vortex
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I've recently picked up a brewing kit from Brewcraft, and picked the Coopers Pale Ale Style kit for the beer that comes with it - which is the usual kit and kilo extract kit.
Kit was Black Rock East India Pale Ale, and the kilo was number 15, I think? DME + Dextrose I assume.
Yeast was Safale S04.
Made up the wort as per the directions, and ended up with 21 litres in the fermenter. Pitched the yeast on Saturday 29th Oct at night when the wort was at 22c, didn't hydrate or make a starter. Starting gravity was 1039, I took the reading on Sunday morning but there was no signs of fermentation at that point so it was probably about right.
Sunday afternoon (2pm-ish? fermentation was bubbling along quickly, but it died down a lot by Monday. Temp was still around 20c on Monday. Took a gravity reading on Tuesday, which was 1021, Wednesday 1020 and the temp had dropped to 16c which I understand is borderline for the S04. There isn't very much croyzen(sp?) and I haven't taken the lid off so not sure if it's very scungy on top of the wort or not.
I read up the article about stalled fermentation on this site which suggested a few things to try. I gave the fermenter a stir and put a heat-belt on, in a couple of hours temps were back up to 20c where they have stayed to today (switched off the heat belt when it got to 20c), and airlock activity had increased. Fermenter is in a fridge which is off so temps are nice and stable.
Aparently, according to the guy at Brewcraft (who laughed when I told him about fermentation going down to 16c.. rude!) FG should be 1008 - 1010, but last night it was at 1017. Tastes OK, still quite sweet so there is definately work to go. It's still bubbling away, slowly (one bubble through airlock every 2 mins), but should it be done by now?
At this rate it won't be ready for bottling this weekend. I guess it's not entirely the same but i have done a lot of reading recently and see people whos ferments finish in 4 or 5 days. Also some of the Brewing TV videos I have seen have very vigourous fermentation, and mine is nothing like that. I guess it depends on the beer, yeast pitching rate etc, but how long should stock kit & kilo take? Or should I just be patient? Usually I am pretty patient, but I want to drink my beer and make another one!
Cheers
Kit was Black Rock East India Pale Ale, and the kilo was number 15, I think? DME + Dextrose I assume.
Yeast was Safale S04.
Made up the wort as per the directions, and ended up with 21 litres in the fermenter. Pitched the yeast on Saturday 29th Oct at night when the wort was at 22c, didn't hydrate or make a starter. Starting gravity was 1039, I took the reading on Sunday morning but there was no signs of fermentation at that point so it was probably about right.
Sunday afternoon (2pm-ish? fermentation was bubbling along quickly, but it died down a lot by Monday. Temp was still around 20c on Monday. Took a gravity reading on Tuesday, which was 1021, Wednesday 1020 and the temp had dropped to 16c which I understand is borderline for the S04. There isn't very much croyzen(sp?) and I haven't taken the lid off so not sure if it's very scungy on top of the wort or not.
I read up the article about stalled fermentation on this site which suggested a few things to try. I gave the fermenter a stir and put a heat-belt on, in a couple of hours temps were back up to 20c where they have stayed to today (switched off the heat belt when it got to 20c), and airlock activity had increased. Fermenter is in a fridge which is off so temps are nice and stable.
Aparently, according to the guy at Brewcraft (who laughed when I told him about fermentation going down to 16c.. rude!) FG should be 1008 - 1010, but last night it was at 1017. Tastes OK, still quite sweet so there is definately work to go. It's still bubbling away, slowly (one bubble through airlock every 2 mins), but should it be done by now?
At this rate it won't be ready for bottling this weekend. I guess it's not entirely the same but i have done a lot of reading recently and see people whos ferments finish in 4 or 5 days. Also some of the Brewing TV videos I have seen have very vigourous fermentation, and mine is nothing like that. I guess it depends on the beer, yeast pitching rate etc, but how long should stock kit & kilo take? Or should I just be patient? Usually I am pretty patient, but I want to drink my beer and make another one!
Cheers