To Bottle Or Not

[Jonez]

Hi all,
My batch of Coopers Draught has been brewing for 5 days now (since Monday morning), it was bubbling slowly but steady until Thursday night. I took a sample on Friday morning and measured an SG of 1.006. I tasted that sample and got a bit worry because it seemed like it had been contaminated (sour taste)...

I was hoping to add some fining on Friday night and bottle tomorrow, but now I am a bit unsure. I put the sample I took on Friday in the fridge (on a beer bottle with some finings) and tasted it again this morning. It was better. The sour taste has almost gone and it felt a bit bitter instead. The SG today was 1.006 again but I notice there are some burbles still coming although it may be one every hour or so. Can it be that moving the fermenter produced some extra burbles?

Also the sample I took was real cloudy on Friday and this morning it had a nice clear colour. The bottle had a finger width of yeast in the bottom and the sample would have been only about 1/3 of the a 375ml bottle.(just enough for a SG reading)

Given all these facts, is it advisable to add finings now? or is the yeast still working?
How can I explain the sour taste which is not present when chilled?

Note
My brew has been sitting in room with a temperature range 24 - 27 deg. I have measured this with a digital term that records max and min every day. On top of that I have been using the wet towel and frozen PET bottles around the fermenter.

I was given the yeast and hops. Yeast is SAFALE but don't remember the code but I could ask.. The hops are East Kent Goldings, (around 3g added to the hot mix and around 5g to the cold mix in the fermenter before adding the yeast.

Thanks
Jonez.

 

[muckey]

Stable sg at 1006 over 24 hours is a good chance ferment has finished. the fermenter will continue to expell co2 for a while after ferment has finished. Thats about as low as coopers draught will go any way and shows it was fermented with sugar or dextrose with no other adjucts.

I'd add the finings now.

Personally I rack off the yeast cake to a second container and add the finings to it.

 

[buttersd70]

A Muckey said.

Given how much yeast dropped out of solution from yesterdays sample, I'm not overly surprised it didn't taste that flash with all that yeast in there, thats a lot of yeast to drop in a small amount...

And never trust airlocks...they lie.

 

[Jonez]

Stable sg at 1006 over 24 hours is a good chance ferment has finished. the fermenter will continue to expell co2 for a while after ferment has finished. Thats about as low as coopers draught will go any way and shows it was fermented with sugar or dextrose with no other adjucts.

I'd add the finings now.

Personally I rack off the yeast cake to a second container and add the finings to it.

Thanks Muckey
I was planning to rack for finings and rack again for priming... but my old second fermenter's neck broke today. Since the wort is so cloudy, and given my experiment, I expect the finings to drop a hell of lot of yeast. I have decided to add the finings where it is. I am planning to use a cube (is that what it is called?) to bulk prime and do the bottling. This is a large square water container.

The reason i don't use this container for finings is because I am afraid it will be hard to remove the sediment. It has a very narrow neck and its walls are not straight.

 

[muckey]

No prob.
Sounds like a fair bit of yeast has dropped for you anyway so you should get a nice clear beer after racking and fining.

I'm a little unsure of the sour taste though. You say it only shows up warm and is gone when chilled. I'd say it's probably just fermented malt but keep an eye :blink: on it just in case it gets worse

did you use any of the hops either in a boil or as a dry hop in the fermenter?

 

[Jonez]

A Muckey said.

Given how much yeast dropped out of solution from yesterdays sample, I'm not overly surprised it didn't taste that flash with all that yeast in there, thats a lot of yeast to drop in a small amount...

Yeah, a lot of yeast for a small sample ( all dropped by the finings)

And never trust airlocks...they lie.

well, I know not to trust when you don't see burbles but you should expect. In this case I am seeing burbles but not expecting them. And actually since my first post there have now been quite a few.

 

[fergi]

looks to me whats happened jonez is that you have taken the first sample out of your fermentor and all the crap that had settled to the bottom was probably covering your tap outlet, as soon as you opened the tap you got a big shot of trub in your test jar. subsequent testings will be a lot clearer and the flavour wont be as muddy.as you pointed out the top looked a lot clearer in your fermentor so this will turn out ok, just needs time to settle once you have bottled
cheers
fergi

 

[Jonez]

looks to me whats happened jonez is that you have taken the first sample out of your fermentor and all the crap that had settled to the bottom was probably covering your tap outlet, as soon as you opened the tap you got a big shot of trub in your test jar. subsequent testings will be a lot clearer and the flavour wont be as muddy.as you pointed out the top looked a lot clearer in your fermentor so this will turn out ok, just needs time to settle once you have bottled
cheers
fergi

Fergi
This morning's sample looked as cloudy (like concentrated orange juice) I just tasted it after chill: same flavour as yesterday's but i think it will need the finings. By the way, for this batch I hydrated the yeast before pitching it.

Mucey
Yes i dry hoped with East Kent Goldings. but as you said, SG won't go lower than that. I tested my hydrometer in water just to be safe and it read 1.000 spot on, so I added the finings