coopers bitter?

[brysie]

hi all

coopers bitter kit. 1 kilo of dsm. plenty of air in the wort, pitched the yeast from the kit at around 24 degrees. og 1030.
i thought this was a bit low so added 100g of demerara and put upstairs last night. its around 22 degrees.

absolutely no activity whatsoever and theres about an inch of sediment in the bottom already. weird?
the sample in the hydro tube is almost clear. sg still just under 1030.

whats happened?

[Stringy Bob]

1030 does not sound right at all. When you emptied the kit in, are you sure it all got dissolved properly in the boiling water. I would suggest you give the sediment in the bottom a good stir and see if that gets it going

[brysie]

cheers bob

i always rinse the tin with boiled water to make sure i get all of it, but this is my first experiment with dsm.
i always give a good stir for 5 mins as well before pitching the yeast.
must say that the yeast was a slightly different colour than the last coopers kit i did, slightly orange, and my sample this morning smells a bit bready.

have you ever seen a kit drop out this fast? its almost as if the yeast has completely ignored the spraymalt.

[Ditch]

That all sounds Most strange!

Forgive me; I've never handled a Coopers Bitter kit. I'd really have 'no idea' what to expect. But I'd sure as hell expect more than what ye got there! And 1030 is the numerical value of Gnats Piss. I can't see how yeast would raise that.

How accurately have ye measured and marked that FV? Did ye fill it by the jug full when ye got it? One really should. Try to ensure the markings on the FV match up to True volumes, or else mark ye own volume points on there.

In summary ~ and off the top of my head ~ I'd personally be looking at the volume of water ye put in there. And carefully Activating any yeast before pitching it. I recently lost a FV full, because I did something slip shod and the yeast didn't kick off for twenty four hours; By which time I was fermenting vinegar anyway

Any of that shed any light on anything?

[stevezx7r]

Apart from the low SG I'd say it was bad/dead yeast. Take another hydrometer reading and if it's still the same throw in some more yeast. I'd be tempted to add about 500g of sugar too, you may as well, then give it another min or two stir.

[brysie]

cheers lads

ditch man i never thought to check the markings on the fv. i assumed they would be accurate. but im going to check before i start me next brew.

however i did what stringy suggested and gave it a stir last night and bingo! its gone nuts. weirdly mostly over to one side of the fv.
sg has dropped to just over 1020 and the temp on the side of the barrel is 24 degrees so it looks like something has been happening overnight.

should i leave it a few days and let nature take its course do ya think?

[brysie]

oh yeah,
should have added that ive done a few successful brews in this fv to date.
and, now it seems to have kicked off, if i add more sugar now, what might happen?

[Ditch]

Leave it to do its thing, I suppose? Sounds like it's doing it alright now. Glad to hear it.

Still a bit put out about that gravity reading though. Sounds more like " Badger Bitter " (That's a trade name for Gnats Piss! )

[brysie]

haha.

funny though isnt it. this is my first kit that hasnt started around the 1040 mark.
by my maths, if i can get it down to 1006 it should be around 3.2 abv. with secondary ferment when i bottle it, i might get it up around 3.7 ish.

yeah, gnats watter.

would you add more sugar? ive used 1 kilo of dsm so it should have a bit more body to it than usual- i normally use beer enhancer which is half and half with glucose. but, i dont want to up the alcohol at the expense of the flavour now do i?

[sparky Paul]

From the low SG, I would guess that some of the spraymalt wasn't thoroughly dissolved and mixed in.

I'm only guessing... if you added it on top of the thick extract before mixing up with water, some of it may have bound to it and stuck to the bottom. As you have found, it does eventually dissolve into the wort, but the hydrometer will have given you a false SG if that's the case.

[anto01]

hi i have done a coopers bitter & dark ale kit both had sg of 1030 ish and fg 1005-1006 taken at 20 deg ???
might be my hydro??

[sparky Paul]

hi i have done a coopers bitter & dark ale kit both had sg of 1030 ish and fg 1005-1006 taken at 20 deg ???
might be my hydro??

It's easy to check a hydrometer, it should read 1.000 in water at 20°C.

The Coopers kits' SG should be around 1038-40 with 1Kg of added fermentables.

[KevP]

Whilst we are on the subject of Coopers Bitter, mine, although quite tasty, is very dark, only brewed it with brewers sugar but its almost black, in fact I have just Kegged a Coopers Dark Ale and it looks identical!!
I am wondering if somehow it managed to get the wrong label, cant see it myself, but very odd, anyone elses dark?

[Dill]

If the og was 1030 and the fg comes in at 1006 which it should do it will give you 3.7%, which should make a very nice session ale.

Some people mistake strength as quality. If I am at my local with the intent a on staying a few hours I start of on the weakest beer which is 3.6%, which I know isn’t very strong but in my opinion has still got lots of flavour and a very nice drink and is exactly what it is, a refreshing session ale which as the added advantage of being cheaper, on the other hand if I just pop in for a couple or three beers I choose one of their stronger ales which is about 5.2%.

[brysie]

cheers lads.

sparky, im so careful when making me brews, that im sure the dsm dissolved properly, and ive checked me hydrometer too.
this is the first one ive done using all spraymelt so i wondered if that had anything to do with it?

and dill your spot on. i dont mind if the beers not so strong, so long as it tastes good.
its all experimentation at the mo for me. ive done a coopers lager and real ale and this was my first go at the bitter.
ive done a wherry kit too and that was way better than the coopers ale.

i might do another coopers bitter after i bottle this one just to see..... but ditch has got me thinking about that stout now.....

would any of yeez add more fermentables at this stage or leave it alone?

thanks again