Started my first brew last night

PaddyTheNth

Started my first ever brew last night.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who shares knowledge and experience here (and on beoir.ie and NHC) - it makes it so much less intimidating to try it for the first time.

Equipment and kit from Home Brew West.

Good experience with the supplier, only issue being that the nice glass trial jar arrived broken. However I sent them an email yesterday and got a reply back a few hours later offering to replace it with my next order, which I guess is as much as can be expected given the value of the jar and the cost of shipping!

Doing a Coopers Dark Ale and adding Coopers LME.

It took quite a lot longer than I thought it would!

I made a good attempt at sterilisation beforehand, but in hindsight there are so many opportunities for contamination :eek: I even stuck my finger in the wort at one point :mad: because I didn't think the thermometer(s) could be right...what a muppet! :pac:

I pitched the yeast when it was sitting at about 23C. Hydrometer reading of 1.039. The room it is in would have a fairly regular temperature variation of ~6-7C so I wrapped it in a lagging jacket to try to minimise this. This morning (8 hours later) it has started bubbling and is sitting at 22C

Lessons learned so far:

Better sterilisation - Use a no-rinse solution. Wear short sleeves. Don't stick your finger in the wort.

Let the kit can and LME warm up for longer in hot water. I had them in approx 30-40C for about 15 minutes. I reckon another 10 minutes would have made it that bit better, even though I did rinse the cans with boiled water into the FV.

I was going to hold off getting more equipment until after this brew, but I think I might go ahead and get a bottle tree and rinser - given how much longer the brew took than I expected I reckon these will be serious time savers!

Thanks again to everyone who has provided advice on this and other boards.

BeerNut

1.039 seems a bit low. What was your final volume?

PaddyTheNth

BeerNut wrote: »

1.039 seems a bit low. What was your final volume?

23 liters.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if I got the reading wrong

What would you have expected?

BeerNut

I'd have thought about 1.045, even at 23 litres.

I think that sometimes people don't stir the mix vigorously enough, or don't dissolve it in enough hot water before topping up with cold. The result is an uneven mixture with more sugar at the bottom than the top so a reading taken from the top turns out low. It makes no difference to the yeast: it will still find and devour the sugar; it's just the final ABV reading will come out lower than the actual strength.

PaddyTheNth

Interesting. Makes sense.

I put in 1.5 liters of (just) boiled water, poured in the two cans, then filled the cans with another 0.75 liters each of (just) boiled water and emptied them in. Stirred until there was an even consistency.

I then brought it up to about 20 liters with cold. Then stirred fairly vigorously. Then topped up with about 2 liters of hot and 1 liter of cold in that order.

More stirring after that!

Having said all that, there's every chance that I could have done a better job stirring.

The impact of not mixing properly is obvious once pointed out but I hadn't clearly thought it through. Useful info to bear in mind for the future (as long as it's drinkable I won't be too fussed, but I do try to get a bit exact about things like this!).

Thanks!

BeerNut

Yeah, it will make no difference to the finished beer, but when you find out that it's ony 3.5% ABV you can take comfort that it's actually a good bit stronger than that.

For what it's worth, I would dissolve the mix in 5L of very hot water and stir all the way when topping up with cold.

blueshed

I did the coopers dark ale kit and got an OG 1045 with 250g of enhancer plus 100g of brown sugar added. turned out pretty ok and reckon would have being even nicer with LME or spraymalt added.

PaddyTheNth

So I've managed to resist going near the brew for the last week other than monitoring/controlling temperature.

Bubbling has finished for at least 36 hours now.

This evening I plan to measure gravity (and taste!) and start going to a lower temperature. I'll bottle at the end of next week all things going to plan.

One thing I'm not sure what temperature I should aim for during the second week in the FV. I constantly see references to 'week 2 at a lower temperature' but I'm not sure what sort of range this is referring to. It has been at ~18C for the last 7 days.

Would 10C be too cold for week 2? Would 5C be too cold?

Any advice appreciated.

BeerNut

Keep it going where it is and don't worry about it, I'd say.

PaddyTheNth

Bottled this last night.

Final gravity reading was 1.011 - according to the calculator I used this gives me an ABV of 3.9%. Allowing for the fact that I probably under-read at the start due to not mixing properly, I imagine I'll be ending up at around 4.5%.

Used 1 carbonation drop per 500ml bottle.

The bottling process was slower than I expected, largely due to it being my first time. Wouldn't like to imagine how slow it would have been had I not had a bottle washer and bottling wand!

That being said, the bottling wand leaks (an immaterial amount) and the Coopers Oxy bottles are too large for the bottle washer despite being advertised as suitable for it which was a little disappointing.

It will be interesting to see how the taste progresses over the next 4 weeks. At the moment the taste is frankly uninspiring - not unpleasant, merely very bland.

oblivious

PaddyTheNth wrote: »

It will be interesting to see how the taste progresses over the next 4 weeks. At the moment the taste is frankly uninspiring - not unpleasant, merely very bland.

A bit of carbonation and conditioning was change a beer

fergiesfolly

Paddy. Had similar experiences with the wand and bottle washer. Put a (sanitized) rubber washer on the bottle washer to fit the Coopers bottles. Worked a treat and made washing them a lot easier. The wand was very messy and other wands won't fit the Coopers tap, so I just ended up turning tap on and off for each pour. Annoying, but didn't add much time to the process.

BeerNut

fergiesfolly wrote: »

The wand was very messy and other wands won't fit the Coopers tap, so I just ended up turning tap on and off for each pour. Annoying, but didn't add much time to the process.

You'd be splashing the beer down into the bottle, though, which isn't good. The tap on the Coopers fermenter will snugly fit a length of siphon tube, which a bottling wand can then be fitted to.

PaddyTheNth

fergiesfolly wrote: »

Put a (sanitized) rubber washer on the bottle washer to fit the Coopers bottles. Worked a treat and made washing them a lot easier.

Was trying to think what would work for this. Nice one.

BeerNut wrote: »

You'd be splashing the beer down into the bottle, though, which isn't good. The tap on the Coopers fermenter will snugly fit a length of siphon tube, which a bottling wand can then be fitted to.

I'm pretty sure it's the valve at the bottom of the wand which is the problem. Couldn't spot any leakage at the top and turning off the tap didn't stop the drip. It's usable, just a bit disappointing. Might do the siphon tube anyway to make it easier on my back!

syl77

Like you PaddyTheNth, I stared by first home brew last month also - a Yorkshire bitter and like you my initial gravity reading was 1.038 (23ltr mix) and on bottling was 1.010 so I am look also at a ABV of 3.7% which I thought was low. But its good to know that I may have not stirred the mix vigorously enough (which i believe to be true) and that it wont affect final taste.
Gravity was take from tap near base of bucket.
I got all my supplies also from home brew west and did find the wand a little slow with a slight drip.
I used the Coopers carbonation drops and Oxy (500ml) bottles and was thorn as to how many drops to use per bottle. In the end (after much goggling) I went with 4 bottles with 2 drops, 4 with 1 (experimental) and the rest with 1.5 drops (they were easy enough to half with a sharp knife).
I know one is recommended with an ale but I was afraid of getting a flat beer.

After 2 weeks fermenting what would be the recommended time (in bottle) to try the first beer?

BeerNut

Three weeks should do it.

fergiesfolly

BeerNut wrote: »

You'd be splashing the beer down into the bottle, though, which isn't good. The tap on the Coopers fermenter will snugly fit a length of siphon tube, which a bottling wand can then be fitted to.

I still use the wand, but turn the tap off and on, as it leaks otherwise. Its the second wand as the first had the same problem.
As far as I know the tap on my coopers barrel is a new type and has an awkward fit. The new barrels will also only take Coopers taps, so its kind of catch 22.
Still enjoying it though and hope to experiment a bit more, once I've got a few kits under my belt.

Carawaystick

I wouldn't be too bothered getting a bottle tree, but a bottle rinser is invaluable

I rinse and drain all bottles and then empty the remaining drips just before bottling each bottle, using no-rinse bleach/vinegar mix

PaddyTheNth

Couldn't resist, had to sample a bottle of my brew last night.

Very happy!

The taste has developed nicely. Still not very powerful but very drinkable! Smooth texture, good head although it doesn't last very long. Perfectly happy with a single carb drop per 500ml bottle for this ale.

Can't wait to get stuck in to it over Christmas!

Hingo

PaddyTheNth wrote: »

Couldn't resist, had to sample a bottle of my brew last night.

Very happy!

The taste has developed nicely. Still not very powerful but very drinkable! Smooth texture, good head although it doesn't last very long. Perfectly happy with a single carb drop per 500ml bottle for this ale.

Can't wait to get stuck in to it over Christmas!

Sounds goods anyway! Do you know how your abv % turned out in the end with the readings you got at the start? Been following this thread as I'm starting after Xmas, good to see how the timeline of your brew has formed on the thread

PaddyTheNth

Hingo wrote: »

Sounds goods anyway! Do you know how your abv % turned out in the end with the readings you got at the start? Been following this thread as I'm starting after Xmas, good to see how the timeline of your brew has formed on the thread

Based on the readings I took I would be at 3.9% before bottling.

However there's a very good chance that I didn't stir properly so my first figure was low.

Allowing for this and for the small increase from a carb drop when bottling I would imagine it is around 4.3-4.5%.

Itching to start another brew now!