Brew Number Two

[stevezx7r]

Hi all. Well, my Almondbury old has been tested by myself and a few others and it's thumbs up all round. So now it's getting left for another couple of weeks to condition before being taken to a friends b-day party/bbq.

So, onto my next brew. This is a Coopers lager and I started it last night (Sunday). I made sure I took a gravity reading this time as I forgot with my ale. I'm not sure if I measured it correctly but it was 1060 - this seemed high to me. I've just taken another reading and it's now at 1042. Should a drop like that be possible? Anyway, I will be doing daily checks of it and will let you know how it's going. At the moment it has a decent head on it although it seems to only be a centimeter high and it has a medium density bubble collection on the top. My ale looked better than this at this stage so I hope nothing's gone wrong.

Anyway, any suggestions would be welcome as ever !

Steve.

[davidson]

You gravity readings I believe should be taken at 20C. From what I have read on this site, lagers tend not to have as big a head when fermenting as ales.

[stevezx7r]

The temps were 18C but I don't think it would make that much of a difference. Just had another look in the fermenter and the heads getting bigger so it looks like things are moving in the right direction.

Cheers.

[davidson]

How did you make the kit stevezx7r?

[Frothy]

Beers can take anywhere from 3 days to 4weeks to ferment out in my experience and will rarely drop lower than 1.012. Duration of fermentation shouldn't affect the finished beer and is mostly affected by temperature and yeast strain, a krausen is a good indication of happy yeast. The temperature you take the hydrometer reading at makes a negligable difference to the reading.

Frothy

[pongobilly]

i thought lager had to be fermented at colder temps???

[Frothy]

Oops I didn't realise it was a lager kit. Yes a lager brewed at room temperatures and without a lager yeast is going to taste like an ale. There are plenty of discussions about lager brewing temps about
i.e. http://jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopi ... 14&start=0

Frothy

[stevezx7r]

Hi all, it's a coopers lager but it's the one with an ale yeast so I know it can ferment ok at the 21/22C it's at at the moment. I don't mind it having the ale taste due to the yeast as I haven't yet found anywhere cold enough to use a lager yeast.

I set this one away in the same manner as when I did my first brew - a Brewpak Almondbury Old. The only difference is that the coopers is a one can affair so instead of adding sugar I used a (very roughly weighed) mix of light spray malt (750g) and dextrose (250g)

The only thing i'm concerened about is I didn't boil the spray malt and dextrose - I just tipped it into the wort and mixed it. Thats when I realised I should have boiled it as it all clumped together. D'oh !

Hopefully the yeast will still eat the spray malt/dextrose and it wont have any problems....

Cheers,

Steve.

[stevezx7r]

Ok DaaB, will do. Will post in a few days.