Last few liters from fermentor

davemie

Hi guys, I finished my first kit brew last week, a Coopers Oz Pale Ale. I left it in the fermentor for two weeks and then bottled. The beer was reasonable clear when bottling the top half of the fermentor, but it got muddier and muddier the more bottles I filled. Is that normal? Would things be better if I racked the beer after the first week?

When I got down to the last two / three liters of beer from the fermentor, it didn't look great at all as it was full of sediment, so I just threw it out! Is that normal or just wasteful?

Bottling was a major pain, I used a normal siphon, never again! I'm going to have to get an auto siphon, but don't want to order online and have to pay postage for one item. Is there anywhere around Cork city that sell them? I checked in the health shop above Tesco on Pauls St, no luck!

PhiliousPhogg

Did you mix your priming sugar in the fermenter before bottling? If you stirred it in, you probably stirred up the sediment at the bottom. Solution is to transfer it to a secondary container before mixing the sugar.

Or maybe you didn't stir it enough when mixing the kit in the fermenter. The kit should be poured into 4-5 litres of boiled water and then thoroughly mixed with the sugar. It should also be stirred well again after topping up with cold water to the full volume.

Generally sediment isn't good but for the sake of a few bottles there's no harm in bottling what you have left and seeing how it turns out, in fact it's good to keep a record of what you did and learn from the results.

A fermenter with a tap & tube would make your life easier. I never used a siphon & don't find bottling a hassle apart from all the sterilising.

davemie

Thanks for the info PhiliousPhogg.

I used Coopers carbonation drops and added them directly to the bottle, so I didn't need to add priming sugar to the fermenter and hence I didn't mix everything up before I started to bottle.

When I started, I added the kit (oz pale ale) along with 1kg of wheat spray malt (The shop didn't have any light spray malt) to 4 liters of very hot water, not exactly boiling, but not too far off.

I guess what I missed out on was to give it a good mix in the fermenter before bottling.

From watching videos on YouTube, fermenters with a tap & tube looks really simple when it comes to bottling, but I was kinda put off the idea after seen the area around the tap leak on a few people. I was also told that the tap makes it hard to clean that area. I guess one option would be to get a second fermenter/bucket with a tap and transfer into that when bottling.

I already have a water cooler bottle, which I could convert and add a tap. If I was to covert the cap of the water cooler bottle and add a tap, do you think it would work as it would be a closed container or are the taps designed to only work on an open container to let air in? It would be a lot simpler to add the tap to the container cap due to the narrow opening of the bottle.

Cheers guys, this home brewing is a lot of fun! But I don't think my dog shares the same opinion as the fermenter is bubbling away all night long in the same room as he sleeps

fryup

get a funnel with a built in filter, that should help when bottling

PhiliousPhogg

fryup wrote: »

get a funnel with a built in filter, that should help when bottling

as long as you can attach a tube that will reach to the bottom of the bottles.

Not sure about the water cooler. You'll need an airhole at the top for draining the beer out through the tap. And manually fitting a tap to the bottom mightn't be the most secure, my fermenter has a rim of plastic around where you fill the tap so it's pretty tight.

Maybe you'll get a bit tidier with the siphon in future.

fryup

PhiliousPhogg wrote: »

as long as you can attach a tube that will reach to the bottom of the bottles.

But is that necessary for the last bottle? that would be the time to use the filter so as to collect all the sediment & guk that lies at the bottom of the fermenting bucket.

Martin Walker

Coopers pale Ale has sediment in the bottle.
Its a cloudy ale. I buy it regularly here in Oz cos i love it. The sediment settles in the bottom of the bottle and you "roll" it before opening to mix it through. Its completely normal.

Oh and its smashing stuff!!:)