Just Joined

[drunk Jeremy]

welcome. Trust me the hydrometer directly in the beer is just one of the many mishaps you will have. at least that one isn't messy. I usually make a huge mess or something rediculous like that. Good luck and welcome.

[robert_heat]

So brew update. I siphoned into secondary fermentation today and picked up more trub than I thought I would. There is still quite a bit of sediment going into the glass carboy.

Any tips on reducing for the final bottling?

[robert_heat]

Another question, without having an initial hydrometer reading how can I be sure the ferementation actually occurred?

[bwarbiany]

Another question, without having an initial hydrometer reading how can I be sure the ferementation actually occurred?

Let us know what the ingredients are. For most batches, you can expect the starting gravity to be somewhere in the 1.050 or higher range.

If your current gravity is 1.050 or higher, you had no fermentation. If it's 1.020 or thereabouts (potentially lower), you had fermentation.

The other way is to taste it... If it tastes SUPER-SWEET, it hasn't fermented.

[robert_heat]

Thanks, I will take a reading when I get home tonight. We did taste it and it definitely didn't taste super-sweet. In fact it tasted pretty good as far as flavor.

[backyard brewer]

The aroma is very different as well. You can smell the sugar in raw wort and the alcohol in the finished beer.

[robert_heat]

I personally thought it tasted/smelled ok, but no harm taking a reading to confirm.

Any tips on reducing sediment before bottling?

[JonGoku]

Welcome to the board/club.

I'm fairly new to all this as well, so you may want to rate others advice over mine, but here it is just in case

ow can I be sure the fermentation actually occurred?

1) Did you notice the airlock bubbling at any time?
2) Before you transferred to the glass carboy, did you see any krausen remains (foam residue) on the insides of the bucket above the "water line"? (See my pic below)

Krausen Residue.jpg (246.63 KiB) Viewed 2200 times

Either of the above would be signs of some fermentation taking place.

Also if your wondering what the OG was for your kit, there is a good chance that the instructions or label on the box of the kit you got from O'Shea's listed what the OG should be. Unfortunately the OG listed on the instructions or label is only a target and can be fairly different then what you end up with especially your first time brewing (at least that was my experience).

Any tips on reducing sediment before bottling?

I assume you will transfer the beer from the glass carboy into a bottling bucket with a spigot when it comes time for you to bottle. If this is the case I don't think you should have too much to worry about as a) You've already left a lot of trub behind, b) You'll leave more behind when you transfer from the glass, and c) The spigot on the bottling bucket higher then the bottom of the bucket, so as long as you let the transferred beer sit for a couple hours after transferring any sediment picked up during the transfer should stay at the bottom and out of your bottles.

That said, as you will be bottle conditioning, you'll end up with a small yeast cake in the bottle anyways. With just a little practice you'll be able to pour out your beer leaving almost all the sediment behind.



Cheers!

[robert_heat]

I did have quite a bit of sediment on the walls and bottom of the lid. So I am hopeful it worked out.

Sounds like I should be ok on the bottling. I was just concerned because even with a lot of sediment on the walls and a nice cake at the bottom of my primary fermenter there was quite a few floaties in my secondary when I siphoned the beer in. I will try to take a picture tonight to post. About an hour or two after siphoning I already had a centimeter of sediment on the bottom of the carboy.

[JonGoku]

I did have quite a bit of sediment on the walls and bottom of the lid. So I am hopeful it worked out.

Sounds like I should be ok on the bottling. I was just concerned because even with a lot of sediment on the walls and a nice cake at the bottom of my primary fermenter there was quite a few floaties in my secondary when I siphoned the beer in. I will try to take a picture tonight to post. About an hour or two after siphoning I already had a centimeter of sediment on the bottom of the carboy.

You'll be fine

[robert_heat]

So I pulled out a sample and took a reading tonight.

It looks like 1.015ish, so it sounds right in line. It also taste great and A LOT like anchor steam, which is what it was supposed to be a knock off of.

It does taste a little bit too watery, not sure how that happened, but if it stays this way after bottling and chilling I will be one happy camper.

What do you guys do with your trub left over in the buckets? Just spray it out or put it in the trash or what?

[BrewMasterBrad]

The carbonation will help with the watery-ness. Carbonation will add some body and character to the beer. Sounds like a good one.

I just dump my trub in flower bed or down the garbage disposal.

[brew captain]

Harvest the yeast and use it again is another option.


Cheers!

[Clivefrog]

Hi!

Instead of creating my own thread, thought I would just post my first post here.

I come from a friend of mine on another, non-brewing forum who guided me here. By all means, I am a beginning homebrewer. I bought John Palmer's book "How to Brew" in Nov '08 and then bought a starter kit from NorthernBrewer and tested my wit on an extract-kit pale ale. It turned out decent! and the rest is history.

Bottled my first IPA today (also extract... I don't have the equipment to do all grain yet.) 1.014 FG, roughly 7.1% alcohol. and it tastes great! I'm really excited since my first attempt, a pale ale, was decent and I screwed up so many times during the process. For this IPA, I knew what to expect and kept my meticulous self during the whole process. I'm not going to be upset if it does not turn out as good as I wish, I had a blast brewing it. What's the use of brewing if you don't enjoy the process?

Looking forward to sharing ideas and recipes with you all. BBTW, I live in Costa Mesa. Lovin' me some Hi Time Wine Cellars.

[brew captain]

Right on Clive! Glad to have you in our ranks!!



Cheers!