Mangrove Jacks Kit Bag

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Cactus

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Hi, long time trawler first time poster. Have learnt a lot from you guys and hopefully someone can help a bit further.

I was talked into the "international series" cold fill bag kits by the local store, supposedly a premium result for a modest investment. I was impatient and took my small amount of kit brewing knowledge and applied it to this (meh, you live and learn).

Process was,
Mangrove Jacks IPA 500 g dextrose, 250g mde, 500g malt ext
Yeast pitched dry at about 26-28 and stired through
10 days in primary at 24 degrees
(no hydro readings, broke it, hate them and waiting for refractometer)
---here is where i may have gone wrong---
Racked off to secondary, added steeped hops and carb enzyme (better late than never)
7 days secondary, primed with 4.5g sugar cubes per 750 and bottled.
Left at about 24 degrees

Read about looking for other reviews and the manufacturers website claims i should never leave at primary for mor than 7 days as there may not be enough yeast left to carb. Anyone got any experience with these kits and/or yeasts? Not much I can do about it now really but wondering if I get my hopes up or not.

Next time I'll pitch the yeast to start it, local shop claims the yeasr strain is "premium" and no point in him selling me a separate one. . . Hmm


Cheers for any and all assistance
 
Firstly, you'll be wanting to brew ales between 18-21'C. 24'C isnt a huuuuuge drama, but definitely try and keep your fermenting temperatures a few degrees colder than 24.

Secondly, there is nothing wrong with leaving a beer for longer than 7 days in the primary. granted, you dont want to leave it there for two months, but anywhere up to 2-3 weeks (with ~two weeks) being fairly standard practise as it helps clean up unwanted flavours and let the yeast fully settle out (plus cold conditioning will help this as well)

Lastly, there wont be a problem with carbing your brew after you bottle. there may not be as much active yeast helping carb and may take a little longer than something bottled after only 7 days, but it will carb up just from adding in the extra bit of sugar for bottling.



Sponge
 
Thank you kindly, I just got a bit concerned as the botles look suspiciously clear.

You lives and learns, the next one is down in a cooler bag with rotating frozen salt water bottles so is down to 16 odd.

You mention cold conditioning, could you expand a bit? I have again racked this one off to clear it, is there a point in dropping the temp down? Lowest i can probably go is 12 degrees with my current set up.

Thanks again
 
i would just be a little bit more careful when using dry enzymes. In my experience they extend the fermentation period out somewhat, this can be slowly and silently, continuing to ferment without you noticing (especially if youre just looking at the airlock, and not using a hydrometer). just be carefull, maybe give it an extra week longer than you would have thought.
 
Cool, thanks. Currently fermenting a "Lager" (packet yeast), that had a week in the primary and will get 2 further weeks post racking, all at about 16 degrees.

Am using dry enzyme as am type 1 Diabetic and so far am finding it does make a difference to the affect the brew has on my blood sugar levels, maybe it's juts the fact it is home brewed and not commercial, who knows.

Will report back on how these cold fill kits work out if anyone is interested, there seems to be a slow uptake and I can't find any reviews on them.


Cheers for the help.

(oh, the "guys" in the OP was very much non-gender specific)
 
I would get another hydrometer.
Refractometers do not read fermenting wort correctly (Alcohol throws off the reading).
You can use some calculations to correct this but I would suggest using a hydrometer to verify what you calculate is actually correct.
 
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