Reborn beginner has a little question

Alambic_Talon · 05-17-2009, 08:21 PM

Hi guys,

I I used to brew with a roommate years ago and stopped when we moved our separate ways, I allowed him to keep my half of the equipment in hopes that we would brew some more when the occasion came up. Unfortunately, he got cancer and passed away. Two years later, his girlfriend asked me if I would use the equipment; Of course I will! Anyway, though we all miss Frederic, the mourning process is complete and this is not what this thread is about. So let's celebrate life and brew us some beer!

The whole process was a little foggy in my memory, but I decided to start up off the top of my head without any coaching or recipes, at least for the first batch, I have two going now and the fixins for a third in the fridge, the second and subsequent batches I got more help from a very competent local brew shop and definitely higher quality ingredients.

The first batch I threw together from a store that sells mostly wine stuff, but had a little for beer too, I threw together the following recipe;

1.5Kg of amber malt extract
1.5kg of blond malt extract
3 oz of Galena hops
wyeast activator irish ale yeast.
5 gallons of water.

I boiled about 15 liters of water, diluted all the malt into it, then did 3 hopping stages; 1oz 25 minutes then 1oz 15 minutes then 1oz just before cool down and topping off with water to 5 gallons. I know I know, galena is a powerful hop and this should yield a fairly bitter beer. It's no biggie even if it doesn't turn out perfect it feels good to at least be brewing again. It smelled great cooking, going into the primary, fermenting in the primary, tasted good when transfered to the carboy and still the bubbles that come out of the bung smell fine, so far, so good. Right now, I'm at the "to bottle, or to wait some more" stage.

I had it about 5-6 days in the primary, after 24H of pitching at 24C the fermentation was vigorous and healthy, when it subsided I transferred it into a glass carboy and put a bung on it. It bubbled for a few days then seemed to completely stop for weeks. Then it seemed to start again but very slowly (bubble from the bung only every few minutes)

It's been 4 weeks now, and Thursday I had to move the carboy and disturbed the yeast cake a little bit. This seemed to revive the fermentation process. When I saw this, it had me a little worried (Fred and I had once bottled an unfinished fermentation that decided to take again in the bottles, we were lucky enough to have bottled one PET bottle of that batch and when it turned rock hard after just 2 days we knew something was up and opened all of them to dump before the bottles blew up on us (some of them were so carbonated, the release of gas would hurt like a firecracker going off in your hand when we'd twist the cap off

)

So, I shook up the yeast cake a bit more, this was 48H ago, now there's still a small bubble comes out of the bung every 30 seconds or so.

Unfortunately, I was a little over confident and took zero SG readings at any stage, but what do you guys think; should I just bottle it now, or should I wait for all bubble activity to cease completely? Most of the yeast and sediment has settled back at the bottom of the carboy by now.

Sorry for the longish post with overtones of noobism.

arover · 05-17-2009, 08:40 PM

Firstly, why not just take a final gravity reading, just for kicks? Even without a starting gravity, you can at least make sure your batch isn't stuck at >1.020, typically if it's under that for a few days straight, you're good to go. I'm willing to bet that after that long, you're done. As long as the gravity is constant, and low, you're good to go. Bubbling typically doesn't tell you much, especially when it's as little as that.

**Nurmey** · 05-17-2009, 08:48 PM

Welcome to HBT!

My guess is that you knocked the CO2 out of suspension moving it about, however, a gravity reading will tell the story. Since you did move it around, I would wait another week to bottle just to let everything settle back. No reason to put all that trub in your bottles.

Alambic_Talon · 05-17-2009, 09:08 PM

Thanks,

it's at 1.008 right now. Not knowledgeable enough to know exactly what that means, but it looks like that's about as low as it can go, right?

Edit; make that 1.006, I misread, the scale is 0.002 per bar not 0.001

**ChshreCat** · 05-17-2009, 09:14 PM

That's probably done. I'd let it sit for a week and if it's still there, bottle it up.

Dougan · 05-17-2009, 10:24 PM

Agreed.

And for the record, when using extract, I've forgotten my OG reading a couple times... but since efficiency isn't a factor, just throw your ingredients into a program like promash and it'll estimate your OG. With extract, this is goign to be pretty accurate.

**Laughing_Gnome_Invisible** · 05-17-2009, 10:44 PM

Just curious as you are reborn.....How long ago is it since you died the first time as a brewer?

Alambic_Talon · 05-17-2009, 11:12 PM

I started as a teenager with cheap kits and dry yeast packets, did a few batches in the early 90's with friends. Then stopped, and we started again for a few batches a few years ago, I'd say we haven't brewed anything in 4-5 years and I wasn't alone at it back then either.

I ran the recipe in tastybrew.com

Low High
OG 1.045 1.046 1.056
FG 1.010 1.012 1.015
IBU 20 43 40
SRM 11 7 18
ABV 4.5 4.4 5.7

**JPicasso** · 05-18-2009, 12:02 PM

Sounds like you made beer! Welcome back!

Just curious, what temp did you ferment at?

1.008 sounds like it's done. With 1.010 being on the low side, yours sounds as done as it's gonna get.

As suggested, the bubbles are pobably just CO2 gas being released, but fermentation is most likely over. I'd also wait a week or so and let it settle. Then bottle it up.

Alambic_Talon · 05-18-2009, 02:39 PM

Hi! Yeah It is also my opinion that i'll be able to pass that for beer when it's all said and done.

Of course those bubbles are CO2 escaping, but where is it coming from after so long and with such a low gravity? It can't be stuff escaping from the yeast cake because it was all broken loose. There is still a ring of bubbles at the neck and the airlock is still letting a bubble out every 25 seconds or so. Apparently this means very little.

My fear was just that if I bottled it and added priming sugar it might end up too carbonated or worse.. bottle bombs. In any case, i'll wait another few days for a more complete settling of the particles in suspension.