Posted in Fermenting, Linthwaite Light on February 28, 2008 | No Comments »
While I was on a roll, I decided to check on the beer too. It has been about 15 days since I started it going, so it should be coming along nicely.
There is clearly still activity which is pleasing given the gravity is currently at 1.016, with a target of 1.010 or less. I’m [...]
Posted in Fermenting, Strawberry on February 28, 2008 | No Comments »
After checking on the Merlot, I decided to see how the Strawberry was doing too. After leaving the hydrometer to soak in the sanitising solution for a couple of minutes I rinsed it and dropped it gently into the strawberry wine. Again, I photographed it so that I had a definitive record to compare against [...]
Posted in Fermenting, Merlot on February 28, 2008 | No Comments »
With the prospect of a free weekend on the horizon, I wanted to take a reading of the Merlot to have something to compare against at the weekend to see if it has finally stopped fermenting. Hopefully it will have done, so that I can transfer it to secondary and begin the final stages before [...]
Posted in IPA, Tasting on February 24, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I debated when to open the first bottle of my very first home brewed beer. I had intended originally to leave it at least one month, but some expert advice stated that it could be at its peak after as little as 4 weeks. This advice went against my experience when tasting Phil’s homebrew (see [...]
Posted in Fermenting, Strawberry on February 21, 2008 | No Comments »
After checking on the Merlot, I realised I hadn’t done a bubble count on the Strawberry in a while, so I sat down by the demijohn with a watch and timed how long it took, on average, between bubbles:
Day
Time per bubble (secs)
Gravity
0
infinite
1
8
3
4
1062
6
1.5
12
50
Comments:
The bubble rate has dropped massively, but I did forget to take any readings [...]
Posted in Fermenting, Merlot on February 21, 2008 | No Comments »
I took another reading of the Merlot with a hydrometer, having convinced myself it must have stopped fermenting and I wanted to get it into the secondary demijohn. The hydrometer dropped to a level where only the very top of the yellow section was visible, and none of the digits of 1.000 could be seen. [...]
Posted in Fermenting, Merlot on February 18, 2008 | No Comments »
Since taking the hydrometer reading 3 days ago, I have been keeping an eye on the airlock on the Merlot to make sure it got going again. In 3 days I hadn’t seen a single bubble. I put the first day down to it needing to fill up the remaining space with co2 before it [...]
Posted in Fermenting, Linthwaite Light on February 15, 2008 | No Comments »
Having been concerned about pitching the yeast into the Linthwaite Light mixture at only 14 degrees C, I had meant to check on it after a day or so to check it had started fermenting ok. I kept forgetting, but finally got round to taking the lid off today and having a look.
As the picture [...]
Posted in Fermenting, Strawberry on February 15, 2008 | No Comments »
While I was checking on the Merlot, I spotted that the Strawberry was bubbling away much faster than it was previously, so I decided to do another count for future information:
Day
Time per bubble (secs)
Gravity
0
infinite
1
8
3
4
1062
6
1.5
It really is bubbling fast now. The temperature in the brewery is around 17 degrees currently so I don’t think [...]
Posted in Fermenting, Merlot on February 15, 2008 | No Comments »
It is 3 weeks to the day since I set the Beaverdale Merlot going. the results of another bubble check are below:
Day
Time per bubble (secs)
Gravity
0
infinite
1.078
3
2
5
9
9
15
12
18
15
30
21
55
1.000
As you can see, the wine is now getting close to the target of less than one bubble a minute. I decided to take a hydrometer reading in order to see [...]
