Homebrewing for the first time. Have a coopers Canadian blonde in my FV at the moment.
I will do another gravity reading tomorrow and if it matches todays I will bottle
Its smells a bit cider like. I think I kept its temperature too high, the kit gives a very wide temp range so I just aimed at the middle.
Seams now like I should have been trying to keep it lower. Is this brew salvageable if I leave it a bit longer to condition?
I have another kit ready to go after this and dont want to mess it up
thanks
ronan
Spot on! You've obviously been reading around a good bit.
If the kit asked for 1kg sugar then you're pretty much stuck with
a cider quality. All very normal. Nice beer all the same; enjoy your f
first batch. You'll be moving onto 3kg kits, then extract in no time.
Yeast gives off that cidery aroma and flavour in a variety of situations,
heat, too much sugar...
But like I said, enjoy your first batch, onwards and upwards,
compliments to your palate, and welcome to the forum.
Hi Ronan
Where abouts in Westmeath are you?
Thanks tom
Used the coopers brew enhancer in this one.
I have the craft beer ranges ipa kit already got for my next brew, any additions I should use with that and what should my temperture idealy be? Really dont want to mess it up.
hi dodge, just moved to between Delvin and Athboy
If you're using the brew enhancer then you'll probably
just need to give it a little more time for the yeast to
clean up the cider taste. It might never completely go
away though.
The craft beer range seems very popular. I wonder what I'm missing!
I usually ferment my beers at 15 degrees, mainly because I don't
have a choice, but I'm happy enough with the results. Might
creep up to 17 in summer. Good old stone houses.
All depends on the yeast though, so I hope someone who
has used there kits can chip in for you.
Hey Ronan, welcome aboard. I'm in Mullingar and will be moving close to Delvin soon.
I'm mainly an all-grain brewer now but, for the kits I find around 18-20 works well. My first kit was the Canadian Blonde too and the same thing happened with it, it was still drinkable though.
Give me a shout if you need anything.
Still drinkable sounds good enough to me for a first go, but must do some more reading to make sure I can do a bit better with the ipa
I tried the blonde at some stage too and wasn't too keen on it.
For the IPA (and any other kits), stay away from brew enhancer and use 1kg of DME or a craft range LME.
Also dryhop once fermentation has slowed down.
There's no rush to get off kits. They'll make you excellent beers if you treat them right.
Have bottled up the Canadian today. The cidery smell seamed less prevalent today.
Reading the instructions on the ipa it says to leave 5 cm of a gap from the top of the beer to bottle top.
I left less then this in the bottling I did today, do I need to quickly go around and poor some out of each bottle?
I used 1 and a haft carbotation drops in each 500ml oxbar bottle
thanks
@ronanp - welcome to the forum and homebrewing. How are you filling your bottles? If you are using a bucket with tap and filling stick, then the space at the top of the bottle will be perfect. The filling stick leaves an appropriate head space in the bottle.
Look on line for carbonation calculators. I prime with DME. The easy way is with a bottling bucket - calculate right amount needed as per carbonation calculator, dissolve in some warm water in your bottling bucket and add your fermented beer. I sometimes do it another way - dissolve in warm water, bring up to volume that can be easily divided into to how many bottles you are bottling and use a syringe to inject each bottle with the right amount of liquid.
Yes I was using a filling stick that came with the coopers kit. Thanks ozbrewer.
Have bottles sitting in a warm enough room, but they dont seem to be getting hard form the carbonation.
Not sure if its because its too cool or if my expections are way off. From making elderflower sparkly wine in the past with its own yeast i was expecting the bottles to be hard in a day or so, almost to the point of exploding?
I bottled 5 days ago and there hasnt been that big of a change. Could somthing be wrong or am I expecting to much to soon?
Thanks again
Give the bottles a quick shake and see if they firm up. I would say if they don't try to increase the temp. Especially overnight if your not controlling the temp. I find if I put the bottles back into the empty fermenter, a bit of water down the bottom and stick the brew belt on. It creates a nice humid environment for the carbonation to happen.
Room temp for min 3 weeks, I usually leave them for min 6 weeks before drinking
Yep, you are expecting to much!
You carbed with half a carb drop, why?
Leave em as long as u can at room temp. They'll be ok just slightly under carbed.
Its as if they knew I was telling tales on them and decided to perk up a bit. Seam a bit harder today. Either that or of course it was a warm day today :)
Hi damo, I carbed with one and a haft drops in each bottle.
15 days after bottling and I tasted my first one. While it certainly isnt going to be entered into any competitions it is drinkable.
Drinkable is good enough for the first try.
Consider it a test run or an educational batch.
The next one will be far better :)