First beer kit Q

[mrdave]

Hi all
Ive been making wine & cider for about a year now and fancied giving a beer kit a try, so for my first beer I have chosen to do the Samsons Newkie Brown kit.

The OG was 1042 and now (day 4) its sitting at 1011

The instrustions say to leave it for 5-7 days until fermentation has stopped and then bottle or keg.

** Im guessing that by day 7 the beer is still going to be pretty murky and if so, what do I do? do I leave it a bit longer to clear or prime and bottle it anyway?
reason for asking is that I dont want tons of sediment at the bottom of the bottles, resulting in dirty looking pints being poured.

would be greatful for any advice.
Cheers
Dave

[Ditch]

The instrustions say to leave it for 5-7 days until fermentation has stopped and then bottle or keg.

'10 Day Rule'. Industry Standard, round here, Dave

[PMH0810]

It'll probably still be a little cloudy after 10 days too but this will clear ("the brew will fall bright") in the bottle over the following 3-6 weeks.

Even then a little cloudy is no harm; just not aesthetically pleasing.

[Waffty]

I used to have problems kegging cloudy beer, I now use Safe04 yeast for ales + drop the temp after the fermentation has stopped & pop in some finings. Leave it at the cooler temp with the finings for 3 days & bish bosh, it's almost crystal clear going into the keg.

[mrdave]

Cheers guys!

[randomdave]

I have a coopers lager kit on the go and that dropped pretty quick, in 7 days its at 1010 i think its done fermenting but im still gunn wait till friday before bottling it

[BlackBag]

I've recently made the Samson's Brown.
Made it on Friday August 15th with 500g of brewers sugar and 500g of soft light brown sugar, made 4 1/2 gallons. Water used had been treated with about 1/2 a camden tablet. OG1050. Yeast used was a rehydrated Nottingham. On Sunday 24th it was reading at 1022 so I added 1/2 a teaspoon of nutrient and gave the fermenter a bit of a shake. Next day I gave it a bit of a stir and by later in the evening it was bubbling away again. Took another reading on the 29th (it was still bubbling away) and it had dropped to 1012. On Monday the 1st it had dropped to 1010 so I siphoned it into a second FV ready for bottling. On Thursday the 4th it hadn't dropped any further so I primed it with 80g of unrefined sugar (in water boiled then cooled) and bottled it. The extra time in the secondary had dropped it nice and bright. According to liquorcraft it should be about 5.9% ABV. A quick taste at the time wasn't bad, a slightly drier version of Newcastle Brown Ale I'd say. I'm going to leave it another couple of weeks before cracking one open. Can't wait. Brown has always been one of my favourites over the years.

[mrdave]

Yours is sounding nice BlackBag!

Ive just had a tast of mine today and it tastes really nice but a bit weak and watery. Is this just because its flat and not yet primed?

[BlackBag]

Oh yes.
Give the bugger about 6 weeks if you can.

[BlackBag]

Just wondering how your Brown turned out mrdave.
I tried mine a couple of weeks back and it was aaaaaaaaaaaffful.
Black as your hat (god knows how), flat as a witches, and just plain wrong. Not infected, just not nice. Nothing like Brown Ale at all. Now I'm still on a learning curve so I appreciate that if I don't do a tin as intended I shouldn't be surprised when it comes out different BUT this stuff tastes more like the John bull Porter I made, only not as nice.
I know why it's flat, and why most of my early efforts are. I spend so much time letting things drop as bright as possible, and then oh so carefully siphoning, I've not been leaving any yeast behind to create a bit of fizz.
What a disapointment. Still, another couple of weeks and it may begin to mellow.

[sparky Paul]

I appreciate that if I don't do a tin as intended I shouldn't be surprised when it comes out different BUT this stuff tastes more like the John bull Porter I made, only not as nice.

Hi there, BB. It's an interesting problem because the Brown Ale should taste quite different to the Porter. When you say it tasted like the Porter, was there a flavour common to both that you don't think should have been there? Maybe wet cardboardy, 'spirity', or maybe a hint of a sherry taste?

I know why it's flat, and why most of my early efforts are. I spend so much time letting things drop as bright as possible, and then oh so carefully siphoning, I've not been leaving any yeast behind to create a bit of fizz.

I used to worry about that, but even beers bottled very bright will contain enough yeast to carbonate if sufficient priming sugar is added and the bottles go somewhere warm. I've had bottles take up to two weeks of warm to carbonate sufficiently, PET bottles are great for checking progress.

[BlackBag]

Second attempt at replying to this . . . . .

Aye a sherry kind of taste, only a lot stronger.
The porter at first just tasted like a fruity flat stout. With time it's turning into the taste of this awful brown ale. I won't chuck it though. It's doing no harm just sitting there, doubtless over Christmas I'll get that desperate for a drink I'll not mind.
As for carbonating I usually do leave the bottles in the warm for a couple of weeks, by which time they're rock hard. I even get a small pssssst sound upon opening, unfortunately psssst is exactly what it is. Flat nasty aa aa's.

[sparky Paul]

Aye a sherry kind of taste, only a lot stronger.

I've had a funny taste like that on a couple of brews, so I did a bit of forum reading and found that oxidisation could be the cause for that odd taste.

I'm pretty sure I identified my problem, I use an auto syphon when bottling, and I noticed that sometimes the bottles were 'gurgling' as they were being filled. On closer examination, I could see that it was pulling a constant stream of air bubbles in through the rubber seal between the inner and outer tubes.

[BlackBag]

Aaha!
On the nose. Oxidisation. I've dug out some of my remaining Geordie Mild to drink and this is very sherryish. When I was bottling it I had a right bollocks of a time. I didn't have a little bottler, my tubing had magically shrunk and no longer fit my fv tap (found out afterwards that I'd just picked up the wrong bit of tubing, the bit I was after was somewhere else), which meant trying to fill bottles from the tap with a funnel. Definitely the worst bottling day I'd had. At the time I said that if it turned out drinkable it would be a miracle. First bottle I tried after a month, foul. After 6 weeks tried one that wasn't too bad, just a bit flat. All subsequent bottles have been terrible.
This brown (and the porter I suppose) must have got a bit oxidised as well. Although I now use a bottler so . . .
Anyway, if sherry taste = oxidisation then that seems the logical answer.
Cheers sparky.

[BlackBag]

Hang on
A question here re the little bottler (I know I should start a new thread and not just carry on hijacking this one but I'm in a hurry). Are they not supposed to gurgle? When I'm filling my bottles it gurgles and froths reet to the top. I just thought it was meant to do this. It's a lot easier, and less messy, to use. I've been thinking it's great. Have I been knackering my brews? Is this why "they all taste the same" as my other half keeps telling me?!?!?!?!?