Another first brew advice

[aaronm13]

Hi all. Got my first kit brew on 10 days ago. It is one of those The Craft Range Wheat kits. As its my first bash at home brewing I've a lot of questions but I'll try to keep them to a minimum, for now anyway.

The instructions said leave it in the FV for 10 days so tonight was D day. I forgot to take a gravity reading when I initially brewed but took one at day 5. This gave me a reading of 1.021 and it didn't taste great. Took another one this evening and it's only dropped to 1.019. So should I wait another few days to get it closer to the recommended 1.011? Not free till the weekend so would I be safe to bottle then. Took a sip this evening too and it's tasting much better.

I got the cooper's carbonation drops along with the cooper's plastic bottles. Should I use 1 or 1.5 drops per 500ml bottle, seen different opinions about it.

I have a brewferm Abby dubbel on the way tomorrow for my next brew so can't wait, homebrewing is really addictive. I got dark candy sugar and got the Westmalle yeast to use with this kit as trying to get it as close to Westmalle as I can. Will have a lot of questions no doubt when I get going on this one.

[Inky]

I just made my 1st kit over a month ago, used 1 carb drop in each bottle and found it under carbonated. If I was going again I'd prob do 1.5 per bottle

[aaronm13]

Cheers, thanks for the tip.

[Inky]

No probs hope it turns out well for you

[Leann ull]

Always a tricky one with the carbonation drops and impossible to cut
Batch prime if you can it's the most accurate method of dosing, I did 2 drops in 750's years ago and they worked well

[aaronm13]

Thanks for the tips. Only have one FV at the minute so won't be able to batch prime. Does seem to be the easiest so might have to invest in a second one. Still getting my head around it all and of course buying equipment.

[Pepin The Short]

Carbonation drops can be cut into rough halves no bother .OK they aren't going to all be exactly the same ,but then the drops aren't all exactly the same size/shape either . You`l get air bubbles within and on the surface ,along side ones with extra lumps hanging off them .At least that`s been my experience with two well known brands .

So cutting them in half isn't impossible ,it`s just more hassle really .Plus batch priming has the potential to go horribly wrong as well surely.   

[Drzava]

Your fermentation sounds quite slow - what temperature are you brewing at? Recommended for this kit is 22 - 24C, which it really needs to develop the full weissbier flavour. I did it back in July at mostly 22/23C (OG 1.047) and most of the action was finished after 3 days (1.016) and didn't drop after day 5 (1.014). Even after only the three days in the bucket it tasted very nice. As a Weiss, I'd prime it high - I went with 205g sugar for the 23L batch, and I'd consider more next time. I'm not sure what that converts too with the carb drops. It's a great kit BTW - tastes very similar to Franziskaner. Mine disappeared ridiculously quickly!

[Leann ull]

Plus batch priming has the potential to go horribly wrong as well surely.

It's the most uniform way of distributing additional fermentables for bottling it also allows yeast to get going ASAP and by a country mile is the next step up from carbonation drops or tea spooning sugar into  bottles.

[aaronm13]

It's been brewed at pretty constant 21-23 degrees as I've a heat belt on it. Mine was the same with a lot of action going on  from day 2-5 but nothing since. I'm leaving it alone till Saturday I think. I've taken the brew belt off now, maybe I should keep it on so. Ambient temperature in the room is about 20 degrees as it is.

[Will_D]

Everybody sureley knows and loves Camden Tablets.

So why in the name of humanity cannot someone compress glucose into the same size tabet and sell them by the kilo?

Btw: A campdeb tab weighs 0.49 gms!

[Pepin The Short]

So why in the name of humanity cannot someone compress glucose into the same size tabet and sell them by the kilo?

You can get glucose tablets in the chemists ,normally with flavourings, colourings and vitamins .Or any corner shop with carry sweets which are just the same thing only minus the vitamins .So yeah you`d think somebody would have started producing the same thing for brewing . If you ever did need to halve them ,you could use one of those yokes for splitting tablets .Sorry not sure on the name .
http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v1/126218967/Tablet_splitter_Tablet_cutter_Pill_cutter_Pill.jpg

[LordEoin]

apple drops make good carb drops for cider - if you don't mind green cider

[Bubbles]

Everybody sureley knows and loves Camden Tablets.

So why in the name of humanity cannot someone compress glucose into the same size tabet and sell them by the kilo?

Btw: A campdeb tab weighs 0.49 gms!

These Muntons tabs have a finer dosage than the Coopers:
https://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/muntons-carbonation-drops-160g-80-pieces-p-3296.html

But I haven't used them.

[Pepin The Short]

Cheers man, I may just give these a go soon .
Brewer's Best conditioning tablets look to be the same kinda thing .