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Newts

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28/10/12
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Location
Western Australia
Hi all,

First post and first home brew currently fermenting so I'm a very inexperienced homebrewer.

I have a question relating to my brew. I brought a keg kit off Ebay and it came with a Cascade tin and additional brew enhancer packet. I went and bought a Coopers home brewing kit from Kmart to ferment the beer. It came with a DVD explaining how to put the brew together and I attempted to follow the instructions exactly.

Being honest it was a nightmare experience as I made a mistake (rushing) and didn't put the tap on the keg before mixing the wort :huh: . As a result I lost a bit of the initial wort that I put in the container but I continued with it anyway. I'd say I lost about 2-4%. I'm unsure how this will affect the brew but it was a silly mistake.

Now my question, it's been brewing for a week now. The kit came with a hydrometer and I've been taking readings each day. I also went to the local brew shop and bought a higher quality hydrometer to make sure the readings are correct. It started at 1036 and is now sitting at 1012 and has been for a few days. Could this have anything to do with the spillage? The temp is sitting between 22-26 most of the time, I'd say it's cooler overnight as I've put the container outside. It says not to bottle/keg unless it's below 1006 as this may be an incomplete fermentation.

I'm unsure as to whether I should throw the brew and start again or if there is something I can do to continue with this one. It smells like beer, it looks like beer it just doesn't meet the criteria for kegging.

Any ideas/comments would be appreciated.

Cheers
 
Losing a bit of the wort is going to make very little difference. You just need to be patient, since fermentation does take a while. Perhaps the temperature fluctuations may be a bit of a problem, but the more experienced guys will know if that is the case. But you definitely want to avoid fermenting at 26 degrees if you can. The closer to 18 degrees the better (if an ale yeast).

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by keg. Do you mean fermenter?
 
all you gotto do is wait 2 more days and if the reading is the same bottle her :D 1.012 is around the ball park with kits and extract. Without knowing exactly whats in the brew enhancer you got its hard to say but your very close to what I would expect.

I doubt you will ever get to 1.006 unless you only used dextrose or added the enzyme and both I would suggest to stay away from.

You dont have to take a reading every day your wasting alot of wort for no reason at all. Just take one when you fill it up then take one 7 days after that then take the next one 2-3 days after that and if its still the same your good to go if its changed wait another 2-3days untill its the same.

Also discard the first half a test tube worth as it will usually have a big hunk of yeast in it.

One more thing forget everything that video said I havnt seen it but going by there instructions on the can I would forget the whole lot lol. Try to ferment between 18-22, 26 is pushing it a bit high and might get unwanted flavours as they produce fossil fuels when fermented to high
 
keeping the fermenter outside is going to expose the fermenting beer to the maximum variation in temperature (which is bad for yeast and thus flavour), if you can at least keep it inside to reduce the fluctuations slightly

the laundry is often a good spot (no carpet)

a wet towel draped over the vessel and changed every day helps keep the temperature down
 
26 is pushing it a bit high and might get unwanted flavours as they produce fossil fuels when fermented to high


Natural gas, coal or oil?
You cannot be serious!
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


Thats the best auto-correct ever! I surely hope it was auto-correct...

To the O.P it should read 'fusel alcohol' not fossil fuels. Also, I have no idea what the real temp is to produce fusel alcohol is. A quick search and all I could find are references to 'too high' 'too warm'
 
Haha yes thanks for clearing that up mckenry. Thats what spell check and drinking way to much and staying up way to late (or early it was) will do to you lol. Yeah I am not to sure at what point ether but my first one brewed at 36deg sure had some in it lol
 
@Newts - welcome to home brewing

First lesson - patience
Second lesson - sanitize
Third lesson - rinse and repeat
 
Thanks all. Looks like I've been aiming for the wrong temp, as my understanding was that if the temperature gets to low the fermentation won't occur. Seems if it gets too high it ruins the taste :(

It's been a couple of days now so I'll be testing it today and if it's still the same I'll look at transferring to the keg.

In answer to the keg question, it's a 19L beer keg used for carbonation so I don't have to bottle the beer. I received it as a gift and that's how I got started :D
 
Thats the best auto-correct ever! I surely hope it was auto-correct...

To the O.P it should read 'fusel alcohol' not fossil fuels. Also, I have no idea what the real temp is to produce fusel alcohol is. A quick search and all I could find are references to 'too high' 'too warm'

Fusel alcohols/oil typically will always be produced, IMHO the type of yeast and substrate is more of a deciding factor as to how much fusels are produced, although temperature does play a role.
 

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