First time brewer confused

roseington

Hello i'm a first time brewer and have started with a Woodfordes Admirals reserve kit. I'm concerned that it's not going very well. I started the brew on friday and have seen very little action on the fermentation side although after coming home after a few pints on saturday evening something had been going on while i was out. This is the only evidence of fermentation i've seen. The initial og was 1.062 i took a measurement this morning (now monday) and it's reading around 1.022. I tasted the sample and it didn't go down very well a little on the bitter side. Any advice on where to go from here would be appreciated as i think i've killed my first brew. Cheers John

HBO_Staff

It sounds from the hydrometer readings like it is going fine, the readings are getting lower, and are very close to the final reading Woodfordes recommend of 1.022. Keep an eye on it and we would think your brew will be ready for kegging/bottling in the next day or two, the readings need to be constant for a couple of days and all signs of small bubbles rising to the surface of the liquid have stopped. Many people expect to see froth and foam and hear loads of bubbling, but many brews are quite gentle and just quietly get on with it, fermenting away, it is the hydrometer readings which always give an accurate idea of what is happening.

The brew in these very early stages will taste different to the finished beer, it still needs to secondary ferment, clear and condition, which once you transfer to the barrel or bottles and prime with sugar it will, this is when the proper flavours develop. Whilst it will be perfectly fine to drink after a couple of weeks, we always recommend you leave it to properly condition and carbonate, and allow the full flavours to develop, for as many weeks as possible, and it is for this reason that often people have a couple of brews on the go so that it allows them time to condition and another is brewing whilst the previous one is conditioning and getting ready to drink