My First Kit - Youngs Harvest Stout

[Chris The Fish]

Ive been moving house with a 11month old, so ive not got round to posting much due to slack isp providers etc. however, duing my digital drought ive made my first kit brew, well ive got to the 1st fermentation stage!

i got a Youngs Harvest Stout kit, and apart from making it as a 40 pinter instead of a 30 (half a k of glucose extra just to get the starting gravity up to 1042 from 1030) and i was away.

The actual day i made the kit, as i had a 1000 questions but no internet and thus no forum, so i had to make do and see what happened.

Fermentaion has gone well so far, with a thickish head forming for the first 4 days or so, thinning out to a slight head, but still bubbling away.

Im now on day 7, and as far as gravity goes the story so far is...

Inital Gravity - 1042
4th Day - 1022
5th Day - 1012
6th Day - 1008
7th Day - 1006

so the fermentation is slowing nicely (i think) and i reckon im in for bottling about day 9 (im sad enough to have made an excel chart for my gravity readings, and the curve looks to be flattening to about day 9 if fermentation continues).

I used glucose instead of sugar, and plan to bottle half and put half in a king keg, priming the bottles with black treacle (im a sucker for tinkering), brown sugar whilst using glucose with the keg.



Let me know your thoughts on the story so far, its my first kit so ill be happy to hear of any comments.

Cheers

Chris the fish.
(looking forward to drinking like one )

[james_m_r]

Sounds good to me Chris although I too am an inexperienced brewer so can't really comment on the changes you have made.

[Chris The Fish]

i checked my gravity again today and it read 1002, if i bottle now will it only ferment down to 1000 or go into the 900s?

or should i wait for it to stabilise then bottle/keg it?

[sparky Paul]

1002 is quite low, and it shouldn't go much lower - but you need to make sure that the gravity has stabilised before bottling or kegging. Look for the same reading over 2 -3 days.

[Chris The Fish]

ok so the reading was very slightly lower today than yesterday, a point maybe. Anyhow, having the afternoon off i decided to take the opportunity to bottle/keg the mild.

I primed using 'an amount' of black treacle, disolved in some warm water to make it more workable. I say amount as i never realised the stickyness of black treacle, and although i zero'd the scales, i still think its impossible to measure how much actually goes in!

Having keged about 20 pints into my keg, i decided to prime the bottles using muscavado sugar, a rich brown raw cane sugar which smells very similar to the molasses of the treacle.

It was fun and games trying to use a syphon for the first time, the keg went fine, however when i tried to bottle using one it went boobies north, so to speak.

i ended up boiling a pyrex jar and using that, i managed to get the beer into the bottles with minimum of agitation, so fingers crossed it wont have oxidised.

So, the question is now... as i have sooo much will power can i wait for 2 weeks without trying it?

[Chris The Fish]

after today i definatly know what your on about.

[Chris The Fish]

for those interested, the youngs harvest stout is lovely!

I bottled half, primed with muscovado sugar, and its really nice after only 12 days or so in the bottle.

the half i put into my KING KEG TOP TAP is not so good, neither is my ability to judge this beast with only half a barrel and no C02, primed with black treacle this tastes ok, only not as nice as the bottled stuff.

anyhow, ive got this to drink then 2 brewferm kits, an Ambiorix and a Tarwebier (for the missus!) after those two have been bottled and my Wherry is in the keg (yes, im a glutton for punishment but apart from some wierd bits in it, its 1014 from 1048 and has been on the go for 6 days!) Im seriously considering the stout for a 2nd go, im a stout drinker and i think with a bit more knowhow ill get it spot on.

so a big thumbs up for the stout.