Seanography

The new batch is now in bottles – the Little Creatures Pale Ale (concentrate with yeast – not so complex).

Stopped bubbling in the fermenter on Thursday/Friday, and finished up with a 1010 SG (this is sposed to be OK for ale beers).

Bottled with ordinary white sugar instead of the carbonation drops. The exact amount of sugar is a bit random – calculators say 5.7 grams (ok, so i’m guessing about the carbonation rate I am looking for) and the instructions that came with the brew kit say 6grams for these bottles – and the scale I have only does full gram amounts, so I can’t do point measurements anyway.

I have done most bottles at 6g, and did 4 bottles at 5g, 4 bottles at 7g just to see what difference it makes. Had to shake up the bottles a little to disolve the sugar (I put it in the empty bottles then added the beer). It will be intersting to see if any blow their lids – have most bottles in a plastic tub just in case.

2 weeks means they’ll be ready about the 28th.

Last night was the first taste of the first batch of home brew, and I was a little disappointed. OK, so it was the brew supplied with the kit, so I don’t think it was one I would have chosen (tastes a bit like Tooheys to me), but it was definatly (?) beer. There was also a distinct lack of head, though the carbonation through the beer still seemed ok. On the up side, it did seem to do well on the alcohol content…and not too much sludge in the bottom of the bottle.

Also last night I started the next brew. This is the “Little Creatures Pale Ale” blend – basically a bottle of beer concentrate and a packet of yeast. Took some time to get the yeast to disolve, and it didn’t start to ferment for a couple of hours (although I didn’t overheat the water on this one) but otherwise it seems fine. First use of the filtered water as well.

Should be ready for bottling on Saturday or Sunday, depending on the SG readings.

Tuesday is supposed to be the day – 2 weeks after bottling is the recommended time for 2nd stage in-bottle fermentation.

So far things look not too bad. The beer in the bottles looks pretty clear, with the sediment settling in the bottom. When they are opened the carbonisation (?) is known to mix the sediment up in the brew, but apparently this can be minimised by getting the beer super-cold and reducing the bubbles. It’s going to be in-glass drinking anyway, so it will just need to be a case of being careful with the pouring to reduce the sediment in the glass.

30 x 750ml bottles (the 2 with the green ‘x’ on the lids are the last 2 that came out of the fermenter – we tipped it a bit to get these last ones, so there might be extra sludge in these ones) at a cost of the brew kit ($90) works out at about $4/litre, or about $1.50 per beer. Once in production the mixes are $30 – $35 a go, so it works out closer to $0.50 – $0.60 per beer!