Teufelhunde
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2020
- Messages
- 520
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Well, the first five gallon kit is in the bottles. Brewed a Brewer's best extract American Pale Ale on 1/5/20.....fermenter kept in a mini fridge with an Inkbird controller set at 63 degrees (sensor next to the fridge wall with no coils/tubes in it). Two back to back SG readings of 1.010 told me it was done. The OG reading was 1.045 so ABV should be around 4.6
When it was all said and done, The krausen ring on the fermenter was less than 1.5 inches tall, so fermentation was well controlled. Surprisingly little gunk in the bottom.....probably 3/8 inch or less, but I WAS very careful (probably over careful) not to pour gunk from the brew kettle into the fermenter. Because of this, I threw a bunch of good wort away, and this likely accounts for the low OG (kit called for 1.051 or more......I now have some very fine cheesecloth that will be sanitized at the time of the next batch to strain it through, and we'll see how that does.
Bottling went pretty well, only got 42 longnecks due to pouring out so much wort......I found some plastic storage containers that each hold 24 longnecks and allow the lids to be fastened on in case of the unlikely bottle bomb.....
How come there is a magnet in the bottle capper? It seems that on every fourth or fifth bottle, I couldn't seem to get the capper set on top of the bottle/cap without the darn magnet grabbing the cap and causing it to NOT seat properly on the top of the bottle for crimping......
Anyway, now the waiting starts......again.....sure is a lot of waiting with this hobby........
Next up, either another Pale Ale (Northernbrewers, this time), or a Northernbrewers Chinook IPA. Decisions, decisions.......
YMMV
Lon
When it was all said and done, The krausen ring on the fermenter was less than 1.5 inches tall, so fermentation was well controlled. Surprisingly little gunk in the bottom.....probably 3/8 inch or less, but I WAS very careful (probably over careful) not to pour gunk from the brew kettle into the fermenter. Because of this, I threw a bunch of good wort away, and this likely accounts for the low OG (kit called for 1.051 or more......I now have some very fine cheesecloth that will be sanitized at the time of the next batch to strain it through, and we'll see how that does.
Bottling went pretty well, only got 42 longnecks due to pouring out so much wort......I found some plastic storage containers that each hold 24 longnecks and allow the lids to be fastened on in case of the unlikely bottle bomb.....
How come there is a magnet in the bottle capper? It seems that on every fourth or fifth bottle, I couldn't seem to get the capper set on top of the bottle/cap without the darn magnet grabbing the cap and causing it to NOT seat properly on the top of the bottle for crimping......
Anyway, now the waiting starts......again.....sure is a lot of waiting with this hobby........
Next up, either another Pale Ale (Northernbrewers, this time), or a Northernbrewers Chinook IPA. Decisions, decisions.......
YMMV
Lon