This is the Cooper's Lager, it's been fermenting
for 7 days now, before bottling I'm going
to check that the ferment has finished. In
order to do that you need to take two hydrometer
readings over 48 hours, if they remain the
same you know it's okay to bottle, if the
second one changes just ferment on until they
remain the same. That's so that once it's
transferred to the bottles you don't get too
much of a vigorous ferment in there all you
want is a slight ferment for carbonation.
If there's too much going on in there, when
you open it you'll get a lot of gushing, more
froth than beer. Worst case scenario is that
you get bottle bombs, but that is very rare
so don't worry about that. You can take a
hydrometer reading by using a trial jar, like
I have here or you can put the hydrometer
directly into the brew, if you do just make
sure that it's thoroughly sanitised so you're
not introducing any contaminants into there
which may ruin it. If my colleague would like
to come in, so from the reading here, you
can just see where the liquid meets the glass
hydrometer there, it's at about 1008 or 1.008
and the last reading I took 48 hours ago was
the same. You may have also noticed, am I
back in focus? Good. You may have also noticed
this mat that the vessel is sat on, this is
a heating mat and that just helps to maintain
the temperature. It just gives off a gentle
heat and helps to keep it at around 20 degrees
C, which is a good temperature for the ferment.
So I've had that on all through the process,
it' a very good piece of equipment for brewing.
Now then, for bottling you need to make sure
that your bottles have been sanitised or sterilised.
I've used the BrewSafe sanitiser because it's
a no rinse one so it saves loads of time and
it's available on our website Home Brew Online.
I'm also going to use the little bottler which
just cuts the time down and make bottling
really easy. So if you've got one of these
vessels with our tap you just attach it there
and this little bottler will fit the taps
that we supply, the quick serve tap, Then
carbonation drops, the Crafty Fox carbonation
drops again available on our website Home
Brew Online. You need to use 2 per bottle
I would recommend for lager, just so that
you get that nice fizz from it, that sharp
taste as you're drinking it. Pop them in,
just open the tap and there we go. The little
bottler has a small valve at the bottom which
helps control the flow, something just to
mention is that sometimes that mechanism can
get blocked by a little bit of sediment from
the bottom of the vessel. So if you're finding
that it's not closing or it's leaking just
check for any bits of sediment that might
have collected get rid of them and that should
be fine. Once in the bottle, it will take
around a week to carbonate and with plastic
bottles you know it's carbonated 'cause they
go hard, then once that's happened you need
to store them in a cool dark place for at
least a month to allow all the flavours to
mature. Also to mention for carbonation, the
bottles need to be at around 20 degrees C
again just to encourage that secondary ferment
and get some carbonation in there. Again that
takes about a week. You will also notice that
it isn't clear yet but it will clear in the
bottle over time, usually again takes a week,
can take longer, but I haven't known any of
the ones I've done not to clear, you just
have to patient and wait them to clear up.
Once they're ready to drink in a month's time
they'll definitely be clear and again if you
can leave them longer 2, 3 months the flavours
do improve so be as patient as you can and
you'll be rewarded with a great drink. So
I think I covered everything there for you.
If you have any questions just let me know
in the comments section below. If you've enjoyed
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