Nuff said. But the light behind does show off the golden colour rather nicely.
All posts by Thomas W-P
Bottling day plus IPA
I did a lot of bottling today. The Golden Stag made 22 litres, then I moved one of the demijohns of Pinot Chardonnay in to six and a bit bottles for ease of drinking. The remnants were disposed of appropriately. I completely forgot to measure the gravity of the beer before adding the priming sugar.
To celebrate I thought I would try some of the IPA. The head was excellent, creamy and long lasting, and the taste was fine. I am sure it will get smoother over time, but it is already drinkable.
I now have nothing major going at all for the first time in ages. I have over forty litres of IPA and golden stag to work my way through. I suspect that if I open a 1 litre bottle that will get drunk so in reality it is about 40 drinking nights. At my current rate of progress the beer will be gone by Christmas. Wine goes much faster, so the next project is going to be a rosé kit, thought I have not yet bought one.
Golden Stag – decisions decisions
| Date | Specific Gravity | Alcohol Content (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 13th February 2014 | 1,036 | 0 |
| 18th February 2014 | 1,020 | 2.1 |
| 22nd February 2014 | 1,012 | 3.2 |
| 28th February 2014 | 1,010 | 3.4 |
So, the gravity is now 1,010, but could be the 1,009 with uncertainty in the hydrometer. 1,009 is when you bottle it, but the fermentation has to have stopped (it hasn’t and is bubbling very slowly). So do I leave it or move it on? Decisions decisions…
I decided to move it on to my secondary (tapped) vessel, but was shocked and dismayed to find that it was a little dirty and smelly after last time. I am slightly amazed at this as I have been very very careful about cleaning everything after use. I wonder if I got distracted by the incredible mess I made last time I used it.
It had to be properly sterilised, so it had 15 minutes sitting with the sterilising solution inside, followed by a quick scrub and swill with the cleaning agent, and this seemed to sort it out. Annoying to have to do that rather than a quick swill.
Then it was just a case of syphoning it out, through the mesh bag provided by the kit. I installed a high tech method of holding the pipe so that I did not have to stand there throughout.
Golden Stag Hopping Along
| Date | Specific Gravity | Alcohol Content (%) |
|---|---|---|
| 13th February 2014 | 1,036 | 0 |
| 18th February 2014 | 1,020 | 2.1 |
| 22nd February 2014 | 1,012 | 3.2 |
| 28th February 2014 | 1,010 | 3.4 |
I forgot to note when I added the hop pellets to the Golden Stag (18th February). I left it six days (one day longer than the instructions) because I was worried about leaving it too long on the hops whilst waiting for the fermentation to fully stop (there are dire warnings in the instructions about exploding bottles). I was surprised that the hops were pellets, but what do I know?
A friend, who is very experienced, tells me that these are hops for flavour, so I should not be too worried about bitterness if they are in the beer too long. They have certainly worked their way in to the brew well enough as you can see from this picture.
Things have certainly not slowed down! But at the current rate of gravity change, it will take a couple more days to get below the 1,008 stated in the instructions.
The beer is indeed a lovely golden colour as witnessed when measuring the gravity.
Quince and Rice
I racked on the quince wine and the rice and raisin wine today. I used my cobbled up solution to bottling with the bottling wand on the end of the syphoning wand. I also found a cork with a big hole that would hold the syphoning wand securely. This worked well until I wanted to tip up the demijohn to get the last bit out. I needed three hands at this point and the situation was not helped by my jury-rigged hose-to-bottling-wand link failing at the same time.
Both demijohns needed a good top up with water, but it did not seem to affect the gravity too much.
The quince tastes like it will be pretty nice when we come to drink it in a few months.
Quince Wine 2013.11
| Date | Specific Gravity | Alcohol Content |
|---|---|---|
| 4th November 2013 | 1,110 | 0% |
| 13th November 2013 | 1,070 | 5.3% |
| 27th December 2013 | 1,038 | 9.5% |
| 15th February 2014 | 1,035 | 9.9% |
The rice and raisin is very very very dry! I have never seen such a low gravity.
Rice and Raisin, 2014-01-11
| Date | Specific Gravity | Alcohol Content |
|---|---|---|
| 12th January 2014 | 1,090 | 0% |
| 18th January 2014 | 1,040 | 6.6% |
| 15th February 2014 | 992 | 13% |
I popped a campden tablet in to each to (hopefully) restrict fermentation.