Don’t worry if your airlock is not bubbling as expected. Your brew is more than likely fermenting normally. The most common reason for this is the CO2 being produced is escaping the fermenter from a gap in the lid seal. Nothing can get into your fermenter due to the positive pressure being produced. Try loosening the lid and resealing it...but not too tight Muscles, OK. DO NOT TAKE THE LID OFF! Your brew is actively fermenting, and anything that gets in now will stuff it well and truly!

If you can see activity on the surface of your brew, and condensation under the lid, your brew is fermenting normally so leave it alone! If you’re still unsure, take a hydrometer reading. This should show a reading lower than what you saw when you put the brew down. NOTE – Your hydrometer readings are the ONLY way of knowing when your brew is fully fermented! Only bottle your beer when your hydrometer readings are the same over 2 consecutive days! Don’t rely on your airlock!

Generally, after around 7 days, your brew should be close to ready. BUT... the fermenting temperature will largely dictate on how long your brew takes to ferment. The hotter the ferment—the shorter ferment time. The cooler the ferment—the longer ferment time. Be patient during this time and don’t assume your brew is finished when the airlock stops bubbling. It’s quite okay to leave your precious brew in the fermenter for 2 weeks. Once fermentation finishes the yeast continues to work by cleaning up elements of the brew that can cause off flavours you don’t want. Only bottle when the ferment is finished! NOTE – Your hydrometer readings are the ONLY way of knowing when your brew is fully fermented! Only bottle your beer when your hydrometer readings are the same over 2 consecutive days! Don’t rely on your airlock!

If your brew hasn’t finished fermenting, it will still contain too much unfermented sugar. If you bottle early, the remaining yeast will not only convert your priming sugar (carbonation drops, etc.) into CO2, but also the unfermented sugar in your brew. At best this will result in heavily over carbonated beer (i.e. a glass full of foam!), at worst your bottles could explode! Believe us, you don’t want this!! NOTE – Your hydrometer readings are the ONLY way of knowing when your brew is fully fermented! Only bottle your beer when your hydrometer readings are the same over 2 consecutive days! Don’t rely on your airlock! Sorry to harp on about this, but don’t rely on your airlock!

This depends on what style of beer you are making, and which yeast you are using. Ale yeasts ferment best at higher temperatures (18-30 deg C), and lager yeast work best at low temps (9-15 deg C), so needs temperature control to brew correctly. Most brands like Morgans and Coopers supply ale yeast with all of their tins as most new home brewers don’t have the ability to brew at lager temps and can only brew at the higher range. We recommend ale yeast ideally be fermented between 18-22 deg C. Higher temps will still work but will produce “off” flavours that aren’t consistent with how your beer should taste. Temps over 30 deg C will kill the yeast cells, and your brew will fail to ferment. If you live in a cold climate and your brew temp drops too low, the yeast will effectively go to sleep. It will “reawaken” when the temps rise again and continue to ferment. In this event we recommend a heat pad or belt that will allow you to maintain the correct temps throughout the ferment. If you prefer using a specialist yeast that you’ve purchased, refer to the packet and ensure your temps stay within the range specified. NOTE – For absolute best results, and consistency the temps you ferment at should not fluctuate too far. Try to keep your temps within a couple of degrees of your target temp. Ask us instore about the temp control options we can offer you. For example, the Cool Brewing Fermenter Cooler Bag which eliminates the need for a dedicated brewing fridge.

When you draw some wort from the fermenter tap for a hydrometer reading, always discard the first 20-30 ml. As your brew ferments, spent yeast drops out of the brew and settles on the bottom of your fermenter. Some of this sediment can settle in your tap and sediment reducer. The presence of this sediment in your sample for testing will affect the gravity and show a higher reading than is actually the case. If you think the reading is still too high, consider the temp your brew has been fermenting at. If your brew temp has exceeded 30 deg C, your yeast is likely dead and will no longer work. At this point, you could try adding a new yeast to restart the ferment, but if your brew temp has killed the yeast you are likely to get “off” flavours and may not be worth continuing with. If your brew temps have been within the correct range, your ferment may have stalled. We suggest you give your brew a light stir (with a sanitised spoon) to get your yeast back into suspension. Replace the fermenter lid, and hopefully this will re-activate your ferment. If this doesn’t work, try adding a new yeast to your brew.

If the can is sealed, then the malt extract inside will be okay to brew; however, the yeast under the lid will be dead, so you’ll need to use a fresh yeast. Also, malt extract darkens over time. If the tin is a dark beer or stout you won’t have any problems. If the tin is for a light-coloured beer, expect the finished product to be much darker than expected. It should still ferment okay with a new yeast, but really why risk all that work, cleaning, sanitising and filling 30 bottles, waiting for them to condition...it may be better to just buy a new tin!

This is perfectly normal. Once you have bottled your beer it still needs at least 3 weeks before drinking, so the beer will start to clear during this time. When you refrigerate the bottles prior to drinking, the cold temp will clear the beer even further and sediment will settle on the bottom of the bottle. Always try to pour from the bottle as smoothly as you can. If the beer “glugs” (sorry, I couldn’t come up with a better word. You get it right?) from the bottle, it will stir up the sediment and you’ll get it in your glass. Don’t worry if it does this, it’s just spent yeast and is actually good for you!

All extract tins can be brewed at any ABV% you prefer, all you need to do is adjust the amount of sugars or malts you add to the brew. For example, any tin brewed to 23 litres with no added fermentables (dextrose or malt) will give you around 2.5% ABV. If you prefer mid strength 3.5% ABV, simply add 500g of fermentables to your brew.

We thought you might ask this! There are several calculations that can be used, and all of them need your hydrometer readings from the start and finish of your brews. These are called starting gravity (SG) and finishing gravity (FG).

This is how we calculate the alcohol %:

SG – FG / 7.36

Example

1040 – 1010 = 30

30 / 7.36 = 4.07% (if bottling + 0.5 for secondary fermentation/carbonation in bottle)

Or: Ask us for one of our easy-to-read cheat sheets to take home.

You can, but you shouldn’t! Remember your dad’s or granddad’s horrible home brew efforts? Yep, they used plain white sugar in their brews! Plain sugar will ferment and give you alcohol but will also give you that old time “home brew” taste that we are all trying to avoid. We recommend dextrose as a minimum, but the more malt you use in your beers, the closer you will get to recreating your favourite commercial beer.

The different brew blends you see all allow you to brew exactly the way you want to brew. Here at Country Brewer, we pack our own blends, so they can differ from store to store, so we’ll give you a run-down of ours which don’t differ too far from most stores. Generally, 1kg of each of our blends will give you a full strength beer of 4-4.5%. Dextrose is a powdered form of corn sugar that is added to brews simply to create alcohol. Beers brewed with a tin and just dextrose tend to be quite thin or watery and have little body. You’ll also find these beers won’t hold a head for very long. But it gives you booze! Body Brew is a blend of dextrose and maltodextrin (also from corn or maize). Maltodextrin is unfermentable so won’t add booze (boo!) but will add body to your beer, so you’ll get better mouthfeel and head retention.

Brew Booster is also dextrose and maltodextrin, but we’ve now added some light dried malt which does ferment (adds booze...yeah!) but will also add flavour. More flavour is good!

Ultra Brew is the same as our Brew Booster but with more light dried malt than dextrose and maltodextrin. More malt = more flavour, more body, more head! Light dried malt is just that, nothing else.

Just like there are many different beer styles on the market, there are many different strains of yeast to produce those beer styles. The yeast provided with the most tins is a generic ale yeast that will work reliably in many different conditions, and basically will ferment your beer. Different specialty yeasts can dramatically change the way your beer tastes, so you have the option to choose which specialty yeast to use for the beer you want to make.

Adding hops to your brew is a brilliant way to create the type of beer that you want. Similar to specialty yeasts, different hops will give you different flavours and characteristics to your beer. For example, traditional styles like lagers, pilsners and ales generally have mild hop characteristics, while newer styles like pale ales and IPAs are very hop driven and require lots of hop character. To achieve a mild hop characteristic, we recommend steeping a small amount of hops in boiling water and adding them at the start of your brew. We also stock a variety of 12g packs sealed in a mesh bag to use like a teabag. If you prefer big hop characteristics (pale ales and IPAs, etc.) we suggest you add your hops in much greater quantities on around day 4 or 5 of your ferment. You guessed it: we have a product for that too! Our 60g packs of hops is what you need here. These are loose hop pellets, so it’s best if you use a larger mesh type (muslin) bag or cloth that will contain your hops and make clean up easy, but remember that everyone’s tastes are different and you might prefer more or less hops than what we suggest.

We hope this helps you all out, but if you have any other questions just shoot us a message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.