Brew Temp gone down low

zacmorris

Hi All,

I am brewing for the first time- an english bitter kit.
The temp was sitting nicely about 18c or so, but my house which is old and very cold most of the time has seen the fermeneter temp drop to 12,14,16c !!
I had it in a box with sleeping bags around it etc and in a wardrobe but didn't help that much.

Will the bre be ruined? It's been fermenting for 12 days now and was planning to bottle this weekend.

Will a gravity test tell me?

Thanks in advance

BeerNut

It's fine. High temperatures can be a problem, low temperatures aren't. I've had temperatures fall into single digits and the beer fermented out fine, given enough time.

If your gravity has stabilised in an acceptable range, you're ready to bottle. If it hasn't or you don't know, give it another week and take a reading every few days.

zacmorris

BeerNut wrote: »

It's fine. High temperatures can be a problem, low temperatures aren't. I've had temperatures fall into single digits and the beer fermented out fine, given enough time.

If your gravity has stabilised in an acceptable range, you're ready to bottle. If it hasn't or you don't know, give it another week and take a reading every few days.

Cheers, nice one for that.
Going to take a gravity reading tonight then another in 3-4 days or even by Sunday?

Is it worth tasting before bottling?

BeerNut

It's always worth tasting. It's the only way to find out if your beer is any good or not.

zacmorris

BeerNut wrote: »

It's always worth tasting. It's the only way to find out if your beer is any good or not.

Happy days . I'll be tasting it so. There is little or no head on the brew when I was adding the hops- is this normal?

BeerNut

Yes. All your CO2 is escaping out of the fermenter as soon as it's created. You only get a head by releasing lots of CO2 at once, like when you open a conditioned bottle. You might find a very slight effervescence when tasting from the fermenter but it's only properly fizzy after conditioning.

zacmorris

BeerNut wrote: »

Yes. All your CO2 is escaping out of the fermenter as soon as it's created. You only get a head by releasing lots of CO2 at once, like when you open a conditioned bottle. You might find a very slight effervescence when tasting from the fermenter but it's only properly fizzy after conditioning.

Good stuff, thanks. That makes me feel a lot better. I've been convinced my brew was ruined.
Will do a gravity test this eve anf another Sunday or Monday eve and hopefully bottle then. By that stage it will be 2 weeks.

Thanks for the good advice !

zacmorris

So the temp is at 12-14c on the fermenter.
I did a gravity test and is coming out at 1015, which is too early to bottle?

It's been fermenting 12 days now.
Is it likely the reading will change in a few days?

BeerNut

It might be done, it might not. It's not a good idea to guess. If it reads the same in two days it's probably done. Remember to calibrate the reading for temperature, btw.

zacmorris

BeerNut wrote: »

It might be done, it might not. It's not a good idea to guess. If it reads the same in two days it's probably done. Remember to calibrate the reading for temperature, btw.

I'll check Sunday eve so.
Not sure how to calibrate for temp?

Cheers again for the info, learning a lot which is the point I suppose

tteknulp

zacmorris wrote: »

I'll check Sunday eve so.
Not sure how to calibrate for temp?

Cheers again for the info, learning a lot which is the point I suppose

Id say its finished at 1015 ,check with hydrometer 3days in a row ,then bottle /keg
If you have a smart phone get beersmith ,it does this and more ,very handy

zacmorris

tteknulp wrote: »

Id say its finished at 1015 ,check with hydrometer 3days in a row ,then bottle /keg
If you have a smart phone get beersmith ,it does this and more ,very handy

Going to try it again, reckon reading could be off.
My beer had loads of bits of what looked like dead yeast floating around in it- was very bit'y. Is that normal?

tteknulp

zacmorris wrote: »

Going to try it again, reckon reading could be off.
My beer had loads of bits of what looked like dead yeast floating around in it- was very bit'y. Is that normal?

Yeah its normal at times ,you need to crash cool for all yeast to drop out ,& it helps clear beer too

zacmorris

tteknulp wrote: »

Yeah its normal at times ,you need to crash cool for all yeast to drop out ,& it helps clear beer too

Took and another reading and calibrated so defo 1015.
Cheers for the help. Hopefully I can out my new capper to use Sunday.

Tasted it too, a it tame for a bitter. But doesn't taste too bad. Kind of fruity. Be interesting to see how it turns out after a fee weeks in the bottles

oblivious

zacmorris wrote: »

Tasted it too, a it tame for a bitter. But doesn't taste too bad. Kind of fruity. Be interesting to see how it turns out after a fee weeks in the bottles

Most bitters aren't that bitter, fruity sounds good

tteknulp

zacmorris wrote: »

Took and another reading and calibrated so defo 1015.
Cheers for the help. Hopefully I can out my new capper to use Sunday.

Tasted it too, a it tame for a bitter. But doesn't taste too bad. Kind of fruity. Be interesting to see how it turns out after a fee weeks in the bottles

Fruity...? cidery ? Before you bottle ,be sure its right : )

zacmorris

I wouldn't say cider'y now but kind of raisin'y I think. It doesn't taste like any bitter I've had but there's a resemblance alright. I'm staring to think the fermentation process stopped to early or something and it needs more time but has stopped fermenting. Will secondary fermentation on the bottles help this?

BeerNut

zacmorris wrote: »

Will secondary fermentation on the bottles help this?

You're the only one who can answer that. What kit is it?

zacmorris

BeerNut wrote: »

You're the only one who can answer that. What kit is it?

Bulldog English bitter

tteknulp

zacmorris wrote: »

I wouldn't say cider'y now but kind of raisin'y I think?

1015 is not a bad f.g . Just a bit lower abv ,raisin taste ? Some dark ales have raisin taste so im not sure , you would have to describe a bit more

tteknulp

zacmorris wrote: »

I wouldn't say cider'y now but kind of raisin'y I think?

1015 is not a bad f.g . Just a bit lower abv ,raisin taste ? Some dark ales have raisin taste so im not sure , you would have to describe a bit more

ian_m

zacmorris wrote: »

I'll check Sunday eve so.
Not sure how to calibrate for temp?

Enter your gravity readings and temperatures into Rooftop Brew and it will calculate your ABV for you. Very handy IMO.

zacmorris

Doing a reading tonight and then most likely bottling. Hopefully it's a bit better.
Will post up the results anyway.

poitinstill

if its anyway sweet give it more time

zacmorris

Eighth so the readong was coming in the same at 1015 so I bottled it in 500ml short necked brown bottles I got from allpack. Put one carb drop non each bottle, which should be enough hopefully.
Don't think I'd want my bitter to have toouch carbonation anyway.

It tasted a lot better this time. Actually not that bad, defo resembled a bitter and the late addition of the hops seems to have given it a bit of taste.

Leave it up for a week now and then ill taste it.

Next up is Muntons Weiss

BeerNut

zacmorris wrote: »

Leave it up for a week now and then ill taste it.

I find it takes three weeks for my beers to carbonate fully, though you should have a good idea how it's going after two. Expect it still to be a bit flat if you open a bottle after a week.

zacmorris

BeerNut wrote: »

I find it takes three weeks for my beers to carbonate fully, though you should have a good idea how it's going after two. Expect it still to be a bit flat if you open a bottle after a week.

Ok thanks. I can wait until then (hopefully). Be interested to see if there's much of a taste difference after the week. Would you recommend leaving the bottles for two weekend instead of one in a warm place ?

BeerNut

Yes. But it's your beer and you can do what you like with it.
(But a post in a week's time asking why your beer is a bit flat will get you banned )

zacmorris

BeerNut wrote: »

Yes. But it's your beer and you can do what you like with it.
(But a post in a week's time asking why your beer is a bit flat will get you banned )

Haha, can't argue with that.

merc230ce

Nicely timed thread, this. I have my first brew in a year (Extract, Amber Ale, US-05) on the go in my new fermenting fridge out in the shed. I'm using a vivarium heater pad as the heating element and it's either not working or not strong enough so the temp is struggling to get above 14.5 degrees. But there's a small krausen so it's definitely off and running, it'll probably just take a week or two longer. I just needed at bit of reassurance :-)

zacmorris

Right, so cracked open a bottle there at the weekend. Decent carbonation (1 carb drop per 500ml bottle) and a nice little head on it. BUT it tasted like pure crap, It obviously got infected along the way. I'm thinking it was when I first put on the lid with the bubble airlock full of sanitizer, it all got sucked in.

Anyway, I'll be painstakingly pouring each bottle out into the veg patch this week and bottling my muntons weiss which is pretty much ready to bottle.

First brew, let's hope the weiss is ok.

Learned a fair bit anyway so not too worried

ian_m

What do you mean by crap? Bleachy or sweet or ...?

zacmorris

I wouldn't say bleachy, sort of funky/ gone-off taste if that makes sense
Doesn't taste right at all.