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.
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
Cheers, thanks for the tip.
No probs hope it turns out well for you
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
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.
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.
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!
Quote from: Pepin The Short on January 25, 2016, 10:35:24 PM
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.
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.
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!
Quote from: Will_D on January 26, 2016, 12:36:14 PM
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 (http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v1/126218967/Tablet_splitter_Tablet_cutter_Pill_cutter_Pill.jpg)
apple drops make good carb drops for cider - if you don't mind green cider :D
Quote from: Will_D on January 26, 2016, 12:36:14 PM
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.
Cheers man, I may just give these a go soon .
Brewer's Best conditioning tablets look to be the same kinda thing .
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NjU0WDY0MQ==/z/vEkAAOxydgZTJeYV/$_1.JPG)
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bOv9iHlFL.jpg)
Bolli-olly-ollox there goes my first Million
250 tabs and 127 gms is just like I predicted !
So why have these not been mentioned before?
Who sells them?
Yeh i've never seen them before. I'd be interested in them too. Would (hopefully) give more predictable results for bottling than batch priming
I only looked on ebay and from what i can can tell (which isn't much ) ,they are either kinda pricey or are from US sellers .
Mutons version you can prob find somewhere in the UK maybe ,but all the brewers best stuff was from the US . Again i only had a quick look on ebay & google so take that with a massive pinch of salt .
It may be an idea to ask some of the home brew shops if they can get the Mutons Carbtabs if not the brewers best . Will most likely cost a bit more ,but then it would save a lot of hassle .Ger`er Brewed stock the Mutons drops,but not the tabs I know that much .
http://www.homebrewing.org/Brewers-Best-Conditioning-Tablets-5-oz_p_2444.html
Quote from: Pheeel on January 27, 2016, 10:41:28 AM
http://www.homebrewing.org/Brewers-Best-Conditioning-Tablets-5-oz_p_2444.html
Yip that`s where I got that image from . Here is a Amazon listing ,more because it has some reviews posted .
http://www.amazon.com/Brewers-Best-Conditioning-Tablets-Count/dp/B006O2D9RE (http://www.amazon.com/Brewers-Best-Conditioning-Tablets-Count/dp/B006O2D9RE)
Couldn't find an actual UK or Irish stockist for the brewers best . Even the Mutons ones are a bugger to find, and they already sell loads of stuff we buy all the time .So you`d think they`d be dead easy to find eh .
BTW sorry for sidetracking this topic somewhat .We should really take this to an existing priming related part of the forum .
Quote from: Pepin The Short on January 27, 2016, 10:57:29 AM
Quote from: Pheeel on January 27, 2016, 10:41:28 AM
http://www.homebrewing.org/Brewers-Best-Conditioning-Tablets-5-oz_p_2444.html
Yip that`s where I got that image from . Here is a Amazon listing ,more because it has some reviews posted .
http://www.amazon.com/Brewers-Best-Conditioning-Tablets-Count/dp/B006O2D9RE (http://www.amazon.com/Brewers-Best-Conditioning-Tablets-Count/dp/B006O2D9RE)
Couldn't find an actual UK or Irish stockist for the brewers best . Even the Mutons ones are a bugger to find, and they already sell loads of stuff we buy all the time .So you`d think they`d be dead easy to find eh .
BTW sorry for sidetracking this topic somewhat .We should really take this to an existing priming related part of the forum .
Don't worry. I'm finding all the tips very interesting and those carb tablets look great, now to try and track them down.
Gravity hasn't dropped anymore so I've gone ahead and bottled. Guess I'll know in a few weeks. Smells pretty good though. Have my second brew, the Brewferm Abby in my FV. Can't wait to try it in a few months.