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is in the barrels!
Thank you so much to doushkasmum for doing all the presoaking, sterilising and general barrel wrangling. Including moral support and lifting assistance with the actual putting of beer into barrels.
Making quick notes here of the last stages:
Yesternight I sampled and measured densities
Big beer had stopped bubbling, but the sample was still efferevescent and cloudy (which says not finished to me). Density was 1.017, target 1.014. In a perfect world I'd wait a week or two more before bottling. but Festival waits for no brewer. So into a barrel it went. Last year I calculated that a cup of sugar for a 25L barrel was the same quantity as the standard bottle measure multiplied out. So, given that last year's beer was in a similar state, I used only half a cup of sugar for carbonation. This year we cut that in half again and put only a quarter cup in the barrel. We are a bit worried about the liquid and gas tightness of said barrels
Small beer was still glooping slowly. Honey will have that effect. Density yesterday was 1.004. No target as I don't have a modern recipe to work to. We added only half a quarter cup sugar to this barrel.
Fingers crossed!!
I have belatedly calculated alcohol levels
big beer=4.6%
small beer=2.8%
Thank you so much to doushkasmum for doing all the presoaking, sterilising and general barrel wrangling. Including moral support and lifting assistance with the actual putting of beer into barrels.
Making quick notes here of the last stages:
Yesternight I sampled and measured densities
Big beer had stopped bubbling, but the sample was still efferevescent and cloudy (which says not finished to me). Density was 1.017, target 1.014. In a perfect world I'd wait a week or two more before bottling. but Festival waits for no brewer. So into a barrel it went. Last year I calculated that a cup of sugar for a 25L barrel was the same quantity as the standard bottle measure multiplied out. So, given that last year's beer was in a similar state, I used only half a cup of sugar for carbonation. This year we cut that in half again and put only a quarter cup in the barrel. We are a bit worried about the liquid and gas tightness of said barrels
Small beer was still glooping slowly. Honey will have that effect. Density yesterday was 1.004. No target as I don't have a modern recipe to work to. We added only half a quarter cup sugar to this barrel.
Fingers crossed!!
I have belatedly calculated alcohol levels
big beer=4.6%
small beer=2.8%
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