My first brew

[Rob Kenyon]

Hi there,

I'm about to put down my first attempt at home brewing in the next few days (just waiting for one last bit of equipment).

I'm planning on starting with a couple of extract kits and as I find my feet then I plan to get a little more adventurous.

My first kit is a Mangrove jacks roasted stout with enhancer kit.

This is all very foreign to me except where I have been watching a few youtube videos and doing some reading up of John Palmers 'how to brew' book.

 

Before I get into it I would really appreciate some advice from those who are in the know.

 

1) A lot of the reading I have done has suggested that while you can get good results from extract brewing, you shouldn't listen to the instructions on the kits....is this good advice for mangrove jacks, or in general? It seems like it could be a good extract kit.....if it's not, what are good little tips?  

Pouch instructions are:

a) add extract to 3l of boiling water;

b) top up with cold water to 23l, stir in yeast;

c) leave to ferment at 20-25deg for 10days;

d) bottle and mature for min of 3 weeks.

2) Is the kit ingredients sufficient? malts, hops, yeast - Is it worth getting fresh yeast?

3) Is it better to boil the wort for 30min (as is suggested in a lot of the reading I have done) or simply add the malt extract to the water?

4) How do finings work, or just clarifying beer in general? Is it worth doing?

5) Best way to prime bottles prior to bottling?

6) Should I be concerned with the bottles over pressurising? How do you ensure correct carbonation levels?

7) OG and SG required for this brew/style and how do I achieve those? The gravities aren't on the kit.

 

Thank you for your time and assistance!

Rob

[Rob Kenyon]

So the brew has been sitting in the fermenter now for 10 days at 19deg C. It has been progressing real nice, up until now. It appears to have slowed to a crawl if not stopped all together. The gravity is 1.018, I am thinking it needs to get closer to 1.010. The kit says below 1.009 if using dextrose but a little higher if using enhancer etc which I have used.

 

Any thoughts? Is it fine as it is now or do I need to get the gravity lower? If so, how do I achieve this?

 

Cheers,

Rob

[Sam DT]

You could give the temperature a nudge up to say 22 - 23 degrees, yeast tends to get a bit sluggish towards the end of fermentation as nutrient and sugars run low so a bit of extra warmth often help them on their way to FG. Another week at that temperature might get you there?

Did you aerate your wort before pitching? I forgot to do this a few years back and the yeast really struggled - ended up with quite a sweet beer as it didn't fully attenuate (that's my theory anyway - luckily no bottle bombs). A bit of yeast nutrient also helps if you're doing all extract, you probably wouldn't want to be adding any more oxygen or nutrient at this stage though.

[Peter Smith]

warm it up and swirl it to get yeast back into suspension... (dont open to stir)  keep it prtty sealed up, bring it up to 23C for a few days.   There is a school of though that if you add say 150g suger in say 300ml of water (all boiled for 5 min then  cooled) that the yeast well wake up a bit finish the easy added sugars and drop a few extra points this method is used with belgiun yeast s abit, I have used it.

what yeast is it?  it may be at the point where its finished.   The two yeasts I really like at the moment are 007 and 1272 as they drop pretty well   wl530 is a monster as well.

[Chris]

I've found that when i measure the temperature from outside the carboy due to thermal dynamics you get a slightly lower temperature reading. So unless you have your temperature sensor in the liquid like a thermowell.

Your brew itself is probably at 21.

Have you checked the temperature range at midnight, swings in temperature can cause delays.
Yeast to hibernate. (For future brews)

If you have a second carboy you can rack it off to that and let it sit for another 2 weeks this will allow the beer to clear more and also lets the yeast to cleanup after itself. I often use the secondary as a clearing/dry hop addition stage which also clears up my beer.

As long as your FG is consistent over a couple of days you are good to bottle.

i remember how stressful the first was. don't worry too much sounds like its working fine.