noodleface84
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- Joined
- Apr 3, 2014
- Messages
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Hello all. It's been a while since I've been in here! I've been home brewing for about 3 years now I reckon but in that time I've only done about 5 brews. I've stuck with woodfordes kits purely to try and get one to my liking before moving on to a different brand. I've got a bog standard 23 litre fermenter with a lid and airlock, also a tap.
I used to transfer to bottles but that grew tedious pretty quick so I now transfer to a plastic keg with a co2 injector screw cap.
My methods are - clean everything with a non scented detergent, and rinse thoroughly, then sterilise everything with vwp and rinse thoroughly. Pour the two can's of malt extract into fermenter, add the stated ammount of hot water in and stir. Bring the level up to the stated ammount and stir again. Check temp, take a reading, stick the lid on and put into bedroom which is at around 18-20 degrees c.
I used to just leave it at room temperature but then decided to use an aquarium heater. At first I was placing the fermenter inside a flexi bucket and filling that with water and putting the heater into it. Now Ive just started to sterilise the heater and stick it straight in the beer! It's just a glass tube so figured it'll be OK.
Normally after 5 days I can take another reading and again 24 hours later. If the two readings are the same i start to siphon it out into my keg rather than use the tap and add additional brewing sugar. I've also just started putting extra brewing sugar in at the fermentation stage too.
Up until now I've had one brew come out decent, one average and the others poor. I'm hoping by using the heater inside the fermenter it will keep it at a constant temp and by adding extra brewing sugar it might bring the ABV up. Oh yeah also noticed my fermenter markings are slightly wrong by half a litre. So I now brew less than it says.
Any comments or suggestions or even piss taking Is more than welcome. I like the banter!!!
Noodle
I used to transfer to bottles but that grew tedious pretty quick so I now transfer to a plastic keg with a co2 injector screw cap.
My methods are - clean everything with a non scented detergent, and rinse thoroughly, then sterilise everything with vwp and rinse thoroughly. Pour the two can's of malt extract into fermenter, add the stated ammount of hot water in and stir. Bring the level up to the stated ammount and stir again. Check temp, take a reading, stick the lid on and put into bedroom which is at around 18-20 degrees c.
I used to just leave it at room temperature but then decided to use an aquarium heater. At first I was placing the fermenter inside a flexi bucket and filling that with water and putting the heater into it. Now Ive just started to sterilise the heater and stick it straight in the beer! It's just a glass tube so figured it'll be OK.
Normally after 5 days I can take another reading and again 24 hours later. If the two readings are the same i start to siphon it out into my keg rather than use the tap and add additional brewing sugar. I've also just started putting extra brewing sugar in at the fermentation stage too.
Up until now I've had one brew come out decent, one average and the others poor. I'm hoping by using the heater inside the fermenter it will keep it at a constant temp and by adding extra brewing sugar it might bring the ABV up. Oh yeah also noticed my fermenter markings are slightly wrong by half a litre. So I now brew less than it says.
Any comments or suggestions or even piss taking Is more than welcome. I like the banter!!!
Noodle
