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Just thought I would keep you informed on how this has been progressing.

I took a Gravity reading on Tuesday night - it was 1.015.

The colour was awesome - a rich golden amber; I am very happy with that.

Had a taste of it, it was nice and malty.

It was very sedimentary (is that a word?); I have decided to rack it and try and clear some of the sediment. Got hold of another fermenter today and will do it tonight.

A mate of mine suggested putting in another spoonful of sugar and leaving it for another week, to help push along the final stage of fermentation before bottling. I wondered whether a spoon of honey would work?

What do you think?

I had a brief flirt with racking my beer to another fermenter for a while until I got sick of the cleaning and water use and tried just moving the fermenter to a different place to free up the Fermentation Cabinet. I added a small amount of sugar to the mix in the hope that it would give the yeast something to convert to alcohol and therefore generate enough CO2 into the new fermenter to make things good. It didn't appear to fail me, but I am not sure I would be adding honey, because it is renowned for moving very, very slowly.

Longer is always better, I am told - at least with regard to waiting before bottling.

Thanks mate....

Have done it now, and just put in a spoonful of sugar.

I see what you mean about the whole process of cleaning, sterilising, etc.

Having said that, it looks clearer, plus the yeasty waste at the bottom of the barrel is full of nutrient, and is awesome to put in your garden beds. My partner teaches organics, and Brewers Yeast is a valuable source of mineral nutrient! (vit B I think...). PLus it acts as a bit of a mulch, so I don't feel too bad about the water usage.

I went by my HBS this arvo, and a fella in there suggested I rack it 'tap-to-tap' - it worked great, but had to put the last 5 litres or so from the top.

Now it frees me up to do the next batch! Woohoo!

O, and I checked the gravity before I did it all, and it seemed it was down by about 0.0001 (from 15 to 14) - but that may have been wishful thinking on my part.

How long should I leave this now until bottling? Does it matter?

dragonphoenix73 wrote:A mate of mine suggested putting in another spoonful of sugar and leaving it for another week, to help push along the final stage of fermentation before bottling. I wondered whether a spoon of honey would work?

What do you think?

Make sure that anything that goes in your fermenter is steralised. This should include sugar.

Adding sugar won't push fermentation along, but in theory it will leave no question that co2 will be produced and provide a layer of protection from oxidisation. That said, if you racked just before final gravity this would happen anywy. I would use malt instead of sugar to give the yeast better nutrition.

dragonphoenix73 wrote:OK, so this batch is now on the go.....
Here's what I ended up doing:
[snip]
Put the Goldings in water, boiled then simmered; added Golden CLuster, and left for another 15 minutes. I then just added the hops into the brew, deciding not to strain it. I then put the brew into the barrel, strained the grains out of the Crystal Malt tea and added.
[snip]
Cheers for the assistance!!!

DP73 a question if I may...did you boil the hops in water with some malt added or just water? A number of complex reactions (including isomerisation) occur when hops are boiled with malt, and you'll get a better result if you boil the hops in a malt solution rather than water.
Anyway, congrats on brewing what looks like a good beer!
Cheers,
TL

uhhhmmmm....

No trough-lolly, i did not boil the hops with the malt.

Thanks for that - will keep it in mind for next time. There were so many ingredients to play with.... had pots of boiling stuff all over the kitchen. That should save some of the washing up next time too....



p

dragonphoenix73 wrote:1x Muntons Blonde kit
1x Black Rock Amber unhopped Malt
250 gm Crystal Malt
250 gm Corn Syrup (maltodextrin)
1/2 packet (~12.5 gm) Goldings Hops
5 gm Golden Cluster Hops
1x sachet Safale US-56 yeast

No probs DP73 - with your original recipe, I'd recommend boiling the hops in a stock pot with the sweet liquor you get from the steeped crystal, adding water to 3/4 fill the pot and tossing in the unhopped Black Rock amber malt for good measure. You can then gently stir in the hopped Blonde kit and maltodextrin at the end of the boil, chill, pitch and seal. The more malt in solution, the less efficient the hops are at "keying" into the malt, hence the suggestion to hold back on boiling the maltodextrin. I wouldn't boil the kit since it's already been boiled by the kit manufacturer and you'd scrub out some of it's aroma profile by doing so...
I'll take a wild guess and if the Goldings were for flavour, then boil them for at least 20 mins and if the Cluster were aroma, then you can toss them in with 2 mins to go or at flameout / end of boil.
Cheers,
TL

Let me be the first to recommend a book to you:

http://www.howtobrew.com

Lots of good stuff and apparently the author is considered to be a god by some.

I'm a radical extremist agnostic, so I have to disagree...

Thanks for that link....

Have been reading it - awesome! He's very thorough; one could even say extreme. Obviously a serious brewer!

It gives me further ideas of how to go about the next one!

I'm bottling tonight!

It has stabilised at 1.013 for the last couple of days, so I think its ready to go to free up my fermenter....

...Gonna start on my cider now.... Partner is out now getting the last vital ingredient (cinnamon sticks).

She has even offered to help me bottle - I got her to start on sanitising the bottles!

Man, where do ppl find these girls? Mine is actively hostile toward my brewing, reckons it takes too much time away from being with her.

this makes me glad i found HB before a girl... means i can pick one with the right priorities

unfortunately, that's the only reason i'm glad i'm still single

rwh wrote:Man, where do ppl find these girls? Mine is actively hostile toward my brewing, reckons it takes too much time away from being with her.

Easy way around that is to dedicate yourself to her for a couple of days and let her realise how annoying it is....

My wife is a bit hostile to me brewing too, but she has helped me bottle on occasions. It helps in planting the seed about getting a keg setup later on.

rwh wrote:Man, where do ppl find these girls? Mine is actively hostile toward my brewing, reckons it takes too much time away from being with her.

Mine sees it as a hobby and she constantly asks how it's going. Has no problems with two fermenters on the kitchen bench and cupboards full of bottles.

I store my beer in the dining room and it doesn't bother her. Plus, she joins me for the 'first taste' (even though she doesn't drink beer).

I guess it's a combination of luck and you need to impress upon them that this is a hobby - one should never deny someone that.

My wife has hobbies too. Hers are generally bigger cash-consumers than making beer (although not true for some of my others).

It needs no explaining.

Besides, part of a caring relationship is the understanding that a man must have toys and beer...

They drive us to drink

So if anything they should be happy that we are trying to do it cheaper

gold.. i think i'll try that excuse one day

if that doesn't get me slapped, i don't know what will.. although i have a very good mate who dutch ovened his wife on their wedding night

Sounds like a typical initiation to me

KEG wrote:gold.. i think i'll try that excuse one day

if that doesn't get me slapped, i don't know what will.. although i have a very good mate who dutch ovened his wife on their wedding night

Is he still married?

My wife has helped me brew, but rarely,......very rarely.

I will not complain though, as I am lucky as my wife does everything else around the house

Cheers

Boonie

I am having difficulty with the phrase 'dutch ovened' but am concerned it might mean something other than giving her a dutch oven.

Do I want to know?