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[rick81]

Hi im doing my first brew. My hydrometer reading has been 1.010 for about 3 days now.
I am brewing a coopers canadian blonde. i used dextrose. it has been in the frementer about 10days. temp ranging from about 16.c - 21.c been hard to keep it stable, ive since bought a belt heater. is it time to bottle? shouldnt the fully fermentation reading be above 1010. stupid me i didnt take a reading at the start.
thanks

 

[Mcstretch]

My hydrometer reading has been 1.010 for about 3 days now.

If its been stable at 1.010 for 3 days then I'd say your ready to bottle your beer.
You should look into temperature control though, I recently bought a hot/cold thermostat its a very useful tool to have. My beer now bubbles away nicely at a constant 22 degrees.

Your final gravity reading really depends on the amount of fermentables you have in your mix.
So far my final readings have ranged between 1.004 and 1.014

Cheers,

 

[muckey]

I agree with mcstretch

and to add a bit extra
1010 should be OK althought with that kit and dex it has the potential to go a few points lower

definately bottle but dont overprime

 

[rick81]

thanks guys!!

 

[Steve]

Give the belt heater a miss. Fluctuations between 16-21 are fine. If you use the heater you will have it sitting a lot higher than this all the time which will be too warm.
Cheers
Steve

P.S. Get her bottled, shes done.

Edit - ideal temp for an ale yeast is 18.

 

[altone]

Give the belt heater a miss. Fluctuations between 16-21 are fine. If you use the heater you will have it sitting a lot higher than this all the time which will be too warm.
Cheers
Steve

P.S. Get her bottled, shes done.

Edit - ideal temp for an ale yeast is 18.

I agree with the bottle her part - get it in there!.

As for temp control, you'll get more consistent results if you can keep it steady, although I also agree the belt heaters tend to keep
it too warm.

My first temp control rig consisted of the bottom half of a plastic container, part filled with water and a tropical fish heater/stat turned
down to 18.
The fermentor sat in this water bath and the whole lot was slid into an old cupboard I insulated with some styrofoam.

Worked well for me.

 

[JaffaMan]

I put this one down on the weekend with some POR hops, I used a 1.5 tin of LME.
My O.G. was around 1.042-1.044.
Expecting my F.G. to be around the 1.010 mark.

Sounds fine to me, definetly bottle it.

 

[Bribie G]

Rick, if you weren't using a belt what would the temperature of the brew be? There is a common out of date fallacy that the winter months are 'too cold to brew'. The reason for this is that originally most home brew kits came from Queensland and NSW and the yeasts that came with them were recommended to be fermented over 20 degrees.
Nowadays the winter months are regarded as the golden months of brewing. Rather than trying to keep the beer warm it's actually a better idea not to fight nature, but to chuck out the kit yeast and use one of the yeasts that ferment well at cooler temperatures such as the ale yeast Nottingham, or an all purpose lager yeast such as Morgans Lager yeast or Fermentis s-23. They are relatively inexpensive and not only will they outperform most kit yeasts in the winter but they will result in better beer.

 

[loikar]

Nowadays the winter months are regarded as the golden months of brewing. Rather than trying to keep the beer warm it's actually a better idea not to fight nature

+1

You can't go wrong with BribieG's advice,He thinks a little out of the square at times, but he's more seasoned than a 2 day old charcoal chicken and when he bends over, sunbeams shoot out of his plumbers crack.


My ales sit at 14deg in the shed without temp control, although that is probably a bit to cool for US05, it just takes a little longer to fully floc.

 

[Gavo]

+1 for Bribie's words.
Last winter before I had temp control I was fermenting my brews in the shed in a cupboard at around 16 degrees C with Nottingham and US-05. They just took a bit longer to ferment. I have never used a heat pad and don't like the idea of them, however if you need to use one you could regulate the temp with a timer (as they are inexpensive) or get a tempmate and an old fridge.
Brew at 1010, I would be bottling, if you are not sure then wait a day or two.

Cheers
Gavo.