And so I try again.....newbie questions

[beattun]

Hey guys,

Having not much success so far with 3 brews, one of them semi drinkable, I pitched my 4th brew two nights ago, before I start trying anything fancy like hops I really want to master the basic coopers home brew kit, so heres what ive done

Coopers Draught
Coopers BE2
Coopers kit yeast

Pitched the yeast at 24 degrees, put the fermenter in my bathroom, the coolest room in the house, where it now sits at 20 - 22 degrees.

Now my questions, does there have to be clean water in the airlock? I put in freshly boiled water into the airlock before I sealed her up, but now its got brew in it, i also found a small bit leaking out from the rubber seal under the lid of the fermenter this morning, must have been too tight, i think ive fixed that anyway, so the airlock really is my only question.

thanks in advance!

[Longwood-65]

Now my questions, does there have to be clean water in the airlock?
thanks in advance!

No, you could use Vodka, sanitizor ect, the fluid in there is to allow CO2 to escape under pressure while fermenting but not let air back in. I have read here that some use sanitizor just incase the fluid in the airlock sucks back into the frementor.

You could try not filling the fermenter up quite as high this will help in preventing the Kraus?? from escaping through the air lock, Try filling to 22 litres instead of 23. the same thing has happened to me before not that I worried but it made a bit of a mess.

A leak from the lid is not good as air could be drawn back through there, increasing the chance of infection, But are you sure it leaked from the lid and not from the airlock overflowing??

As many say on this forum sit back relax with beer.

Cheers
Ron

[racer]

I have left the dirty looking over flow beer in the airlock before, but if its still bubbling now is probibly the best time to remove, clean & sanatise ready for reinstall with clean cooled boiled water.

[gregb]

Overflow in the airlock is really only a problem if it is sucked back into the fermenter. For this reason I don't like the 'S' or 'Goose Neck' airlocks. I use and recommend the 'Double Cup' or 'Senior' airlocks, where the chance of icky stuff being sucked back in is greatly reduced.

Cheers,
Greg

[beattun]

sorry i should have specified, its a briggalow kit airlock, the 2 piece one, does that make a difference?

edit - am i safe to remove the lid to take out the airlock to refill it again, because i have to remove the rubber grommet from under the lid if im to take off the airlock?

[SpillsMostOfIt]

The source of the problem could be in the airlock. I've tried both S-type and senior-type airlocks and now prefer cling film. That's another story, though.

It could be elsewhere. Brewing beer is a simple exercise (or at least it used to be for me) but the devil is in the detail.

Your sanitiser could be lending flavours to the beer, depending on how you use it.

Can you put your hand on your heart and swear that your kit is surgically clean before the beer goes in there? That's what I aim for, knowing that I may not get there...

Temperature. Lots of opinions here, but I reckon you might find your beer will improve over the next few months of brewing as you will be better able to ferment closer to the *cough* ideal *cough* temperature range. Whichever way, I am a fan of pitching cool and letting the temperature rise to where I intend fermenting. Less chance of unwanted high temp alcohols/flavours and yeast tend to work more to my liking when they wake up *then* see a temperature increase (as opposed to vice versa).

Perhaps you just don't like the taste of the particular kits you're brewing? Sorry, but I had to ask, because there are good kits and some not so good. Then there are the Malt Shovel Brewery kits, for example...

Note how I have avoided giving you any answers - just things to contemplate. I've found that whenever I've done *exactly what someone has told me to do* it was a mistake because what I was told to do wasn't conceived in the context of the rest of my brewing.

[beattun]

your comments are much appreciated mate, its not just my personal taste though, ive got a couple of people to try my previous efforts and theyre almost tasteless but bitter, each time ive brewed something doesnt seem right, most of the time it seems to be that the brew isnt gurgling away as it should, as is happening with this brew, even though its been in 3 days now at 20 - 24 degrees, 24 at the moment.

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Perhaps it is worth trying a fresh wort kit then. You could dump it into a fermenter along with whatever whoever you buy it from suggests and see how that works out. As a rule of thumb, they turn out quite good given that they come from a firkin big AG batch. It is an - albeit costly - way of discounting the tin of goop taste issue and seeing if it is somewhere else in your system, but you might grow to like the taste and never buy a can of sludge ever again... If nothing else, you will get a nice plastic container to do something with. I make mead in mine.

[beattun]

ok, so ive seen or heard NO action at all from the fermenter in almost a week since pitching.

am i to take it that its not brewing for a good reason?

RE: sterilising the gear, when i did my first two brews i used the brigallow cleaning powder, which said to leave the gear in it for an hour, now im using the coopers sanitiser for the last 2 (failed i think) brews, and it says on the back of the bottle to leave sitting for 24 hours in the solution

i will admit that i have also left those in for just an hour before starting to put the brew together
is this probably where ive mucked up? would infection be the cause of my brew not brewing?

thanks, and sorry to be asking stupid questions, i should really be able to get it right by now!

[sponge]

are there any other signs of fermentation such as the krausen ring, or condensation on the lid, or the trub at the bottom of the fermenter?

[beattun]

are there any other signs of fermentation such as the krausen ring, or condensation on the lid, or the trub at the bottom of the fermenter?

it would appear not, ill take a reading tomorrow and see if its changed, wouild that tell me if its fermenting?

[rwh]

What's the reading? This kind of thing is normally a case of having a gas leak around the airlock; you may find your beer has completely fermented out without you noticing.

[Boonie]

RE: sterilising the gear, when i did my first two brews i used the brigallow cleaning powder, which said to leave the gear in it for an hour, now im using the coopers sanitiser for the last 2 (failed i think) brews, and it says on the back of the bottle to leave sitting for 24 hours in the solution

sanitiser

Link to sterilising thread with a few ideas. Coopers changed to those little pellet type ones a while ago, so I went to Pink sanitiser from my local hbs and have also used iodopher with success.

I do not think that the sanitising has stopped your current brew, this is just FYI. FWIW,I think it is a leak, use your hydrometer and let us know the reading.

Cheers

Boonie

[beattun]

air leak sounds very probable, as after a day or two i saw some bubbles coming out the side of the lid, at the rubber seal, and some spillage, i must have had the lid too tight i guess?

just took a reading now, its 1010, but theres no ring around the inside of the fermenter at the top, and it tastes very watery,

[Whroobushy]

I am not an overly experienced brewer, only about 15-18 brews.
I don't wash my bottles, just a rinse instantly when finished drinking.
Don't sterelize my fermenter, only rinse it straight away with cold water, wipe with a clean cloth, then rinse with hot water from the tap.
Don't use an airlock, just a gladwrap cover with a pin hole in it.
Haven't had a bad brew yet.
One ofthe problems that I have noticed recently, is my friend who is adament about all that stuff, uses the sodium metabysulphate stuff.
I can't drink it, as I am quite sure he didn't rinse the fermenter properly.
Could that be your problem?
Do you rinse the sterelizer out completely?

Whroobushy.

[Whroobushy]

I have some more questions.
Are you doubtful about the taste before, or after bottling?
Your bottles could be crap?
My wife has asked where are you, as in, what is the water quality like to start with?
Also you need to remember that Home brew is far different to commercial beer.
If you go to the pub and drink Draught, it is like taking a stubbie and watering it down.
So when you drink pure home brew, it is richer, with a truer flavour and with more mouthfeel etc!

Whroobushy.

[Trough Lolly]

air leak sounds very probable, as after a day or two i saw some bubbles coming out the side of the lid, at the rubber seal, and some spillage, i must have had the lid too tight i guess?

just took a reading now, its 1010, but theres no ring around the inside of the fermenter at the top, and it tastes very watery,

Ok, now we have a gravity reading to work with...Your brew is probably ready for bottling at 1.010. There are a number of reasons why it tastes "watery". My first guess would be the recipe. Did you follow the instructions and fill the fermenter to the 23L mark? You probably had a starting gravity of around 1.042 and the coopers yeast is a quick and clean fermenter which will do the job at converting sugar to alcohol and CO2 but not leave all that much of a flavour profile in the beer.

but theres no ring around the inside of the fermenter at the top, and it tastes very watery

One good thing about this comment is that the "watery" flavour is probably not due to an infection as you would have noticed some unusual patterns on the surface of the beer, especially if you had a lactobacillus infection.

Having not much success so far with 3 brews, one of them semi drinkable, I pitched my 4th brew two nights ago, before I start trying anything fancy like hops I really want to master the basic coopers home brew kit, so heres what ive done

Coopers Draught
Coopers BE2
Coopers kit yeast

Pitched the yeast at 24 degrees, put the fermenter in my bathroom, the coolest room in the house, where it now sits at 20 - 22 degrees.

Next time you do this brew, I'd recommend you do a small boil (3 or so litres) with a kilo of malt extract and 12g of fresh (not teabag) hops - add that to the fermenter along with the kit, pitch the kit yeast when the wort is under 24C and seal. The BE2 etc kits are part malt, part sugar and if you want more flavour, you need to increase the malt levels and reduced the volume in the fermenter. A kit plus kilo plus hops at 21L would give you a better flavour profile, IMO. Fermenting ales at 20 to 22C is fine...

Cheers,
TL