Brewing first batch this weekend

[HuskerCradle2Grave]

Hydrometers are usually calibrated to 60 or 68 degrees. It should say somewhere with the paper that came with it. It should also have a temperature adjustment scale on the same piece of paper. For instance, mine is calibrated to 60 degrees. If the wort or green beer is at a temperature other than that, I need to correct for temperature. An example would be if the green beer was at 66.6 degrees, I would have to add .001 to my reading.

 

[PhillyPhaithful48]

sorry, I meant the temp of the beer, not surrounding temperature

Yea fermenting was around 60-64 degrees throughout the 3 weeks. When bottling, it was around 62 degrees before I took it outside to 40 degree weather.

 

[PhillyPhaithful48]

Sampled a bottle after 1 week of conditioning. Still need some more carbonation, but I got the nice little "tshhh" sound when I popped off the cap.

Taste wise, I think it's going to be pretty darn good. As a dark beer fan, this kit is dead on. If it improves with age, this is one of the better dark ones I've tried

 

[757Hokie83]

bottled the Australian Sparkling Ale last night...FG came in at 1.006, but my temp was a little high....adjusting for temp of the OG and FG readings, looking like we came out at about 6.1%ABV. Wonderful smell to it, and rather tasty too

 

[PhillyPhaithful48]

bottled the Australian Sparkling Ale last night...FG came in at 1.006, but my temp was a little high....adjusting for temp of the OG and FG readings, looking like we came out at about 6.1%ABV. Wonderful smell to it, and rather tasty too

For me it was between the Sierra Madre kit and this one. Ended up with the Sierra because it seemed pretty basic yet more my style.

Would you definately recommend the sparkling ale? Also, any specific reason that brew is "sparkling"?

 

[757Hokie83]

Hydrometers are usually calibrated to 60 or 68 degrees. It should say somewhere with the paper that came with it. It should also have a temperature adjustment scale on the same piece of paper. For instance, mine is calibrated to 60 degrees. If the wort or green beer is at a temperature other than that, I need to correct for temperature. An example would be if the green beer was at 66.6 degrees, I would have to add .001 to my reading.

also, there is a handy smart phone app called Homebrew Calculator that I use, you enter your OG, and the temp it was read at, and your FG and the temp, and the hydrometer calibration and it calculates everything for you.

Also has calculators for bottle packaging (how many bottles of vary sizes you might have and how many it will take to package it all), a boil timer, carbonation, IBU's, SRM, strike temp and yeast pitching. It's pretty awesome.

I've also got an app called BrewR. It is kind of a library of your recipes (of course I keep a hand written copy of each too), and has a boil timer that an alarm goes off for every ingredient addition time. Also very handy

 

[757Hokie83]

For me it was between the Sierra Madre kit and this one. Ended up with the Sierra because it seemed pretty basic yet more my style.

Would you definately recommend the sparkling ale? Also, any specific reason that brew is "sparkling"?

As of now, yeah I would recommend it. Easy, fast (2 weeks in primary, then bottle condition for 2 weeks). Like I mentioned above, it smells great and has an awesome flavor, cant wait til bottle conditioning is done...i'll let you know what I think at that point.

Not exactly sure why they call it a sparkling ale. From what I hear, it is basically a Pale Ale, but with a slightly different flavor and higher ABV