Healthy Fermentation? Carbonation Questions. IPA

[deanobrfc]

Afternoon all,

Have been brewing a St Peters IPA kit as my first ever brew and, as a newbie, wanted to ask your opinions on its fermentation as this is my first brew.

OG was 1058 and is now around 1022, has been in the FV for roughly 6 days. It did have a krausner, but this has subsided. Smells very sharp but more like beer.

Have attached a picture or two. Does this look like a healthy fermentation to you?

Also, would like some advice on carbonation. The kit doesn't give too much advice on it, but says transfer into bottles with a little sugar. It hasn't come with any sugar but with coopers carbonation drops. Do I use these drops or sugar? If so, at which stage, mix into the FV, or before or after transferring the brew into bottles?

Sorry to ask so many questions!

Thanks for tor help, much appreciated!

Sam.

 

[hoptoit]

Get the lid back on!!
Looks fine. Try not to open the lid up fully, your risking infection everytime. I know it's so tempting on your brew especially a first.
Looks perfectly fine.
Most leave fermentation for two weeks.
I don't use drops when bottling, but batch prime. But I think most use 1 drop put into each 500ml bottle.

 

[nigelnorris]

Carbonation drops are ten times the price of ordinary sugar, and all you get for the extra is that they're weighed out for you. Not much harder to take a little funnel and the right sized teaspoon and add the 3g of Tate & Lyle that way. Or [assuming 500ml bottles] just batch prime approx 6 x the number of litres of sugar into your brew before bottling for the same effect.

I'm not saying that's the ideal amount of sugar to prime with, just that carbonation drops are about 3g each so my numbers will give you the same effect.

Lots of conversations about as to what is the optimal amount of sugar to use for any given brew, you might want to read around that first.