Beginner trouble/help!!

Ok fellow beer enthusiasts, any help appreciated. I'm currently hoping that my coopers English ale is fermenting. Trouble is i was so keen to get brewing again I couldn't find my hydrometer when boiling my brew which was pretty fcking annoying!!

How the hell am I going to know if my beer is brewing? Have I ****ed it up? Is it just a case of continue on and hope it tastes alright after the brew is done?

I'm on my 5th day and there was no bubbles (was bubbling ok on 4th day) on my airlock until i recently put the heating on and is bubbling again - potentially a temperature issue although I've heard others say this could just be carbon dioxide from temperature change.

I'm in a small flat so heats up quickly and have heat on auto at diff times of day. I've got my bucket near a radiator as didn't want it to be too cold in other area of flat as can get cold.

I also know I prob should get a brew belt but it's too late for this batch.

Any suggestions/help/ideas on current brew appreciated.

I'm going to say relax and let it ride for another 2 weeks then bottle it. Wasn't sure if you were saying it was bubbling fine up until day 4 then stopped then started again once you increased the heat? The vigorous part of fermentation is usually done 4-5 days in so it may have just finished with that. Relax, you are probably making beer.

I am hoping you are in the southern hemisphere.... Otherwise why would you be heating??? Leave it alone while you get a new, or find your hydrometer. After 10 to 28 days or more, take a gravity reading, 2 days later take another. If they are the same it is time to bottle.
I keep my fermenters in a heated part of my basement so I have to cool year round.

Not southern hemesphere. Scotland can get cold though. I know it's rather lazy but I the end I didn't bother getting a hydrometer and just left my brew. It was in fermentation bucket for about 17 days total. I then bottled it up (primed with dextrose sugar) and shook and left for over 2 weeks in warmest place in wee flat I have. I've tasted my brew today and actually tastes ok, have no way of knowing % for sure but thinking (hoping) it's at least 3.5/4% as put in full bag of coopers brew enhancer plus a little more out a bag more of dextrose. Tastes smooth and like a brown ale would.

What's your thoughts on colour and also finding out percentages? Should I just try to get drunk to test it?

IS this a kit? rather than an all grain?

If it is a kit, and you know how much malt you put in, and your starting volume, and took a final gravity - which you can do in the next glass you poured, - you can figure the ABV%, or post, and I can.

I'm going to guess it was 2 3.3lb cans (3kg) ... and thus Liquid Malt Extract (LME). I'm also going to guess you had about 5.5 gallons to start. LME has 36 or 37 ppg - or total of 244 points divided by 5.5 gallons is 44 for an OG of about 1.044 Figureing you finished a typical 75% consumed - 44*(1-.75)=11 so an FG about 1.011. this means conversion of 33 gravity points. Should be about 4.33% (according to a calculator). I use about 1% per 8 points - which gets me about 4.125%

Also don't worry about cold temp. I can't think of a single flavor defect from cold, just it takes longer. There are many flavor defects from to warm, some of them in the right amount and style taste pretty good, but are defects in something like and English Ale. To sample flavor of them, try just about any Belgian style which often is feremented about 5 deg F warmer than other beers are.
If it is supposed to be brown/coppery, it looks pretty good.

I'm a little concerned that you don't know the fermentation temperature. It's probably been warm enough, but if it was too cool, it might not have been finished fermenting when it was bottled. That could give you bottle bombs. As kh54s10 suggested, checking to be sure gravity is stable is the only way to really know it's finished fermenting. It would be a good idea to be really careful with these bottles in case you have bombs. And keeping them in a plastic bin would be good to avoid having a mess on the floor.

Thanks AC man - it was coopers English ale malt extract I used, coopers brew enhancer and a little dextrose. Yeah it tastes like a good ale. And about 5/5.5 gallons like you predicted [emoji106]. Wish I'd a hydrometer to know gravity but I'll check this next time I brew. No bottle bombs so got lucky. It prob was about room temp most of time and maybe a little hotter some of time but also colder some of the time (20c to 30c but probs 25-28c mostly)

brian862107 said:

Thanks AC man - it was coopers English ale malt extract I used, coopers brew enhancer and a little dextrose. Yeah it tastes like a good ale. And about 5/5.5 gallons like you predicted [emoji106]. Wish I'd a hydrometer to know gravity but I'll check this next time I brew. No bottle bombs so got lucky. It prob was about room temp most of time and maybe a little hotter some of time but also colder some of the time (20c to 30c but probs 25-28c mostly)

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Well if you post exactly what went into it, I can work out the staring sugars, and make a good guess at the finish. If you think it didn't finish fermenting, and bottle bombs are a risk, keep the bottles cold... as cold as you can without freezing.

And get a hydrometer, it is the only way of really knowing if you are done fermenting or not.

I don't think you have to worry about "bottle bombs" at all.

Fermenting 17 days in those temperature should be way more than enough.

STMF said:

I don't think you have to worry about "bottle bombs" at all.

Fermenting 17 days in those temperature should be way more than enough.

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I should say.... That's waaaay too warm for fermenting. you should have been cooling, not warming