Female in distress !!!!

[Tracie]

Can anyone help, wanted to get into homebrew, bought a Geordie beer kit, made it last Friday,
but went to read the hydrometer and cant make head nor tail of it lol, can anyone help please, When do i know if its ready to bottle? alcohol levels etc.
Thank you. Already made a batch of Tequila and lime lager, which i didnt need to read any levels.
thank you.

 

[glugglug]

Can you take a picture of it and post here?

 

[Jtk78]

04_combinedvsstaggeredpitch_OG

• Jtk78
• Aug 16, 2018

Here is a picture of a 1.052 gravity ready. You can ignore the brix, potential alcohol or any other scale. Just look at the gravity.

Did you take a reading before or right after you pitched the yeast? Without knowing the recipe, typical final gravity (FG) will be between 1.008 and 1.016. The key before bottling is making sure the gravity is stable. Give the beer 2 weeks to ferment, check gravity, couple days later check it again. If it's stable it should be good to bottle.

Please use an online priming calculator to figure out the amount of priming sugar to use. Kits typically give too much priming sugar in my experience, which can cause over carbonation and potential for bottles bursting.

Welcome to beer brewing and the forum. This site is a fantastic resource with very knowledgeable brewers, and some of the most active and helpful here are female as well.

 

[Pappers_]

What he said ^^^^^^^^^

Also, for a 'normal' beer, one that isn't a big Imperial Stout or Belgian Quad I mean, if you leave it be for three weeks, let it ferment for three weeks, you will almost always be safe in terms of fermentation being done.

Welcome to HBT and the hobby!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

For those not familiar with Geordie kits, they're Muntons' basic liquid extract kits, I guess we're talking about the 3.8% bitter here? Instructions are here : http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Geordie_Range.pdf

Assuming you've added the sugar, then you should be seeing a gravity around 1.035-1.040. Typically fermentation will take a week, doesn't hurt to leave it for two - all you need is to reach a steady gravity. Take a reading and then take another at the weekend - if they're the same then you're ready to bottle.

 

[Tracie]

Thank you all very much, I just wanted to try this and then go in to making it from scratch, so I will be looking for help, advice and loads of tips.

 

[Tracie]

I

04_combinedvsstaggeredpitch_OG

• Jtk78
• Aug 16, 2018

Here is a picture of a 1.052 gravity ready. You can ignore the brix, potential alcohol or any other scale. Just look at the gravity.

Did you take a reading before or right after you pitched the yeast? Without knowing the recipe, typical final gravity (FG) will be between 1.008 and 1.016. The key before bottling is making sure the gravity is stable. Give the beer 2 weeks to ferment, check gravity, couple days later check it again. If it's stable it should be good to bottle.

Please use an online priming calculator to figure out the amount of priming sugar to use. Kits typically give too much priming sugar in my experience, which can cause over carbonation and potential for bottles bursting.

Welcome to beer brewing and the forum. This site is a fantastic resource with very knowledgeable brewers, and some of the most active and helpful here are female as well.

Thank you it's on 20 at the moment

 

[Jtk78]

Thank you it's on 20 at the moment

So that's a 1.020 gravity currently. How long has it been in the fermenter? It might drop a little more.

 

[Tracie]

So that's a 1.020 gravity currently. How long has it been in the fermenter? It might drop a little more.

Since last Friday it's been just a week.

 

[divrack]

ill probably get into trouble for saying this but i dont bother much with gravity readings these days. its usefull when youre starting out to reassure you that you've done everything right though. once it clears up its done is my rule. i assume you cant chill it, so i would leave it alone for three weeks, rack it to a bottling bucket and bottle and leave for two weeks.

 

[Jtk78]

Since last Friday it's been just a week.

Ok. I would leave it alone for a week and take another reading. It should be done by then. If you want to be extra sure, take a reading Friday, then let it sit a day or two and take another right before you bottle, assuming you're bottling over the weekend.

ill probably get into trouble for saying this but i dont bother much with gravity readings these days. its usefull when youre starting out to reassure you that you've done everything right though. once it clears up its done is my rule. i assume you cant chill it, so i would leave it alone for three weeks, rack it to a bottling bucket and bottle and leave for two weeks.

Truth be told, I don't take open the fermenter with the sole purpose of getting a hydrometer reading until I package my beer. If I'm dry hopping, I will usually grab one.

The key point that you included though is it is useful when your starting out.

 

[RM-MN]

ill probably get into trouble for saying this but i dont bother much with gravity readings these days. its usefull when youre starting out to reassure you that you've done everything right though. once it clears up its done is my rule. i assume you cant chill it, so i would leave it alone for three weeks, rack it to a bottling bucket and bottle and leave for two weeks.

Some day the lack of hydrometer readings is going to bite you. I left a beer for 2+ weeks and took the hydrometer reading just before I was going to bottle only to find that it had stalled and was some distance away from the expected FG. A week later I was able to bottle as it had finally finished fermenting. Always test before bottling.

 

[ncbrewer]

Some day the lack of hydrometer readings is going to bite you. I left a beer for 2+ weeks and took the hydrometer reading just before I was going to bottle only to find that it had stalled and was some distance away from the expected FG. A week later I was able to bottle as it had finally finished fermenting. Always test before bottling.

This^
It's probably finished after two weeks, but, for me, the possibility of bottle bombs makes gravity samples a priority.

 

[RM-MN]

This^
It's probably finished after two weeks, but, for me, the possibility of bottle bombs makes gravity samples a priority.

I've bottled at day 7 with FG but I got a lot of sediment in the bottles. By day 10 a lot of the sediment has settled in the fermenter. From then on, provided you truly are at FG, the beer gets less yeast suspended to settle and starts maturing. The one batch I bottled at 9 weeks had so little sediment in the bottles it could hardly be seen and the beer was ready to drink (matured) as soon as there was carbonation.

 

[Tracie]

Can you take a picture of it and post here?

I have just taking this reading, it has gone down,

 

[Jtk78]

Bout 1.014 from what I can see.

 

[Tracie]

Bout 1.014 from what I can see.

thats about the reading i got. Thanks