Frequently Asked Questions For The New Brewer

[pk.sax]

to my limited understanding, the white film is just yeast krausen. Did you give the fermenter a shake/swirl? That might've woken the sleepies up. Also, letting the temperature come back up to the higher side of what is recommended on the can did that to my first one too, got it fermenting again.
My current beer has hit 11 days just now, tastes fine... ppl have been recommending leaving the beer on the yeast for 2 weeks anyway. Its cold weather still

 

[bum]

to my limited understanding, the white film is just yeast krausen.

Forming at eleven days when the hydrometer is saying terminal gravity?

Does the film look a little bit spiderwebby? Or just like a bunch of little bubbles? Or something else entirely?

 

[Lodan]

Hi Carroll

I used Ian's Spreadsheet to calculate your FG and got 1011 (edit: assuming a 23L batch)
The can says 1006 most likely because they're refering to the can mixed with 1kg sugar or dextrose. COopers BE2 is a mixture of 500g dextrose, 250g Maltodextrin and 250g of Malt. Malt is less fermentable than dextrose and maltodextrin is generally only 30% fermentable; which gives you a higher FG than using 1kg of dex alone.

I have left brews in the fermenter for about 3 weeks with no hassle (many others on the forum say the same) so it will be ok to leave it a bit longer.

A light swirl as suggested may wake the yeast up. Try keeping temps at no greater than 22, despite what the can says they prefer to be on the lower side of the temperature scale

Lodan

Edits: Ian's spreadsheet is a great resource for kit and extract brewers
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...st&p=644029

 

[pk.sax]

Forming at eleven days when the hydrometer is saying terminal gravity?

Does the film look a little bit spiderwebby? Or just like a bunch of little bubbles? Or something else entirely?

Thats why I asked straight after if he/she gave the fermenter a shake/swirl. I noticed on my last one that when I moved fermenter from where it was to a spot closer to the heating duct outlet it started foaming up again, could be the movement, could be the temp... or maybe I was :drinks: and happy

PS: How is 1.016 a terminal gravity for a made to recipe K&K?? for a Lager too... hmnnnn... maybe u missed that one.

 

[bum]

The yeast kicking back in at 1016 is not going to spur the critters back into full-on growth mode - they'll just start chewing on them tasty sugaz again.

Your result sounds reasonable as there could easy be a layer of fine, foamy bubbles forming. That's why I was asking about the consistency of the "film". We're sorta on the same page. Ish.

 

[bum]

PS: How is 1.016 a terminal gravity for a made to recipe K&K?? for a Lager too... hmnnnn... maybe u missed that one.

1. I said "when the hydrometer is saying terminal gravity". This is different to "when the beer has reached terminal gravity.' The hydro is not reporting any movement - how is a krausen being formed? Maybe you missed that one?

2. The tin comes with an ale yeast. Maybe you missed that one? Plenty of reasons why the yeast might have put this beer in the too hard basket. Not saying that is certainly the case but it is well within the realms of possibility.

[EDIT: One sentence wasn't saying what I meant. Made sure this edit doesn't change the context of pf's reply below.]

 

[pk.sax]

We're sorta on the same page. Ish.

O MA Gosh! I gotta bookmark this page and keep it for posterity
Actually, I have my beer @ 1018 right now and thinking of transferring it to secondary to help it along a little, taste is already clean so doubting if any more 'sitting' on the yeast cake will do it more good. Same, 11 days since it went in.

 

[pk.sax]

1. I said "when the hydrometer is saying terminal gravity". This is different to "when the beer has reached terminal gravity.' The hydro is not reporting any movement - how is a krausen being formed? Maybe you missed that one?

2. The tin comes with an ale yeast. Maybe you missed that one? Plenty of reasons why the yeast have put this beer in the too hard basket. Not saying that is certainly the case but it is well within the realms of possibility.

I'm thinking since her kit says it should drop another 10 points, its sleepy yeast. And the yeast was supplied with the kit, yeah? so I guess the ppl at Tooheys did some calcs on it b4 selling it with those instructions. That said, I have a feeling it is the less fermentable sugars that get fermented very slowly once it hits a certain SG. Maybe 1016 is it for her's.. dunno... out of depth here.

I have another tooheys lager down using coopers brew enhancer2 and this time i checked the instructions on the can more carefully. It says to keep brew between 18-28C and FG should be 1006.

 

[Screwtop]

I'm thinking since her kit says it should drop another 10 points, its sleepy yeast.

Hang around this site for a bit longer and read as much as you can.

Screwy

Being nice tonight eh!

 

[pk.sax]

Hang around this site for a bit longer and read as much as you can.

Screwy

Being nice tonight eh!

very, just downed whatever was left of my 'accidental' cider and then tasted the wheat I'm fermenting very very happy happy.

 

[Lodan]

Hi Practical F,

Just to be clear, the toohey's can likely tells the brewer to mix it with 1kg sugar or dextrose, which would give an FG of 1006-1007. Coopers BE2 is different. Check out the link i posted to Ian's spreadsheet, really is a great help and i use it for all of my kit brews

Lodan

Edit: what is an accidental cider?

 

[jakub76]

Bottling at 1.016 sounds dangerous to me...kaboom. I'd leave it on the yeast for another week, if it's still ok then another week won't hurt it - if it's infected then bottling now won't save it.

:icon_offtopic:

what is an accidental cider?

A bottle of apple juice you forgot to put in the fridge? Hooch-tastic!

 

[pk.sax]

bottle of apple juice you forgot to put in the fridge? Hooch-tastic!

heeheehee, yes, but I know it got infected by wine yeast as I was using this bottle to prime my intentional cider tasted awesome ))

PS: thnx for reminding me abt the spreadsheet. I'm gonna work this one out as a test problem for myself.

 

[Lodan]

^
Hahaha, nice one!

 

[thesunsettree]

Hang around this site for a bit longer and read as much as you can.

Screwy

Being nice tonight eh!

Holy **** screwy, you feeling ok??

 

[carrollfromwork]

Hi Practical F,

Just to be clear, the toohey's can likely tells the brewer to mix it with 1kg sugar or dextrose, which would give an FG of 1006-1007. Coopers BE2 is different. Check out the link i posted to Ian's spreadsheet, really is a great help and i use it for all of my kit brews

Lodan

Edit: what is an accidental cider?

Thanks for all your help. I decided to give the brew a swirl and leave it just a little longer. I downloaded the spreadsheet but dont know how to use it correctly - what is EBC and IBU?

Also in an earlier post i was asked what the film looked liked - its not foamy but rather like ice forming on water, very thin and sticky. Hope this is ok.

 

[Shed101]

EBC (European Brewing Convention) is the colour the higher the number the darker the beer.
IBU (International Bitterness Units), again higher number = more bitter.

I have a theory that the kit producers also put optimistically low figure on the cans to protect themselves against people having bottle bombs and claiming the manufacturer's at fault.

 

[pk.sax]

Thanks for all your help. I decided to give the brew a swirl and leave it just a little longer. I downloaded the spreadsheet but dont know how to use it correctly - what is EBC and IBU?

Also in an earlier post i was asked what the film looked liked - its not foamy but rather like ice forming on water, very thin and sticky. Hope this is ok.

Something that might help you, I just noticed that the empty fermenter I have sitting next to the one that my '1016' beer is in is 2 degrees lower in temperature than the fermenter. Just says that the yeast is still kicking a bit .. maybe. haha. Isn't it fun watching the darn beerd grow!

 

[kocken42]

Something that might help you, I just noticed that the empty fermenter I have sitting next to the one that my '1016' beer is in is 2 degrees lower in temperature than the fermenter. Just says that the yeast is still kicking a bit .. maybe. haha. Isn't it fun watching the darn beerd grow!

It could just be that the empty fermenter is more susceptible to temperature fluctuations, ie. It was 20 degs during the day and your full fermenter was able to warm up slowly all day, as soon as the temperature drops for the night, your full fermenter will have a much slower decline in temp, while the empty one will show temperature changes quite quickly.

 

[pk.sax]

It could just be that the empty fermenter is more susceptible to temperature fluctuations, ie. It was 20 degs during the day and your full fermenter was able to warm up slowly all day, as soon as the temperature drops for the night, your full fermenter will have a much slower decline in temp, while the empty one will show temperature changes quite quickly.

quite true...

I must be honest then, it wasn't really empty It had some nappisan water in it because I transferred the wort out of this one to the other yesterday evening and left it to soak.. haha. but yeah, you know what I meant.. lol