Am I worried about nothing?

Markk

Hi
I’m very new to home brewing and only have three previous brews under my belt. I splashed out on an old fridge and built myself a brew fridge so that I have spot on accuracy as far as temperatures were concerned. However, I am starting to find that there is quite a, substantial at times, difference between these brews. Eg my first brew was a Festival Razorback IPA kit. I followed the instructions implicitly and within a day and a bit I had froth coming out of the airlock making quite a mess. I cleared all this up, sanitised etc and that brew is now bottled and conditioning.

I then tried a simply mild kit. This was brewed as the book but with a brew enhancer instead of the sugar. This one didn’t overflow in the fermenter but did, after a day or so, show a steady flow of bubbles from the airlock until fermentation was complete. A subsequent batch of Mangrove jack Bourbon brew performed in a similar way. Now, my next batch, which was started on Saturday 23 March, is so different. This time I put in a Simply Pale Ale. I wanted to increase the hop aroma so added the 1kg sugar as per the recipe but also added 500g muntons light hopped dry spray malt. In addition, because of the additional fermentables, I replaced the kit yeast with 6g pack of Muntons premium gold ale yeast.

The reason for my post is that on this occasion I have seen absolutely no activity from the airlock at all. Something is clearly happening, or has happened as it’s in a bucket and the lid had ballooned. I’m not sure if there’s a leak in the lid somewhere but all seems to be secure. The original gravity was 1.054 so I decided to take reading today (Wednesday 27 March) and was surprised to find the reading now at 1.012! I really didn’t think anything had happened but it looks like my brew is well on the way. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

HBO_Staff

Welcome Markk, it sounds as though you have tried a few different brews already ad the temperature controlled fridge will help to keep brewing consistent - presumably you are using a heater and a controller such as an Inkbird to turn the fridge on to cool when needed, and the heater comes on to warm when required?

The brews you describe sound perfectly normal, you wont always get bubbles through the airlock but the lid doming shows it is holding pressure (if the airlock had a lot of water in it try just part filling it), and the hydrometer reading is the most important thing and this does show it has fermented well. 1.012 is quite low but to be sure give it another day or two and take another reading just to make sure it wont drop any further. There is a little more info on fermentations here if of any interest:

https://homebrewonline.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/519/fermentation-what-to-expect#latest

The Simply Pale Ale is a really popular brew, the additional hoped light spraymalt will give it more body and flavour, and will also increase the alcohol strength. We don't know if you have seen these, but these hop bags are great for adding additional hop aroma and taste to your brew:

https://www.home-brew-online.com/ingredients-c45/beer-making-c181/hop-t-bags-c230

Markk

Thanks for your reply. Along with the links this is really helpful.
A couple of the previous brews I've done gave an indication on the pack as to what FG I should be looking to achieve. As a NOOB I really liked being given this info but there's nothing on the Simply kits. The Simply Mild I did finished up at 1.011 so I was assuming the Simply Pale Ale, with the addition of the extra 500g spray malt, would probably finish a little higher than that? I will wait for another week or so anyway to allow things to clear etc and certainly ensure readings SG 48 hours apart are identical before bottling, but I must admit, I do feel pretty lost in not knowing approximately what FG to expect.

HBO_Staff

Quite right it is really useful when they give an FG to aim for, some kits like Coopers don't give one so you do have to rely on a hydrometer to show it is constant and has stopped fermenting. The reading will vary a little depending on the aunt of sugar and the yeast etc, your SG reading if you took one will have been higher with the additional sugars in the spraymalt, the final reading though will probably quite similar to the Mild you brewed, as a very general guide beers and lagers tend to finish around 1.010 to 1.014.

Let us know how you get on, adding spraymalt and hops is a great way to personalise a brew to your liking

Markk

Just a quick update. It’s now day 8 so I took another SG reading and I was surprised to have it read 1.004! I really wasn’t expecting that. This brew has been so slow and steady that if I hadn’t been taking readings I’d have sworn nothing had happened. I’ll take another reading in two days time to check again. If it hasn’t moved I’ll leave it until the weekend then bottle it.

Markk

Sorry, just one more thing. I’d like to add some extra hop flavour and have read that you can either just add dry hops or add the hops to warm water for 15 minutes or so then add the water. The latter appeals to me as I actually only filled this 23 litre kit to just 21 litres. This, added to the additional fermentables at the beginning means I might now be looking at something over 6.5% abs as things stand. Would I be able to make the hop brew in, say, 1 litre of water and add that in order to try to tame it a bit?

HBO_Staff

Adding hops is a great way to personalise your brew, using some hot water on the hops can help to release the flavours quickly, if you need to top up your brew with water you can do that just to dilute it a bit, so you could increase it to 23 litres by adding another 2 litres of water