let the yeast 'clean up' but I'm not sure what this means or if it is really nessecary.

As I've said, I've really enjoyed the beer I have made and I've had good things said by those I have shared with. I am going to have a go at a AG brew next week and I want to make sure it's the best it can be... well for a first go anyway.

Also as a side question how do you go about reusing yeast? Do you just pour your wort over the 'sludge' (not sure what you call it) left at the bottom of the FV after bottling the last batch?

sanitation and temp control are two of the most important parts of brewing - for kit, extract and ag brewing. ag requires correct mash temp too.

hyrometer give you abv if you take an og and fg reading and also tells you gives an indication if your brew is ready or stuck.

re: is your beer ready? if you like it, it's ready. If you don't like it wait 2 weeks and see if you like it then :-P

beer tasted 1 week after bottling is not as good as a 3 weeks bottled beer - unless there's an infection the extra 2 weeks wait gives a better beer!
 
You can add a new batch of beer to the yeast at the bottom of the previous batch, as long as it's not been left in there for any length of time since you siphoned the beer off it.

But ideally you should use the correct amount of yeast. There is likely to be too much yeast left over. The Mr Malty yeast pitching rate calculator is widely used for this purpose. It takes a bit of getting your head round...

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
 
If you're planning on doing AG is more important to take a gravity before you start than with kits.. this will tell you whether or not you have mashed successfully
 
yes you have been lucky, as time in itself isnt a reliable indicator of 'readiness'

think of gravity tests as an opportunity to also taste the beer ;) (never return a sample to the bulk)

a tap on the fv makes drawing off a sample a dodle, but will require a flushing out and sanitising of the spout, for drawing a sample from a bucket with no tap get a cheap turky baster and sanitise that for sucking off a sample from the top, Just remember to squeeze the air out BEFORE you dip it in to suck up a sample, squeezing the air out when its in the beer will increase the risk of you oxidising the beer..
 
My FV does have a tap but as I use a water bath I don't want to use that. I did buy a turkey baster though and used it exactly as you described. I just felt like I didn't gain much from the readings and my intuition felt right most of the time. I guess I'm just setting myself up for failure eventually if I don't start getting into these habits now. As Covrich said, its important to be taking gravity readings at the start also if I am to be getting into AG (the orders I placed last week started to arrive this morning!).

Can anyone offer more insight into the cycle of the yeast though? And what it means to say that they "clean up"?
 
Also, going back to the tap on my FV, I have been using a balloon to 'protect' it from the water bath; then giving it a quick flush out with some no rinse sanitiser before bottling. Do you think I might run into trouble with this at some point?
 
Oh the irony! I have had a St Peters Cream Stout brewing for about a week. I thought I'd take a reading tonight just to start making a habit of it. I can't bottle today anyway as it's already too late. As it turns out the reading was around 1020. The kit states it should be stable below 1014.

It looks like it should be finishing up but perhaps I am just mistaking that for it becoming stuck? What's the plan going forward. Do I give it a gentle stir and make sure the temperature is right?

We have been looking after my dad's dogs this week and I think my wife unplugged the heater to plug in a radio for them to listen to 😭
 
So it's all gone to the dogs? You shouldnt need a heater at this time of year, where are you? Antarctica?
 
So it's all gone to the dogs? You shouldnt need a heater at this time of year, where are you? Antarctica?
Haha no I'm in the sunny south west. It's been really warm recently but I went in yesterday afternoon and it had gone down to about 14c. I'm guessing from your reply that that sort of drop in temp shouldn't make too much of a difference?

The FV is out in the garage so I keep the heater running. It's on a thermostat so generally it keeps a solid 20 degrees in a water bath. I have one of those cheap stick on thermometers on the FV itself and that tends to read a couple of degrees higher once fermentation gets going.

Still, the reading is at 1020. Should I leave it to carry on or is there something you think I could do to get the reading down?
 
So it's all gone to the dogs? You shouldnt need a heater at this time of year, where are you? Antarctica?

Haha no I'm in the sunny south west. It's been really warm recently but I went in yesterday afternoon and it had gone down to about 14c. I'm guessing from your reply that that sort of drop in temp shouldn't make too much of a difference?

The FV is out in the garage so I keep the heater running. It's on a thermostat so generally it keeps a solid 20 degrees in a water bath. I have one of those cheap stick on thermometers on the FV itself and that tends to read a couple of degrees higher once fermentation gets going.

Still, the reading is at 1020. Should I leave it to carry on or is there something you think I could do to get the reading down?
 
When fermentations get stuck it's a pain in the backside. Wait a see what happens next couple of days. Maybe swirl it around gently to raise the yeast. Keep the lid on.
 
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