National Homebrew Club Ireland

Hi All

We bought the grain father and did your first brew last Monday a hoppy APA. We are new to the scene so excuse me for asking an stupid questions.

We followed the directions and the brew is now in the fermenter with 6 days there are plenty of bubbles going through the air lock.

We are told to leave this for 2 weeks and then bottle and then leave for a further 2 weeks before consuming.

Has anyone breed hoppy APA and it there anything to watch out for ?

I am a great fan of rebel red ale, Would anyone have a recipe to make something like this ?

Any help would be a appreciated.

Thanks.

Congratulations to we :). Who's recipe did you use. When fermentation has stopped take a gravity reading to confirm and retake 24 hours later to reconfirm. Then on to bottling.

If it's not finished fermenting it will continue in your bottle and you will make bottle bombs, plenty of red recipes if you do a search some maybe in members area.
You'll discover there are so many more beers out there better that RR

Quote from: DEMPSEY on May 08, 2016, 08:10:19 PM
Congratulations to we :). Who's recipe did you use. When fermentation has stopped take a gravity reading to confirm and retake 24 hours later to reconfirm. Then on to bottling.

We bought the grain farther from get er brewed and they gave us a free brew hoppy apa.  As i say sorry for any stupid questions. I presume fermentation stops when the are no bubbles in the air lock ???
What is the best way to take the gravity reading ?

Thanks

Airlock bubbles are not really an indicator of active fermentation.

To take a gravity reading you would use a hydrometer, which I would imagine was provided with the kit.

When the reading is the same over three consecutive readings then it's considered to be fermented out, this normally takes anywhere from three days to 7 days.

I just leave it for 2 weeks and check when transferring. I purposely avoid taps (another thing to clean) in my FV and I ain't cracking that baby open until I'm ready to keg..

Quote from: beer on May 09, 2016, 12:40:35 PM
  As i say sorry for any stupid questions

Keep asking, as 10 others who are afraid to ask benefit

There is no such thing as a stupid question,now stupid answers that's a different question :D

Thanks for the replies, no hydrometer provided with the grain father any tips on what type or where to buy ?

Any of the homebrew shops have them and they are about €3. Always buy 2 as Murphy's law applies that if you only have 1 it is glass and so will break but by having 2 it will not break,t'is true ;). Also a trial jar for it to float in.

Hi, I got my 2 hydrometers. My brew is 16 days in the fermenter I presume when taking the gravity reading I just take my sample from the tap on the bottom of the fermenter like I don't take the lid off and stir it up first ??

FG I presume is final gravity ? I need it to be 1.010-1.015

What is OG reading ?

Yeah, defo don't open it up as you may infect the beer and will probably oxidize it

Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Fg is final gravity, og  is original gravity, the difference between the 2 is essentially the alcohol

Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Am I the only one that constantly opens the lid to peak in at the ferment at work? Love taking a good sniff to make sure all is well :)

Sent from my E5823 using Tapatalk

Yes you are molc, stop it ;)

Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Terrible thing to do. Never done it ;). :D

You know that thing that looked like Krausen in your beard when you answered the door last week yeah...

Something about Mary krausen?

Sent from my HUAWEI GRA-L09 using Tapatalk

Come to think of it....

Quote from: beer on May 18, 2016, 11:27:31 PM
I don't take the lid off and stir it up first ??

Once the yeast in pitched don't stir it or shake it, you would only do that before pitching the yeast.

Quote from: beer on May 18, 2016, 11:27:31 PM
What is OG reading ?

The gravity of the beer/wort before you start fermenting

Hi all

Just to let ye know our hoppy apa beer tasted great I have attached a pic. 23 L didn't last long. We have another brew on a coffee stout its still in the fermenter the air lock was bubbling like mad for 2 days very quiet now anyone any ideas how long a stout should be left in ? and any tips on bottling it ? When we bottled our apa it was very flat we added a half spoon of sugar to each bottle and it worked wonders.

2 days is about right for vigorous fermentation but I would leave it about another week or 2. Think about batch priming as you don't want stout getting over carbonated

Thanks, We are coming to 2 weeks now in the fermenter with our stout. what is batch priming ? We have just bottles would it be ok just to fill these and could we carbonate the stout by using sugar again. Any advice welcome.

Batch priming is where you pit a pre calculated amount of sugar into the beer before bottling. The amount of sugar is determined by one of the online carbonation calculators. Its the beat way to ensure consistency

You put the priming sugar into the fermenter so that the whole batch is primed at once, rather than putting the priming sugar in to each bottle separately.

http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/wordpress/batch-priming-a-guide-by-an-idiot/ (http://www.nationalhomebrewclub.ie/wordpress/batch-priming-a-guide-by-an-idiot/)   

Thanks I understand now. As i said it is in the ferementer for 2 weeks now. Would it do any harm to leave it longer as I am going on a 10 day holiday and i am bate for time. 

Quote from: beer on July 23, 2016, 12:04:45 AM
Thanks I understand now. As i said it is in the ferementer for 2 weeks now. Would it do any harm to leave it longer as I am going on a 10 day holiday and i am bate for time.

It'll be fine to leave it