Recent content by knightsoftheround

Basically just a muntons connoisseurs IPA bitter extract...used corn sugar for fermentation and priming. I didn't wanna complicate it much on my first rodeo.. Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Hey guys. Just an update on my maiden voyage, here. I bottled these suckers, waited a couple of weeks, refrigerated for a few days, and popped one to taste. I was VERY discouraged by the first bottle. Little to no carbonation, which made it seem very dull to drink. It's been, I think, a...

Truthfully, of all the awesome things my kit came with, my one gripe is that it lacked a clip to hold the siphon to the side of the bucket. The only thing I did incorrectly was add the priming sugar to the beer after I had already transferred the beer over. I gave it a very thorough stirring...

I mean, do I have that much further control over final gravity at this point? OG was around 1.04, now it's reading around 1.01... Have I brewed a light beer? Hahahaha.

So I tested the gravity on Tuesday and tested again tonight and it's reading was the same. Gave it a taste both times. I don't know what it's supposed to taste like at this point but if I had to describe it, I'd say like flat beer that's a little on the weak side (drinkable though). Not...

Would it make sense to rack to my other container at this point, let it continue there until bottling time, and then use the siphon with the bottling wand attached to it for bottling? Think it's too late?

"Question 3- carboy/secondary fermenting. You don't need to do a rack to a secondary, but can just let it sit in the primary longer. Main reason most people rack, because they always have. 2nd reason for racking - to add something to the beer - dry hopping, fruit, etc. I generally will go 3...

Do you think the sediment would be as high with this being a pure malted extract (i.e. no grain) brew, with no specialty grains or anything? Basically just Muntons from the can? I don't know how the chemistry works, really, but the only 'sedimentary' elements would be the sugar and the yeast...

That brings up an interesting point. The spigot on my bottling bucket is about an inch higher than the bottom of the bucket, and I'm wondering if at bottling time, I should bother with anything beneath the spigot, or if that's all just going to be a mess of settled yeast and sediment. Any...

Okay so we're just over a week since fermentation began, and I'm not seeing much activity from the airlock anymore. Previously, would get a few 'burps' every 45 seconds to a minute, but now it seems as though it's plateaued out just a bit. Temperature has stayed relatively consistent as well...

It's actually been staying around 65 during initial fermentation. At times it's risen to 66 or so. edit: trying your method to cool it down just a bit. Keeping my eye on the temperature strip, here.

Good news is that approx. 26 hours later I've got some activity in the airlock. Lots of bubbles.

When checking for final gravity, do I essentially just use the wine thief and suck up a bit more to test? Just open the bucket back up? That won't disrupt anything will it?

I tested out my bottle filler and it seems to work very well. Just attached the hose to the stem on the spigot, and gave a bottle a test fill a few times.Okay. Couple of final questions here: 1) I was planning on doing the fermenting in the bottling bucket, as I'm not sure there's a need for...

Yeah I assumed it implied you should let it cool a bit before dumping it in. So I bought some no-rinse sanitizer from the shop today, as well as additional sugar for bottling, and am gonna give this a whirl in the coming week. Keep your fingers crossed for me!