Guest Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I have had similar problems taking readings before way to high to be true. I have seen people put on here pour half a hydrometer full and tip it out then do again near top for reading let sit for 20 minutes or so before test so bubbles are not pushing up on the hydrometer. But either way regarldless of what alcohol u get out of it sounds like its ready for bottoling. BUt a few more days wouldnt hurt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trusty1 Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Sorry for the lack of details. I am brewing using the new coopers kit, making an Australian Pale Ale with BE2. The standard recipe. I initially made the error of having too much hot water in the wort so my temp at the time I filled it up to 23l and pitched the yeast was 32 degrees, but after a few hours I managed to get it to 22/21 and it has been stable at that for 11 days now. The original gravity reading was 1.037. That was taken once the yeast was in. It fermented fine, has shown all the normal signs according to this site. Yesterday (day 10) I took another reading and it gave me 1.018. After calculating that tells me my alc % will be 2.5 + the 0.5% you need to add once its bottled. I am curious as to whether there is anything to fix this at this late stage, but more importantly where I might have gone wrong so I avoid this issue in future. I assume the high temps at the start would have done some damage but from my taste test yesterday it will be drinkable at the very least. Cheers for any help in advance, I'm only keen to find out what I have done wrong because I intend to start another brew as soon as this one is bottled, a James Squire Amber Ale. I reckon your OG is a bit low and the FG a bit high. Check it again tomorrow for consecutive readings. Jamie is correct to suggest running about 100 mls out (but drink it rather than discarding!), spin the hydro to displace any bubbles, and you certainly could leave it for 20 minutes and check it again. After 12 days at a temp of 22 (too warm I reckon though) and as a keen newcomer to homebrewing I would bottle if the reading is the same. As someone who has plenty of beer in storage it's not critical for me, I would leave it in the FV for a few more days, give the side a whack and then cold crash and then keg or bottle. How did you take your OG reading? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Are you discarding a little first and reading the second runnings? Did you spin and tap the hydrometer to get all the excess bubbles off? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 pitched the yeast was 32 degrees' date='[/quote'] This is the likely source of your low reading, if you took the reading at this temperature it will not read correctly, check your hydrometer reads 1000 in water at 20'c, take youyr readings at 20'c, if it's too hot... sit it in the fridge until it reaches 20'c and away you go.. By the by, I never run off 100 ml first, I just have enough patience to let the sample sit till the A:Temp is right. B: The yeast settles out. or C: Use an online calculator to adjust the temp reading from the hydrometer. Yob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeCoq/Rooster Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Afternoon Yoda's. It's Day 3 for my midstrength lager (lawnmower lager recipe). It's sitting at 20C (too high, I know). there's less Krausen today mainly at the edges. It got to about 1cm, maybe more. I'm meant to remove the Krausen ring today and there is some crud on it. Without removing the lid the smell coming from it is strong but not sour. Smells like a strong beer to me. Is this all sounding normal? Shall i remove the Krausen ring today? [unsure] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Normal, it is. Not too high, 20 degrees. Sorry I tried but I really don't know how to talk like Yoda. Everything appears to be fine. If you used the kit yeast then it is an ale yeast and 20 degrees is good. And beer smell is good (ie. you are making beer) [biggrin] You can remove the collar if you like, the krausen won't be getting any higher now. Or you can just leave it as it is until you bottle. No big deal either way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeCoq/Rooster Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Everything appears to be fine. If you used the kit yeast then it is an ale yeast and 20 degrees is good. I used S-23 lager yeast. I struggled with the concept of using an ale yeast in Lager ingredients. I get the point from a DIY perspective, as it difficult to get low enough temps for true lager. But i'm a bit of a 'no' man and learn from my mistakes even though i ask a million questions before i do what i want.[innocent] So with that info, still all cool? PS your yoda text is impressive. Trailed off on the 2nd sentence, but more rehearsal will resolve that issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 PS your yoda text is impressive. Trailed off on the 2nd sentence' date=' but more rehearsal will resolve that issue[/quote'] I struggle to stay in character. I am far from beiong a method actor. As for the beer, yes 20 degrees is way too high for a lager yeast. Sounds like you are now making a Steam Beer [biggrin] Although I'm not sure if S-23 is used for that though. Just be prepared for some 'different' flavours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kike Gimenez Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 DING! Hello Everyone! First off. Merry Xmas to all! I too got myself a DIY Beer Kit this xmas season. Just got back home (Venezuela) and really eager to start of my 2012 with my 1st batch of Cooper's! I've watched plenty of videos over YouTube and read quite a lot about the process, but right now my biggest concern is temperature for brewing. Venezuela being a country from practically the Caribbean. temperature almost all around year tends to be quite high. From 30's to 34-36 Celsius and really high humidity most of the year like right now. And during rain season (Hurricane Season for the Caribbean and South shore of the U.S) it gets to around 20-28 Celsius. Right now I'm testing my Fermenting Bucket with regular tap water (No Beerkit) and letting it sit for a day on a fresh aired, well ventilated room with a lot of space. But without air conditioning, my guessing temperature would be around 30ish Celsius. My question is How bad is 30-34 Celsius temperatures on Fermentation and Bottling Stages ? I've think I read somewhere that it will produce a lot of foam at high temperatures with possible screw up of the batch's potential. I have a Lager BeerKit (the one that comes with the Kit) and a Dark Ale. I read that Ale's are for a bit higher temperatures than Lagers, i don't know if that's correct. If it's really really important to be in the 18-22 celsius range for both fermentation and bottled stages. I have an old fridge that I think i can regulate to achieve these "optimal" temperatures. Great to be here! Thanks in advance for reading my questions and thoughts. Have a great day all. Cheers! [lol] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terra-firma Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I reckon your OG is a bit low and the FG a bit high. Check it again tomorrow for consecutive readings. Jamie is correct to suggest running about 100 mls out (but drink it rather than discarding!), spin the hydro to displace any bubbles, and you certainly could leave it for 20 minutes and check it again. After 12 days at a temp of 22 (too warm I reckon though) and as a keen newcomer to homebrewing I would bottle if the reading is the same. As someone who has plenty of beer in storage it's not critical for me, I would leave it in the FV for a few more days, give the side a whack and then cold crash and then keg or bottle. How did you take your OG reading? Thanks for the replies Sir Jimmius, trusty, Bill and Yob. I took the OG reading as per whatever the Coopers kit said, which is I think was to pitch the yeast then spill a bit out then fill the tube up again and take the reading. It may have been before the yeast, like I said I can't remember now but it was per instructions. I'll take another reading now, ill try displace the bubbles and wait 20 minutes and see what I get. I'm unsure what you mean by give the side a whack and cold crash it? I'm in no hurry, my bar fridge is full of Coopers Pale Ale and Little Creatures, so waiting a little longer is not a problem. I don't plan on drinking this brew until its been in a bottle for 2 months. Edit: Ok after de-gassing it, my new and improved reading was 1.009 which gives me 4.2% alcohol, which is fine. I'll leave it till tomorrow or the day after to check that it hasn't changed and bottle. Thanks a lot for the help! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Welcome Kike Gimenez! I don't think we have any other active members from Venezuela. Brewing at 30+ degrees won't be good for your beer. You may produce fusel alcohol and some funky flavours. If you have a fridge then I recommend using that. It will be even better if you can hook up a temperature controller to it (ie. external thermostat). Some guys on here have bought STC-1000 from ebay; you can check it out or use the search function. Generally, ales should be fermented around 18-20 degrees (a couple of degrees higher won't hurt too much) and Lagers around 9-13 degrees. If you have the Coopers Lager then this comes with an ale yeast, not a lager yeast. All the best with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kike Gimenez Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Thanks for your reply Hairy! I think I can get my old fridge to around 16-18 Celsius. Without the need of a controller since its really really old itself doesn't get lower than 15 by adjusting its thermostat on MAX TEMP to what the fridge indicates as 8 Celsius (In other words fridge doesn't cool enough to lower the 15 Celsius when placing its thermostat to its MAX "0 Min - 8 Max"). And besides it's on anyways to store food supplies that doesn't require lower temperatures but to keep them really fresh. So I think that's the way I'll go! I'm thinking of starting with the Dark Ale kit. Have one question I have tho. Is what's the best formula to increase the alcohol level ? I've read that adding more fermentable sugar composites such as maple syrup, honey and such. I've also read somewhere that you can also drop the water level of the preparation ? What would you guys recommend to do in this case ? I was thinking of dropping 500g of the Brew Enhancer #1 the Kit brought (Kinda want to save 500g since it's harder for me to get it more shipped to Venezuela) + 500g of Liquid Glucose + 200g Of Sugar Cane Pulp (Extra Flavor [biggrin]) + 20 Liters of Water. Am I aiming right for high % alcohol beer ? Thanks again for reading! Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Well the BE1 is 40 percent malto dextrin which doesnt ferment if want hight alcohol beer and struggle to get ahold of ingredients simply sugar increases alcohol but leaves beer thin and watery with a slight cider taste. If you could get ahold of some decent ingredients like malt extract and even dextrose would be better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanS4 Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 As one of the Christmas newbies (and bought my second DIY kit a week later) it would be helpful if I could get a bit more info on primary fermentation... What is the typical difference between bottling when SG is the same 2 days in a row, versus waiting a week or so? (I'm doing ales at the moment in this warm weather). Someone posted early in this thread that the beer would be better and cleaner (or clearer). Is this about personal taste (cloudy v clear) or is it a widely accepted practice among good home brewers to give it more time in the FV? What would be the impact on taste of being impatient to bottle the first few brews at first sign of FG? I plan on being patient later if necessary but for now I just want to build a maturing stockpile asap. For the record, my first brew is crystal clear in the bottle with minimal sediment after 1 week FV and 1 week secondary. Cheers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 early on in the ferment, the yeast make alot of diacetyl and other off flavour precursors, at the end of the ferment when they run out of sugars to eat they will continue to work on these things like diacetyl and chomp (reabsorb) them helping the beer along in the process, alot of people, myself included, let the yeast do a FULL cycle, not just finish eating the primary sugars, generally speaking (yast sependant) 2 weeks in the fermenter before cold conditioning... that is, most fermentationhas finished in a week + a week to clean itself up.. it also helps that if toward the end of the ferment you can slowly raise the temperature by a few degrees as this helps to keep the Yeast active... Like us, after a big feed they can get pretty lazy, but providing the right conditions they will continue to work away at whatever they can chomp through.. this is called a diacetyl rest. Generally only a few days is needed. Hope this helps Yob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kike Gimenez Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Greetings! So checked the temperature of my fridge this morning. And its sitting steady same as last night at 14 Celsius. I have 2 kits Dark Ale and Lager, I really want to start with Dark Ale but I think it might be a bit too cold for it ? Or should I start with Lager since it's a little bit more approximate temperature. My regular temperature outside the fridge is around 20-28 Celsius. A little bit cooler than I was expecting for a start of year weather. I know it's a tad bit high for fermentation stage. So I was thinking ferment stage inside fridge (14-16 Celsius) Bottle Sitting Stage outside fridge (20-28 Celsius). What would you guys recommend ? I really want to do this right because I don't think I'll get more beer kits till next December at least [pinched] Thanks a lot! Happy Brewing. Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I really want to do this right because I don't think I'll get more beer kits till next December at least Whoa! Thats a long time to wait. Theres a bit of pressure on you now to get this one right [biggrin] The Coopers Lager that came with the kit contains an Ale yeast so it should be fermented at the same temperature as the Dark Ale ie. 18-20 degrees or so. It is called a lager but due to the yeast you will actually make an ale. 14 degrees is too cold for an ale yeast. It looks like you can just open the fridge door for a while for the temp to creep up and then close it. Then you can keep monitoring it and cool/heat accordingly. Use the fridge as your cooling source and the outside air as your heating source. Its a bit of a pain in the ass to monitor it but it will work. Also, once you have closed the fridge door it will be insulated so it should maintain that temp range for a fair period of time. So yes, use your fridge for fermentation and leave your bottles outside of the fridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kike Gimenez Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Thank you Hairy! Will do. I already started to clean up the bucket and stuff. I'm using boling water for it for at least half hour to be soaked. Final decision on sugars. I was about to do 500g of the BE1 + 500g of Powder Fructose (Closest to corn sugar i could get) + 100g Of Pulp of Sugar Cane which is supossed to be Sucrose correct? + 100g Of a Family Coffee Plant roasted and moled into a thin grain, tasted it it's really good chocolaty and strong. Is Fructose usable or should I just use plain white sugar? , or maybe more BE1 ? Will this recipe be alright ? Really appreciated for your responses guys. Thanks a lot!. Will check in a bit hopefully I'll have confirmation on this mixture for my first brew. :-D Cheers! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Hairy is pretty much on the money KG. However, although a lot of us use the STC1000 I don't know what your power source is in Ven. If you intend to take this route, which I recommend doing, then you need to ensure you purchase the one that is the correct Voltage for your country. We have 240V here but I assume you probably have 120V there. With regards to your fridge, I suggest hte cheapest way at the moment would be to set the fridge to maximum and put it on a timer which will turn your fridge on and off for you. I wouldn't even bother brewing an Ale/Lager at 30+ temps, a Saison is about the best thing to brew at those temps. Can you not import some kit cans?.... if you are looking for any cans then I wouldn't bother with the Lager and just source the Aust Pale Ale or some of the others for a variety. I couldn't bare waiting 12 months to brew again. [crying] If you are unable to get Dextrose or Malt (extract or dry) then I would just use the BE1 and a little white sugar. I don't recommend using a lot of white sugar as this may become apparent in the taste. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kike Gimenez Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Just finished my first batch of the Dark Ale! In the end I followed most of the advice given here (thanks btw for that). I used all of the BE1 (1kg) + 100g of Fructose + 100g of Sugar Cane Pulp. My reading before droppin the yeast was 1.045 which I think is good. Not too low not too high, around 5.2-5.4 % of alcohol according to the formula. The temperature was standing on 26c by the end of the preparation. It's now sitting on the fridge temperature slowly dropping down. It should be around 18-20c tomorrow morning or in a few hours. I tasted a bit of the sample from the hydrometer I really liked the taste a bit bitter but you can definitely feel the sugar cane and still taste the malt also. I will post a pic someday when I pour my first bottle! Thanks to everyone. Happy Brewing! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Something doesn't seem right there. First home brew and no major stuff up to talk about. [biggrin] Good stuff! Everything seems to be going well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamH1525226084 Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 I purchased myself one for Christmas :D I thought this week would be perfect beer brewing weather but the temperature has got down to 13 degrees overnight. My brew had been hovering around 23 but when I checked it this morning it had dropped to 20 - will that cause too many issues? I wrapped the fermenter in a sleeping bag before I headed to work so am hoping that does that job - before I can get some sort of heating system worked out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hairy Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Welcome Adam. The temps are fine. 20 degrees is actually a good temperature for an ale yeast. I would take the sleeping bag off and leave it. Just don't let it get below 16-17 degrees or the yeast may drift off to sleep. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kike Gimenez Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Something doesn't seem right there. First home brew and no major stuff up to talk about. [biggrin] Good stuff! Everything seems to be going well. Hahaha! Yea I thought that too but I was very careful with what I was doing and also did a few wet runs to see how much boiling water to add and how to cool it towards the end of the mixture, to get the right temperature. The only "major" and it's not really major is that the brew temp is coming down really slowly inside the fridge. I'm guessing it's only logical since when you put a 1 Liter jar on a fridge it takes a while to get cool. I'm guessing 23 liters will take more or least some time also. I'm trying to be patient but I ended up opening the fridge a bit to check after 1 and half hour of putting the brew inside. It's sitting on 24 at the moment so it is coming down. Everything seems great. So thanks again Hairy and Bill and everyone who has helped me cleared out my concerns on this 1st batch! Cheers and will keep you guys posted if anything unusual comes up! [biggrin] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 11, 2012 Share Posted January 11, 2012 Welcome Adam 18C-20C is best for the Ale you are doing. As hairy suggested, remove the bag. Your beer will love you for it. [innocent] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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