What temperature

[doogs01]

Hi, just doing my first home brew and I’ve read on the FAQ that the correct temperature for brewing ales is
18-20 degrees. On my can of Morgan’s Blue Mountain Ale it says between 22-30 degrees. Which one should I be using? I have been using the latter and my brew has been going for 10 days now and the hydrometer reading has been constant at 1014 since it began. This morning I stirred up the mix to try an re-activate the yeast. There has also been no bubbling in the airlock. There is no evidence of scum at the top of the brew either. Is it time to throw it away and start again? Any help appreciated.

 

[Pikeman]

Just bottle it I reckon [emoji482]First batch is not always the greatest. Keeping those temps down and constant will help in future. Worst comes to worst you can dump it later after a few tastings. Don't stress too much about the airlock. Cheers.

 

[wynnum1]

Blue Mountain ale they only give a small amount of yeast but at the higher temperature after 10 days must have finished what does it taste like.

 

[tugger]

Sorry I just checked the date.

 

[philrob]

Bottle it, you'll be right. Leave it for 3 to 4 weeks before sampling.
Next time try to keep the temperature at under 20.

The only reason the kit instructions tell you those ridiculously high temperatures is to make sure fermentation takes off and is done quickly. They don't want you to have bottle bombs and sue the backside off them.

 

[doogs01]

Thanks all for the advice. Too late, I’ve already dumped it as according to the hydrometer it was at zero alcohol and I thought that it hadn’t fermented. I have a lot to learn. Onto the second attempt and I’ll keep the temperature down. Keep you posted. This time a Coopers Lager. Cheers.

 

[jackgym]

Mate, you probably need a couple more pieces of equipment to ensure you get a good beer.
Grab a Cooper's fermenter that doesn't use an airlock. An airlock just confuses the situation.
Or simply take out the airlock and grommit and tape over the hole. Then tighten the lid and
back off a couple of turns so the gases can escape.
An Inkbird ITC 308 temperature controller and a fridge to ferment your wort at 18 deg for
ales and 12 deg for lagers. You can throw in the yeast after mixing ingredients when it's as
high as 26-28 deg. or lower, as the fridge will push it down to 18. Don't have the wort sitting
around waiting for the temp to drop before throwing in the yeast.
If funds are a problem to begin with, there are cheaper (but labour intensive) ways to keep
your wort at the right temperature.

 

[brewgasm]

Did you add any other fermentables or did you just use the can? 1.014 sounds like a final gravity not a starting gravity. Sounds like the beer was fine. I brewed morgans blue mountain larger a few years ago, it got down to 1.012

 

[MHB]

Thanks all for the advice. Too late, I’ve already dumped it as according to the hydrometer it was at zero alcohol and I thought that it hadn’t fermented. I have a lot to learn. Onto the second attempt and I’ll keep the temperature down. Keep you posted. This time a Coopers Lager. Cheers.

That "Zero Alcohol" is a bit misleading!
The scale should be read as potential alcohol, if you started with a potential of 5 and finished at 0 you have made 5%.
In wine making and with some super dry beers you can finish in the negative numbers say -1, in which case the amount of alcohol you made would be 5-(-1) = 6% (a negative minus a negative is a positive, try it on a calculator).

Most home brewers use the S.G. (Specific Gravity) scale. Which is simply how many times the solution is denser than water.
So water is 1.000 times as heavy as water, beer wort us usually somewhere between 1.040 and 1.060 times as heavy as the same amount of water.
A litre of water would weigh 1.000g or 1kg. a litre of wort usually between 1040g and 1060g (1.04-1.06kg/L)
As the yeast east sugars in the wort, it converts them into nearly equal amounts of Carbon Dioxide and Alcohol, most of the CO2 escapes (bubbling airlocks) loosing mass, leaving the alcohol which less dense than water so the SG falls.

Using the SG scale you can calculate the amount of alcohol you have made by comparing the change in gravity, we use a short hand to make the calculations easier and talk about Points treating the numbers after the decimal point as if they were whole numbers, 1.040 would be called 40 points, 1.060, 60 points...
If you started at 1.050 (50 points) and finished at 1.010 (10points), you have had a change of 40 points
40 points divided by 7.5 gives you the alcohol content 40/7.5 = 5.33%

There are several ways to measure the amount of Extract (everything dissolved in the wort) and several scales used to report this information, at this stage probably best to stick to SG.

The other useful information you can get by measuring density is to know when fermentation is complete, take a gravity reading, wait 24 hours, take another reading. If the gravity is stable (and around where you would expect it to be), you should be good to bottle.
If there is any change in the SG, wait another day or two and take a reading - in any case a stable reading over 24 hours is what you are looking for.

Using the SG method, or the % alcohol scale on the same hydrometer will tell you the same thing - in either case you really do need to take a starting gravity reading (one before you add the yeast).

Just another couple of points that might help, the two things a kit brewer can do to really improve your beer are: -
Use better yeast - get one from a good home brew shop that suits the style of beer you are making.
Get control of your temperature - a small second hand fridge with and STC 1000 (or similar) and a small fan will help you brew more consistent and better tasting beer all year round.
Neither will cost you a bomb and you will be making better beer.
Mark

 

[wynnum1]

Did you add any other fermentables or did you just use the can? 1.014 sounds like a final gravity not a starting gravity. Sounds like the beer was fine. I brewed morgans blue mountain larger a few years ago, it got down to 1.012

Inaccurate quantity of water can make the difference. not all fermenter markings are accurate.

 

[brewgasm]

Inaccurate quantity of water can make the difference. not all fermenter markings are accurate.

Agreed, I haven't checked the accuracy of my SS fermentor but with my plastic ones I used my 5l Jug which I tested for accuracy on a scale and used that to mark out key volumes on the fermentor with a permanent marker. I have never seen a plastic fermentor with accurate markings. I can only speak for HDPE when I say that the inner volume of the vessel can vary greatly between cycles of the blow moulder /resin batches ect adding to that the volume of a HDPE vessel lessens as it shrinks in the days following manufacture and in the unlikely event that the vessel is annealed the duration of annealing and the temperature at which it is annealed will impact on the final volume.

In short don't trust the volume markers on a HDPE fermentor. I'm not sure about PP or PET though.

 

[ShonkytonkBrewer]

That "Zero Alcohol" is a bit misleading!
The scale should be read as potential alcohol, if you started with a potential of 5 and finished at 0 you have made 5%.
In wine making and with some super dry beers you can finish in the negative numbers say -1, in which case the amount of alcohol you made would be 5-(-1) = 6% (a negative minus a negative is a positive, try it on a calculator).

Most home brewers use the S.G. (Specific Gravity) scale. Which is simply how many times the solution is denser than water.
So water is 1.000 times as heavy as water, beer wort us usually somewhere between 1.040 and 1.060 times as heavy as the same amount of water.
A litre of water would weigh 1.000g or 1kg. a litre of wort usually between 1040g and 1060g (1.04-1.06kg/L)
As the yeast east sugars in the wort, it converts them into nearly equal amounts of Carbon Dioxide and Alcohol, most of the CO2 escapes (bubbling airlocks) loosing mass, leaving the alcohol which less dense than water so the SG falls.

Using the SG scale you can calculate the amount of alcohol you have made by comparing the change in gravity, we use a short hand to make the calculations easier and talk about Points treating the numbers after the decimal point as if they were whole numbers, 1.040 would be called 40 points, 1.060, 60 points...
If you started at 1.050 (50 points) and finished at 1.010 (10points), you have had a change of 40 points
40 points divided by 7.5 gives you the alcohol content 40/7.5 = 5.33%

There are several ways to measure the amount of Extract (everything dissolved in the wort) and several scales used to report this information, at this stage probably best to stick to SG.

The other useful information you can get by measuring density is to know when fermentation is complete, take a gravity reading, wait 24 hours, take another reading. If the gravity is stable (and around where you would expect it to be), you should be good to bottle.
If there is any change in the SG, wait another day or two and take a reading - in any case a stable reading over 24 hours is what you are looking for.

Using the SG method, or the % alcohol scale on the same hydrometer will tell you the same thing - in either case you really do need to take a starting gravity reading (one before you add the yeast).

Just another couple of points that might help, the two things a kit brewer can do to really improve your beer are: -
Use better yeast - get one from a good home brew shop that suits the style of beer you are making.
Get control of your temperature - a small second hand fridge with and STC 1000 (or similar) and a small fan will help you brew more consistent and better tasting beer all year round.
Neither will cost you a bomb and you will be making better beer.
Mark

This is possibly the best plain English explanation of gravity and fermentation iv read.

Thanks Mark

 

[doogs01]

That "Zero Alcohol" is a bit misleading!
The scale should be read as potential alcohol, if you started with a potential of 5 and finished at 0 you have made 5%.
In wine making and with some super dry beers you can finish in the negative numbers say -1, in which case the amount of alcohol you made would be 5-(-1) = 6% (a negative minus a negative is a positive, try it on a calculator).

Most home brewers use the S.G. (Specific Gravity) scale. Which is simply how many times the solution is denser than water.
So water is 1.000 times as heavy as water, beer wort us usually somewhere between 1.040 and 1.060 times as heavy as the same amount of water.
A litre of water would weigh 1.000g or 1kg. a litre of wort usually between 1040g and 1060g (1.04-1.06kg/L)
As the yeast east sugars in the wort, it converts them into nearly equal amounts of Carbon Dioxide and Alcohol, most of the CO2 escapes (bubbling airlocks) loosing mass, leaving the alcohol which less dense than water so the SG falls.

Using the SG scale you can calculate the amount of alcohol you have made by comparing the change in gravity, we use a short hand to make the calculations easier and talk about Points treating the numbers after the decimal point as if they were whole numbers, 1.040 would be called 40 points, 1.060, 60 points...
If you started at 1.050 (50 points) and finished at 1.010 (10points), you have had a change of 40 points
40 points divided by 7.5 gives you the alcohol content 40/7.5 = 5.33%

There are several ways to measure the amount of Extract (everything dissolved in the wort) and several scales used to report this information, at this stage probably best to stick to SG.

The other useful information you can get by measuring density is to know when fermentation is complete, take a gravity reading, wait 24 hours, take another reading. If the gravity is stable (and around where you would expect it to be), you should be good to bottle.
If there is any change in the SG, wait another day or two and take a reading - in any case a stable reading over 24 hours is what you are looking for.

Using the SG method, or the % alcohol scale on the same hydrometer will tell you the same thing - in either case you really do need to take a starting gravity reading (one before you add the yeast).

Just another couple of points that might help, the two things a kit brewer can do to really improve your beer are: -
Use better yeast - get one from a good home brew shop that suits the style of beer you are making.
Get control of your temperature - a small second hand fridge with and STC 1000 (or similar) and a small fan will help you brew more consistent and better tasting beer all year round.
Neither will cost you a bomb and you will be making better beer.
Mark

Thanks Mark, your advice is great as it explains it a lot easier for me. My initial SG was 1014, but that was after I put the yeast in. Over the brewing period it remained constant on 1014 so that was why I thought it maybe never fermented. The 1 kg Morgan’s dextrose was added with the tin at the start. Everything is a lot clearer now thanks to all the replies I’ve received. In hindsight I should have researched a lot more before starting.
Cheers to all, Garry

 

[MHB]

It really couldn't have been, you have managed to muck up the measurement some how.

If you dissolve a 1.8kg kit that is 80% solids and 1kg of Dextrose that is 91%solids in enough water to make 23L. The gravity must be higher. In fact if we use the Plato scale which is percent WW Solids (Weight/Weight) we know the mass of solids is (1.8*0.8)+(1*0.91) = 2.35kg we can workout that the wort is 10.2oP or pretty close to 1.041 on the SG scale.
Well pretty close, just used a shortcut to get there.

What I suspect has happened is that you put hot water into the fermenter, then added the kit and kg, mixed and took a sample through the tap (bet you have a sediment reducer in the tap).
The body of the tap was full of water, which mixed with the 1041 wort diluted it to about 1.014.
People often do the reverse and fill the body of the tap with extra heavy wort and get an over high reading.
Traps for new players!

What you need to do is make up your wort to full volume, run a little wort through the tap and throw it away (gets rid of any over/under gravity wort in the tap) then take your sample.
Also a good idea to test your hydrometer in some tap water and check that it is reading close to 1.000, if it isn't note the error and apply it to your readings, if its way out replace it.

Brewing is fun but lots to learn, fastest way is to do some brewing, look at what happens and then think about why and ask questions, and think about the answers!
Mark