Is my kit finished fermenting?

[J_P]

Hi all

I'm new to home brewing in fact it's my first kit so be gentle with me! The kit I'm brewing is a Brupaks Pride of Yorkshire IPA and it's been in the fermenting vat for 7 days now. I was wondering how I tell when the fermentation is finished?

The instructions say that the hydrometer should read 1.010 when it's finished the primary ferment, which it is what it's reading now. However I have read on the web of some folks leaving it ten days or more and others say you've got to have 2 identical readings in 24 hours and when you add into this mix my Dad (home brewer of 25+ years) looking at it and saying it's miles off you have a recipe for a very confused newbie!

Would you folks be able to advise me if there is a definitive way of telling when the beer is finished fermenting please? The last thing I want is to get it my first kit wrong and end up with either 40 pints of vinegar or a brew that's so fizzy it's got to be opened by a bomb disposal team!

Any help would be greatfully received

Cheers

John

[Jim]

Hi John; you're right that the sure sign of primary fermentation being finished is two (almost) identical successive readings 24 hrs apart, but if it's down to 10 it's probably OK.

If you're bottling your brew, leave it for a few more days. This is both to allow more of the yeast to settle out in the fermenter rather than going into the bottles and because bottling too early can cause burst bottles, so it pays to err on the safe side.

If you're going to use a pressure barrel, it would still be best to leave it to settle a bit, but not so critical from the incomplete fermentation point of view.

Hope that helps!

[J_P]

Thanks for the prompt and definitive response.

I'm bottling rather than using a pressure barrel. I'll check the gravity tomorrow morning and if it's around 1.010 then I'll know it's done but I'll put the bottling off until Monday. It looks to be clearing down nicely hopefully by Monday it should have finished and be ready for conditioning.

Daab - that's spooky, my dad brews the single tin kits all the time, I never could get away with the resultant beer but he seems to like it so I guess that's all that matters.

I think I may pop down the hop and grape tomorrow and pick up another kit, my good lady friend fancies the Almondsbury Old and who am I to argue? If anyone else has any recommendations then I'm all ears.

Cheers Again

John

[parkerwitton]

Hello JP fellow Durhamite....next time your in Hop and Grape pick up Woodfordes Great Eastern a lovely easy drinking beer.....ask the wife!!

[J_P]

Tanks for all your advice - no doubt I'll be back to let you know how it turned out

Cheers

John

[J_P]

The IPA is now bottled and put in the airing cupboard to condition when that's done then it's going in the coal shed for a couple of weeks. I have saved the sludge out of the bottom of the barrel as it's superb for putting in slug traps.

Good beer and slug killer double whammy!

[fivetide]

That's a brilliant idea! I wonder if those sludge-filled slugs could then be used as some sort of adjunct in your next brew?

Slug Stout?

[J_P]

Right I've moved them out of the airing cupboard and into the cupboard in the bathroom cupboard, that's cooler and about room temp.

Cheers for the pointer it could have all gone pear shaped so easily.

Slug stout - I'm sure I've been served that before in some of Darlingtons less reputable establishments. I think it's also known it as badly kept Guinness!