This is my first time brew and I started the primary fermentation last wednesday so I'm guessing she should be ready in the next few days. The beer hasn't been bubbling through the air lock but there looks like there is residue up the sides of the barrel and moisture on the inside of the lid so i'm hoping all is well. When would you suggest that i take my first hydrometer reading? The original gravity reading was 1.036 which I understand was a little low. Could this be due to not mixing the malt enough initially?
Also any advice on transferring my beer into the pressure barrel would be much appreciated.
Cheers,
Comments
The Wherry is a great starting point and produces a very good beer, your gravity reading does sound low but it could be not quite accurate for various reasons, as long as you made it to the right quantity then the alcohol content will work out as intended by the manufacturers, there is not much to go wrong with this. A brew wont always bubble as how vigorous it ferments depends on a few factors such as temperature etc, but the froth and moisture are a good sign it is fermenting. The best way to tell how the progress is going, is as you say with your hydrometer, take a reading sometime soon and then compare again in 24 hour intervals. Once the reading is nice and low, and constant below 1014 for Wherry, without changing, then it is ready for moving over to your keg.
The trick with transferring a brew in to a barrel is to try and keep the end of the syphon tube not too far under the surface of the liquid, so you are drawing the brew from the top, as far away from the sediment as possible. Try to keep the end of the tube under the liquid, if the tube is in and out, it interupts the flow and mixes the beer up. The other end of the tube (in the barrel) ideally wants to be as low as possible so that your brew is not splashing more than necesary, as it is best not to mix with air too much if possible. The more careful you are, the less sediment will be disturbed and the less sediment in the barrel so the clearer the finished brew will be. The last bit in the fermenting vessel just needs to be left and discarded, but this is allowed for in the quantity.
Then prime your barrel with white granulated sugar, and make sure the lid makes an airtight seal, put a little Vaseline or similar on the thread to ensure an airight seal, and then leave to condition and carbonate for a few weeks, the longer you leave it the better the taste will be as it improves
If the final gravity is supposed to be 1.014 then my ABV would be about 6%. Not quite what I had in mind. Why would my OG be so high?