AntonyC1 Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Hi, my primary ferment of Mexican Cerveza is as good as done. IG 1.042 and current SG of 1.006 It's been rather cold and outside the range in the instructions but has been ticking away still...the sample I took yesterday and today was at 15c....seems to taste very much like Sol so figure it's fine ! Question is, my Ritchie hydrometer calc says 1.042 - 1.006 * 129 = 4.644 % the Coopers formula says 1042-1006/7.46 = 4.825 % reason I'm asking is that I'd like to up the final % to hit around 5.6... Coopers suggest the priming sugar at 8g per litre will raise it 0.5% (i.e to 5.3%) but my hydrometer instructions suggest 10-11g per litre to make that... so it's an additional 184g of sugar according to coopers, or 230-250g according to ritchie to hit 5.3% and to hit 5.6% it's going to be 300g based on coopers formula or 370g based on my hydrometers formula... might not be significant I guess (although that is 23% more sugar) but I don't want to end up with a sweet lager and I'm planning to add the full qty in the primary fermenter tonight..let it ferment out until it's back to around 1.006, then stick it in a pressure barrel so would like some advice.. any and all comments welcome ! my first lager... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 You WILL ruin your beer / get bottle bombs if you do what you plan.. The way to hit an alcohol % is to play with and add to, the fermentables prior to fermentation. ie.. Add more dme.. Do not add extra priming sugar to tweak numbers.. You have what you have now and be happy with it.. Get the next one where you want it.. You arent really talking that big a difference anyway. You are probably using pet bottles but i still wouldnt add ANY EXTRA sugar to the bottles... Your beer will be crazy foamy and not pleasant. Yob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 What is a pressure barrel ? A keg? If you are kegging you need not add any extra sugar just keg carb and drink... Im confused And who the hell is ritchie? Still confused Ive read and re-read that last bit and still cant understand it... I really wouldnt add more priming sugar and let it ferment out in the fv.. You wont get carbonation this way as the o2 will all escape... thats why the extra sugar is put into the bottle so it cant go anywhere and carbonation the beer... Welcome to brewing and the.forums mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntonyC1 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 wow..thanks for the quick responses guys ! my initial post was rather hasty so I'll try to explain (although I now have a couple of stellas under my belt so can't guarantee I'll make any more sense)... It's currently in an fermentation bin with an airlock fitted. In the past with Wine i've 'fed' the sugar in whilst it's fermenting rather than put it all in from the start..so never had problems adding sugar part way through. I didn't know where this lager would end up and ideally I'd like it a little higher in % now that I've seen where it's at, so planned to add some more sugar now..let it ferment a little further to get the % up before transferring it to naturally carbonate it. I wasn't planning to bottle it into PET bottles. Was hoping to transfer it from the bin I'm fermenting in, to a plastic barrel I have that has a pressure release valve, threaded CO2 socket thingy, and a tap...and pour pints direct from the barrel.. so...I'm not intending to use 'all' the additional sugar to carbonate. Intention was to add it, let it ferment out until it's a low enough SG again to safely transfer to the pressure barrel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 photo's of said pressure vessel? or a link to where you purchaced it? sounds interesting... where are you? Im assuming OS somewhere... UK? US? If you are "kegging" and it does sound like it's a keg of sorts you should be fine to do as you plan... though I'd think about adding finings to remove as much yeast as you can prior to kegging it... if naturally carbing it then you will need to rethink it a little as you will need to add 2 lots of priming sugar and the yeast may suffer a little for it... you have given them a feed... they have gone to sleep... now you plan to wake them up and feed them again and then they will go to sleep again... and then you want to do it all over again... I (personally) wouldnt do it like that... Id just let it be... you are only talking a few gravity points... if force carbing (co2 thingy) you dont care about their (yeast) health as much and are not relying on them for carbing. do you have the capacity to cold condition as well? Yob P.S. Wont be long and we will have you turning your nose up at Stella [lol] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntonyC1 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 cheers mate, I'm in the UK...asked the brewshop for something that tasted like Stella and she sold me this ;-) I was a little suspicious given it said mexican cerveza and that means sol/corono to me...and it certainly tastes like it but it'll do the trick..seems like a very good copy so far. it's an old boots pressure barrel similar to the one you'll see in the link below but it's clean and I've replaced the valves etc with new..the weld looks ok and although there's a risk of the barrel failing I recon it'll be ok... http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=17907&start=0 I think having talked through it, I understand what you mean about excercising the yeast for the sake of a small % so I'll just transfer with enough sugar to self carbonate only. I plan to siphon it in to the barrel to reduce the amount of sediment etc transfered but to be honest the whole things looks pretty clean anyway. I'll then stick it somewhere warmer for a week if I can find somewhere warmer in the house ! after that, I'd planned to stick it in the courtyard shed...we've had a sudden coldsnap! in the UK (which isn't intended to be a plug for my own Android app but there you go ;-) ) so should be able to get it around 10c for the next few weeks quite easily... how much plain old castor/granulated sugar would you add to 23 litres to prime it within a ked/barrel ? I'll dissolve it in pre-boiled water first of course. thanks, Ant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 simple answer is I cant say for sure... I think it will depend on how much headspace you have in the 'keg'... since it has a pressure release valve Id aim high as you can de-gas it to taste.. larger the headspace will = a greater amount of sugar. I generally add 110g - 120g for 23lt "in bottles" it's going to be a suck it and see for the first use of this equipment for you but Id aim for 200g - 250g (depending on that headspace you have... how many liters is the keg thingy? Yob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntonyC1 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 ahhh...of course...if the sum of the headspace in 23L worth of bottles isn't the same as the headspace in the barrel...i'll need a different amount of priming sugar ;-) gives me something to theorise about in my sleep tonight ! I did measure the capacity of both the barrel..and the fermenting bin...but didn't make any notes...so I'm going to assume I didn't spot any major discrepancy as I'm usually fairly predantic...it must have been 23L as that's what I've been working to from day 1.. I'll go with you're 200-250g as that seems pretty sensible based on it likely being a greater amount of headspace in the barrel vs what you'd sum up from individual bottles.. thanks again mate...off to theorise.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 If you are naturally carbing kegs then only use half the sugars you would if you were to do bottles. I am actually curious as to the pressure rating of that vessle and release valve. I am also curious why things need to be harder than they have to be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LordEoin Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Agreed! - put juice in thing with sugary stuff - forget - remember - drink - ??? - profit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntonyC1 Posted April 5, 2012 Author Share Posted April 5, 2012 thanks guys, this is a 1991 vintage boots pressure barrel with 15 psi stamped on it...tap/seals/connectors all replaced with new..I guess I'll see how leak proof it is in a few weeks time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 well I guess if you keep it at pouring pressure it should be right. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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