First inspection

I had intended to leave the container for at least 2 full weeks without opening it at all in order to stop air getting to the beer, but I was persuaded by Phil to open it up to take a look and a hydrometer reading (clearly its now his fault if there are any problems with the beer at all). As can be seen in the picture, it didn't look very pleasant with a residue on the side and a bit of scum on the top, but it smelt fairly good, and I'm assured it looks as it should.



Before taking the top off, I put the hydrometer I recently received (pictured) into the sink in an inch of hot water with a quarter tea spoon of sanitising powder for 10 minutes. I rinsed it with cold water, took the top off the bucket and placed the hydrometer gently into the beer. It dropped entirely under the beer, and then resurfaced and settled with the black line marking the ready to bottle level about a centremeter above the beer. The gravity measurement was 1.022, suggesting as expected after just 5 days that it still has some time to go.