Ginger beer, odd hydrometer readings.

MikeH

Hello,
I was given the Coopers ginger beer kit for Christmas and set about brewing it.  I took a starting gravity hydrometer reading and it was 1006.  Several days later I took another reading and it was 1016, the next day 996 and the day after back to 1006.  Very odd.  I've taken hydrometer readings before and know how to do it, that's not the problem.  I was wondering if any one else had experienced wildly varying readings for the ginger beer kit?  I've never brewed ginger beer before but have had great success with beer kits in the past.

The only thing I can think of is insufficient liquid depth?  The hydrometer didn't hit the bottom of the bucket but there were only 10l in the bucket for the subsequent readings.  There were 19l for the starting gravity reading.  The reason for this is my brother doesn't drink alcohol so I followed the non-alcoholic brewing instructions and bottled the first 9l of it after 3 hours as per the instructions.  Then I added 500g of sugar (instead of 1kg since there was only half as much wort then) and left to ferment as per the alcoholic brewing instructions.

It's all fairly moot now as I've just this morning bottled it but thought I'd ask if any one had any ideas as I'm interested to know.

Cheers, Mike...

HBO_Staff

The hydrometer readings are a little strange, the first one at 1006 sounds wrong, it should be much higher, we would have though 1060 would be more likely, depending on what mix was used. Another possibility is that the hydrometer was not sitting correctly as you suggect, possibly resting on the bottom of the vessel, but the kits are pretty fail safe, so as long as you added the sugar you wanted to, and halving the sugar as there was half the volume was the right thing to do, and then allowed the correct amount of time until the hydro reading had stabilised and stopped lowering, then the brew is sure to turn out well. The Ginger Beer is excellent and we have made it a few times, we thought much better for leaving in the bottles for a a couple of months

MikeH

Thanks for your comments.  Yes, I thought the measurements were all wrong, good to have it confirmed.  I'm sure it'll taste fine, just won't know what ABV it'll be.  But your product page says around 3.5% so that's probably what it'll be.
I'm keen to try it out but you suggest leaving it a lot longer than the kit says to so I'll have to be patient.  No point drinking it early and it being not great when a few weeks later it could be fantastic.  I found the John Bull English Ale improved quite a bit with a couple more weeks in the barrel.
The waiting is by far the hardest part of the whole brewing process!

HBO_Staff

Agreed, waiting is the hardest bit of home brewing! Try some after the minimum recommended manufacturers time and see what you think, it will be nice we're sure, but we just think it much improves, and found it best served chilled too. Often brews are drank early and so are enjoyed, but not at their best, so it's best we think to have a couple of batches on the go and just leave to condition, we store them in bottles in the dark and just leave them and forget about them for a few months

PS even though the readings were strange you are safe to presume it will work out right and around the stength guide provided on the kit, as long as the amount of sugar they say to add is added and the fermentation is complete before bottling/kegging