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rodderz

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Gday all

Great forum you all have here, looks all very friendly and helpful from what I have navigated through thus far. :D

Over christmas I was lucky enough to score a Coopers Micro Brew kit off the missus (what a lovely lady!) and this week set off about getting a brew down. The beer and ingrediants were what comes with the coopers kit (lager, 1kg brew sugar etc). The only thing i did different to the instructions while mixing was to add about an extra 500-700ml or so of water to the mix, so it was all up between 23 and 24 litres to the wort. A friend had said the lager tasted smoother with a tad more water so I tried it

As the southerners would know tis been a hot week, Monday night when I started it the wort temp sat at 28C, everywhere was too warm to get it any lower to the recommended 21-27C. On the Wednesday, I got the temp down to 26C but the bubbling out the airlock seemed to have stopped. I would have thought fermentation wouldn't of only taken 2 days, so i did a hydrometer reading and got 1014, today (Thursday) it's the same, no more bubbling is taking place.

I'm wondering if it is ready for bottling considering the FG reading isnt where it should be at 1008-1010, or would the reading be slightly higher as I added more water? The smell and taste are fine....just a bit puzzled!!

Cheers
Rod
 
Hi rodderz.

No bubbles might just be a bad seal, don't trust the airlock to tell you everything.

Gently pick up the fermenter & put the whole thing in the coolest place you can find- if the kit was a gift from your wife maybe she won't complain about having it inside the house instead of out in the shed.

Leave it alone for another day or two at least then take another reading. 1014 is a bit high to be bottling just yet.
 
hi Rodderz,

what was your OG ??

edit :

^
| and what he said :)
 
I have a mate with one of those Coopers kits. Is yours the same type, i.e. with a snap-on lid? If so, they're notorious for leaking. I use a Brewmaster fermenter which has a screw-on lid - much better. I don't know why Coopers (who otherwise make excellent products) still persist with snap-on lids.
 
The newer coopers kits come with screw-on lids.

Well mine did about 6 months ago anyway
 
bonk said:
hi Rodderz,

what was your OG ??

edit :

^
| and what he said :)
gday bonk

stupidly the excitement and rush of getting the 1st brew on i forgot the OG reading, but from memory it was between 1025-1030 or so

I've moved the fermenter to a cooler spot, may even wrap it up with wet towels too as it's 37C over here at the moment, i'll check the FG again tomorrow

edit I have the screw-on lid also, and checked for leaks after sealing via the airlock, all fine
 
rodderz the temp you ferment is really important, try to keep the brew at 20c.
this can be achieved several ways. do a search through the forum for some tips
have a good look at a brew fridge...
 
Before the luxury of a brew fridge, in either summer or winter, I would just put the fermenter in the laundry trough, fill it about half full and put a thermometer in the water. I found that the external temp strip on the fermenter would be about 3 degrees higher during active fermentation and drop to read about the same as the water as the brew slowed down.
I'd check it in the morning before work, and after I got home, and add hot water or PET bottles full of ice as required. Even at 37 degrees or so, the trough water would only change a couple of degrees over a period of days.
 
i do the same ant, i dont drink enough to warrant buying a brew fridge. got four full kegs already so wont need to brew for a while yet.
 
G'day Rodderz,

May I suggest you get a book to record your brew (og, ingredients, volume, pitching temp, ferm temp, date brewed etc).
Back to your beer. 1030 (give or take) to 1014 is not much of a drop. Not even the worst yeast eats that small an amount of sugars.
If the gravity is not still dropping, I would say that your yeast has expired in the heat. Yeast doesn't like temps over 30ish. I would suggest that you add another yeast. Cool the fermentor and mix in the new yeast. If you had another fermentor, I'd suggest that you transfer most of the beer off the dead yeast first. Dead yeast does bad mumbo to the beer. They eat each other, if any are still alive.
Learn as you brew. This could be an important stepping stone to your ultimate brew.
This is just an opinion. Can we see if anyone agrees?

BTW, welcome aboard dude. I wish I had a new micro kit for my first brews.

Uncle Seth
 
Now i can see why you are the weiz guy seth.

Temp and yeast are everything in brewing.Until the beasties are at work its just a sweet wort.After beasties are finished its beer.
 
...and if the yeast conks out part way through, it's a mess ,and could be trouble.

rodderz, is the beer still a bit sweet?
Either way, i would not be keen to bottle it. Not even in those nifty Coopers PET bottles, which are resistant to explosions.
Plus, if the yeast is deceased, it won't carbonate the beer.
Sorry to say...
Thanks for the feedback phantom.

Sethule out
 
Weizguy said:
Not even in those nifty Coopers PET bottles, which are resistant to explosions.
I have only had one exploding bottle, and that was in the Coopers PET bottle. It appeared to blow out the bottom of the bottle.

I would bottle the beer to get the process down pat, however drinking the resulting beer would be another story. (Don't take this the wrong way, rodderz!, the story for most, or perhaps just for me, is that the first brew at high temp, with Coopers kit and sugar, results in a liquid that for me was undrinkable)

Cheers

Will
 
Thanks for all the helpful advice fellas

I'll keep an eye on it, and as whats been said, it's all a learning curve. I think I was more concerned with the temp being too low than too high.....but as it's soon found out the temp range doesnt change much, and the crucial part is the temp of the wort before adding the yeast. Wasnt a good week to have a brew sitting around with 30+C all week

The taste now isnt that bad....just warm. It has some carbonation, a good head and isnt unlike a mate's lager I had at xmas

I'll let you know what the results are!
 
Hi Rodderz, I don't think that the yeast is dead, they can handle up to 40*C, they just don't make tasty beer at temps above 24*C.
Final gravity for a kit tin +kg of sugar (K+K) is usually around 1.005.
Does the hydrometer read 1.000 in plain water at 20*C? Try degassing the beer sample too, this will also give a more precise reading.
Adding more water will only lower the intended flavour and alcoholic strength.
My 2 bobs worth.

tdh
 
I Personally would never put more than 23 L in a batch. If anything I allways use less to get better body with kits.
 
rodderz said:
... i did a hydrometer reading and got 1014, today (Thursday) it's the same, no more bubbling is taking place.
G'day Rod - Welcome to the forum... :D

You mentioned that you got a reading of 1.014 on Thursday. How warm was the wort when you took that measurement? Your hydrometer will give a different gravity reading for the exact same liquid, depending on the temperature of that liquid.

Take John Palmer's reference on using Hydrometers:
http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html

Eg:
A hydrometer reading 1.014 at 16C is reasonably accurate,
A reading of 1.014 at 21C is corrected to actually read 1.015,
A reading of 1.014 at 26C is corrected to actually read 1.017! :blink:

This may not be a big deal, but you need to make sure that when you take your hydrometer readings, you should compensate for the temp of the fluid as well so you don't distort your gravity calcs.

Cheers,
TL
 
The temp of the wort was 26C when the hydrometer reading was 1.014

Today i tested it again and the reading has dropped to 1.012 at 24C

I'll give it some more time and see if it gets down to 1.006 or so....the taste is still ok, no bad aromas etc as yet either. The good thing is, there is always a next time anyway....and this one i didnt pay for..lol
 
Trough Lolly, our hydrometers are calibrated to 20*C, the Usatians have hydros calibrated to 15.6*C (60*F). I think your figures relate to the US hydros.

tdh
 
Just remember, no matter how your beer turns out the first few times it does get better, just keep changing your brews and talk with your local home brew shop dude about it and it'll be cool.
 
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