Any home brewers on here? I have an issue

Question - put a Coopers Pale Ale on 4 or 5 days ago, mixed it all together and after I threw the yeast in, had a look and the temp on the keg was 40 degrees!  Thought I'd give it a couple of days to see how it goes, but she was sitting dormant when I checked yesterday so presume the yeast was cooked. So I threw 8g bakers yeast in (it was all I had), and there appears to be a little bit of action, but not much. So after 5 days, is it worth going to grab some more brewing yeast to try and get things going? Or just tip it out and start again? Been brewing for about 5 years, but have never killed my yeast so this is a new one for me. Hope someone can help


opsrey's picture

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Date Joined: 05/10/07

What is the start SG and current SG

Tue, 2014-12-30 22:55

need more information.

Fireguard's picture

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dextrose, malt, enhance pack

Tue, 2014-12-30 23:07

dextrose, malt, enhance pack ??.... whats the current temp/SG ??, have you tried giving it a good stir

tadpole's picture

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Date Joined: 28/01/13

I don't measure SG anymore.

Wed, 2014-12-31 00:06

I don't measure SG anymore. Just mix everything together, let it bubble away, once action stops, I give it a day or 2 then bottle. Its a pale ale with coopers brew enhancer #2 and a packet of Pride of Ringwood finishing hops floating in the top. Its one of the first brews I've done since moving to Leinster and I'm having a heap of trouble keeping the temp down (its hitting 40+ here at the moment). It was at 35 degrees in the keg yesterday arvo when I checked it. Was thinking maybe a bit more yeast and wrapping it in a wet towel with a fan blowing on it?? Will give it a stir when I get home in the morning and see what happens.

tadpole's picture

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I used to do brews in the

Wed, 2014-12-31 00:07

I used to do brews in the middle of summer in Perth in a tin shed while it was 40 degrees and never had an issue

deepwater's picture

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Home Brewing

Wed, 2014-12-31 05:26

 hi tadpole , i would have started again, im here in  exmouth and it is really hot here as well ,i start with cool ish {25/30 temp} and let it heat it self up and have never had a problem yet ,we have had over 50s in our shed and what i have is the brew cooks up alought quicker (brew finisheed in 4 days)

 i just leave them a bit longer in the stubbies about 3 months

 hope this help a little

 

                  jeff

opsrey's picture

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SG

Wed, 2014-12-31 06:34

you can still measure SG now to work out if the sugar has been used or not. It should help you if you decide to add more yeast. Good luck,

opsrey's picture

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SG

Wed, 2014-12-31 06:35

double post :(

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Date Joined: 26/12/14

Brewing Temp

Wed, 2014-12-31 06:40

 Hi guys, it's a bit strange that my first post on a fishing forum is brewing related but anyway...

At 40C you would have most likely fried your yeast or fermentation happened that quickly in that heat it's already finished. 

Either way I wouldn't be drinking it and start again. Fermenting at that temperature produces fusel alcohols which will not only make your beer taste like solvents but will possibly make you crook.

For Pales try to maintain temp between 18 - 23C. This will generallly take around 2 weeks for a starting OG of approx 1.040 a 1.045

Also use a good quality yeast preferably over the one that comes with the tin. I use Safale US05 for my Pales.

Over the years I have progressed from can / extract brewing to All grain brewing. The Key to a good brew is quality ingredients, temperature control and cleanliness....

Cheers, Mat.. 

Marineboy's picture

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Fermenting

Wed, 2014-12-31 10:17

hey check the seals on your fermenter, I once thought I had this problem and I found out the main seal had perished and air was escaping through that seal instead of the air lock. But also at that temp it might have just fermented fully overnight.

Good luck.  

____________________________________________________________________________

 My spots are so secret even the fish don't know about them !

tadpole's picture

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 It's buggered. Just checked

Wed, 2014-12-31 16:38

 It's buggered. Just checked it and I have a white film over the top. Gonna tip it outand start another one. Will try what you said deepwater. Our water comes from an RO tap downtown so I have to collect bottles of it. Will start putting a couple of the bottles in the fridge for a bit to cool them right down before starting the mix

shonky's picture

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ice

Thu, 2015-01-01 07:15

try putting some ice into the fermenter when your'e topping it up after mixing just to bring the temp down, worked a treat for me in karratha where the cold tap water was bloody hot.

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This habit is getting expensive!

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If you ever need to

Thu, 2015-01-01 13:28
If you ever need to reintroduce yeast, just grab a bottle of coopers sparkling or pale ale from the shops, pour out half into a glass and drink it. Add a spoonfull of sugar to the remainder in the bottle, top it up with warm water and put in a warm place. The coopers beers have live yeast in them, and by adding the sugar, they will multiply and you can reseed your brew.
tadpole's picture

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Would that also work to start

Thu, 2015-01-01 18:23

Would that also work to start a brew? I imagine their yeasts would be of a lot better quality than what comes in their brew cans

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Date Joined: 02/01/10

I never used it, but I have

Fri, 2015-01-02 16:36

I never used it, but I have worked in microbiology labs / winemaking and it is bound to work. Technically, a bit of diammonium phosphate would help the yeast to reproduce, bit like vitamins, but not really necessary.

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Date Joined: 26/12/14

Coopers yeast starter

Sun, 2015-01-04 09:48

Yes it does work, I've done it myself. There's a bit more to it though than just adding some sugar to the bottle. There won't be enough yeast to pitch into ~ 22L of wort..

Check this out if you are keen to do it. http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/viewtopic.php

Fair bit of effort though for not much return. As I mentioned before I use US05 for pales and it works out great.

Lastchance's picture

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Also, ditch the brewing sugar

Fri, 2015-01-02 14:36

Also, ditch the brewing sugar and use 1kg of honey instead. The less processed the better, big difference in flavour and brew Quality.

Marineboy's picture

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Lastchance/honey

Fri, 2015-01-02 16:14

 hey lastchance 

do you use honey for all your brews ? I have used it in a beez  neez copy and the flavour of the honey really came through but would this not spoil a pale ale or a Mexican ?

 

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 My spots are so secret even the fish don't know about them !

Lastchance's picture

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G'day marine boy, yep I use

Fri, 2015-01-02 16:44

G'day marine boy, yep I use honey on all of my brews these days, probably out of habit more than anything. I find that it doesn't seem to overpower the flavour too much. 

tadpole's picture

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 I tipped my brew out and put

Sun, 2015-01-04 09:09

 I tipped my brew out and put another one on this morning. Pitched yeast at 22° and wrapped the keg in a wet towel with a fan blowing on it. Got a few days before I go back to work to keep an eye on it and control the temp a bit. Just used raw sugar for this one to see how it goes. Seems to be a few guys on here into homebrewing, would you all be interested in having a thread going to share recipes and so forth? I mainly do extract brews but want to get back into partial mash (I think thats the term for part grain brewing) again soon to try and find about 2 recipes I like and can stick with to perfect.

Marineboy's picture

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Ongoing thread

Sun, 2015-01-04 15:21

 ongoing thread sounds good. 

Id be keen to learn a bit more about partial mash and making my own worts. 

There is a home brew supply in Bibra lakes called twoc brewing, I'm sure they run some good courses on weekends they also supply good product reasonably cheap, shame I love in northern suburbs but if I'm down that way I always stop in. 

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 My spots are so secret even the fish don't know about them !

tadpole's picture

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 Cool I'll start one up and

Sun, 2015-01-04 21:10

 Cool I'll start one up and see how much interest it receives. No recipes from me first up, I lost my recipe book when I moved house so going to experiment on a few in the next couple of months hopefully