1st Brew

[Tom How]

Just made first brew using Coopers DIY kit. I just have an issue with the hydrometer. Do I take the reading from the top of the flask or from the beer level? Only brewed it yesterday and from the sample today it was very frothy and the gravity reading from the meniscus was around the 3 mark. Is this brew already shot or can it settle down in a week or two? All feedback appreciated muchly

 

[verysupple]

I'm not sure what a reading of 3 means as it depends how the scale is printed on your hydrometer. I presume you mean 1.003? Maybe 1.030? I'm pretty sure an SG of 3.000 is impossible .

You read off the beer level (depending how it's been calibrated you should either read from the top or bottom meniscus, the instructions that came with it should tell you). You need to let the foam subside and if measuring after fermentation the sample should be degassed. It also good practice to spin the hydrometer a bit to get any bubbles stuck to it off. Also the measurement should be taken at the calibration temperature (usually 20 C) or corrected for temperature if more than a few degrees different to the calibration temp.

It's unlikely the brew is shot, that's pretty hard to accomplish. Brewing is easy. Brewing a perfect beer is impossible .

 

[Hypno toad]

Your beer will be fine dude. If you've used a coopers kit just kick back for a week, bottle, wait another couple of weeks and enjoy. When I first started brewing with kits the hydrometer was put in a draw and forgotten about. You'll have plenty of time to complicate things down the track. Well played with your first brew. You'll never look back.

 

[Tom How]

Yep it was 1.030. Learning and not looking properly as we go. Thanks for the feedback.
This site is a veritable gold mine of info. Glad I came across it

 

[twizt1d]

putting the hydrometer in a drawer and not worrying about it is a good way to end up with bottle bombs and glass shrapnel everywhere, thats some of the worst advice ive seen for a new brewer.
its not a difficult bit of kit to operate, read it from the bottom of the meniscus

give the beer 2 weeks in the fermenter then check the gravity, in the meantime its probably worth doing a bit of reading
i havent done a kit beer in a long time but i think they finish out somewhere around 1.012
only bottle it when it hits somewhere around that mark and does not go down anymore for atleast a couple days.

 

[manticle]

Hydrometer is your friend. Don't put it in a drawer.

 

[of mice and gods]

Sorry hypnotoad.. I agree with manticle and tonesbrew. Recommending a new brewer to disregard their hydrometer, particularly when bottling, is really ****** advice.

Tom How, hopefully the following image builds on tonesbrews post and clarifies why we generally refer to our gravity as 4 digit numbers (i.e. 1.030).

Al

 

[Tex083]

Tonesbrew's pic of the hydrometer is good the only bit I can add is; fill the cylinder to the top then drop in the hydrometer makes it really easy to read. Does waste/use more beer

Good luck with the brewing and welcome.

 

[ben_sa]

Does waste/use more beer .

Not if you drink it afterwards, which is actually a great idea to get an idea of flavours etc,

 

[maxim0200]

Welcome,
Now i dont want to be one of those guys that says use search BUT for some things videos are the best way to describe the topic.
Try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTvmYaQq6Mc

And
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNVePBvI2ps

Keep asking q's mate as you may come up with a question that hasnt been asked before or atleast some of us noobs may learn something that has been lost in the age of AHB time......

Looking foward to seeing your first AG :beerbang:

 

[Moad]

Only throw the hydrometer if you have a refractometer! Just to confuse the situation...

 

[sb944]

I'm still new, but am using the Coopers kit too. I've read a lot on the internet recently about our Coopers kit and kilo brewing, and the most common advice about whether to ditch a brew gets met with "be patient!" Way behind, but the next common advice is see if the hydrometer is working/being read correctly, and way, way in last place is a real reason the brew has stopped early or never got going, which is still fixable for the most part.

With the hydrometer, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. The readings can be off quite a bit due to gas, and I've seen this in my small experience. I took advice to pour the sample from one glass to another 10-20 times to de-gas the sample, then pour back in the tube and wait a few minutes, then take the reading, worked well for me. Also, every now and then, test some cool tap water and test that. If it's not reading 1.000, then you may have broken the hydrometer, which apparently isn't hard, try to be gentle with the hydrometer when moving it around/cleaning it.

But while it's hard to completely kill a beer, it's not hard to make a poor tasting beer. Every small mistake can cost you some taste, but for the time being, focus on the big topics like sanitisation, temperature control (especially over the first 4 days) and not rushing anything. My idea is to make these kit and kilo beers for a while, but really try to improve the process every time, which I am doing so far. When I can make a nice beer a few times in a row, I plan to delve deeper into more advanced techniques, but I'd rather not rush it, as I have no need to at this point.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

sb944 is pretty spot on.

Sanitise religiously. Temp Control is very important. Yeast health is very important (it's what makes wort into beer, so very very important.

 

[pat86]

Just made first brew using Coopers DIY kit. I just have an issue with the hydrometer. Do I take the reading from the top of the flask or from the beer level? Only brewed it yesterday and from the sample today it was very frothy and the gravity reading from the meniscus was around the 3 mark. Is this brew already shot or can it settle down in a week or two? All feedback appreciated muchly

Hey mate, best of luck!

I don't see it mentioned above after a quick scan but if you only brewed it one day before your original post - then that there is your main issue!

Primary fermentation will typically take 3-10 days but standard advice would be to leave it for at least 2 weeks+ in the FV. If you are not planning to dry hop or anything, then I wouldn't be drawing samples until after 7 days anyway - less waste of beer and less chance of infection. You would want to give it the extra week to settle, especially if you are doing a K & K and the extra time in the FV will make it taste much better as it will clear out and yeast will clean up.

I wouldn't say forget about your hydrometer, but I wouldn't test the gravity every day either besides some very special circumstance - definitely not so soon. Would be much safer to recommend for 1st time brewers to test at say day 10, day 11, day 14 (will probably read the same on all three or at least last two in 90% of cases).

edit: you also mention it is "very frothy" - I imagine you are talking about the krausen - which is a sign of the yeast working away busily. If there is still foamy stuff on top of your brew - then it is definitely not ready yet!

 

[Tom How]

Thanks for the advice. Brew is currently sitting nicely at around 23/24 degrees which may be a bit high but seeing as we are currently hitting a run of 40+ days I don't think it's to bad.
Sanitation is something I have to do next. What products do people use and what are the preferred methods of cleaning equipment?
Also with regards to my bottles which are the plastic coopers ones. It is my first brew and they have been sitting in the open box in my garage. Would they need to be sanitised, washed or say ran through the dishwasher with or without detergent?
Again all feedback muchly appreciated

 

[Alex.Tas]

Yeah give them a wash. May take you 20 minutes to to it, but you will hate yourself if you bugger up the beer on the final step. I use sodium metabisulphate i think. It's probably not the best or preferred option of more experienced brewers. I just use it because i always have and its familiar. I've been thinking about changing this though depending on the other responses you get to this question.

 

[Doug2232]

Good Morning fellas,

I too have just finished bottling my first brew.... Now the long painful wait to see how it turns out. The next 2 weeks + is going to kill me!!!!

I was just the standard pale ale out of the Mangrove Jack kit. Keen to see how it goes, i did use the non standard yeast however as per Kevin at Kirrawee Home Brew.

Had a solid reading over 3 days after about 11 days so bottled in the 750ml bottles.

How long do you all wait until having your first sneaky taste? Would this weekend be too early and the beer be too green.


Cheers,
Doug

 

[verysupple]

Sanitation is something I have to do next. What products do people use and what are the preferred methods of cleaning equipment?
Also with regards to my bottles which are the plastic coopers ones. It is my first brew and they have been sitting in the open box in my garage. Would they need to be sanitised, washed or say ran through the dishwasher with or without detergent?

Most people use a sodium percarbonate based cleaners like Five Star PBW or Oxyper or unscented no-name brand laundry soakers (that have sodium percarbonate as the working ingredient). They're good because they produce oxygen bubbles that help work through deposits rather than just cleaning the top surface.

Once your equipment is nice and clean you need to sanitise it. Most people use acid based no-rinse sanitisers like Five Star Starsan or similar.

Your bottles are new so they probably just need a rinse with water and then sanitising. Sanitising can be done with acid based sanitisers as above. There are probably other ways that I can't think of right now and someone else can chime in on that. Because you bottles are plastic I wouldn't put them in the dishwasher because they might melt with the high temps.

After the bottles have been used you should rinse them right after drinking to avoid getting crud stuck in them and minimise the chance of mould etc. growing in them between use. Then, before bottling the next batch, give them a mighty good wash with hot water and then sanitise again. It sounds like a lot of work but it sure beats infecting your beer .

All the cleaning/sanitising products I mentioned have instructions on the packaging for how to dilute and use them. Too easy.

 

[verysupple]

How long do you all wait until having your first sneaky taste? Would this weekend be too early and the beer be too green.

If the weather is warm and they carb up quickly I might taste one after a week but only to see how the flavour develops because when they're that young they are nowhere near their best. I usually start drinking them properly (as in not just for curiosity to see how it's going, but to enjoy) after about four weeks.

 

[yum beer]

Let them sit a bit Doug, it will be worth it.
Most kits like to sit at least 6 weeks and I always found them at their best around the 3 month mark.
That being said try 1 each week to see how they are going, the occasional brew will be perfect much sooner, I usually found Coopers Cerveza was at its best 3-6 weeks old.
Trying regularly you will get to know the changes in flavour and also carb levels and when they are how you like you can chill em down and get stuck in.