Questions from a Newbie

[brewnovice99]

Hi, it's my first attempt at homebrew. I bought the new coopers DIY homebrew kit that comes with the lager kit. I sanitised all the kit even though it said I wouldn't have to as it was its 1st use. I'm not sure I'm taking the correct hydrometer reading as the 1st OG was 38. I'm now into my 3day & there doesn't seem to be any activity but the wort looks like lentil soup. The temp is sitting about 24c. Have I messed up & need to scrap & start again. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[BierMuncher]

By "38" I assume you mean 1.038.

Take another reading. Could be your beer has fermented and that lentil soup you see is simply fresh beer with residual krausen on top.

DON'T SCRAP IT.

 

[inhousebrew]

Well, to begin with good job taking the extra step and sanitizing! Secondly, 1.038 is a tad low for most beers but not too bad. It is possible you are nearing completion at day three but my main concern is your temp. Lager yeast (assuming that is what was in there) needs to be fermented cooler than ale yeast. 24c is about 70ish*f which is way to high for a lager which would lead to a bunch of off flavors from the yeast. Do you know what you used in terms of yeast? Also, the only way to tell if you're done is another hydro sample but it is always good to wait at least a minimum of two weeks before doing anything. If it was a lager yeast I'm not too confident in your end result but it is never good to dump out a beer without waiting a while and trying it. Bottle it in a few weeks, let it carb up, stick it in the fridge and taste it to make sure. But in the meantime I'd get yourself a nice ale kit and don't get discouraged.

 

[Hernando]

I was thinking the same thing that inhousebrew was, which is you using lager yeast and fermenting at ale temps. I definitely wouldn't scrap it. Wait it out and see what you end up with.

Your hydrometer reading is what gives you the verdict as to when your beer is done and is the only realy way to know when your beer is done. once it reamins constant for 3 days, bottle it up!

 

[brewnovice99]

Hi Bier Muncher, I've just done another reading & it's 1.035 now. Sorry if I'm asking dumb questions, just worried about my first ever batch of beer.



Hopefully the photo shows what I mean. Thanks for the advice.

 

[amandabab]

its an ale yeast, ale temps are fine.

that pic looks fine

 

[brewnovice99]

It was just a coopers kit, so am unsure of the yeast. As it was my first time I didn't want to stray from the instructions. Thanks everyone for the advice

 

[lebucheron]

Yep, looks just like my first batch did! Don't make the same mistake I did though, leave that sucker in there for 2 weeks+ ( I do 3 weeks now) that beer will be so much better than my first one if you do this! Although it will have finished fermenting (or flamenting if you've read this guy's post https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/help-needed-flamenting-349172/) after 1 week, the yeast will get a chance to clean up after themselves and the beer will condition better than it does in the bottle.
Also I used bleach and a rinse to sanitize my first batch, but if you don't' have Starsan yet, order that stuff for your next batch. It's cheap (you only use like 1/4oz at a time) it's no rinse, and it avoids residue bleach that will kill your head retention! Starsan FTW. Good luck and have fun!

EDIT - oh, here's some advice I wish I knew before I started my 2nd batch
- collect bottles (you want to have enough for 3-4 batches so when one's in the Fridge, one's in the bottles and one's in the fermenter.
- use dextrose (corn sugar) sparingly. If you use it for all of your fermentables like I did on my second batch you'll have the dryest, cideriest tasting beer ever. Get some DME, online if you have to.
- while you're ordering your DME or starsan, get one of these Vinerators https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/point-before-bottling-343257/#post4273833 so handy.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/noobie-needs-info-equipment-84607/

 

[HeadyKilowatt]

If your O.G. was 1.038 and has only dropped to 1.035 after three days, I'm guessing your O.G. reading was wrong. You probably didn't mix the concentrated wort with your top-off water well enough and got a false reading that's lower than it should be. Happens all the time with extract brews- it's harder than you would think to get things well-mixed. But once it starts fermenting, it will mix itself, so if this is indeed what's going on, then I think your second reading is probably accurate. And it's higher than it should be if fermentation was complete, so you need to let it go for a while longer. I'd maybe give the fermenter a little swirl to put some of the yeast back in suspension and don't even take another hydrometer reading for at least a week.

 

[brewnovice99]

Thanks for all the advice guys, much appreciated.

 

[Brewnoob1]

You have some Krausen residual so you definitely had fermentation. is the 1.035 the most recent reading you've taken? Or was that the first reading?

 

[brewnovice99]

1.035 was the last reading I took about 1-2 hours ago. I'm on day 3 of my brew.