this is going into a keg, bought a flow control tap from ibrew testerday and a 9.5 cornie a fitted it into the fridge, so I thought the little boost of 1kg of dextrose as opposed to the suggested 1kg of BE1 or BE2 would make up for no secondary fermenting.
i pitched yeast at 26C then put it in the pantry, middle of house and dark. it dropped to 22C and has been at 22 since.
I am from the distilling side of the fence and beer is still very very new to me, so I probably am a bit rough with it.
I was going to rack it into a 19l cornie yesterday, carefully put it up on the table, pulled the airlock and measured FG of 1.012, plugged the numbers into an SG calclulator and it came out to 3.1% or so, so I decided to add 500g of BE as my last simple coopers had some head retention issues anyway. I have seen others mention 1.012 as an FG for this kit, thought it was done.
So I tipped in maybe 100g BE1 and it released the CO2 in solution and started foaming up, the BE1 pretty much floating on top capturing everything, it made it to the top of the fermenter and lost a tiny amount due to overflow before it settled down.
After stirring the top few inches gently I could pour more BE1 in without more foam, so added half a box and chucked it back in the pantry. I couldnt measure SG again due to the foam. just measured it then and its back down at 1.012 again (@21.3C) , having only stirred the top though, I assume the BE1 will not be sitting on the bottom. Did not see any airlock activity but my fermenter needs a new seal and I probably did not have it tight enough.
There is quite a strong sulphur smell from the brew now, more potent than yesterday. we are on rainwater only here with an old concrete tank, we are used to hydrogen sulphide gassing off after rains, its the active bacteria in the water tank breaking down sediments in an oxygen free water.
Plan is to leave it in the fermenter for a few more days then rack into a large corny for at least a week or so, then keg transfer to the smaller cornie for carbonation and refridgeration.
I am now wondering if maybe I never stirred it enough originally to get all the dextrose into solution, water temp was probably only 45C or so when I gave it a good paddling. I reckon dextrose dissolves pretty easily though. Thats the only thing that makes sense, my OG was way out. Going to be a strong brew then I guess.
this is the old fermenter, I think its around the 21/22litre mark currently.