Bottling soon, some questions...

Fart

Hi guys,

So my Coopers Canadian Blonde has been fermenting for nearly two weeks. It will be two weeks this Friday.
I checked the gravity today and it is 1.016, compared to the OG of 1.038.
According to my calculations, the alcohol % will only be around 2.9%, does that sound right?

I've had a little taste from the hydrometer capsule (:P) and it does seem flat, as obviously there is no carbonation in it. It doesn't taste terrible though.

Earlier on in the week I was worried about it being infected as there was some patches of white on top of the brew. It turns out it could be something to do with the yeast?
I've also looked at some beer infections online and my brew doesn't look like that.

I'm also worried that the yeast may have fallen asleep if the alcohol content is quite low. There is a lot of sediment (nearly an inch) at the bottom of the fermenter, is that ok?

/end thread of worry.

BeerNut

Fart wrote: »

I checked the gravity today and it is 1.016, compared to the OG of 1.038.
According to my calculations, the alcohol % will only be around 2.9%, does that sound right?

The calculation is correct, but the OG is very low. You might have too much water or, more likely, you didn't mix the ingredients thoroughly enough at the start.

Fart wrote: »

is that ok?

Yes.

Fart

Ah damn, ok.

I'll mix like a mofo on my next brew. I still hope it tastes nice.

Thanks for all your help.

BeerNut

It'll taste pretty much like it does now, only fizzy.

If poor mixing is the problem with your OG, it'll be stronger than 2.9%. Those kits are designed to finish at 4 or 4.5% for 20L.

engrish?

BeerNut wrote: »

It'll taste pretty much like it does now, only fizzy.

Is that true of most brews?

Fart

Oh by the way.
I think my hyrdometer is faulty. When reading water, it goes half way above 1.

I've just ordered a new one though. Perhaps that's where my problem lies. When it arrives (Friday) I'll re-check it with the new one.

BeerNut

engrish? wrote: »

Is that true of most brews?

At the end, yes.

Fart wrote: »

I think my hyrdometer is faulty. When reading water, it goes half way above 1.

Are you calibrating for temperature?

Krusty_Clown

BeerNut wrote: »

If poor mixing is the problem with your OG, it'll be stronger than 2.9%. Those kits are designed to finish at 4 or 4.5% for 20L.

Which raises a question: If you don't mix very well, or in my case don't stir the spraymalt sufficiently so it forms clumps, will the yeast still do it's job on the unmixed/clumped sugars? Is it just your OG that's affected by not mixing it sufficiently, or can you expect that some of the fermentables will remain un-fermented at the bottom of the bucket?

BeerNut

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

will the yeast still do it's job on the unmixed/clumped sugars?

I'd say so.

Fart

BeerNut wrote: »

Are you calibrating for temperature?

What does this mean regarding home brewing?

I just took a gravity reading so I can check it again on Friday to see if it has changed.
Temperature is around 18 degrees and sometimes goes to 19 or 20 degrees.

Edit: I understand the calibration now. Just read into it.

lang

Fart wrote: »

What does this mean regarding home brewing?

I just took a gravity reading so I can check it again on Friday to see if it has changed.
Temperature is around 18 degrees and sometimes goes to 19 or 20 degrees.

Edit: I understand the calibration now. Just read into it.

I use this site: http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/hydrometer.html to get a more accurate reading. Input the details and it makes the corrections for you.

Fart

I've checked the gravity again and it's stayed at 1.016. Is it safe to bottle at this gravity?

If my readings are right, then the OG would have been more like 1.041, not 1.0376. I'm thinking of leaving it for another few days.
The alcohol content still seems quite low (around 3.5%), but am I correct in saying that the conditioning usually raised it by another 55?

I just want to know before I have any exploding bottles.
Cheers.

mayto

Ye no problem leaving it for a few more days to be sure. You are looking at about a 0.3% alcohol addition with a priming rate of 130g of sugar for 23L of beer.

Fart

That's cool, thank you.

It's been at 18 degrees for quite some time now. I've closed the window to perhaps raise it by a degree or two to see if that will help.

The new hyrdrometer that arrived reads water as 1.000, but my older one reads it as 0.995. The older one was where the original readings came from.
Looking forward to starting my IPA as soon as I bottle this.

Fart

I've just bottled my beer.

Just to note that the alcohol content should be around 4%, which I'm happy with.

I've gotten about 21 litres from the beer kit but 4 or 5 bottles contains beer from near the bottom of the fermenter and they are visibly more cloudy than the rest. Would these be ok to drink? I'd imagine there is a lot of sediment in them? I just bottled them anyways.

Also... I embarrassingly dropped all my bottles when I just bottled them. They were in a cardboard box and when I lifted the box, they all fell around 2 - 3 feet. They were undamaged but I suppose they were shook up. They didn't fall abruptly though. Will this affect the conditioning stage?

The final gravity was 1.016 as it had been for 4 days, so that's why I bottled them. I left some room in the bottles with the hope they won't explode.

So I'll condition them for 4 weeks then hopefully they'll taste somewhat decent.

Overall, a good first experience. It is evident that I do need some more equipment to help me with the cleaning, bottling and possibly the fermenting process, but I'll gather all these soon.

Any thoughts?

mayto

I usually put an X on the last few bottles that I bottle as usually contain more sediment and stuff, but they will be fine. The shaken bottles will be fine. I have my bottles previously cleaned, rinsed and put away until bottling day. Then when bottling I can just dunk them in starsan to sanitise and put them on the bottle tree to drain. Makes bottling time a lot less hassle

Fart

That's good to know.

I've been using VWP steriliser and it smeels quite a bit. Would this affect the beer?
A bottling tree is definitely my next purchase.

mayto

Fart wrote: »

That's good to know.

I've been using VWP steriliser and it smeels quite a bit. Would this affect the beer?
A bottling tree is definitely my next purchase.

Just rinse the bottles with water after using VMP and will be fine.