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Real Ale


RayW3

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This is my first post and being a new member I am new to all this. Hopefully I can get some advise. I have been brewing for a year or so and not being too adventurous I have stuck to commercial beer kits - mainly Coopers (of course!). Being English by birth my favourite beers are Bitter and Ales.

In the past I have bought the Beer kit but bought a sugar mix made up by my local brew shop. Unfortunately the owner (who was a good source of knowledge) sold up and the new guy is nowhere near as good. I therefore thought I would buy a Coopers Real Ale kit and a Brew Enhancer #2 and use the yeast supplied. After a couple of days fermenting I found the froth and bubbles from the wort had come up through the airlock and the top of my fermenter was under a few mms of liquid and froth. I am afraid it may have pushed all the water out of the airlock and some air allowed in. I have refilled the airlock and it is bubbling away. Temp was approx 28 degrees and liquid level was 23 litres. This has never happened before and I am afraid the brew may be ruined.

Has anyone any ideas? Can I safely bottle when ready? I look forward to reading some replies and participating in the forums in the future. Thanks.

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Welcome Ray [biggrin]

 

Your beer should be fine - This kind of thing can often happen happen with darker beers (especially stouts). Air getting in isn't really an issue as the beer is still fermenting which will force the air out.

 

As for temperature, 28C is way too high you should try and ferment your ales at around 18-20C.

 

But all said and done your beer should be fine and should definately be drinkable. Having said that future brews will be even better if you can keep your temps down.

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Thanks for that. I have always had trouble with temps - either too warm aor too cool. Here in chilly Melbourne I have it on a heat pad. I could always lift the fermenter a bit off the pad so the heat is not so direct.

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Long term you should look into setting up a fermenting fridge if you can - or build an isulated box and use a temp controller such as a tempmate or the cheaper stc-1000 (look on ebay for this one). Short term, you cold set a timer so the heat pad comes on and off periodically to help keep the temp near where you want it.

 

It is best to not have the pad in direct contact with your beer if possible.

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