With the prospect of some time on Sunday where I might be able to bottle the Munton's IPA , I decided it was time to take a hydrometer reading. I still don't have a trial jar, though I hope to get one from the homebrew shop on Saturday. That mean carefully taking the lid off, at which point there was a noticeable hiss - yet more signs of life I hoped. I gently placed the hydrometer in the beer and took the above picture, before also holding the thermometer in the beer. The temperature settled at 16.5 degrees again. The gravity however I still find a little difficult to read, what with the markings only down one part of the hydrometer, as well as trying to decide exactly what level the reading is at. I settled on a reading of 1016, or possibly a tiny fraction below (though certainly much closer to 1016 than 1015). I had hoped for a reading of 1014 or less - the suggested finishing gravity in the instructions, but it does look like fermentation has just about finished, having changed so little now.
If it looks like I will have time to bottle on Sunday, I will first use the trial jar I should have by then, and take a final reading and a taste. If the gravity is still at 1016 and it tastes nice, I will bottle it. While at the brew shop, I will buy some light spraymalt to prime the bottles with (as suggested by the instructions on the box (and on various forums). I believe this is a better choice that standard sugar, in terms of the final flavour produced. I have opted to prime the bottles as I do not have a bottling bucket to siphon the beer into (while leaving the yeast sediment behind) and I do not want to stir sugar in and disturb all the sediment. I have bought some cheap measuring spoons to ensure I can prime each bottle with a very similar estimate of 1/2 teaspoon of spray malt, hopefully reducing the chances of any explosions.
I am looking forward to getting this brew bottled, both so that its closer to being ready and so that I can kick off the next one and see how well that copes with the temperatures.
Friday, February 8, 2008
Just about bottling time.
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2 comments:
How did you get on with the bottling? Did you do it straight from the syphon or did you use a bottling stick?
I'm bottling up my second brew tomorrow. A coopers Bravarian Lager / bier for the missus. She's not a big fan of ale so i brewed this one for her. I need to get a second fermenting bin so i can run lager and ale side by side so there's always a stock in the house.
This Brew It Yourself lark is ace :)
Hope the secondary fermentation goes ok
Hi, Cheers for the comment. I'm part way through writing up my bottling experience, so it should be up sometime today.
Some people did suggest a bottling stick, but I still struggle to see the advantage - using the tap to start and stop was very easy.
Got my next brew going now as well - that too will be up on the blog asap.
cheers.
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