Grand Cru - Bottle at 1018?

[scottish69]

Ive had this brewferm kit in the FV for 6 days now - it started at 1070 but its only gone down to 1018/1020.... final grav should be 1010.

Its been stable for 24hrs at that gravity so im wondering should i just bottle it now?

I added 550G of candy sugar for the fermentables - any advice? Should i leave it till next week just to make sure?

I added a little yeast vit after day 3 just to make sure things went as far as they could...

Need to decide today because im away the rest of the week!

Cheers!

[MightyMouth]

Who says the final gravity should be 1010? A beer that starts at 1070 should be at about 1018 FG.

[scottish69]

It said 1010 on the little thing inside the kit as the FG... but others have been reporting 1014 was all they could get it to....

[MightyMouth]

1010 is around 85% attenuation which is just not going to happen, 1018 is 75% which is pretty much normal.

[scottish69]

Well ive just bottled... that means everything is pretty much perfect i guess.

Did the secondary prime with 55g of sugar - only 9 litres of liquid. The kit said 90g but i prefer it to be a little less fizzy, AND this is the first time im using glass (swing top) bottles!

Had a cheeky taste - like a hoegaarden grand cru, maybe a little more hoppy, bit sharper but i guess its flavor will change a lot as it conditions for a few weeks

Thanks for the help!

[MightyMouth]

I use between 50g and 60g for 23 litres of ale, 55 in 9 litres is a lot though I guess you want it fizzier than an ale.

[scottish69]

THe brewferm leaflet said 90g in 9 litres! MAdness. A few of the guys have said its too much at 90, recommended 50. They dont seem to be reading the thread though

[steve_flack]

Who says the final gravity should be 1010? A beer that starts at 1070 should be at about 1018 FG.

Not necessarily. If you use a wodge of sugar in a beer then the FG will be lower as although the OG goes up due to the sugar, it ferments out completely and so doesn't contribute to the FG. I've had attenuation in the high eighties with strong Belgian beers that use a lot of sugar.

[steve_flack]

THe brewferm leaflet said 90g in 9 litres! MAdness. A few of the guys have said its too much at 90, recommended 50. They dont seem to be reading the thread though

90g in 9L is actually about right for a Belgian beer giving around 3.5 volumes of CO2 in the final beer. On the other hand that is a pretty dangerous amount to use in regular 'English' beer bottles. If you can get your hands on proper Belgian bottles that are used for bottle conditioned beers (Westmalle or Orval for example) then they would be fine.

[scottish69]

Im using soem of the swing top bottles from an online HBS 750ml ones. Seem pretty decent.

Ive only primed with 55g though to be safe.

[steve_flack]

The best bottles for highly carbonated beers are Orval bottles as they are very thick and can apparently take up to 5 volumes of CO2. For something bigger to take that pressure you're looking at champagne bottles.

[scottish69]

I should be ok with just priming 55g though shouldnt i?

Fingers crossed!

S>

[steve_flack]

I should be ok with just priming 55g though shouldnt i?

Probably. It should be around 2.5 volumes which is about as far as I'd take a normal beer bottle.

[scottish69]

Thanks for the heads up steve i'll keep an eye on them... and make sure ive got lenty of towels down just in case!

S>

[PeteH]

I primed my Grand Cru with 90g, but if i did it again I'd use 50 or 60, purely to m ake it easier to pour into a pint glass. The carbonation suits this kind of beer though. I bottled in St. Peters ale bottles, which could have been a bit risky, as they don't seem very thick, but none have exploded yet. It's been about 8 weeks and they're in the garage.