First Homebrew Kit

CianSmyth

Well its been a week since I started fermentation and the bubbling slowed to a halt so last night I decided to take a measurement. I cleaned everything took the FG reading to be 1.010 bottled two bottles and closed everything back up. Since then the fermenter is back bubbling and the smell has changed. It almost smells like sweet apple coming from the airlock! Really worried I have somehow contaminated it. I was planning on leaving it another week and then priming and bottling. Any ideas?

BeerNut

It's fine. Leave it to do its thing. I don't get the point of drawing off two bottles, though. Careful they don't explode.

Burkie94

Cheers for the thread. Been interested in getting into home brewing for a few months now, this thread peaked the interest again.

Reckon I'm gonna pick up the same kit as Cian and take it from there.

thelaoislad

Hi guys ,
I'm a first timer as well, kicker off with an IPA last friday, rehydrated my yeast in sterilized tepid water ~~ 35 oC ....got my yeast pitched at right temp and everything seemed good...filled FV to 22 L instead of 23 ..(what I was told by sales guy who sold me the kit anyway ..) i used spray malt instead of sugar ..
lots, i mean lots of activity in fermenter for first 3 days , about 1 bubble ever 3 seconds out of air lock ..last 3 days its been quite, every 3 mins maybe ... I m lucky to have a constant temp in my large hotpress, all heat controls, solar pumps, etc for house in there ..temp is constant at 20- 22 C ..i havent lifted the lid of my FV yet ..maybe tonight
I was going to test the FG on sat ,thats 1 wk in, and bottle on Sun if readings are stable ..otherwise will be hard to bottle in evenings after work with kids and the boss all around me..
But I see here advice is to leave it for about 2 weeks in FV ....
Also , I was gifted an unwanted FV with a tap , I was going to syphion the beer into that , leave it for a day to settle out any more final grunge, and then bottle direct from the tap using the bottle filling device i got with my kit , from Homebrew in mountmellick BTW..
What do ye think ...
I dont really trust the syphon I got , I just cant see it being easy to use to fill 40 odd bottles .. should be easy enough to syphon into one vessel first tho..and then use tap and filling device on the 2nd FV ..??
And is it going to be difficult to get a sample using the syphon for the FG readings ..?
Can you place hydromoter directly into FV ???

Great Posts Btw, V helpfull and got me started

Ferg

loyatemu

thelaoislad wrote: »

Hi guys ,
I'm a first timer as well, kicker off with an IPA last friday, rehydrated my yeast in sterilized tepid water ~~ 35 oC ....got my yeast pitched at right temp and everything seemed good...filled FV to 22 L instead of 23 ..(what I was told by sales guy who sold me the kit anyway ..) i used spray malt instead of sugar ..
lots, i mean lots of activity in fermenter for first 3 days , about 1 bubble ever 3 seconds out of air lock ..last 3 days its been quite, every 3 mins maybe ... I m lucky to have a constant temp in my large hotpress, all heat controls, solar pumps, etc for house in there ..temp is constant at 20- 22 C ..i havent lifted the lid of my FV yet ..maybe tonight
I was going to test the FG on sat ,thats 1 wk in, and bottle on Sun if readings are stable ..otherwise will be hard to bottle in evenings after work with kids and the boss all around me..
But I see here advice is to leave it for about 2 weeks in FV ....

Leave it the extra week

Also , I was gifted an unwanted FV with a tap , I was going to syphion the beer into that , leave it for a day to settle out any more final grunge, and then bottle direct from the tap using the bottle filling device i got with my kit , from Homebrew in mountmellick BTW..
What do ye think ...

sound fine - racking to a second bucket for a week should make it clearer. You can then prime the bottles individually and fill directly from the second bucket. or rack back to the first bucket for bottling (google "batch priming").

I dont really trust the syphon I got , I just cant see it being easy to use to fill 40 odd bottles .. should be easy enough to syphon into one vessel first tho..and then use tap and filling device on the 2nd FV ..??
And is it going to be difficult to get a sample using the syphon for the FG readings ..?
Can you place hydromoter directly into FV ???

yeah, sanitise it first though. Its a bit difficult to read in the fermenter but it'll give you an idea of where the fermentation is at.

thelaoislad

tks, ill follow that advice for sure about the extra wk (2 in total ) in FV.
I had first look in it tonight and there is a lot of stuff still in suspension ,thats after 5 days..no way is it near bottling this wend with what I saw floating on top.. might take FG at wend out of interest , thats all

so does 2.5 - 3 weeks in total seem about right before bottling ?

leave it in ~~20 oC for few days to kick start second fermentation, then move all bottles out to garage where temp is averaging 8 -12 oC, for another 3 wks say ?

loyatemu

2 weeks is usually long enough, but leaving it an extra week won't do it any harm - best to judge using the hydrometer.

you should leave the bottles at room temperature for at least a week before moving them to the garage - they'll take much longer to carbonate at low temperatures.

CianSmyth

Hey, I'm bottling today but need more bottle caps. Any place on the north side of dublin I can buy them. Tried tesco but they didn't have them.

loyatemu

CianSmyth wrote: »

Hey, I'm bottling today but need more bottle caps. Any place on the north side of dublin I can buy them. Tried tesco but they didn't have them.

Mottly Brew are the only shop in Dublin but they're not open on a Sunday.

maybe ask over on http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.com/forum/index.php - there might be someone nearby who can give you some.

Buona Fortuna

CianSmyth wrote: »

Hey, I'm bottling today but need more bottle caps. Any place on the north side of dublin I can buy them. Tried tesco but they didn't have them.

If you're completely stuck use 2ltr fizzy drink bottles.

CianSmyth

Hey everyone,

Just thought I'd post a thank you to you all!
Everything went well and I was happy with the result! Looking to start a new brew now, any suggestions?

Hingo

A Nice stout for those post Xmas Blues! - Have a look into kit hacking, maybe make a winter stout (add some extra DME and some christmassy spices)

I made a stout there at the weekend (was a handy extract recipe) 1.080 OG and smells like Christmas cake in the FV!

Ya can't go wrong with a good stout.

Then closer to spring, start looking at Pale Ales, IPAs & session ales!