Woodfordes Wherry, Spraymalt and never ending bubbling.

[slippyshome]

Hi Everyone,

Been reading posts on here for while. Most questions I have come up with have already been answered somewhere. So many thanks in advance to experienced posters that have already helped me without actually knowing :-) A couple of questions and a bit of background.

This is the 3rd time I've brewed this kit and 7th by Woodfordes, and while it's been the best kit I've brewed, it still had what I could only describe as my homebrew background flavour to it. I now think (at last) I've figured what this is, and so far it appears to have gone from this batch. My water supply is an underground water source (Severn Trent, Wenlock Edge) with very high carbonate levels. I'd not noticed before but when drinking the tap water from round here after a day or so of sitting in the glass, the flavour is the same as what I was experiencing in my brews. So I checked out the local water profile from the Severn Trent website and found out about this huge carbonate level. I'd heard of adding sulphuric acid to substitute carbonates, and also boiling the water to remove them, but as I've got a Brita jug that has just been sitting in the cupboard for god knows how long, I thought I'd put it to good use. So this batch I used the filter to see if it made a difference. Lo and behold at this time (12 days) the old "homebrew" flavour has gone. So far so good.
So that's the background and some of the problems I've overcome. Now however have I encountered another one, partly of my own making. I've been measuring the SG for the past few days. Day before yesterday no bubbleing, SG1012, yesterday SG1012. Not as low as I wanted, but hey ho time to bottle. So carried from brew place to kitchen. Faffed about for an hour or so doing other stuff, adding spraymalt to bottles with a 3 year old etc. It was then that I noticed that my brew is bubbleing again 1-2 times a minute. So took another SG; it now reads 1013! So question 1 - Should I cart the vessel back to under the stairs for a few more days to carry on (don't want any bottle explosions)? Question 2 - The spraymalt is now in all the bottles; will this be ok to leave there for however many days I leave my brew to continue? I can find no info on how long spraymalt is good in the open atmosphere after opening the bag, it is already drawing in atmospheric moisture and clumping slightly, I can't see why this won't still dissolve when the beer is added, but really have no clue or any experience of this?
A bit of a long first thread, thanks for your patience :-)
Nick.

 

[clibit]

I'd be patient and let it ferment a few more days. And can you seal the bottles? Cling film, or foil, perhaps.

 

[Twostage]

Moving it will have 'roused' the yeast to a another spurt of activity so you might get a drop of a point, maybe two over the next couple of days.

Sugary solutions tend to be inhospitable places for bugs so the bottles should be fine for a few days.

Don't worry about the DME not dissolving, the yeast won't turn their noses up, they'll dig in and make it disappear.:-)

And hello by the way.

 

[Crusty]

Just to add to the water comments, I ALWAYS brew my beers with Tesco Ashbeck bottled mineral water. It's as cheap as chips (In 5 litre bottles) and superb quality. As the water here in Essex is very hard, it's a no-brainer.

 

[slippyshome]

Thanks for the replies everyone.
It's back under the stairs now. My main confusion came from the raising of the SG again, but as was said this was probably just the brew being shaken up a bit; I think the denser (more sugary) liquid being mixed more uniformly with the top. I take my samples for SG from the top. Bubbling actually increased through the day, now a steady 20 second trump :-)
Bottles now all sealed with cling film, I was thinking putting newspaper over them! Strange how the brain sometimes doesn't think of the obvious :?
I chipped off some the now concrete like spray-malt and put it into a glass of water. Dissolved no problem within the hour with no agitation :-)
As to the water, I will try with the Ashbeck on my next brew. It will work out about £5.50 for 40 pints, which is a bit more than a filter which can do more than one brew, though a lot less hassle. Took nearly an hour to filter the amount of water I needed. And I obviously haven't tasted the end results yet.
Thanks again.
Will update SG's in a couple of days.

 

[terrym]

You could also try Tesco Everyday Still Water at 17-18p per 2 litre bottle which works out at just over £2 per brew. It is sourced from 'Elmhurst Spring' alias 'Chase Spring' if it's the same as their fizzy water. The Springs are a bore hole operated by South Staffs Water at their works near Fradley, Staffs. There is a water analysis on the bottle if I remember correctly. And of course other supermarkets also have their own cheap water too.