Brewing my second batch

Hey everyone, I just put the water on to boil for my second batch of homebrew. My first batch was a few years ago, so this is my re-introduction into the hobby. My parents bought me the kit and ingredients, so I'm not 100% sure of the style of beer, all I know is I have a can of dark malt extract, a tub of what looks like brewery grade corn syrup, and Cascade hops. Hope everything goes well! I will try to take some pictures for y'all!

Good luck, and hopefully everything goes smoothly.

That first brew should be aged enough I figure! good luck with #2.

Thanks guys, I put it in a plastic fermenter so I can't get pictures right now, but it is fermenting away. Being as paranoid and OCD as I am, I was worried when the airlock wasn't bubbling after about 12 hours, but now it has been about 16 hours and it is bubbling away! I will take pictures when I rack to secondary.

If your next brew doesn't bubble at all, don't worry. Airlock activity is a bad indicator of activity. Your hydrometer is the only way to be sure.

Yeah I've read that, but a bubbling airlock does give you that warm feeling inside. It's an instant assurance of what a hydrometer will tell you.

LumberjackJohn - It gives me a warm fuzzy too, but don't trust it.
Use the hydrometer Luke, Trust the hydrometer. But I am NOT your father kind of stuff. Believe me, the hydrometer and thermometer is the only thing I trust after testing and verification they are working.
I tend to break the glass on the bottom of hydrometer and all the beads fall out, so test, verify, then believe.
(queue sound track from the X-Files).

How often should I take a hydrometer reading? Once a week, or is that too often?

How often? Depends really. For example, I don't use a secondary so I just leave my brews in the primary for 3+ weeks. Sure I check the reading right before I syphon out to bottle but by then I am already sure that fermention is done. Of course, if I had no indications of airlock activity I'd probably crack open the fermentor after 5-7 days. If there was any krausen then I'd leave it alone. But if there was none I'd take a reading.

If you are using a secondary then definitely take a ready before racking if not before.

Yeah I am putting it in a secondary. I read somewhere, i forget the source now, that you can take a sample of the wort from the primary and fill a beer bottle with it, put a paper towel in the top of the bottle and use that to take hydrometer readings. I did that, and the SG is down to 1.020 already, making the ABV approx 3%. Should I be worried about low alcohol content beer, or is the hydrometer ABV scale inaccurate? Sorry for all the newb questions, I just want to get this right.

Depending on the OG, a SG of 1.020 may be a little high still. I would wait another three days and test it again before racking to secondary. You really want active fermentation to be done for at least 3 days before racking to secondary to give the yeast time to complete their cycle and clean up after themselves.

Sounds good Kauai, it is smelling nice all yeasty in my pantry now. I can't wait till bottling time!

I took a sample from my fermenter today, and here are some pictures.





The SG is about 1.012 now. I will give it a couple more days to ferment before racking to secondary.

Hmm, the pictures didn't seem to work. They are all up on my blog www.blogger.com/moneymaker936