Home Brewing Beer

My beer has been bottled for a little over a week.
Of course I had to test it to make sure it wasn't spoiled. You know, since it smelled strongly of apples.

Well, it tasted pretty good. It still has a faint hint of a smell of apples but the overall taste and after-taste is similar to Newcastle.

I am going to let it sit for another week in the closet to condition then move it to the fridge to cold condition.

If you read the previous post, I talked about there being floating particles consistantly spread about 1/2 inch beneath the surface.
Over the past week, they have steadily decended futher and further down.
It is very difficult to get a ood picture of them since they are so difficult to see... so I apologize for not having any picture to show as reference.
When I checked today, they are sitting about 2 inches from the bottom.

My theory about these particles is: They are heavier than the clearing wort at the top but lighter than the unclear wort further down in the container. So like oil and water, these particles are sitting on the mass that is more dense than itself. These particles are floating on this Heavy Wort.
I find this phenomenon helpful in that it shows that the crud is settling out and the wort is clearing. It shows me exactly where the progress is. I have watch it fall all week.

Well, it's been sitting n the secondary fermenter for nearly 2 days now. There is not much activity. I have noticed 2 things:

1. The airlock is floating (probably from the released CO2 pushing out the O2 in the head space.)
   
2. there are some floaters in carboy. By that I mean, it looks as if some of the sediment has floated to the top... well almost the top. It seems to be consistantly spread around about 1/2 in beneath the surface. There are just particle of what looks like, some of the sediment. They are to hidden to get a good picture though.
   
3. There are a couple spots on the surface of bubbles forming. Very small spots all around the surface. Maybe 2-3mm in size.
   If you look in the picture above you will see the bubbles rising from under the spots.
   While this picture is a tad fuzzy, while I was taking it, I zoomed in really tight and saw the spot accumulating more bubbles. And once again I am assured that these are not mold spots.
   
   

• 11:30am
  
  
  Moving to Secondary Fermenter
  
  1. I gently moved the carboy from the closet to the kitchen counter. I did not disturbe or churn the wort at all.
     
  2. I had the Secondary (5 gal) carboy ready on the floor.
     
  3. The siphon hose was full of water so that it was primed for the wort move. I placed the siphon in the Primary and the other end in a pan to catch the water run-out until the tube was full of wort.
     
  4. Once the tube was full of wort, I closed it with the supplied valve clamp and put the end in the secondary carboy. The tube was resting flat on the bottom. That way it would not aerate th wort comming out by spashing around.
     
  5. I opened the hose and the wort began to flow.
     
  6. The siphon stopped while there was still about 1.5 inches left at the bottom. This was the fluid just above the yeast cake at the bottom. The siphon did not get that because air got in the hose. I tried to get the siphon going once but it wouldn't work. The wort got mixed a little when I was trying to get it going again, so I just considered it a loss. After all, the reason for moving to a secondary is to get the wort away from the gunk at the bottom.
     
  7. I calculated that it was around 1/2 gallon if not a little more.
     
  8. There was 4 inches of head room in the secondary fermenter. I was a little worried about this but the advice I got from www.realbeer.com was that the CO2 that is released during the move would push the oxygen out of the space and it would be okay.
     
     
  9. Next time I will put a wedge or something to keep the carboy tilted. That way I will be able to get more.
     
  10. I took a hydrometer reading. Gravity = 1.006 (but I had to adjust for temp. to 1.007 @ 70F because the hydrometer is calabrated for 60F). My OG = 1.033.
      
      
  11. According to some charts I have, that puts my current alcohol content at around 3.5%.
      
      
      
      • (Difference between 2 reading) X (131)=Alcohol by volume percent
        
      • (1.033 - 1.007) X 131 = 3.406% ABV
        
      • That is not too bad. I am hoping to get a tiny bit more out of it after the next 2 week conditioning phase.
        
      
      
  12. Snuck a small sample to see how the taste was. Yup. Just as I suspected. It tasted like beer, Ale style actually (since, afterall it is an Ale). I was rather impressed with myself.
      
  13. I filled the airlock with a sterile (chlorox/water) solution. Since I didn't pre-boil any water like I did with the Primary, I read that that was best.
      
  14. I put on the plug and airlock and stuck it back in the closet (in the dark). And there is shall stay for the next 2 weeks.
      
  15. Then it will go in bottles and I will wait another 3 weeks.
      
  
  
• 11:59pm:
  
  
  
  • The airlock (the floating piece) is floating. That's a good sign. It means the air has been pushed out of the space and replaced with CO2.
    
  • There are particles floating just beneath the surface. The wort looks to be clearing about an inch beneath the surface. The particles are floating on this second layer where it is still not clear.
    
  
  

Note:
Unfortunately there is a large amount of headroom in the secondary. I'd say it is missing about 1 gallon in the secondary.

I figure this comes from two reasons.

1. Not being able to siphon off the 1.5 inches (around 1/2 gallong)from the primary.
   
2. And perhaps not having enough liquid initially in the original brew (mostly due to evaporation).
   

• Opening Observation - Liquid dark. Alot less muddy. Took some good pictures of the floating spots.
  
• 4:21pm - No bubbles in airlock | spots are definitely some risidual fermentation on the top. It looks as if the yeasts are still lightly fermenting. These are small patches of bubbles like mini-krausen all over the surface.
  
• 10:45pm - Stil patches floating. | There is a layer of yeast nearly 1/2 inch thick on bottom of carboy. I noticed it around day 3. Then there is a dark layer under the yeast layer.
  

Note:
I am going to transfer to a secondary tomorrow (Wednesday). That will have given the primary nearly a full week.
I have cleaned and sanitized all of my necessary equipment.

• 5 Gallon glass carboy
  
• Hydrometer
  
• Plug
  
• Airlock
  
• Siphon hose
  

• Opening Observation - Clearing at 6.5 inches
  
• 2:00pm - No bubbling in airlock | Krausen flat. Some small residue floating on the liquid. Look as if there are small spots of activity sitting on top (.25X.25 inch in size). Almost looks like a mold but not. when I look closely, they are bubbles | Clearing at 6.5 inches
  
• 11:00pm - No bubbles in airlock | Clearing seems to be gone again, except for .25inch strip under krausen layer | Krausen still covered with spots.