Absolutely newby from Eltham Victoria

[Woggy_g]

HI All,

I'm just starting out brewing. Im an absolute newby. I have not brewed before and I thought that I might give it a go !
I love a good craft beer and the dream is to have a small brew pub.


I'm going to try a Coopers Australian Pale Ale as the first brew.

Crossing fingers that the first brew is good.

Woggy_G

 

[TwoCrows]

As directed it will be a good start. Also Euro lager as directed.
Tasty and easy the drink, keep temps low and steady, all good.

 

[Yob]

That's the brew that got me started... Welcome to the club and happy brewing journey..

 

[Yob]

That's the brew that got me started... Welcome to the club and happy brewing journey..

 

[Fents]

Duck down to Greensbrough Home brewing supplies (New Shop is Beewah St, Greensborough) and see Dave. He sells fresh work kits that you can buy and ferment, good bloke to go in for a chat.

 

[Woggy_g]

i got my kit from Dave. first brew went in now. now not to over obsess by looking at it every 5 minutes.

 

[Woggy_g]

Getting ready to bottle. Will check sg in the morning. Now for a silly question. How much do I put in the 740 ml pet bottle. I'm going to use coopers carbonation drop. Are they any good?

 

[JDW81]

Getting ready to bottle. Will check sg in the morning. Now for a silly question. How much do I put in the 740 ml pet bottle. I'm going to use coopers carbonation drop. Are they any good?

Yep, they're fine. 2 drops per bottle will give you a good level of carbonation for the styles you've made.

A little bit of a tip though, there is no rush to bottle. Just because the beer has stopped fermenting it doesn't mean it is ready to bottle. Lots of really important stuff happens once the yeast has finished converting all the sugar to alcohol. The yeast will clean up a lot of by-products of fermentation after you've reached your FG and leave you with a cleaner tasting beer.

Everything I brew gets left in the fermenter for at least 2 weeks, sometimes longer depending on the style.

JD

 

[Woggy_g]

Awesome. Will give it a couple of days more

 

[Mall]

Agreed, Dave is great value. I get all my grains, hops, yeast etc. from him, have for a while now.

And he does have a good selection of Fresh Wort Kits that he makes up regularly along with the full range of Coopers kits which come in handy when you need a quick keg filler.

 

[DU99]

use this for bottle filling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jacfkFPWs4Y

 

[Woggy_g]

got one of those! i have a sg of 1.012 measured yesterday. if im going to use carbonation drops, how long can i leave the wort in the fermenter before i should bottle? wont the yeast stop its work once all the wort has been used? 7 days ? or when the sg stays at 1.012 for a day or two?

 

[Curly79]

Gday Woggy. I realise you must be busting to bottle your first brew, however, trust everyone's advice of waiting at least 2 weeks. A steady gravity reading over 2 or 3 days is a must but even if you reckon it's ok leave it for a bit longer. It will make a better tasting beer mate. Did you go for the fresh wort kit or the Coopers Extract?

 

[Woggy_g]

coopers can kit with LHBS 1 kg dextrose and light malt. added some extra hops for flavour. yes. I'm busting !

 

[Curly79]

It's your beer mate, but patience is the key. My 2c worth, minimum 2 weeks in the fermenter. Minimum 2 weeks in the bottle. Good luck champ. Let us know how it goes. [emoji106]

 

[Woggy_g]

will definitely let you know.

 

[Siborg]

Hi and welcome. Firstly, I'll echo everyone here by recommending Dave at greensy. The dude is good value and looks after his customers. Didn't know he had a new shop - I'll have to get over there soon when I start brewing again.

Secondly, this place is a wealth of knowledge. Keep asking on here for advice and don't be put off by the occasional grumpy response you may get from a couple of people.

Thirdly, if you want to take your brewing to the next level: meet up with another brewer and learn hands on or meet up with a brew club. The Worthogs are around your area.

 

[Woggy_g]

hi all, getting worried now. i noticed that the wort in the fermenter never formed a big krausen ring. it was fementing - lots of bubbles through the airlock in the first couple of days. no ring present. sg is at 1.012 ? is it a waste ?

 

[Siborg]

What was the original gravity reading before fermentation? It sounds like it's finished. 1.012 is a tad high, but you may be able to get it down 1-2 points by raising the temp slightly. What temperature is it at right now?

Take another reading and smell it. Does it smell bad? Or does it smell like beer?
Taste it. Does it taste like flat beer?

If it tastes and smells good, you've got beer and the only thing to worry about is potentially having 1-2 points extra sugars in there. This is only a problem if they are fermentable sugars, though.

 

[Woggy_g]

original was 1.048 - tastes like flat beer - it is sitting at 18C now.

 

[Siborg]

So that puts you at 4.73% ABV (calculated here: http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/)

Congrats, you have beer! It sounds like you had a pretty fast ferment. Which isn't a bad thing. Give it another couple of days and, if you can, let the temperature rise a little, but no more than 20 degrees. Take a reading every day.

The idea is: you want to make sure that every bit of fermentable sugar in the brew is eaten by the yeast. Otherwise, the yeast will wake up when fed the carbonation drops, eat the sugar from the drops and keep eating anything left in the brew. This is the process that can cause bottle bombs. But, don't be too concerned - I would say this is more likely if you bottle and add carbonation drops with a FG of more than 1.016.

I remember being the same with my first brews - just so damned anxious to get it in the bottle. Don't be afraid to leave it in the fermenter longer. Even, after it's finished, try crash chilling it. Get it as cold as you possibly can for 2-3 days, THEN bottle.

Or, don't. It sounds like it's probably finished anyway:
Reading of 1.012 on 30 Jan
Reading of 1.012 on 4 Feb (today)

My advice: Leave it at least one more day, and take another reading. If it's still at 1.012, then either crash chill/condition it for a couple of days (if you can wait a little longer), or just go ahead and bottle it.

 

[Woggy_g]

If the reading is still at 1.012 of Saturday then I will bottle it on Sunday. I raised the temperature a bit to 20C.

Thanks for all the advice so far. Almost tipped the lot on the lawn this afternoon.

Can't wait for the next batch to go in.

 

[Woggy_g]

OK. it came out well. nice drop. went through 3 liters myself in the first session. now to try the boiling and adding hops at different timings. one thing I still don't understand how to do is the boiling part. how many liters should i be boiling with the liquid extract and added malt? i want to make the stone and wood clone that mentions adding galaxy at the different intervals. i dry hopped the last batch and it can do with some more flavour. any pointers would be welcome.

 

[Siborg]

Don't quote me on the exact volume you want for the boil, but you need a decent amount of liquid while boiling to effectively extract bitterness and aroma/flavor compounds from the hops. I believe a cheapo 19L stock pot from big w should do the trick. For exact volumes and calculators, there are a few online calculators which should help. Or ask around in the recipe forum. The best thing you can do here is start a new thread along for advice on the recipe/process/equipment on here before buying.

 

[wereprawn]

If you're looking for something a bit quicker, try Nottingham yeast @ 16c. Ferments out in 3-5 days,then a couple of days to clean up after itself , while you dry hop. No real need to cold crash , as it drops reasonably clear. I crash mine for 2-3 days because I like to let the hops swim free, but if you were using a hop sock, there's no need for that step with Notto . Being a beginner, I hope that makes sense to you.

 

[Rocker1986]

Ditch the 1kg dextrose addition to kits as well. You'll get far better tasting beer by using a majority of malt extract and small amounts of "simple" sugars like dextrose than using shitloads of it. Or even all malt extract. If I've read that wrongly and it meant a 1kg mix of dex and malt extract then ignore the first sentence, however the rest does ring true in any event.