Our homebrew, last stage help/advice needed

Chunks

Hi all,

Myself and my mate have decided to brew our own beer (Kruddler) and we found a decent enough step by step recipe on instructables.com to follow.

We got all of our equipment and all of our ingredients. We followed the steps all the way up to the fermenting process. Everything was going fine, maybe it still is, i'm not sure. This is where some advice would come in handy.

Since Sunday we have had our beer fermenting in my cloakroom. On Monday the airlock was going mental. Every few minutes the amount of CO2 coming out of the fermenter was causing it to pop it's top off. I kept having to replace it and topping it up with water. We have a liquid crystal thermometer on the side of the fermenter and it's showing 22-24 degrees (it was up at 26 when the most activity was happening).

Recently the CO2 has stopped coming out of the airlock. I watched it for a good few minutes yesterday and nothing came out.

I got curious this morning and took a sample to try with my hydrometer and refractometer.

The hydrometer tells me that it's only halfway through the fermentation process (halfway between 'start beer' - red, and 'bottle beer' -yellow) and the refractometer is telling me it's 1.047.

Now, our questions....
Has it stopped fermenting or has it just slowed down?
Will it complete the second half of the fermenting by Sunday (a weeks fermenting at that stage) ?
Will we have to add more sugar to give it a kick start?
Will we have to make the cloakroom warmer?
Do we need to do anything at all to it?

Our fermenter


Thermometer on fermenter


Water Hydrometer test


Beer Hydrometer test (yellow line says 'bottle now')

Sofiztikated

Hi.

I know nothing about homebrewing, BUT I do know that those stick on thermometers are nowhere near accurate.

They can be as much as 10 degrees off. I have one on a fish tank from when I started keeping fish, and measuring with 2 other thermometers, they read 24 degrees, whereas the stick on reads either 18 or 32 degrees, or somewhere in between.

mayto

The hydrometer seems to be reading 1020 gravity. Generally you are looking at it going to about 1014 to 1010 for bottling a regular beer. How long since the beer started fermenting? What type of yeast did you use? Some yeast may finish fermenting in a few days while other take longer. It will probably drop more points over the next few days, might just need some more time.

oblivious

Hi

Chunks wrote: »

'bottle beer' -yellow) and the refractometer is telling me it's 1.047.

refractometer are based on the bending of light through a liquid, with wort (unfermented beer) it presumed that this mostly sugar and water. But with fermented beer there is alcohol and higher alcohols present which will effect the refracted index of the sample. There are converters out there believe but a hydrometer is hander to use on fermented beer

Chunks wrote: »

Now, our questions....
Has it stopped fermenting or has it just slowed down?
Will it complete the second half of the fermenting by Sunday (a weeks fermenting at that stage) ?
Will we have to add more sugar to give it a kick start?
Will we have to make the cloakroom warmer?
Do we need to do anything at all to it?]

Looks fine just needs a little bit more time

I give all my beer two weeks in the primary, even if it reach terminal gravity in a few days the bulk yeast will clean it up and round of the flavours.

There is no really need for a secondary fermentation and you can keep the beer in the primary fermenter for up to a mount with out any effects. An then bottle or keg

Chunks

mayto wrote: »

The hydrometer seems to be reading 1020 gravity. Generally you are looking at it going to about 1014 to 1010 for bottling a regular beer. How long since the beer started fermenting? What type of yeast did you use? Some yeast may finish fermenting in a few days while other take longer. It will probably drop more points over the next few days, might just need some more time.

Yeah, that's the reading in the yellow band, 1010.
It started fermenting last sunday night at about 11pm.
I used youngs dried brew yeast. Two sachets(12g) into 20 litres.

Would adding some brewing sugar at this point help?

Chunks

oblivious wrote: »

Looks fine just needs a little bit more time

I give all my beer two weeks in the primary, even if it reach terminal gravity in a few days the bulk yeast will clean it up and round of the flavours.

There is no really need for a secondary fermentation and you can keep the beer in the primary fermenter for up to a mount with out any effects. An then bottle or keg

So are you saying that even though the CO2 emmisssions are now pretty much negligble it'll still be fermenting away and should be a closer reading to bottling gravity by Sunday(ish)?

Would increasing the temp or adding more sugar help perhaps?

Thanks for all the input so far guys, very helpful!

kenmc

My advice would be to leave well enough alone now for another week or so - it's only been fermenting since sunday, 4 days. It will still be fermenting away, just less vigourously now for another while. Don't add any more sugar, the temp is probably fine at room temp in this weather anyway.
Just have patience, young grasshopper

Chunks

kenmc wrote: »

My advice would be to leave well enough alone now for another week or so - it's only been fermenting since sunday, 4 days. It will still be fermenting away, just less vigourously now for another while. Don't add any more sugar, the temp is probably fine at room temp in this weather anyway.
Just have patience, young grasshopper

haha I suppose you're right. Dying to drink it though. The sample i took this morning smells delicious!

Thanks for all the advice here people. I'll post up some more info over the next few weeks on how I got on.

kenmc

Don't be in a rush, you'll be drinking it too early, it won't taste great and you'll wonder why you bothered and give up.

oblivious

Chunks wrote: »

So are you saying that even though the CO2 emmisssions are now pretty much negligble it'll still be fermenting away and should be a closer reading to bottling gravity by Sunday(ish)?

Yea as the liquid can be absorbing the co2 with out emission and you have a big head space in your fermenter that will take a bit of gas to fill. But I would be inclined to give it two week before bottling

Chunks wrote: »

Would increasing the temp or adding more sugar help perhaps?

Leave as is if the temp you used should be sufficient

Chunks

oblivious wrote: »

Yea as the liquid can be absorbing the co2 with out emission and you have a big head space in your fermenter that will take a bit of gas to fill.

Good point. That never crossed my mind. thanks.

chahop

I have started my first batch last week, a european pils it has been fermenting for a week now and the sg is close to bottling. I took a reading last night and tasted a sample it smells prety good but tasts like crap, just wondering what it should taste like before bottling ie stronger/weaker than the finished product.
Thanks in advance
Chahop

Chunks

Hi all,

Right, just to follow up with the latest on this brew...

I've run another test today and it's showing an improvement in the fermentation but still not near bottling.

The beer has been in the fermenter now for about 3 weeks...

I took a photo of the hydrometer reading (it's a bit blurry but the yellow band is the 'bottling' band)

It's an improvement on ten days ago as you can see in the opening post on this thread

I also took a photo of the thermostat on the fermenter in the closet. It's reading between 20-22degrees. Is this a bit low?


Should we be looking to bottle by now? Why is it taking so long? Should we heat the closet a bit more??

Thanks for the input.

PhiliousPhogg

Some ideas - I'm open to correction on these.

Don't bottle til it's stopped fermenting. Take a reading daily, note it down and when the gravity stops reducing, bottle. If it's a regular enough type beer the final gravity should be 1.010 or below.

3 weeks does seem a long time though. Bad yeast can hamper the fermentation process. I think yeast you get in a packet is usually OK, but I've read that yeast that's been packaged for a long time - over a year, like yeast that comes with a kit - can be in poor shape. Maybe adding some new yeast would get the process going again and get rid of the remaining sugars.

Also, for future reference, oxegenating the water while topping up your fermenter helps the yeast to grow & multiply. So it's good to get lots of splashing when you're adding water.

With the airlock, maybe you have too much water in it for bubbles to push through. It just needs a very small amount of water - enough to seal off the air.

oblivious

PhiliousPhogg wrote: »

. If it's a regular enough type beer the final gravity should be 1.010 or below.

it depends of the starting gravity, malt and yeast used, it can but up to 1.016 again depending on beer brewed. You are looking for 72%+ attenuation, here is a handy calculation staring gravity-final gravity divide by stating gravity minus 1 multiplied by 100= percent attenuation

Stating gravity S.G. (1.045)-final gravity(1.011)= (X) 0.034, (S.G.) -1= .045,
X divided by S.G.=0.755555 and multiply this by 100= 75%

PhiliousPhogg wrote: »

3 weeks does seem a long time though.

It ok

PhiliousPhogg wrote: »

Bad yeast can hamper the fermentation process. I think yeast you get in a packet is usually OK, but I've read that yeast that's been packaged for a long time - over a year, like yeast that comes with a kit - can be in poor shape. .

Yea yeast loose 50% activity per year if stored at room temp, store the yeast in the fridge to keep vitality

mayto

Chunks wrote: »

Hi all,

Right, just to follow up with the latest on this brew...

I've run another test today and it's showing an improvement in the fermentation but still not near bottling.

The beer has been in the fermenter now for about 3 weeks...

I took a photo of the hydrometer reading (it's a bit blurry but the yellow band is the 'bottling' band)

Its looking like about 1012? region on the hydrometer, if so it should be ready to bottle if its stable at that for a few days. Would not worry about the yellow bottling band as in general kit beers generally finish from 1010 to 1014 for a regular ale. Can you give an accurate reading of the hydrometer?

Chunks

Thanks for the ideas guys.

PhiliousPhogg wrote: »

Maybe adding some new yeast would get the process going again and get rid of the remaining sugars.

Anyone got any input on this idea?

oblivious

Chunks wrote: »

Thanks for the ideas guys.


Anyone got any input on this idea?

At 1.012 its done, those guides on hydrometers border on the ridiculous!
It can be quite hard to get a fermentation going again that's stopped with dry yeast

Chunks

Right, after taking all of the goood idvice in on this thread we decided to bottle over the weekend.
We sourced a few bottles from Ikea but they proved a bit pricey. Instead we sent a text out to the lads to call over for a few beers on Saturday and to pick up some Grolsch that was on special in the offo (5 for a tenner).
Between us we managed to get about 20 450ml Grolsch bottles and 9 litre Ikea bottles, all swingtop.

Stuck em in the bath with sanitiser and then bottled the beer in them with a spoonful of brewers sugar in each.

Say hello to the first successful batch


Should be drinkable in about 2-3 weeks hopefully.

Thanks again for all the input. Gonna try a lager next we reckon.

Degsy

Chunks wrote: »

Right, after taking all of the goood idvice in on this thread we decided to bottle over the weekend.
We sourced a few bottles from Ikea but they proved a bit pricey. Instead we sent a text out to the lads to call over for a few beers on Saturday and to pick up some Grolsch that was on special in the offo (5 for a tenner).
Between us we managed to get about 20 450ml Grolsch bottles and 9 litre Ikea bottles, all swingtop.

Stuck em in the bath with sanitiser and then bottled the beer in them with a spoonful of brewers sugar in each.

Say hello to the first successful batch


Should be drinkable in about 2-3 weeks hopefully.

Thanks again for all the input. Gonna try a lager next we reckon.

Two things worth mentioning.
The ikea clear bottles need to be kept out of teh light or it can affect your beer..ideally you should bottle into brown bottles like these.

Secondly the bottles on the bottom need to be standing up or the sediment will build up along the sides and you'll get a mouthfull of dead yeast when you pour it!

Chunks

Degsy wrote: »

Two things worth mentioning.
The ikea clear bottles need to be kept out of teh light or it can affect your beer..ideally you should bottle into brown bottles like these.

Secondly the bottles on the bottom need to be standing up or the sediment will build up along the sides and you'll get a mouthfull of dead yeast when you pour it!

Yeah, I read that somewhere already so I've got them locked up in the closet til it's fridge time.

The ones on the bottom are empty. I'm getting brew no.2 ready for them as we speak.

evolving_doors

Give em a month I reckon

Dont forget to post with results

fabricator

Is it ok to put Grolsch bottles through the diswasher or will it damage the stoppers?
I just want to get rid of the stickiness where the labels were.

Degsy

fabricator wrote: »

Is it ok to put Grolsch bottles through the diswasher or will it damage the stoppers?
I just want to get rid of the stickiness where the labels were.

Give em a rub with a scourer and some washing up liquid..not sure what effect a dishwasher would have though.