Fermentation time

[alefric]

Many of the kit beers never drop below 1.014 and 1.012.....i think the manufacturers can be a little optimistic in their FG targets......next step might be to fit a fermentation lock to see if there is still any activity.....from reading your posts i think this sounds unlikely in which case it's probably time to bottle or barrel it.

Andrew

[RichardG]

Thanks Andrew. There's certainly not been any activity, so in lieu of any other advice, I think I'll follow your suggestion and get it bottled tonight/tomorrow night as time permits. All slightly disappointing, but we'll see how it ends up.

[sparky Paul]

I would bottle/keg it too if the gravity is steady at 1012, it is perfectly okay at that and I certainly wouldn't do anything more to it. All of the 3Kg John Bull kits I've done have finished around that figure.

To be honest, 1012 is about the FG you would expect from any 3Kg kit, as alefric says. The 1006 mentioned in the destructions is far too optimistic, and potentailly undesireable - it could taste 'thin' at that gravity, with little 'mouthfeel'. You might get to 1006 with a one can kit and a bag of sugar, but never with a 3Kg 100% extract kit.

[RichardG]

Cheers for that guys. As a newbie you can imagine that I'm bound to look for what the kit instructions tell me I should see. Sounds to me as though I may as well forget that!

[RichardG]

Okay, for better or worse last night the brew was bottled. I should have made it clear in my last post in response to sparky paul's, that the kit in question is a 1.8kg, not 3kg, though I suspect his general comment regarding FG hold true. Either way the gravity wasn't moving and I was getting a bit twitchy sticking hydro's and paddles in as, no matter how careful I am with steralising, this is always a contamination risk. I kept some of the 'over flow' to taste, and it wasn't actually that bad. No hint of sarsons, tasted and felt okay, and by my calcs it'll have an ABV of around 4% ish. It's off to condition now which should only imporve matters, so I'll report back on the results when it's all ready.

[sparky Paul]

I should have made it clear in my last post in response to sparky paul's, that the kit in question is a 1.8kg, not 3kg, though I suspect his general comment regarding FG hold true.

Ah, I'm with you now, I was on the wrong track and was assuming it was the JB Masterclass kit.

The FG depends upon the fermentables added. The 1006 would be correct if you added a 1Kg bag of table sugar, but if you added 1Kg of spraymalt or a can of liquid extract, you would be looking for somewhere around the 1012 FG. 1Kg of Beer Kit Enhancer would give you a FG figure inbetween.

[RichardG]

That's interesting. I had 500g of spray malt amd 500g of sugar. So, my FG may not have been that far off.

[RichardG]

Well, thought I'd bring you up to speed. The Porter's been in bottles now for 2 weeks, so thought I'd check one to see how they were coming along. Some what apprehensively I cracked a bottle last night; good carbonation, but not too much, virtually no head on it (see Blackbags earlier comments!) but I'm not too bothered about that. But, the biggest pleasent surprise, was it tasted great! Excellent drop under the circumstances. Hopefully, it should only improve with age (if i can wait that long!).

[sparky Paul]

Great stuff!

They'll certainly improve with a few more weeks, or even months, and you may also find the head improves. To make the most of it, make sure the glass you are using is spotless, with no traces of grease or residual washing up liquid.

Hops also seem to play a part in head formation and retention, and I find that it is rarely a problem for me since I started making hop additions. In fact, sometimes, there's too much!