On Friday, I decided it was time for a quick check on the status of my second home brewed beer, before going away for the weekend. I dropped the hydrometer in and went to look for my camera to take a picture. Unfortunately, I had already packed it, and my phone doesn't have a flash, so the pictures were not good:
I took the reading as 1.012. I noted that the 1.012 line was just about the last thing visible before the bubbles covered the hydrometer. The target gravity, as stated in the instructions, is 1.010 or less. While checking the instructions just now for my blog, I note that it also suggests stirring the beer a little if it hasn't quite reached target, to re-suspend some of the yeast. Given there were still bubbles noticeable on Friday (and still are today) so I can assume it is still just about fermenting, I will now sanitise the stirrer, and give it a go. My first brew finished a few points high, and it is noticeably sweet, so I'd love to get it down some more. I will also place the towel that I wrap around the bucket on the radiator for a short while in the hope of encouraging the yeast along.
Stirring completed, I will give the beer a few days before measuring it again.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Linthwaite Light Gravity Check
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Shaking up the wines
24 hours after wracking the Strawberry, and a couple of days after wracking the Merlot, I was continuing to shake the wines as often as I remembered. This involved simply removing the airlocks and covering the hole with a cleaned thumb and shaking until it stopped fizzing when I removed my thumb (or until I got bored, which ever came first).
Following the instructions, this would be the last shaking of the Strawberry, and given my busy weekend, tomorrow would be the last shaking of the Merlot. The Strawberry will now sit for a few weeks until it is completely clear, where the Merlot will tomorrow have the finings added before also being left to clear.
Racking the Strawberry
Having given the Strawberry another 11 days after it seemed to have got to the edge of its target gravity, I decided it was time to wrack it to the secondary demijohn. Like the Merlot, I decided to take a gravity reading anyway, which was again easiest from a picture:
The gravity was really hard to read, but it definitely wasn't any lower than the 1.008 I had measured last time.
| Day | Time per bubble (secs) | Gravity |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | infinite | |
| 1 | 8 | |
| 3 | 4 | 1062 |
| 6 | 1.5 | |
| 12 | 50 | |
| 19 | 103 (after hydrometer reading) | 1.008 |
| 30 | 103 (after hydrometer reading) | 1.008 |
In fact, I even thought the gravity might be 1.009, so I'm not sure if that suggests a misread last time, or perhaps the gravity has dropped with the clearing of the wine. Speaking of which, the wine was already very clear, and was noticeably lighter in colour than the Merlot, which was a very dark red.
Anyway, onto the racking. I had sterilized the demijohn that had previously contained the Merlot, as well as the tubing, a grommit and an airlock. I placed the wine on the side in the kitchen, and positioned the empty demijohn in the washing up bowl on the floor. (I actually placed the washing up bowl on top of my wine making tool box so that the tubing would reach to the bottom of the demijohn.) I again sinned by sucking to get the wine going, and away it went, again without so much as a sip of win for me. :-( As it got near the end, I very gently tipped the demijohn in order to get a little more of the clear wine off the top of the sediment.
I tried to pour a little of the remaining wine from the nearly empty demijohn into a glass to taste, but as soon as I moved the demijohn the sediment mixed with the clear wine to turn it very sludgy. I was impressed at just how much the wine had cleared, and how well the stiff tubing had taken the wine from above the sediment without disturbing it.
The instructions suggested mixing the stabiliser with a couple of tablespoons of water and then adding it to the primary demijohn. As I was wracking to a secondary to remove much of the sediment, I actually added the stabiliser into the empty demijohn before wracking the wine into it. As instructed, I then added the Strawberry flavouring to the wine. This took the form of a small clear sachet containing a surprisingly small amount of red liquid. Unlike with the Merlot, the instructions then told me to add the finings straight away, before shaking the demijohn vigorously for a few minutes. I must then shake it on at least 6 occasions over the next 24 hours, before leaving it a few weeks to clear. I wondered whether the difference between this and the Merlot (where I hat to add just the stabiliser and shake the contents regularly over 3 days before adding the finings and then leaving to clear) was a genuine difference, or just lazier instructions given with a cheaper kit where it wouldn't make much difference, and might be being made by a less professional brewer.
I found after a few minutes of shaking, the wine stopped fizzing when I removed my thumb.
I replaced the airlock and placed the demijohn back in the brewery, with the intention of shaking it a few times over the next 24 hours.
Sampling the Munton's IPA Again
With Phil and another mate, Chris, round on Tuesday, I decided it was time to crack open a few more bottles of the IPA, and see how its doing at the 4 week (since bottling) stage. I seem to be swinging back and forth with my thoughts on my first brew as I'm back to being a bit disappointed. It hasn't really changed since last week, so while it is nicely fizzy, and with a pleasant and mild taste, it still doesn't have the depth of taste that Phil's IPA had. I'm comforting myself with the fact that the best of his were at least a couple of months old. It still looks pretty good though:
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Racking the Beaverdale Merlot
I decided the time had finally come to rack the Merlot - the first home brewed wine I had tried. I decided to take a hydrometer reading, even though I expected to see little or no movement and would wrack it anyway. I took a picture for future reference:
It was hard to get a reading as I couldn't see through the glass clearly, and the opening of the demijohn was very tight. Zooming in on the photograph was actually the best way of deciding on a reading. I put it down as 0.995.
| Day | Time per bubble (secs) | Gravity |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | infinite | 1.078 |
| 3 | 2 | |
| 5 | 9 | |
| 9 | 15 | |
| 12 | 18 | |
| 15 | 30 | |
| 21< | 55 | 1.000 |
| 24 | infinite (after hydrometer reading) | 0.998 |
| 27 | infinite | 0.997 |
| 34 | infinite | 0.996 |
| 44 | infinite | 0.995 |
As I said, I was determined to wrack it anyway. Its had a long time in primary now and I don't think the gravity is going anywhere now.
Having sanitised some tubing, a gromit and an airlock, I placed the full demijohn on the work surface, and a freshly sanitised demijohn on the floor in the washing up bowl (to catch any spillage). I had a couple of different bits of tubing, with and without taps, but having had a bit of a play with syphoning earlier I decided that I couldn't find a way of starting the syphon without sucking anyway, so I went for a basic tube connected to a stiff tube with a hole a couple of centimetres from the bottom. This stiff tube goes into the full demijohn and the hole allows the clear wine to be syphoned off while leaving the sediment at the bottom.
The instructions actually didn't mention transferring to a secondary container, but given the next steps were to help with clearing the wine, it seemed sensible to rack it at this point. I committed the sin of starting the syphoning by sucking, and quickly putting the end into the demijohn. It worked perfectly, sadly so well I didn't even get a taste of the wine. The only problem I found was that I left a little more wine in the original demijohn than I wanted, but after a second attempt to collect a little more failed, I decided I would rather lose a glass of wine than ruin all the wine so left it alone.
Returning to the instructions, I poured the contents of the sachet labelled Stabiliser into the demijohn, placed the sanitised grommit in the opening, and with my cleaned thumb over the opening I shook the bottle for several minutes to release the co2. Whenever I removed my thumb, there was a strong hiss of co2 escaping, so I continued shaking until no fizz occurred. I then placed the airlock into the grommit.
I will repeat the shaking several times a day for the next 3 or 4 days as instructed before adding the ingredients that make up the finings.
Boxing up some bottled Munton's IPA
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Second tasting of the Munton's IPA
Three weeks after bottling the IPA, and a couple of weeks since the first (very early and slightly disappointing) tasting, I decided it was time for another go. I hoped this time, given we are approaching the 4 week mark where some suggest the beer should be at its best, the beer would be much more enjoyable. Phil (of Phil Norton's Brewing Blog in my blogroll) had come round for the evening, so I popped open a bottle and poured the contents into two rather unmanly glasses and took a picture:
With the previous tasting, I took one of the beers which was bottled last, and so contained a great deal of sediment. This time, I went for one of the first to be bottled. The cap came off with no noticeable fizz, which concerned me, given my fear that all the sugar had dropped and so the earlier beers might not have been primed, but as I poured a very pleasant head appeared. The beer had also cleared nicely, giving what I felt to be a very attractive looking beer, all be it a little dark for an IPA.
The beer had only a subtle smell, but still a pleasant slightly fruity smell as before. Now for the tasting... mmmmm, thats a tasty beer :-) I am really pleased with the results. While it is a fraction sweeter than I would choose, it is a really nice tasting IPA. It is nicely fizzed, though I hope it doesn't get any fizzier. The taste is subtle but very enjoyable. There are plenty of flavours, but none are too strong or overpowering. Only the sweetness prevents you from considering it for a heavy session, but I could easily see mates downing a few over a relaxing evening. In fact, having had just a small glass each, I cracked open another bottle for Phil and I shortly afterwards. (This second bottle was the other silver topped bottle, so the last one bottled, but it was fairly indistinguishable from the first bottle to be honest.)
I am putting the slight over sweetness in the beer down to the boiler related temperature issues preventing me quite reaching the target gravity. However, this simply makes it a pleasant and relaxing post-meal kind of beer, which I am sure I will enjoy over the next month or two. I now intent to dig up a box or two to put away perhaps as many as 20 bottles so that I cannot be tempted to drink them all over the coming months. This should free me up to pick from the rest as I wish. I will also be taking a number of bottles to a family do towards the end of March, and will be interested to see how they go down.
Over the coming months I will continue to monitor and report on the beer as it matures. As always this will serve as a record to myself, and hopefully will be of interests to readers of this blog too.
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