Hello,
This is my first brew using actual equipment. Previously I did a welch's wine in a milk jug with a balloon which is still fermenting. After this, I decided I wanted to give brewing a go as a hobby and went to my local brew supply shop and got a 2 gallon fermentation bucket, an airlock, and a racking cane. What I am trying to make isn't exactly a mead or a wine, but I think that mead is closer. I am experimenting making a classic Finnish drink called kilju. This is what I have followed for my recipe. 10 cups of sugar, 2 gallons of water, a full bag of frozen raspberries defrosted of course, mixed it all together really well and got all the sugar dissolved, than activated and added lavlin 1118, than dumped it in and mixed really well. It is doing something, I get one large bubble from my airlock roughly every 20 sec. Is this right? I know the bread yeast I used in previous brews put off a lot more co2. I started it 2 days ago. I did not have a hydrometer at the time because the guy at the store said it was not necessary. I now know he was wrong. If it is working do you have a rough guess on how long a brew like this will take to ferment? The temp is right around 68-70f. Some times it drops a bit in the night. I am just not sure how much bubbles is the correct amount to indicate proper fermentation. Any guess on how long this stuff will take? I don't really want to leave it longer than a month. Any way to speed up the process? I am looking to get as high ABV as possible, than might take part of it and try and separate of some of the alc by freezing. Maybe not, if it tastes good I will leave it alone, if not freeze concentrate and use it as a mixer. Thank you
This is my first brew using actual equipment. Previously I did a welch's wine in a milk jug with a balloon which is still fermenting. After this, I decided I wanted to give brewing a go as a hobby and went to my local brew supply shop and got a 2 gallon fermentation bucket, an airlock, and a racking cane. What I am trying to make isn't exactly a mead or a wine, but I think that mead is closer. I am experimenting making a classic Finnish drink called kilju. This is what I have followed for my recipe. 10 cups of sugar, 2 gallons of water, a full bag of frozen raspberries defrosted of course, mixed it all together really well and got all the sugar dissolved, than activated and added lavlin 1118, than dumped it in and mixed really well. It is doing something, I get one large bubble from my airlock roughly every 20 sec. Is this right? I know the bread yeast I used in previous brews put off a lot more co2. I started it 2 days ago. I did not have a hydrometer at the time because the guy at the store said it was not necessary. I now know he was wrong. If it is working do you have a rough guess on how long a brew like this will take to ferment? The temp is right around 68-70f. Some times it drops a bit in the night. I am just not sure how much bubbles is the correct amount to indicate proper fermentation. Any guess on how long this stuff will take? I don't really want to leave it longer than a month. Any way to speed up the process? I am looking to get as high ABV as possible, than might take part of it and try and separate of some of the alc by freezing. Maybe not, if it tastes good I will leave it alone, if not freeze concentrate and use it as a mixer. Thank you