Utter Nightmare!

[Chris The Fish]

Tried my xmas brew last night - a breferm Triple which is one week into conditioning so i tested it for carbonation etc.

its gorgeous already and with my will power its never going to last till christmas!

its a hard life this homebrew malarky!

[prodigal2]

Tis the peril of Homebrewing

[martyn142]

Hi Xmas - I am going to start my Triple off tonight. Did you use household sugar? And what temperature did you brew at? The destructions say 25C - the warmest place I can use wil be about 22C. Should be OK I would have thought?

[JayBee]

Its a nightmare just looking at my Diabolo twice a day. Nearly three weeks in the bottle now and that s by far the longest I`ve gone without a taster, probably because its only a one can 9 litre brew.
You don`t think any might have evaporated do you?

[Chris The Fish]

Did you use household sugar? And what temperature did you brew at? The destructions say 25C - the warmest place I can use wil be about 22C. Should be OK I would have thought?

I used 500g of clear candy sugar and about 250g of glucose. it was fermented at room temp (currently about 22c) which wont affect the fermentation that much, i certainly wouldnt worry about it.

as for household sugar its not that dissimilar to candy sugar and although ive never used it in a belgian brew there are others about who have.

id go for it, what you suggest is perfectly fine for a triple.

chris

[Waffty]

its gorgeous already and with my will power its never going to last till christmas!!

Chris, I've got the same problem with my Christmas brew but played a blinder with my Abbey i.e not wanting to be limited to 9L, I may up two kits (18L), with two lots of Candi sugar (one dark, one light) & like you, I'm having to fight my will power, as both the Abbey & Christmas brews are perfect winter warmers & taste excellent, even at this early'ish stage.

Got a POY Colne Bitter conditioning & a Coopers mastercase IPA to kick off, so with a bit of luck, that'll take my mind off the Brewferms

[Sheepy]

Looking forward to a taste of it soon then

[arturobandini]

Hey Gents,

Got my first brew on the way Saturday afternoon (Diabolo double kit 18l) and it started off nice and strong with a good 2 inches of head developing after about 12hrs or so. I was worried about the temp so wrapped it up and it seemed to be fine, checked today (48hrs after starting) and the head has reduced to a thin white layer over the top but the bubbles still seem to be constant. Is this normal for the Brewferm kits to lose that thick head so early on in the fermentation? I made it up with 1kg of light candi.

Cheers

[Sheepy]

Wouldnt worry, I have just bottled a batch of Abbey and it behaved pretty much the same. It still went down to 1012 so I was happy

[arturobandini]

Cheers Sheepy,

My girlfriend is starting to worry about me pacing backward and forward around the FV like an expectant father (she's pregnant so there may be a touch of jealousy involved). I'm going to give it a full 10 days then transfer to a bottling bucket for bottling in brown glass bottles. I've nothing against PET or similar but I think i'm too into aesthetics and glass looks a lot nicer. Got myself a Duvel glass for a pound on Ebay so lets hope I can get some similar head on the beer after a few months of secondary fermentation in bottles. Anyone got any tips on how and what kind of sugar to use if going for the bottling bucket approach?

[Waffty]

Anyone got any tips on how and what kind of sugar to use if going for the bottling bucket approach?

Primed mine with bog standard brewing sugar (Dextros?), at the rate given in the instructions (used 100ml of boiled water, added the sugar & left to cool, added sugar compound to keg & then added the beer) + I added a little heading compound, just for good measure.

The secondary fermentation went balistic i.e I checked my Corny & the pressure was up around 35Psi, so I dropped it a couple of times as I was worried it was getting too high.

After a week or so, I popped it in the garage & tested it after a further two weeks & I have to say it's perfect, the carbonisation is spot on & the head is just like a Guiness/stout

[arturobandini]

The more I hear about these kits the more I start salivating and find myself gazing longingly at the little bucket in the corner of my front room. I forgot about the brewferm instructions; been using them as a beer mat since I finished the brewing process. My inclination is to use Candi again for bottling but I had to order online last time and I'm loathe to just keep ordering one or two items and paying all that postage. I'll check another homebrew shop in the area and see if they stock or will order in some for me as the first place I went to for the kits sounded like they weren't really interested in it. Candi is a curious little beast though, takes a little while to break those crystals down but hopefully it will be worth it.

Sorry to anyone who thinks this is a bit of thread-jacking but I thought it fitted in well here with all the brewferm talk. Cheers to you too Chris as reading all your wonderful talk of these kits is what gave me the kick up the arse I needed to go and get a couple of tins of Diabolo in the first place. Now I need to get bottle collecting. I've got three or four Duvel 33cl originals which I intend to keep aside for longer term storage but I'll need to get a wriggle on to neck all the beers I'll need to store the rest. I think my girlfriend would lose the plot if I told her I need to get 50 Duvels drunk by next wednesday.....especially as she sees my homebrew as a thrifty alternative to shop bought beer.

[vinceg]

Gents, a bit of advice please if you don't mind.

I've got my Brewferm Abdij down to 1010 so it's finished. It looks to have a bit of muck floating in it just below the surface. Firstly, has anyone else noticed this? Secondly, I will not have the chance to bottle it until Sunday at the very earliest. I've left other brews in the FV for a few days after they've fermented out before bottling/kegging with no repercussions. What's everyone's experiences on this front with Brewferm kits?

[Waffty]

I've got my Brewferm Abdij down to 1010 so it's finished. It looks to have a bit of muck floating in it just below the surface. Firstly, has anyone else noticed this? Secondly, I will not have the chance to bottle it until Sunday at the very earliest. I've left other brews in the FV for a few days after they've fermented out before bottling/kegging with no repercussions. What's everyone's experiences on this front with Brewferm kits?

I had clumps of yeast floating on my brew, it soon dropped after I primmed it and dropped the temp (which helps the yeast fall out of suspension). You shouldn't have a problem with primming/bottling, provided there's enough yeast still in the beer. If you have a small plastic fizzy pop bottle, then prime & fill your bottles as normal & fill the pop bottle, leave in a warm place & periodically squeeze the pop bottle. If it goes hard, it's priming, if it isn't then you may need to add a couple of grains of fresh yeast to your bottles. One thing, you may need to leave the bottles longer to prime if the yeast has fell from suspension.

[arturobandini]

Anyone that did the Diabolo kits; what was your original gravity before pitching? I didn't take mine and I'm assuming it's a fairly standard measurement. Wanted some rough idea of what I'm in for when it's all bottled and ready.

Cheers