Just a little bump so I don't have to go searching for this thread again ;-)
I got a fermentation bin today (40 pints) and I'll get the rest of the stuff next week. The bin looks like it has a lid that seals - I'll check back through this thread but I'm sure ADJB said not to seal it?
Just a little bump so I don't have to go searching for this thread again ;-)
I got a fermentation bin today (40 pints) and I'll get the rest of the stuff next week. The bin looks like it has a lid that seals - I'll check back through this thread but I'm sure ADJB said not to seal it?
Good job you bumped it, cos' I couldn't find it the other week, my stout is still in the barrel :lol:
I think it'll be 9 weeks on sunday? Longest you're supposed to leave it is 3 apparently? Hope it's OK :D
Just a little bump so I don't have to go searching for this thread again ;-)
I got a fermentation bin today (40 pints) and I'll get the rest of the stuff next week. The bin looks like it has a lid that seals - I'll check back through this thread but I'm sure ADJB said not to seal it?
What I said was don't seal it fully UNLESS you want a divorce. :)
If you fully seal it the pressure keeps on building up because of the gas being given off during fermentation until it does a Scotty (It canna take no more Captain) and explodes with a very impressive violence familiar to people who live close to Krakatoa and, if your lucky, the top flies off and the room gets splattered with some beer and yeast. If your unlucky the whole thing explodes and you get the full five gallons all over the kitchen.
Just leave it cracked open so the gas can vent or you can do what I do which is drill a small hole in the top and fit a wine airlock for the gas release.
Just leave it cracked open so the gas can vent or you can do what I do which is drill a small hole in the top and fit a wine airlock for the gas release.
Thanks for the advice. I've just ordered the airlock along with all the rest of the stuff (capper, caps, spoons, hydrometer, thermometer, etc) I need from the Homebrew Shops website. That just leaves the sugar, the beer kit and some bottles. Total outlay so far has been about ?45 so it's gonna be about ?60 altogether. Hmm, may as well just bought one of those Cooper's starter kits from Tesco, but I really want glass, not plastic bottles.
There's a bar directly below where I work so I'll probably get some off them as well as friends/family. I trust there's nothing wrong with using used bottles as long as I sterilise them well.
One question: does the brew need to be done in a darkened place? I'm going to brew mine in the kitchen next to the radiator, but I suppose I can always cover it if necessary.
Can I use ordinary granulated sugar, or should I use the malt stuff in Wilkinson's for a better flavour? First brew is really just an experiment so I'm not expecting great things!
There's a bar directly below where I work so I'll probably get some off them as well as friends/family. I trust there's nothing wrong with using used bottles as long as I sterilise them well.
No problem at all but only use bottles that have had pressurised drinks in before. So beer bottles, fizzy drink bottles are good. Juice bottles, still wine bottles ect are not so good. They "should" be OK but I wouldn't trust them. I have known them to occasionally go pop because they can't take the pressure.
One question: does the brew need to be done in a darkened place? I'm going to brew mine in the kitchen next to the radiator, but I suppose I can always cover it if necessary.
No, I do mine the same, in the kitchen next to the radiator. Should keep the tempreture regular which is good.
Can I use ordinary granulated sugar, or should I use the malt stuff in Wilkinson's for a better flavour? First brew is really just an experiment so I'm not expecting great things!
Yes, bog standard Tate & Lyle is fine. As to what would give the better flavour that is always going to be a matter of opinion. The normal difference is that normal supermarket "white granulated sugar" and "brewers sugar" or the glucose I use is that the normal white granulated is harder to dissolve and tends to result in a little more sediment in the bottle if you use it for priming.
If I need to use this sort of sugar what I do is work out how much sugar I need for the batch (say 40 bottles @ 1 teaspoon a bottle = 40 teaspoons of sugar total) and then dissolve that in the smallest amount of hot water I can. So, for example, I dissolve the sugar in half a pint of boiling water. Let it go cool and then prime the bottles with the sugar water rather than use the sugar "raw". Its a bit of a faff but it means you can ensure the sugar is dissolved and you will get less sediment in your finished product.
Got all my stuff and the first brew is going to be attempted on Monday. I chose Wilkinsons own for the first batch. It states its 4% abv from 1kg of sugar. Is it as simple as upping the sugar dosage for a stronger brew. Sorry, I know it is, but if I use 2kg does that mean it would be 8% or 1.5kg would be 6%?
Your forgetting that the kit has a load of malt extract which also contains fermentable sugar. So if it says 2Kg of sugar + the malt extract = 4% ABV then adding another 2Kg of sugar will make it up to (say) 6% ABV not 8%. Its difficult to say exactly how much alcohol the sugar would add on its own but it wouldn't be double.
Also just adding sugar will change the taste and not just add extra alcohol. You may also need to change the yeast your using as some yeast won't work at high alcohol levels and you might also find you need to add some yeast nutrient to ensure all the sugar is fermented out.
Your forgetting that the kit has a load of malt extract which also contains fermentable sugar. So if it says 2Kg of sugar + the malt extract = 4% ABV then adding another 2Kg of sugar will make it up to (say) 6% ABV not 8%. Its difficult to say exactly how much alcohol the sugar would add on its own but it wouldn't be double.
Also just adding sugar will change the taste and not just add extra alcohol. You may also need to change the yeast your using as some yeast won't work at high alcohol levels and you might also find you need to add some yeast nutrient to ensure all the sugar is fermented out.
I did suspect I would have the math completely wrong. Nothing new there :-)
I've just started the first brew a few minutes ago and followed the instructions with no additions from me! I'm a bit concerned about the sealing of the bin, though.
What I've done is seal the "back" of the bin but left the front loose - i.e. not pushed it down so it forms a seal. No air can get in but it's loose enough for me to be able to lift the front of the lid up - is this enough to let any gas escape without letting air in or I have screwed this up? Is it also a case of under-no-circumstances let any air in?
I'm probably going to let it brew for a couple of weeks before siphoning, then give the bottles a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed!!!!
Edit: I've completely unsealed the lid and now just have it resting. Nothing much going on with it yet, but then I am an impatient get!
As the beer ferments a "cover" of CO2 will form over the liquid which will effectively seal it from any nasties getting in (in ye olden days when they used open fermenting "tubs" a big problem was wild yeast drifting in on the breeze and changing the flavour, having said that some breweries actually used wild yeast rather than keeping yeast from from old brews because the local wild yeast was exactly the flavour they wanted - your mileage may vary, considerably) but as soon as it builds up and pressure the "crack" in the seal will allow the excess to escape.
As you say your going to leave it for a couple of weeks before bottling can I assume you didn't get a hydrometer?
2 weeks should be fine but its nice to be able to check. Assuming your going to prime your bottles I would try and give it a month after you bottle to allow a nice bit of gas to build up and for it to settle.
That's great news on the seal thanks. I did get a hydrometer, looked at the instructions, and well, you know how I mentioned my impatience and math skills earlier... :-). So I just figured for this batch I'd give a bit longer than recommended to ensure the fermentation has finished. Am I correct in saying that I can still use it for this batch though? The reading simply has to be the same two days in a row. Do you drop your hydrometer into the bin or use a sample?
Can I just say a belated thank you for all of your help? I'd never have had the confidence to try this otherwise.
Ideally you should have taken a reading when you first mixed it all up to give you an idea of the ABV. Your hydrometer should have a guide to the ABV printed on it.
So now wait until all the yeast has disappeared from the top of the brew and then take a reading. Most hydrometers have a "region" marked on them which refers to "bottle me now", usually its colour coded which helps. When your beer is in that region then you can bottle as soon as you get the same reading two days running. If you bottle when the reading is too high then it means there is still a lot of fermentable sugar in the brew which could make it very lively if you bottle it and it later ferments out. In fact it can be that lively it explodes. If your brewing in cold conditions its quite possible that you can get the same reading two days running but still have a lot of sugar left in the brew because the fermentation can be really slow and to eyesight nothing will have changed in the 24 hours between you taking the readings, hence you also rely on the gravity being low ( it being in the "bottle now" region) to ensure you don't make the mistake of bottling too soon.
Personally I just drop the hydrometer into the bin to measure but it doesn't make any real difference. It is a bit easier to read if you take a sample but there isn't much in it.
There is a little "gotya" when you use a hydrometer. If you need an accurate reading then you have to beware that you take the reading at the level of the liquid and not where the level is on the hydrometer. This is because the liquid tends to "bend up" the side of the hydrometer slightly. You can see the same thing if you put water in a glass and look at the edge where the water and glass meet. You will just be able to see how the water tends to "creep up" the edge of the glass slightly. Sorry its difficult to describe but you can see it. To get an accurate reading you need to measure the level where the liquid is "flat" and not where it curves up the hydrometer. This doesn't matter if your just using it as a guide of when to bottle as you don't need an accurate number, you just need a consistent number.
There is a little "gotya" when you use a hydrometer. If you need an accurate reading then you have to beware that you take the reading at the level of the liquid and not where the level is on the hydrometer. This is because the liquid tends to "bend up" the side of the hydrometer slightly. You can see the same thing if you put water in a glass and look at the edge where the water and glass meet. You will just be able to see how the water tends to "creep up" the edge of the glass slightly. Sorry its difficult to describe but you can see it. To get an accurate reading you need to measure the level where the liquid is "flat" and not where it curves up the hydrometer. This doesn't matter if your just using it as a guide of when to bottle as you don't need an accurate number, you just need a consistent number.
ah that's the meniscus, probably the only thing I ever learned in GCSE Chemistry that's come in useful in real life.
I was trying to avoid the use of "big" words and keep it in understandable English rather than talking about the liquid surface tension and all that sort of rubbish.
Had a quick lift of the lid today to check the brew. I know I probably shouldn't but I really wanted to know what was going on. There's a nice layer of foam at the top and a really pleasant beery smell came out :-)
It's really annoying that the temperature has plummeted today. The stick-on thermometer has dropped from highlighting 18-22 to 14-18, so I'm a little worried about the fermentation. I presume it won't stop at that temperature, just slow down. The missus had a good idea, an old dressing gown that I was going to chuck has been wrapped around it and the belt made an ideal "tie". Hopefully it can stop some of the chill getting to it.
Your right that the fermentation will slow rather than stop.
This goes back to the point I made above about using the hydrometer to check it's ready to bottle. If the fermentation slows right down you could get the same reading for two days but it wouldn't mean its fully fermented. The sort of temperature drop your talking about is no big deal but will add one or two days to the fermentation. To try and stop that sort of thing happening I always have my bins next to the radiator so if it starts to get too cold the central heating kicks in and keeps the temp reasonably constant. I tend to get the other end of the problem where sometimes it gets too warm if the ambient temperature gets too high. Not usually a problem in this country. :)
I would try and resist taking the lid off too much as your losing the CO2 seal over the brew and giving it a small chance of having some airborne nasty being introduced which can ruin the flavour.
Problem is I already have the bin right next to the kitchen radiator! Well, actually the problem is I ban the missus from putting the heating on at the start of May each year and I don't think she'd be too happy if I turned it on to heat my beer up ;-)
When it's bottling time I'm going to clear out the cupboard under the stairs and do the primary and secondary fermentation there from then on. I just couldn't face clearing it out yesterday, and it didn't seem all that warm in there either. If I take to this brewing lark (and I have so far) I'll probably invest in one of those heating belts.
I'm not worried about my first ever batch being great, just so long as it's drinkable. I've enjoyed it so far and all the advice I've been getting is fantastic (I won't lift that lid again!). Seems to be a pretty cool hobby - it's interesting, (so far) not particularly hard work and at the end you can get rat-arsed from it. Awesome!!!
Update: Everything seems to be fermenting nicely. The layer of foam on top has all but disappeared and it's smelling very alcoholly, so I'll probably take a hydrometer reading on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday to make sure fermentation is complete. If so I'll start the bottling slightly earlier than I intended.
Just bottled 6 gallons of tart fuel today, 31 bottles of Rjoca and 6 bottles of Strawberry wine. Apparently, according to the female contingent in the house, they are both drinkable now and they should be left for at least a couple of months so they should be real rocket fuel by then. I've left the fermenting bin and demijohn soaking in steriliser so I can get get 2 gallons of Shiraz Blush and a gallon of something else on tomorrow.
According to the misses we have 109 bottles of homebrew wine festering away under the stairs at the moment. I am trying to build up a stockpile so I can stock daughters wine rack up as soon as her house is finished but she's drinking it as quick as I can brew it.
I have 288 bottles of beer ready for drinking so I can go heavy on the wine making at the moment.
According to the misses we have 109 bottles of homebrew wine festering away under the stairs at the moment. I am trying to build up a stockpile so I can stock daughters wine rack up as soon as her house is finished but she's drinking it as quick as I can brew it.
We've got a similar amount bottled in our cupboard - mostly tea wine but there's also some elderflower (which smells a bit like cat's piss but is perfectly drinkable) and dried apricot (dangerously alcoholic).
Plus 5 demijohns at various stages of fermentation - 3 different tea wines, plum, and raisin. We did a blackberry and elderberry one last year which would've been lovely but the demijohn had an un-noticed crack in it and it ended up all over the floor :cry:
Bit of an odd one today. Took a hydrometer reading yesterday and it was very close to the "bottle" marker. Took another reading today but the hydrometers now riding ridiculously high - almost to the "start beer" marker, nowhere near where it was yesterday???
It's been 9 days since fermentation was started so I would have thought it would be nearly finished on the primary fermentation now.
Bit of an odd one today. Took a hydrometer reading yesterday and it was very close to the "bottle" marker. Took another reading today but the hydrometers now riding ridiculously high - almost to the "start beer" marker, nowhere near where it was yesterday???
It's been 9 days since fermentation was started so I would have thought it would be nearly finished on the primary fermentation now.
Hells bells, that is an odd one. If it's not mixed that could happen, but if it's been bubbling for 9 days as you say that won't be the case. Even a massive temperature swing couldn't account for that. I'd just repeat the measurement & be bloody surprised if it was high again :-o.
Hells bells, that is an odd one. If it's not mixed that could happen, but if it's been bubbling for 9 days as you say that won't be the case. Even a massive temperature swing couldn't account for that. I'd just repeat the measurement & be bloody surprised if it was high again :-o.
My bad, just this second tested again and it's absolutely fine, now almost at "bottling" point. I know what I did, I virtually dropped the hydrometer in first time, and you have to lower it slowly. Add a little twisting to shake off bubbles and its spot on :-) tasted alright too!
Thanks for the advice, looking like Saturday will be bottling up time!
If you go back in the thread I wrote a little bit about how I bottle up which might be worth looking at.
As this will be your first attempt I would suggest you give yourself a lot longer than you think to do the bottling. I work on a couple of hours to do 40 bottles from start to finish. That is.... Disinfect bottles, rinse bottles out (at least 3 times), prime bottles, syphon beer into bottles, crown cap bottles, rinse bottles (to get rid of any spillage on the outside, just a few seconds under the tap), dry and label bottles, put them away under the stairs.
I also ban the misses from the kitchen for the duration as I tend to spread out a bit and don't want her trying to cook tea while I am trying to bottle my tea.
Another meter reading today and we're in the "bottle" zone - yes! Still gonna give it until Saturday, primarily because I won't have time beforehand and secondly the missus is buggering off to a school reunion at noon. So I'll get this one bottled and another batch on the go as I got another 2 beer kits the other day. The next two are using brewing sugar rather than granulated so I hope to see a difference!
Comments
I got a fermentation bin today (40 pints) and I'll get the rest of the stuff next week. The bin looks like it has a lid that seals - I'll check back through this thread but I'm sure ADJB said not to seal it?
Good job you bumped it, cos' I couldn't find it the other week, my stout is still in the barrel :lol:
I think it'll be 9 weeks on sunday? Longest you're supposed to leave it is 3 apparently? Hope it's OK :D
What I said was don't seal it fully UNLESS you want a divorce. :)
If you fully seal it the pressure keeps on building up because of the gas being given off during fermentation until it does a Scotty (It canna take no more Captain) and explodes with a very impressive violence familiar to people who live close to Krakatoa and, if your lucky, the top flies off and the room gets splattered with some beer and yeast. If your unlucky the whole thing explodes and you get the full five gallons all over the kitchen.
Just leave it cracked open so the gas can vent or you can do what I do which is drill a small hole in the top and fit a wine airlock for the gas release.
Thanks for the advice. I've just ordered the airlock along with all the rest of the stuff (capper, caps, spoons, hydrometer, thermometer, etc) I need from the Homebrew Shops website. That just leaves the sugar, the beer kit and some bottles. Total outlay so far has been about ?45 so it's gonna be about ?60 altogether. Hmm, may as well just bought one of those Cooper's starter kits from Tesco, but I really want glass, not plastic bottles.
There's a bar directly below where I work so I'll probably get some off them as well as friends/family. I trust there's nothing wrong with using used bottles as long as I sterilise them well.
One question: does the brew need to be done in a darkened place? I'm going to brew mine in the kitchen next to the radiator, but I suppose I can always cover it if necessary.
Can I use ordinary granulated sugar, or should I use the malt stuff in Wilkinson's for a better flavour? First brew is really just an experiment so I'm not expecting great things!
No problem at all but only use bottles that have had pressurised drinks in before. So beer bottles, fizzy drink bottles are good. Juice bottles, still wine bottles ect are not so good. They "should" be OK but I wouldn't trust them. I have known them to occasionally go pop because they can't take the pressure.
No, I do mine the same, in the kitchen next to the radiator. Should keep the tempreture regular which is good.
Yes, bog standard Tate & Lyle is fine. As to what would give the better flavour that is always going to be a matter of opinion. The normal difference is that normal supermarket "white granulated sugar" and "brewers sugar" or the glucose I use is that the normal white granulated is harder to dissolve and tends to result in a little more sediment in the bottle if you use it for priming.
If I need to use this sort of sugar what I do is work out how much sugar I need for the batch (say 40 bottles @ 1 teaspoon a bottle = 40 teaspoons of sugar total) and then dissolve that in the smallest amount of hot water I can. So, for example, I dissolve the sugar in half a pint of boiling water. Let it go cool and then prime the bottles with the sugar water rather than use the sugar "raw". Its a bit of a faff but it means you can ensure the sugar is dissolved and you will get less sediment in your finished product.
Your forgetting that the kit has a load of malt extract which also contains fermentable sugar. So if it says 2Kg of sugar + the malt extract = 4% ABV then adding another 2Kg of sugar will make it up to (say) 6% ABV not 8%. Its difficult to say exactly how much alcohol the sugar would add on its own but it wouldn't be double.
Also just adding sugar will change the taste and not just add extra alcohol. You may also need to change the yeast your using as some yeast won't work at high alcohol levels and you might also find you need to add some yeast nutrient to ensure all the sugar is fermented out.
I did suspect I would have the math completely wrong. Nothing new there :-)
I've just started the first brew a few minutes ago and followed the instructions with no additions from me! I'm a bit concerned about the sealing of the bin, though.
What I've done is seal the "back" of the bin but left the front loose - i.e. not pushed it down so it forms a seal. No air can get in but it's loose enough for me to be able to lift the front of the lid up - is this enough to let any gas escape without letting air in or I have screwed this up? Is it also a case of under-no-circumstances let any air in?
I'm probably going to let it brew for a couple of weeks before siphoning, then give the bottles a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed!!!!
Edit: I've completely unsealed the lid and now just have it resting. Nothing much going on with it yet, but then I am an impatient get!
As the beer ferments a "cover" of CO2 will form over the liquid which will effectively seal it from any nasties getting in (in ye olden days when they used open fermenting "tubs" a big problem was wild yeast drifting in on the breeze and changing the flavour, having said that some breweries actually used wild yeast rather than keeping yeast from from old brews because the local wild yeast was exactly the flavour they wanted - your mileage may vary, considerably) but as soon as it builds up and pressure the "crack" in the seal will allow the excess to escape.
As you say your going to leave it for a couple of weeks before bottling can I assume you didn't get a hydrometer?
2 weeks should be fine but its nice to be able to check. Assuming your going to prime your bottles I would try and give it a month after you bottle to allow a nice bit of gas to build up and for it to settle.
Can I just say a belated thank you for all of your help? I'd never have had the confidence to try this otherwise.
Ideally you should have taken a reading when you first mixed it all up to give you an idea of the ABV. Your hydrometer should have a guide to the ABV printed on it.
So now wait until all the yeast has disappeared from the top of the brew and then take a reading. Most hydrometers have a "region" marked on them which refers to "bottle me now", usually its colour coded which helps. When your beer is in that region then you can bottle as soon as you get the same reading two days running. If you bottle when the reading is too high then it means there is still a lot of fermentable sugar in the brew which could make it very lively if you bottle it and it later ferments out. In fact it can be that lively it explodes. If your brewing in cold conditions its quite possible that you can get the same reading two days running but still have a lot of sugar left in the brew because the fermentation can be really slow and to eyesight nothing will have changed in the 24 hours between you taking the readings, hence you also rely on the gravity being low ( it being in the "bottle now" region) to ensure you don't make the mistake of bottling too soon.
Personally I just drop the hydrometer into the bin to measure but it doesn't make any real difference. It is a bit easier to read if you take a sample but there isn't much in it.
There is a little "gotya" when you use a hydrometer. If you need an accurate reading then you have to beware that you take the reading at the level of the liquid and not where the level is on the hydrometer. This is because the liquid tends to "bend up" the side of the hydrometer slightly. You can see the same thing if you put water in a glass and look at the edge where the water and glass meet. You will just be able to see how the water tends to "creep up" the edge of the glass slightly. Sorry its difficult to describe but you can see it. To get an accurate reading you need to measure the level where the liquid is "flat" and not where it curves up the hydrometer. This doesn't matter if your just using it as a guide of when to bottle as you don't need an accurate number, you just need a consistent number.
ah that's the meniscus, probably the only thing I ever learned in GCSE Chemistry that's come in useful in real life.
I was trying to avoid the use of "big" words and keep it in understandable English rather than talking about the liquid surface tension and all that sort of rubbish.
I got one of the cider kits from Mr Beer and it's good stuff, a bit like Dry Blackthorn. Being that it's seasonal I might stock up on 3 or 4.
I want one!
But they're always out when I check :mad:
15% off right now too.
It's really annoying that the temperature has plummeted today. The stick-on thermometer has dropped from highlighting 18-22 to 14-18, so I'm a little worried about the fermentation. I presume it won't stop at that temperature, just slow down. The missus had a good idea, an old dressing gown that I was going to chuck has been wrapped around it and the belt made an ideal "tie". Hopefully it can stop some of the chill getting to it.
Bloody British summers....
This goes back to the point I made above about using the hydrometer to check it's ready to bottle. If the fermentation slows right down you could get the same reading for two days but it wouldn't mean its fully fermented. The sort of temperature drop your talking about is no big deal but will add one or two days to the fermentation. To try and stop that sort of thing happening I always have my bins next to the radiator so if it starts to get too cold the central heating kicks in and keeps the temp reasonably constant. I tend to get the other end of the problem where sometimes it gets too warm if the ambient temperature gets too high. Not usually a problem in this country. :)
I would try and resist taking the lid off too much as your losing the CO2 seal over the brew and giving it a small chance of having some airborne nasty being introduced which can ruin the flavour.
When it's bottling time I'm going to clear out the cupboard under the stairs and do the primary and secondary fermentation there from then on. I just couldn't face clearing it out yesterday, and it didn't seem all that warm in there either. If I take to this brewing lark (and I have so far) I'll probably invest in one of those heating belts.
I'm not worried about my first ever batch being great, just so long as it's drinkable. I've enjoyed it so far and all the advice I've been getting is fantastic (I won't lift that lid again!). Seems to be a pretty cool hobby - it's interesting, (so far) not particularly hard work and at the end you can get rat-arsed from it. Awesome!!!
I've got this beer kit on order: http://shr.ratevoice.com/x0hqu which will brew a nice 5.2% Pilsner that I'm going to use brewing sugar with rather than granulated. I'm also tempted by this 6%'er which has had good reviews: http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Bulldog-Beer-Kit-Hammer-of-Thor.html#.UapRWkC1HeY but I'll save that for a "special" brew ;-) Think I might try a cider before it, Wilkinson have some 5% kits for a tenner.
Just wish everything would hurry up - I'm dying to try it!!
According to the misses we have 109 bottles of homebrew wine festering away under the stairs at the moment. I am trying to build up a stockpile so I can stock daughters wine rack up as soon as her house is finished but she's drinking it as quick as I can brew it.
I have 288 bottles of beer ready for drinking so I can go heavy on the wine making at the moment.
We've got a similar amount bottled in our cupboard - mostly tea wine but there's also some elderflower (which smells a bit like cat's piss but is perfectly drinkable) and dried apricot (dangerously alcoholic).
Plus 5 demijohns at various stages of fermentation - 3 different tea wines, plum, and raisin. We did a blackberry and elderberry one last year which would've been lovely but the demijohn had an un-noticed crack in it and it ended up all over the floor :cry:
It's been 9 days since fermentation was started so I would have thought it would be nearly finished on the primary fermentation now.
Hells bells, that is an odd one. If it's not mixed that could happen, but if it's been bubbling for 9 days as you say that won't be the case. Even a massive temperature swing couldn't account for that. I'd just repeat the measurement & be bloody surprised if it was high again :-o.
My bad, just this second tested again and it's absolutely fine, now almost at "bottling" point. I know what I did, I virtually dropped the hydrometer in first time, and you have to lower it slowly. Add a little twisting to shake off bubbles and its spot on :-) tasted alright too!
Thanks for the advice, looking like Saturday will be bottling up time!
As this will be your first attempt I would suggest you give yourself a lot longer than you think to do the bottling. I work on a couple of hours to do 40 bottles from start to finish. That is.... Disinfect bottles, rinse bottles out (at least 3 times), prime bottles, syphon beer into bottles, crown cap bottles, rinse bottles (to get rid of any spillage on the outside, just a few seconds under the tap), dry and label bottles, put them away under the stairs.
I also ban the misses from the kitchen for the duration as I tend to spread out a bit and don't want her trying to cook tea while I am trying to bottle my tea.
Yup, those were the exact instructions I was going to follow :-)
LOL!
Another meter reading today and we're in the "bottle" zone - yes! Still gonna give it until Saturday, primarily because I won't have time beforehand and secondly the missus is buggering off to a school reunion at noon. So I'll get this one bottled and another batch on the go as I got another 2 beer kits the other day. The next two are using brewing sugar rather than granulated so I hope to see a difference!
Typical - the one day this week I haven't had to pop in for some decorating stuff!