Morgans Lager & Coopers Amber, Any Predictions?

[aussiealex]

Hi Guys

I finally got my butt into gear and started brewing again... I went to the store and the nice old italian fella suggested this combo as I love james Squiers Amber.

I placed the two tins contents in a pot of warm\hot, stirred till not thick, started the yeast (morgans lager) in a glass of warmish water with sugar. It was fermenting in the glass after a few minutes.

Pitched it all, and got the tub on a heat pad. In a towel. (canberra is cold)

The initial gravity was 1040 and it tasted beautiful. Its sitting on about 22o. Im pretty excited. Any ideas of its taste will be?

On a foot note, after 24 hours, there's no evidence of bubbling in the air lock, is that a worry?

Cheers

Alex

 

[ekul]

Hi Mate,
I'd be bringing that temp down a little bit, especially if using lager yeast. Considering my fermenting fridge is sitting at 16C by itself, i reckon canberra ambient temps is probably about right!! If you can, keep it at 12C.

And don't worry about the airlock, it doesn't mean anything.

Hi Guys

I finally got my butt into gear and started brewing again... I went to the store and the nice old italian fella suggested this combo as I love james Squiers Amber.

I placed the two tins contents in a pot of warm\hot, stirred till not thick, started the yeast (morgans lager) in a glass of warmish water with sugar. It was fermenting in the glass after a few minutes.

Pitched it all, and got the tub on a heat pad. In a towel. (canberra is cold)

The initial gravity was 1040 and it tasted beautiful. Its sitting on about 22o. Im pretty excited. Any ideas of its taste will be?

On a foot note, after 24 hours, there's no evidence of bubbling in the air lock, is that a worry?

Cheers

Alex

 

[aussiealex]

Hi thanks for that, i took the towel off, to see what it goes down to. Its on about 25 (which is what the morgans tin said is the right temp).

Its been about a week now and it seems to be hovering around 1020 gravity, annoying me...

Anyone know why?

Cheers

 

[Lodan]

Could be a number of reasons, AlexV.
I suggest a read of this excellent article
http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showarticle=130

Any advice i would offer is already listed here

 

[RobboMC]

Sadly the kit makers seem to instruct new brewers to get the temp to 25 deg C.
I assume this is to guard against incomplete brews and the possible glass bottle bombs that could result.

Most on here and the textbooks tend to prefer brewing with ale or kit yeast at 19-20 deg C.

Look up the threads on cooling your brew, such as a wet towel.

Alex I see you've just joined so welcome to the forum. Time to ignore what's on the
kit instrcutions and start reading here. I'm sure it will taste great, the first batch after a long break always does,
but always believe you can do better.

 

[aussiealex]

HI again

Its still sitting on 1020, after about 3 days, took it off the heat pad, got down to about 14 degrees.

Ive put some in a little pet bottle with sugar, cling wrap over it to see if it arcs up.

can I add another lot of yeast? or maybe dextrose? Its confusing, cos 1020 G, means there's alot of sugars still to eat...

cheers again...

 

[Caffeine Dealer]

HI again

Its still sitting on 1020, after about 3 days, took it off the heat pad, got down to about 14 degrees.

Ive put some in a little pet bottle with sugar, cling wrap over it to see if it arcs up.

can I add another lot of yeast? or maybe dextrose? Its confusing, cos 1020 G, means there's alot of sugars still to eat...

cheers again...

I would not add another yeast personally but i'll leave that advice to the more experienced brewers.

If it is not doing anything at the temps you described then i would imagine that you either killed too much of the yeast getting it started or it was and old yeast packet or possibly even not stored correctly.
Sounds like the yeast has finished doing whatever job it was ever going to do.

 

[Tanga]

Not at all. Unless the temp got above 40 the yeast isn't dead, probably a bit sleepy with the sudden temp change. Bring it back up to about 20 and swirl the fermenter to rouse the yeasties. It might take them a while.to get going again. No point adding dex. Just wait and keep an eye on things.

 

[aussiealex]

ok, thanks for all the advice, im pretty sure the yeast went dormant cos its so cold here, (-6 last night).

Even inside my house gets very cold. The tub is wrapped in a towel and on a heat pad. but the massive temp flucutations mess with the yeast im guessing.

It statrted again yesterday then went slow again, i turned on the heat pad and spun the tub abit and i think thats woken it up. Gonna be at least 2.5 weeks to brew at this rate...

 

[robinson_d]

From my limited experience up to 3-4 weeks in the fermenter is ok. Ive had a few brews take their time and still come out tasting good. Get a second brew on the go to keep you busy while you waiting.

 

[aussiealex]

went to the local home brew shop, he said a trick he learnt at Coopers was to add half a cup of sugar dissolved in warm water, and stir it through.

Obviously adding some O2 and stirring up the yeast. After 10 minutes the air lock showed alot of activity. I will get this brew done...

Next on the cards is Muntons Dublin Stout with Thomas Coopers dark malt extract!!! YUM!