Update on this. The all grain seems to have stopped at 1017 which is slightly higher than I would have liked.
However, having just poured a measure into the testing jar for the hydrometer check it is crystal clear and tastes awesome! It's been in the FV for nearly a fortnight from start to finish (didn't want to take the risk of going secondary after many failed kit brews years ago) and later today it's off in the cornie and getting force carbed.
This is my first venture into cornie kegs and yesterday I had a completed Muntons Gold Continental Pilsner to keg. That took 16 days to ferment down to 1013 and there was still a little life in it but my patience had gone by this point!
I was anally retentitive with regards to scrubbing and sanitizing the cornie keg, I'm determined that my first batches are going to be spot on. Noted a tiny round rust-like patch right in the bottom of the cornie. My arm
just fits into the cornie at the correct angle and I had to go in 3 times in total with a scotch-brite to get rid of it, each time getting my arm back out seemed that much tighter. Had visions of being taken to local fire station to have keg sawn off. Actually, I'd probably prefer to go to hospital and lose my right arm over the cornie keg!
Anyway, objective completed, filled keg with CO2, purged, refilled, gently trickled lager in from bottom, all good. Did the business with the CO2 to purge the head space, shook it for my life, re-gassed. Disconnected gas from keg, regulator gauge went to zero after a few minutes. Reconnected and re-gassed and forgot to disconnect gas (gas valve off). 30 mins later gauges at zero and corny has no gas.
Much stressing over where I had a leak when I decided it might be an idea to get a spanner on the JB connections from regulator out and gas in. FIXED!
Won't be chancing leaving gas on but the gauges remain at whatever pressure I had on last pressurization and cornie definitely gassed. I really shouldn't rely on hand-tightening JB connections, lesson learned.
Lager is gassed at 30PSI currently (at 20c ambient temp, no cooler to help
) and has had a shake, rattle and roll, will repeat tomorrow then drop nearer 5PSI for serving once I've reclaimed the fermenting bin that's got the AG in which I'm kegging later. I need the 10 gallon fermenter to submerge the cornie in water and ice-packs.
So, another go at stripping a cornie, risking getting a new attatchment to my arm (one cornie keg), much playing with Videne (I did get the right one in the end!) and more stressing over possible leaks beckons! However, at least I figured out where the leak was without losing hardly any gas so I'm quite pleased. Don't mind paying another £14 for another big CO2 bottle from the club but using one bottle to make one brew would leave me a bit of a laughing stock.
And I'm itching to get myself over to Barley Bottom for more grain and hops to brew MORE beer, I need more cornies!
