TheMotherConfessor
Active Member
Hi there all.
Purchased everything (I think) that we could need for a home brew hobby for my better half for Christmas and we have just got our first brew on. We are doing the Young's Peach & Passion fruit kit first.
We are using wide neck fermenters instead of buckets. I will go through our process step by step in the hope that someone can tell us what has gone wrong, if anything.
1. We submerged everything in Starsan for 1-2 minutes and resisted the urge to rinse
2. Added the required amount of hot water, then the fruit concentrate, sugar and yeast ect. Followed the recipe instructions to the dot.
3. Topped up with bottled water (Tap water is very hard and nasty here).
4. Used Vaseline on the cap thread and seal and put on the lid. Added a sterilised bung, and a Sterilock with an odour absorbing capsule. (Thought we would try out the Sterilock rather than the bubbler, it's a little un-nerving as a beginner as we don't have the bubble bubble to tell us it's working. No smell at all from the brew so the odour absorbing capsule is obviously working well.)
5. Left the fermenter in the spare room, with a crystal thermometer stuck to the vessel and a room thermometer in there. Temp stayed around 18 on the vessel, and around 19 in the room.
6. On day 4 we added a thermostat controlled fan heater to the room as the temp of the fermenter had dropped to 16/17. Finding it quite hard to read the crystal thermometer. Never sure which one is the right reading. Blue or orange? I normally go for the blue as it is the most prominent.
7. On day 5, the temp was 24 on the vessel, and in the room. The fermenter had blown out at the base and was now very unstable and you could wobble it around with your finger due to the pressure build up, presumably from the temp increase making the yeast go overboard. Removed the Sterilock just enough to let the pressure out. The vessel regained its shape. Put the sterilock back in properly and removed the odour capsule thinking that was stopping it working.
8. Checked the SG, 1.040 - stays in the orange area on the hydrometer, which according to the instructions is a starter area for beer? The instructions say that when it is in the green (1.000-1.005) then it is ready for bottling/second stage fermenting.
9. On day 6, the vessel had bowed out again at the bottom so this time we removed the Sterilock completely and put in an old fashioned bubbler. It is now bubbling away.
10. Day 7, temperature is stable and airlock still bubbling. Checked the hydrometer in some tap water at 20°C after spinning the bubbles off and it reads 1.002 so it's not far out, but haven't tried distilled water so could just be the poor water quality here.
11. Day 8, checked the SG and it's reading 1.030. Has come down a bit. Still bubbling.
Why has the gravity not gone to the desired level according to the kits instructions? The kit says it should end at 1.006, so it's a long way off.
I realise that the low temp could have caused problems, especially given that when it heated up it seems to have built up pressure faster than the Sterilock could handle. When I put the bubbler on it blew most of the water out, although I could have put too much water in for all I know.
The liquid is cloudy, smells much nicer than it did when it first went in, so I'm guessing things are happening, even if very slowly. There doesn't seem to be any foam, or only a very small layer. Don't want to open the lid unnecessarily to check. (No idea if this is normal for Cider) and I can't see any sediment on the bottom either. I am a little concerned.
Is it just the temperature that's messed the timings up? Using grolsch bottles so I don't want to bottle until it's ready to save bottle bombs.
Sorry for the very long post, I thought it would be best to give you all of the information to begin with.
We are a little confused here!
Thanks for reading. Any help is appreciated.
Sarah.
Purchased everything (I think) that we could need for a home brew hobby for my better half for Christmas and we have just got our first brew on. We are doing the Young's Peach & Passion fruit kit first.
We are using wide neck fermenters instead of buckets. I will go through our process step by step in the hope that someone can tell us what has gone wrong, if anything.
1. We submerged everything in Starsan for 1-2 minutes and resisted the urge to rinse
2. Added the required amount of hot water, then the fruit concentrate, sugar and yeast ect. Followed the recipe instructions to the dot.
3. Topped up with bottled water (Tap water is very hard and nasty here).
4. Used Vaseline on the cap thread and seal and put on the lid. Added a sterilised bung, and a Sterilock with an odour absorbing capsule. (Thought we would try out the Sterilock rather than the bubbler, it's a little un-nerving as a beginner as we don't have the bubble bubble to tell us it's working. No smell at all from the brew so the odour absorbing capsule is obviously working well.)
5. Left the fermenter in the spare room, with a crystal thermometer stuck to the vessel and a room thermometer in there. Temp stayed around 18 on the vessel, and around 19 in the room.
6. On day 4 we added a thermostat controlled fan heater to the room as the temp of the fermenter had dropped to 16/17. Finding it quite hard to read the crystal thermometer. Never sure which one is the right reading. Blue or orange? I normally go for the blue as it is the most prominent.
7. On day 5, the temp was 24 on the vessel, and in the room. The fermenter had blown out at the base and was now very unstable and you could wobble it around with your finger due to the pressure build up, presumably from the temp increase making the yeast go overboard. Removed the Sterilock just enough to let the pressure out. The vessel regained its shape. Put the sterilock back in properly and removed the odour capsule thinking that was stopping it working.
8. Checked the SG, 1.040 - stays in the orange area on the hydrometer, which according to the instructions is a starter area for beer? The instructions say that when it is in the green (1.000-1.005) then it is ready for bottling/second stage fermenting.
9. On day 6, the vessel had bowed out again at the bottom so this time we removed the Sterilock completely and put in an old fashioned bubbler. It is now bubbling away.
10. Day 7, temperature is stable and airlock still bubbling. Checked the hydrometer in some tap water at 20°C after spinning the bubbles off and it reads 1.002 so it's not far out, but haven't tried distilled water so could just be the poor water quality here.
11. Day 8, checked the SG and it's reading 1.030. Has come down a bit. Still bubbling.
Why has the gravity not gone to the desired level according to the kits instructions? The kit says it should end at 1.006, so it's a long way off.
I realise that the low temp could have caused problems, especially given that when it heated up it seems to have built up pressure faster than the Sterilock could handle. When I put the bubbler on it blew most of the water out, although I could have put too much water in for all I know.
The liquid is cloudy, smells much nicer than it did when it first went in, so I'm guessing things are happening, even if very slowly. There doesn't seem to be any foam, or only a very small layer. Don't want to open the lid unnecessarily to check. (No idea if this is normal for Cider) and I can't see any sediment on the bottom either. I am a little concerned.
Is it just the temperature that's messed the timings up? Using grolsch bottles so I don't want to bottle until it's ready to save bottle bombs.
Sorry for the very long post, I thought it would be best to give you all of the information to begin with.
We are a little confused here!
Thanks for reading. Any help is appreciated.
Sarah.