Have I Screwed Up?

[Keifer]

Hi,

I just started brewing this year and have just drunk my first brew, coopers lager kit, not too bad for a first one i rekon. I have a couple of others bottled now but did a black rock lager in a 50L fermentor yesterday and wanted some more info on what i've done...

I added 2 cans of black rock lager, 2kg of 'body brew' (corn syrup and dextrose i think?) and also a kg can of morgans lager malt, i also used a sachet of saflager. After i found out my OG was ~1070 i thought i may have stuffed up with too much sugar?? Will this **** up my taste or just make more alcohol?

And me other question, i live in nsw hunter region which is quite hot, i have the fermentor wrapped in towels but the temp is still around 22-24. how does this affect my taste and fermenting time?

Thanks guys

 

[Simon W]

I'll leave the sugar issue to someone else, but if you wet those towels, and set a fan up to blow over them, you'll drop another degree or two.

 

[Keifer]

I'll leave the sugar issue to someone else, but if you wet those towels, and set a fan up to blow over them, you'll drop another degree or two.

[post="103356"][/post]​

Yeah thats what im doing sorry, im heaps tired
And i got a dual digital thermometor to see the difference in temp between outside in side of fermentor, its cooler with the wet towels and fans by 1.5 - 2 degrees. It all helps i guess

 

[bunz]

That temp is too high for ideal fermentation. Have a look at DCL Yeasts website for the saflager details. A high temp will change the flavour of your beer, so it won't be as nice as it could be. Don't sweat on it (no pun intended) just try to brew it cooler next time.

How to do that? Obviously the best place is a temp-controlled fridge. If you don't have that then definately use the wet towel method. I found that sticking it inside a styrofoam box with frozen 3L milk containers (full of water) helped moderate temps.

As for the OG thing, well its more a question of what the FG is too. If you get a low-ish FG (ie high alcohol) it should be fine. If you end up with a high FG your beer will be too sweet.

 

[Simon W]

Oh ok, sorry. I actuall wondered after I posted if thats what you meant.

Saflager works best around 10-15deg. So if you can feeze up a few coke bottles of water, you might have a go at placing your fermentor in a big tub, like those $10 ones from Bunnings, fill it with water, and place the frozen bottles in with the fermentor.
Keep extra bottles in the freezer and rotate them as they melt.
I do something similar to this in a big foam box, works great.

Simo

Edit: Bunz beat me to it....

 

[Stuster]

AB

Have a play with the Brewcraft brewer's calculator at this link. Taking a guess at what you put in, it gave an OG of more like 1045. My guess is that the extract was still at the bottom of the fermenter. It won't make any real difference, but just gave you the high reading.

To keep it cool, I have just started using a big plastic storage box, quarter filled with water. Put the fermenter in that, and use frozen plastic bottles from the freezer to keep it cool. Just rotate the bottles as often as you need and you can keep the temperature down well. Works great with the towel method as you don't have to keep wetting the towel.

Enjoy the brew.
Cheers

 

[Stuster]

Beaten not once but twice. Damn.

Must be good if we all do it, eh?

 

[Mr Bond]

22c on a lager yeast with all those fermentables

Whooeeee that is gonna be one Fruity beer my friend.

 

[Keifer]

Brauluver - It already stinks like shit lol, i think it will be a recipe that i wont redo... but i'll bottle it and age it and see what the result is, thanks for the tips guys, i might have to find me a third fridge soon if the water-in-box gets frustrating...

 

[Mr Bond]

Brauluver - It already stinks like shit lol, i think it will be a recipe that i wont redo... but i'll bottle it and age it and see what the result is, thanks for the tips guys, i might have to find me a third fridge soon if the water-in-box gets frustrating...

[post="103382"][/post]​

Thats prolly the sulfur smell from the lager strain, it will disappear with conditioning.

 

[Simon W]

Yeah, I think your on to something there Stuster.

It happened to me once with a stout. I took a sample, dropped the Hydro in and it was way off the scale! I shat myself. I wondered how the hell it got so high and thought about it settling. I stirred it up, took another sample and it was at 1060ish, much more realistic.

Simo

 

[Uncle Fester]

i think it will be a recipe that i wont redo...

You don't have to throw the recipe out of the window....


Just save the lager yeast brewing until winter, when ambient temps of an unheated room are below 20 degrees.

I am fortunate that my brew room is in an ensuite to my Den (under the house), which sits 16-18 degs in winter, and 20-22 degs in summer. I brew whatever takes my fancy in winter (predominately lager and pilsners), and ales and darker beers in summer.


M

 

[Keifer]

Some good replies

It may have just been that the sample i took wasn't representing the whole batch (i hope), i had never even thought of that so thanks for pointing it out.

So what did i get out of this? I will probably start doing more ales in summer unless i can control my temperature alot better. Im gonna get some stuff from bunnings on the weekend to try out so it may help, i dunno.

Lastly, is there anything u can buy like a alcohol % tester ? something like a thermometor that when u stick it in the brew it says, right thats a 4.5% grew u got.

Thanks guys!

 

[Keifer]

I took a sample just now and its at 1010, thats after six days now and its still constantly bubling away... where would the FG be when its done? i thought it would be done if it was at 1010?

 

[mika]

Depends on the brew, some aren't done till 1006 or less. More importantly is a stable reading. Generally I wait for the airlock to stop bubbling (down to less than a bubble every 30 seconds) and then take two readings at least 12hrs apart (more if you're patient) and check that they're the same.

Only time this is likely to get you into trouble is in the winter where the yeast can go to sleep and then start again in your bottles once the weather warms up... not good

 

[Keifer]

Thanks Mika, i was under the impression that most ferments would be pretty much over by day 7, i'll keep waiting till she stops bubbling

 

[PistolPatch]

Friggin hot today, eh?

Just reading this post and saw a few recommendations of putting your fermenter in an ice bath. Have something way better thanks to this forum.

I was doing the above method in my laundry sink and was using about 12x750ml freezer blocks per day and still couldn't keep the temp below 25 (ambient ranged from 27 to probably 30). Also had to defrost my freezer afer 2 weeks with so much opening and closing.

Saw a thread here recommending buying a 100 can cooler to put your fermenter in. On Saturday I got one from KMart for $30. Absolutely brilliant!

It's been a heat wave here (above 30 during the day and always above 26 at night) and I've only had to use 4 freezer blocks every 12 hours to keep my brew between 18-20 degrees.

You won't be able to use an airlock (it will be too high) so just run some sterilised SOFT hose (otherwise it will kink) from your bung to a stubby full of sterilised water. If you use Safale yeast, (Saflager requires even lower temperatures), you will need to do this anyway as Safale pretty much boils even at 18-20 degrees.

Really recommend that you don't use the yeast that comes with the kit. It is definitely not worth it. (Maybe a Coopers Drauight might be alright - dunno, never brewed one).

Cheers
PP

 

[Simon W]

Yeah insulation makes a huge difference.
The foam box I mentioned in an earlier reply is one of those ones vegetable markets use to package and transport broccoli etc, it's about 40 litre volume.
I only have a small boiling pot, so I use 6, 10 and 15 litre spring-water bottles from coles/woolies as fermenters. (the water is approx 5.5-6pH, perfect for sparging)
In a 25-30deg room, the box will hold 17-20 deg with only a 1.25L frozen bottle, changed once or twice a day.
I did a lager with the box too, used one 2L frozen bottle and one 1.25L bottle.
This kept the temp down to 9 deg! I was shooting for 12deg (Saf W34-70), so still used both bottles, but alternated the replacement, 1.25L at 6pm, 2L at 6am. That way one was frozen and one half melted. Got it up to 10ish deg that way.
Alternating two 1.25's might have kept it to 12deg, will try that with the next lager.

The box isn't big enough for a 22.5 or 30L fermenter, but if your into doing small(2 or 3 gallon) trial batches, the box is perfect.

Simo

6L bottle shown, but 15L bottle is same height.

Edit: speling

 

[Ross]

You won't be able to use an airlock (it will be too high) so just run some sterilised SOFT hose (otherwise it will kink) from your bung to a stubby full of sterilised water. If you use Safale yeast, (Saflager requires even lower temperatures), you will need to do this anyway as Safale pretty much boils even at 18-20 degrees.

Cheers
PP

[post="104417"][/post]​

PP,

No need for an airlock, just bung it up & screw your lid on just enough to keep any bugs out...

cheers Ross