Hi all
New to home brewing, first time poster on these forums.
I recently purchased one of these kits from my local brew shop.
Morgan’s Premium Starter Kit « Morgans Brewing
Based on advice from the shop I let it ferment for 2 weeks and then carbonate in the bottles for a further 2 weeks, following all instructions provided in the kit. I don't have my starting and finishing gravities on me at the moment but an online calculator put it at about 4.5%.
Being my first brew I was excited to try it out on Friday night. I think the taste is ok, not a beer I'd buy from the bottle shop but given I made it myself I intend to drink every last drop. The weird thing is though that having consumed a fair bit, I still felt relatively sober.
Did something go wrong in the brewing process?
Perhaps I misread the hydrometer readings?
I guess I'm wondering if anyone else had the same experience, or if there is something obvious I can try differently? I've got my second brew on at the moment, which on Saturday had been fermenting for 2 weeks. Should I leave it longer this time?
Thanks
Dave
Welcome Dave. I am also quite new although I have brewed over 80 cases of beer thus far (brewing 5 at a time. I have been tasting the beers at various duration's after bottling and a brew I tried after 2 weeks post carbonation (ie 1 month since bottling) was bloody horrible. I tried it again after another month and it was a very different and better brew. I was very happy with it. Then I left it for another 1 (3 months post carbonation) and it was a perfect beer indeed. Could not be more happy except the % alcohol was quite low. I will discuss this further below. I will discuss some important things I have discovered:
1. You do not need to ferment for 2 weeks as this depends directly to the temperature it is fermenting at. For example, one of my brews fermented in 2 days as it was during very hot weather. I wait until the air lock stops bubbling, leave it for another day or 2 then take a SG reading. Do this again the next day and if it the same...time to bottle. If you are not in a hurry, always leave it an extra day to be certain. In regard to brew temperature, I live in Victoria and I use an aquarium heater in my brews. I did this even over the hotter weather so that if it got cold over night, the heater would kick in a keep a fairly stable temperature. I brew at 26 degrees. and have never needed anymore than 5-7 days.
2. Again being in Victoria, you need at least 20 degrees when beer is in bottle for the carbonation to take place. I have a large old chest freezer (not working) and I have a Heat Emitter (provides heat but not light) and I load it up with bottles. The "general rule" is to leave it for 2 weeks at this temperature but I set the freezer at 24 degrees and have whilst I have only just started doing this (first batch in freezer), I will leave it for 7 days. I would leave a little longer but I have brewers backing up so I need to "keep the production lone going".
3. Others have mentioned the % depends on the Brew Enhancer (BH) you use and this is true but they are all aimed to produce about 4.5%. I have not found this with my local Home Brew Shop (LHBS) nor the Coopers BE 2. I add 500grams of dextrose to my brews in the early days which pumps the % up another 0.5 to 0.7 %.l I am playing around ATM with using light Dry Malt (in place of BE) and whilst I have not tasted any yet, following is my results:
Cooper English Bitter – added 500grams of corn syrup and 2 x Light Dry Malt, 600g of Dextrose
Even with the 600g of extra Dextrose (Corn Syrup does not affect %), it calculated to 4.9% which is good but I like it just under 6%. I have also been playing around with 500 mil of Molasses which gives a great taste and more alcohol so I have a batch fermenting now which is as above but with 500g of Dextrose and 500 ml of Molasses. I expect this be near 6%.
I must say that in the early days, I managed to produce up to 8.2% which is way too high. What I will do with this is mix in in a glass with a low alcohol brew or much more fun…give it to a mate while I am drinking lower alcohol batch and enjoy the show. Terribly irresponsible but a hell of a lot of fun will be had.
Finally, the Corn Syrup does not affect alcohol but adds a bit of body and a better head in the glass. You CAN use too much which I did and it is impossible to drink out of a stubby as it continues to froth and is no good.
Get your friends to keep long necks and stubby’s for you so you can keep brewing and be able to let is sit for 3 months. Myself and friends have been drinking plenty but I still have about 50 cases maturing to the 3 months which works great for me. The only thing stopping me from brewing the entire 5 batches is because I can not get hold of any more empty bottles and I do not like the PET plastic bottles
I hope this helps you
Darren
