AG#2 – Old Speckled Hen 14/10/10

[Kegman]

Hi all,

As you can see by the date I did this a week ago, the reason I’ve left posting about it for a while was because my first AG, which I documented heavily on here, turned to vinegar before fermentation was over. I didn’t want to jinx this one!

The recipe is from Graham Wheelers book and I did it the same as my first attempt (documented here viewtopic.php?f=24&t=36001) but with the following changes:

- I sterilised everything the day before.
- I prepared 40l of water for a 23l brew. On my first attempt I couldn’t believe how much water was lost due to hops, grain and boiling so I wanted to have too much water this time, just in case. I boiled 20l the day before (with half a campden), poured into a spare FV and then did another 20l.
- I tested the alkalinity with the Salifert kit and treated all of the water with CRS based on the reading. For the DLS I used the total and mash levels (rather than 40l).
- I measured out the grains and hops the day before.
- I fly sparged as last time using my nifty home-made cutlery tray sparger.
- During the boil I gently topped up the water with the spare treated batch, about ¼ litre each time made sure it didn’t go off the boil.
- I plunged the cooler in 10 minutes before the end of the boil. I attempted to sterilise it last time (which I did this time as well) but didn’t add to the boiling wort, a possible source of infection.
- I bought a hop-stopper but forgot to fit it to the boiler (doh!) so as last time, I tipped the boiled and cooled wort from the boiler into my now clean mash-tun fitted with the mashing bag. This is the same vessel I decided to use for fermentation so all I needed to do was remove the mash-bag and aerate before I added the yeast. Unlike my other FV, this one has a tap and I’ve bought myself a wide piece of tubing which attaches nicely so that I don’t get too much air in the beer after fermentation.

I made a yeast starter in a demijohn a few days before and I think the yeast part was key to my failure last time. When I went to use the demijohn it smelled of vinegar. I figured it’s because the remains of the old yeast starter were still in there from a few weeks ago so I sterilised it thoroughly and used it again for this batches yeast starter.

I checked while waiting for the wort to boil and thought it smelled vaguely of vinegar. I tasted it and yep, a definite vinegary taste there so I decided I was most definitely not going to put it in. I posted on here what to do and got a very swift reply from mat69 suggesting a “flying yeast starter” (see here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=37539). I did this and used instead of what was in the demijohn and 6 days on everything looks good. Therefore I think the source of the problem last (and nearly this time) was the yeast starter. I don’t know how it’s become infected but what I do know is that I’ll use the flying starter method from now on.

The original gravity was 1042 but should have been 1050 according to the recipe. I guess it was because I added more water and TBH, don’t know how to adjust it upwards so went with it.

So Yesterday I took it from the FV into my pressure barrel and checked the gravity which was at 1001. I calculate that at 5.47%, not bad as the recipe says 5.6%. It was pretty cloudy Yesterday and tasted very much like a finished homemade malt extract batch.

Today, 24 hours later I’ve taken another sample to check. It shot out of the tap into the sample jar proving it’s still fermenting and is much much clearer than Yesterday. The hydrometer has rested on 1000 meaning it’s now 5.6%. It tastes better already as well.

I’m not going to touch it again until next weekend, I’m figuring it should be drinkable the weekend after next but was planning to save it for Christmas to share with my Dad.

All in all I think I’ve had my first success!

I plan to do a Ruddles County in the next few weeks, again to have ready for Christmas. I found a recipe here: http://www.colchesterhomebrew.co.uk/recipes.html but if anyone has any tips or other recipes for it I’d appreciate a PM.

Cheers me dears!

Kegman.

[simco999]

Good luck with this one - it must have been heart breaking to lose your first AG.

[Kegman]

Good luck with this one - it must have been heart breaking to lose your first AG.

Thanks, it was but the important thing is I'm 99% sure what went wrong now. Back home Tomorrow and can't wait to see how the beer is since Sunday

[Kegman]

Well I wanted it ready for Christmas day and here it is. It's not that easy to get a photo to show how clear it is, is it? My Dads enjoying it so that says it all really!

[floydmeddler]

Looks good... however, 1000 is an EXTREMELY low gravity. I can't understand how that's happened to be honest unless you added a dry beer enzyme?

Anyway, really glad it has worked out for you. Well done.

[Kegman]

Looks good... however, 1000 is an EXTREMELY low gravity. I can't understand how that's happened to be honest unless you added a dry beer enzyme?

Is it? Ohh... well it tastes great! My Ruddles County (also tastes great but not quite clear yet) is 1004. Is that low too? If so I wonder if it's my hydrometer, it's about 25 years old!

Anyway, really glad it has worked out for you. Well done.

Many thanks

[Chicken Dipper]

Try calibrating your hydrometer, drop it into water at the temp your hydrometer is set at. Should read 0. Mine is a 20 degrees C hydromter, however the one I inherited from my Grandad years ago was something else (15 maybe)? This may be why your readings are so low. Awesome looking pint by the way mate.

[floydmeddler]

Try calibrating your hydrometer, drop it into water at the temp your hydrometer is set at. Should read 0. Mine is a 20 degrees C hydromter, however the one I inherited from my Grandad years ago was something else (15 maybe)? This may be why your readings are so low. Awesome looking pint by the way mate.

+1 on this idea. I can't believe your beers would have dropped that much. That's wine territory... or Duvel! You'll want to be shooting for around 1010-1014 for this type of beer.

[Kegman]

Try calibrating your hydrometer, drop it into water at the temp your hydrometer is set at. Should read 0. Mine is a 20 degrees C hydromter, however the one I inherited from my Grandad years ago was something else (15 maybe)? This may be why your readings are so low.

Good idea, I got a digital thermometer for Christmas and used some snow to calibrate it (I knew that cold sh*t would be useful for something!). With that I can do me hydrometer too.

Awesome looking pint by the way mate.

Thank you, it tastes as good as it looks too

[Kegman]

Try calibrating your hydrometer, drop it into water at the temp your hydrometer is set at. Should read 0. Mine is a 20 degrees C hydromter, however the one I inherited from my Grandad years ago was something else (15 maybe)? This may be why your readings are so low.

Good idea, I got a digital thermometer for Christmas and used some snow to calibrate it (I knew that cold sh*t would be useful for something!). With that I can do me hydrometer too.

Awesome looking pint by the way mate.

Thank you, it tastes as good as it looks too

OK, at 20 degrees it sits at 0995 so I've got to add an addtional 5 to all my readings. I've also looked at my notes and the last reading for this was 1002 so that would make it more like 1007. The recipe suggests 1008 so I'm happy with that.

[floydmeddler]

Good stuff. Sounds more like it!