Well, I've just finished knocking up my next ale. This is the 4th tin I've done since getting back into this a couple of months ago. Each time I'm getting a little more professional, a little more precise. Hopefully by taking the time to do everything as well as I can I'll make something that I can be proud of. And as I'm recording every step I should be able to replicate my successes in the future.
Listen to me, you'd think I was into the AG already.
So, this evening I took a Geordie Mild, added 100g of brewers sugar and a 1kg BKE. Topped up to 4 gallons and took a hydrometer reading. Then I stirred in my rehydrated Safale04 yeast. Topped it, airlocked it, and dragged it up to the attic (more room up there, damn site tidier than the rest of the house as well).
My question of the evening is this:
This was the first time I'd remembered to take a hydrometer reading at the start. The SG was 1054. Seems a lot higher than I was expecting. The hydrometers fine, I tested it afterwards in water. Can 1054 be right?
On Sunday morning I'll be adding a jar of honey. Would it be a good idea to take another reading then?
Geordie Mild with honey
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grumpysod
Re: Geordie Mild with honey
As this is a 5 gallon kit that'd be why you've got a higher OG, the Geordie Mild i made had an OG of 1.040 with brewing sugarBlackBag wrote: Topped up to 4 gallons and took a hydrometer reading.
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Frisp
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CyberPaddy66
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BlackBag
454g set blended honey (cheap stuff - Netto) scraped into sterilised large jug. Used boiling water poured into jar to wash out remains. With the boiling water made up to exactly 750ml. Allowed to cool, 12:45pm.
At 4.45 poured the honey solution into the fermenter. Didn't have a clean long handled spoon to hand so picked up the fermenter and gave it a good swirl about. Average temperature of the room is 22 degrees, quite warm.
6:00 took the next hydrometer reading, now at 1030.
On a separate issue flies really piss me off. And I don't just mean the little buggers, fruit flies. I mean their bigger cousins, bluebottles and house flies. Although my house is messy (3 kids, always a good excuse) it's always spotlessly clean. I know it's summer, and what a scorcher today has been, but the amount of flies is really getting on my jollops. In the midst of typing this I've just slippered a reet big bugger onto the lounge window. Has it made it's mates bugger off? Has it shite. They're all just taunting me now.
At 4.45 poured the honey solution into the fermenter. Didn't have a clean long handled spoon to hand so picked up the fermenter and gave it a good swirl about. Average temperature of the room is 22 degrees, quite warm.
6:00 took the next hydrometer reading, now at 1030.
On a separate issue flies really piss me off. And I don't just mean the little buggers, fruit flies. I mean their bigger cousins, bluebottles and house flies. Although my house is messy (3 kids, always a good excuse) it's always spotlessly clean. I know it's summer, and what a scorcher today has been, but the amount of flies is really getting on my jollops. In the midst of typing this I've just slippered a reet big bugger onto the lounge window. Has it made it's mates bugger off? Has it shite. They're all just taunting me now.
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BlackBag
Took another hydrometer reading on the Mild last night, now at 1016. I was getting concerned about the lack of activity through the airlock. By Monday morning there was nothing. I've since read on here that the Safale04 yeast can do that, ferment like buggery at first, then appear to stop. Couldn't resist trying a little sip. Very nice, warm obviously, but canny though but. Quite malty with a very dry aftertaste. No honey taste at all. If it were chilled it would definitely be drinkable. Looks promising.
Note to self: When taking a sample, remember to remove the airlock first.
On a positive note I bottled my Treacle Ale last night without spilling a drop, mind that was with assistance.
Note to self: When taking a sample, remember to remove the airlock first.
On a positive note I bottled my Treacle Ale last night without spilling a drop, mind that was with assistance.
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BlackBag
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grumpysod
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BlackBag
I took a reading an hour and 15 minutes after adding the honey which was 1030 (the reading, not the time). In effect it had dropped 24 points in almost 48 hours. Unfortunately I didn't take one just before the addition. This is the first time I've used real yeast. I'd read on here the benefits of chucking away the provided stuff and using something like the Safale04, but I wasn't prepared for it to work quite so quick. So you think it could be ready then?
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grumpysod
The Geordie bitter in my sig was made with a 454g jar of food grade malt extract and 500g brewing sugar . The OG was 1.038 and I pitched a sachet of S04 on Saturday at 4pm. By Sunday evening it was at 1.013 (and it's stayed there) so it is possible that your brew is finished.
I used Qbrew to get a rough estimate of what the honey would've added to your brew. It gave me a OG of 1.008 if added to a 19L (4gallon) brew (i didn't take into account any extra water added to disolve the honey), so by adding those 8 points to your OG you get a drop of 46 or about 5.9% (all figures are very approximate and may even be wildly inaccurate but as long as it's drinkable who cares)
I used Qbrew to get a rough estimate of what the honey would've added to your brew. It gave me a OG of 1.008 if added to a 19L (4gallon) brew (i didn't take into account any extra water added to disolve the honey), so by adding those 8 points to your OG you get a drop of 46 or about 5.9% (all figures are very approximate and may even be wildly inaccurate but as long as it's drinkable who cares)
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BlackBag
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BlackBag
More mishap and frustration.
I took another reading last night, still at 1016, so decided I would bottle. Unfortunately my ready to use bottles had disappeared which left me with the wonderful job of scratching around finding any bottles I could, and then cleaning and sterilising them all. By 11:15pm it was all systems go. I'd used the sample I'd taken earlier for priming. 16 teaspoons of unrefined granulated sugar dropped into the sample, which was now in a sterilised jug, popped into the micro, boiled, and allowed to cool. I had hoped to pour this straight into my fermenter (normally I use a second fermenter) and siphon from there to save a bit of time, but alas no. The new tap that I'd fitted to it wouldn't take either of my lengths of tubing. The nozzle hole was just to damn small. Never mind. Back to the tried and tested siphon from one to the other method. This I did, after adding the sugar solution to the second fermenter first. Things were still running ok up to this point.
So, I've got my primed second fermenter sitting on the kitchen bench, and all my clean bottles with tops awaiting the brew. This would be the third time I'd done things this way ( a Geordie Scottish Export and a Vina Traditional Lager being the first two) so I knew what to expect. I would push my tubing up inside the tap, turn on, get someone to pass me bottles, and fill. When the liquid reaches the appropriate point I would kink the tubing to halt the flow and move on to the next bottle. Simple. No. For some strange and inexplicable reason my tubing had shrunk. It was far too small a bore for the tap nozzle. Try my other length of tubing. No, certainly not that one, that one's even smaller. How could this happen? My OH insists I have another barrel exactly the same, with a tap that must be smaller. Patiently I explained that I hadn't, but that she was more than welcome to undertake a full scale search of the unfeasibly large mansion in which we live to find said barrel. How then to decant? At the suggestion of brains (OH) I decided to just put the bottles directly under the tap. My what a glorious mess was made. Obviously the flow releases itself in a jet of the same dimensions as the tap it is leaving. Hence the kitchen carpet / front of dishwasher took another soaking. Then we tried the funnel in bottle and turn on tap procedure. Isn't it amazing how much of a head can be created when pouring this way. Not to mention how much beer you can get on the floor. Needless to say this system was also dropped when another couple of pints or so had found their way to the carpet. In the end I had to resort to siphoning directly from the FV into the bottles, but boy did that beer not want to play. Every bottle had to be individually "sucked through", with all the wastage and foaming this creates. God knows what it will taste like when ready.
The fun didn't end there though. Oh no. I still had the joy of using my new Emily crown capper. Are these things really crap or is it just me? I lose about 50% of my caps. It just slips and slides off the bottle causing the caps to bend. That's if you've got a bottle that will take a cap. Fortunately I knew about the Wychwood bottles, but I didn't realise the Batemans bottles would also be a problem. Obvious in hind sight, because of the large ridge below the opening. Most of the bottles I ended up trying to cap were the small 275ml J20 fruit juice type. Well at 1:00 this morning I finally finished. In total I've lost about 6 litres (which includes the obvious sediment at the bottom of the fermenter).
Things wouldn't have been as bad during the whole performance had I not been constantly reminded of my complete inability to do anything right. This hobby has never been well received. It's an expensive, filthy, smelly waste of time. It would be so much cheaper and easier just to buy my ale at the supermarket. And it would taste a darn site nicer than the foul and pestilent swill I concoct. Apparently. I think It's about time I just cut my losses, sold up, and moved on. Anyone want to buy a second-hand wife?
I took another reading last night, still at 1016, so decided I would bottle. Unfortunately my ready to use bottles had disappeared which left me with the wonderful job of scratching around finding any bottles I could, and then cleaning and sterilising them all. By 11:15pm it was all systems go. I'd used the sample I'd taken earlier for priming. 16 teaspoons of unrefined granulated sugar dropped into the sample, which was now in a sterilised jug, popped into the micro, boiled, and allowed to cool. I had hoped to pour this straight into my fermenter (normally I use a second fermenter) and siphon from there to save a bit of time, but alas no. The new tap that I'd fitted to it wouldn't take either of my lengths of tubing. The nozzle hole was just to damn small. Never mind. Back to the tried and tested siphon from one to the other method. This I did, after adding the sugar solution to the second fermenter first. Things were still running ok up to this point.
So, I've got my primed second fermenter sitting on the kitchen bench, and all my clean bottles with tops awaiting the brew. This would be the third time I'd done things this way ( a Geordie Scottish Export and a Vina Traditional Lager being the first two) so I knew what to expect. I would push my tubing up inside the tap, turn on, get someone to pass me bottles, and fill. When the liquid reaches the appropriate point I would kink the tubing to halt the flow and move on to the next bottle. Simple. No. For some strange and inexplicable reason my tubing had shrunk. It was far too small a bore for the tap nozzle. Try my other length of tubing. No, certainly not that one, that one's even smaller. How could this happen? My OH insists I have another barrel exactly the same, with a tap that must be smaller. Patiently I explained that I hadn't, but that she was more than welcome to undertake a full scale search of the unfeasibly large mansion in which we live to find said barrel. How then to decant? At the suggestion of brains (OH) I decided to just put the bottles directly under the tap. My what a glorious mess was made. Obviously the flow releases itself in a jet of the same dimensions as the tap it is leaving. Hence the kitchen carpet / front of dishwasher took another soaking. Then we tried the funnel in bottle and turn on tap procedure. Isn't it amazing how much of a head can be created when pouring this way. Not to mention how much beer you can get on the floor. Needless to say this system was also dropped when another couple of pints or so had found their way to the carpet. In the end I had to resort to siphoning directly from the FV into the bottles, but boy did that beer not want to play. Every bottle had to be individually "sucked through", with all the wastage and foaming this creates. God knows what it will taste like when ready.
The fun didn't end there though. Oh no. I still had the joy of using my new Emily crown capper. Are these things really crap or is it just me? I lose about 50% of my caps. It just slips and slides off the bottle causing the caps to bend. That's if you've got a bottle that will take a cap. Fortunately I knew about the Wychwood bottles, but I didn't realise the Batemans bottles would also be a problem. Obvious in hind sight, because of the large ridge below the opening. Most of the bottles I ended up trying to cap were the small 275ml J20 fruit juice type. Well at 1:00 this morning I finally finished. In total I've lost about 6 litres (which includes the obvious sediment at the bottom of the fermenter).
Things wouldn't have been as bad during the whole performance had I not been constantly reminded of my complete inability to do anything right. This hobby has never been well received. It's an expensive, filthy, smelly waste of time. It would be so much cheaper and easier just to buy my ale at the supermarket. And it would taste a darn site nicer than the foul and pestilent swill I concoct. Apparently. I think It's about time I just cut my losses, sold up, and moved on. Anyone want to buy a second-hand wife?
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Ska_J