1st time BREW help please?

[Adam Tristram]

Hi All.

Brew been down since Thursday night. Naughty I know but did not have a thermometer. Wanting to know when to bottle. Stopped bubbling now through the airlock which I know is not the only indicator so have been doing so readings with the hydrometer and getting readings like 115-120. Shall I leave another day or two until they get like 105-110 and two days in a row? Brew is Coopers Real Ale. Thanks

[denimglen]

What scale on the hydrometer are you reading mate?

Should be the one with four numbers, like 1.040 - 1.050 for the starting gravity and 1.000 - 1.014 for the final gravity.

I would leave it there until next Thursday to be honest, can go up to three weeks if need-be. Waiting's hard for the first brew, I know ;-) Best remedy to help your patience along is to start your next batch!

Yeap, you're right, you want the same reading two days in row and should be 1.014 or below.

That Cooper's Real Ale kit is probably the only kit beer I've made that was any good.

[Michael]

The Coopers Real Ale tasted pretty good to me as well. Especially if one steeps some grains too!

I have found that if the temps are >18, the Coopers generally fermented out in less than 7 days. Obviously this wouldn't mean it is conditioned, but it could be bottled and drank 7 days after bottling too. It wouldn't be flash, but drinkable at this stage.

If it is possible to move it to a secondary, or bottle it and wait at least two weeks, you will be much happier. Even longer will be better. :)

As Denimglen said though...the hydrometer reading is the way to go. This is the only way to know for sure.

[Adam Tristram]

So NO other kits are good. I want to move to the next stage in due course and see cans as a good start but surely you can get some good brews from them? I have a Black Rock Pilsner Blonde sitting infront of me ready to go!!!

[denimglen]

I did about 5 kit beers and had 4 drain pours.

To get the best out of the kit don't follow the instructions. Unfortunately I found this out after I stopped brewing kits.

I use the unhopped Black Rock malt when I'm brewing beers with extract, I reckon it's good quality extract.

Here is my crash course in kit brewing -

The yeast under the lid - throw it away. Replace it with a fresh dried yeast, in this case I would recommend SafAle SO5 - it is an ale yeast but a very forgiving one and will get you close to what you're after.

Don't use refined sugar replace with (unhopped) mat extract - although for your pils you'll want a dryish finish, which can be hard to achieve with extract, so instead of 1kg dextrose I'd use 500g dextrose and 500g unhopped malt extract (preferrably dry, but liquid extract is fine).

Sanitise, sanitise, sanitise. And that sodium metabisulphite shit they try to sell you isn't sanitiser, go for a product like starsan or iodophor, it's no rinse and leaves no residue.

Patience, patience, patience. They may say one week until you can bottle but 2 - 3 weeks is better.


If you haven't seen it already check out howtobrew.com, shows you how easy it is to take the next steps ;-)

[Tony]

yup, what he said, good call Glen!

[Michael]

I would not say all kits are crap. As a matter of fact, there have been people who have done quite well in competitions with kits. However, when it comes to kits, the quality can be quite variable, and how good it is will come down to personal taste.

Out of the kits I have tried, I did not like any of the 'bitters', as they were just bitter for the sake of being bitter, without any other redeeming qualities. Personally, I found Coopers to make a very good Real Ale and nice Cerveza if brewed with Honey. Muntons made an OK Continental Lager (it was thin though, and not hoppy enough...needed to add this), and a few others were very nice too.

In the Library section there is a link to HBkitreviews. There you can see what others say about kits you are contemplating before plopping down the cash. The 'el cheapos' usually do not seem to fare well.

Brewing via kit is a great way to get started, especially if you are very time constrained on your brew day.

Follow all of the advice about sanitising and patience! Howtobrew.com is a great resource too, just as Denimglen said.

[Adam Tristram]

Ok, thanks for answers to date. Should a hydrometer move upwards when reading. I drop it in, it comes up settles on say 1020 and then starts to slowly rise to the top?? Or am I doing something wrong?

[Matthew]

Over time the hydrometer should drop. If it's reading 1020 now leave it for another 5 days or so and check again. Looks like it might still have some work to do. It should drop further, down under 1015 - 1008-ish. It might even take another week to get to that point. You'll know it's ready when you get 2-3 readings exactly the same over several days.

[Ged]

Hi Adam

Mine also slowly rises a bit if you leave it for a minute etc. If you look carefully you will see it has hundreds of little bubbles clinging to it..Give it a slight twirl to knockl them off and take a re-read

[JR]

Charlie Papazian has a great book - The Complete Joy of Homebrewing.

It starts off with how to get the most from your kits and how to make them better, it then moves on to explaining the next step, extract brewing and finally brewing with grain. A great step by step guide.

Not sure where you are based but the book is at the Dunedin Public Library so you could try your local library if you want to read it. It was good enough for me to lend 3 times before I finally gave in and got my own copy.

[Adam Tristram]

So the brew is still at 1020 (1.020) so no change there. There is an amount of scum on the top along with froth and below I can still see bubbles rising which I am assuming is the fermentation process still happening.

Q. Is the scum OK, it also is around the edge of the barrell so I think it is?

[denimglen]

Yup, that's known as 'krausen', basically hunks of yeast, proteins, all sorts of shit that precipitates and falls to the bottom once fermentation has finished. No dramas at all, actually a good sign of fermentation.