First attempt at beer brewing, a stout 3.14% alc/vol

I was looking on Mr Tube and saw some vids on brewing. I'd always thought I'd like a crack at doing it. I had a tenant in the flat below and he made his own beer, pretty rugged stuff and he'd got an old fridge with a tap in it. Not a bad tenant, no trouble from him. I think his beer was quite high on the alcohol content.

The purchase

Anyway, I saw that there was a local shop in Newtown that sells starter kits for beer making, so I thought I'd give it a try its a Mangrove Jacks kit for $110. I wanted to start with a stout and the chap in the shop kindly switch it over from the beer type that came with the starter kit. A different brand. On switching over I got a Muntons Irish Style Dublin Stout.

The chap had recommended an Oatmeal stout but I thought I'd try a taste that I know. So went for the Irish Stout. If its not too much of a disaster then I can always try other ones. There was a big bag and a tin. The bag goes in first apparently.
I'd parked at Countdown supermarket opposite so I didn't have far to carry the stuff, and whilst there had a concern about the water, so ended up buying 26 l of still water ($16). The concern seems to be about the chlorine affecting the taste. Also the chap in the shop, when I said I'd most probably cock it up didn't disagree but said there was usually something drinkable at the end.
 So , cost to date is $126. And after preparing it it will take 5-10 days for fermentation. After that it needs 3-4 weeks for the carbonation drops (I think sugar) will need to react with the beer so 3-4 weeks after that. I'll be thirsty by the time they are ready.
I'll leave it until tomorrow to set it all up.

The preparation videos

I thought this  video was useful for setting up from the UK:

There is also this double one, video'd in Petone, not the most thrillingly paced but goes through the process:

The process

Wednesday 17th July, 2019.
I did the sterilization as they suggested. I used a cloth to wipe out the inner side of the fermenter and put that in its own bag so no cross contamination.
Initially I put in 2 teaspoons of the sterilizer then on reading instructions again saw it was 2 tablespoons  so adjusted to suit.
Put some in a sprayer to spray hands and other stuff.
Used bottled water to fill up. Put the sugars in first (as the man in the shop said) to stop clumping , then the tin and used kettle to get the stuff around the tin edges.
With 3 1/2 l of boiling water and bottled water for the rest, the temperature is 22 degrees, so I need to cool it down a bit before I can put in the Yeast, so I'm waiting on that.

It seems to be sitting on 22 deg C so I put it in the bath (I'm worried the sink may fall out of frame in laundry) sitting in cold water up to about the 7l mark. So will watch until it gets to below 20 deg C to put in the yeast.
I will also need to test the specific gravity as well.
This came out at 40 or 140 or 1040 - (still figuring out markings on the hydrometer.

So the start reading is 1040 which is the OG, and 5% alcohol/vol.
I had to do a lookup on this. So it seems you have the start alcohol and you get the end alcohol and you subtract one from the other to get final alcohol content.
So, in a blog I read (here) and it suggests final should be about 1.008 FG,  so that alcohol content there should be 1% so difference of alcohol content should be 4%, which is about right for a normal stout (Guinness 4.2%).
So all made , yeast added, in the cupboard and I'll have to wait 5 to 6 days. So that will stink out the house with guests coming Sunday.
I'll need to take it out to test the alcohol content on Monday 22nd and again on Tuesday 23rd to test FG and see if its stabilized.
Other calc is :
(OG-FG) x 131 = ABV (alcohol content) ,w here OG = 1.040 , so if FG 1.008 then sum will be .032x 131 = 4.192%

Day 1. Wed 17th July

 

I put the fermenter in my "hot press" (Airing cupboard). I 'd put a temperature logger in there before for a few hours and the results were that the temp was just above 15 deg C (note- datalogger battery died and there was only one reading)

When I put the fermenter in the cupboard it was at 20 deg C. As the temp was steady at 15 deg C in the cupboard I decided to wrap the tank in a duvet. I checked the temperature the next day in the AM and it was at 18 deg C.
I'll keep an eye on it and if it drops then I'll have to put a bit more heat in the space somehow.
There is a bit of a brewing smell as the cupboard is in the middle of the house, I may have to get a hose and run it into the attic space. Top of airlock is 25mm internal so I think it might be hose pipe size.

Day 2/3/4 of ferment

I was a bit concerned with temperature. The thermometer had dropped to 18/16 (so 17 deg C) so I thought I'd better raise the temp in the cupboard on day 3. I put in an electric oil heater on to try and even the temperature. I thought I'd had it on low but on checking day 4 the temperature was at 20 deg C. So I wound down the heater to a lower setting. I'll keep an eye on it. I'll also check the temp logger.
It seems to be bubbling away quite merrily so that is good.
My car was stolen Thursday night so will need to plan how to get the hose. As its off gassing into linen cupboard I may need to get the vent running soon or very beer smelling linen.

 Day 5  first measure

Monday 22 July I took the fermenter out and poured some beer out for the hygrometer. The reading was 1.016. It needs to be around 1.008 and when getting it out it was still bubbling through air trap, so I don't think its finished fermenting. Back in the cupboard and let it brew some more.

DAY 6/7 CONSISTENT MEASURE AT 1.012

On day 8 I decided to bottle as it was not going to go down to 1.008 too fast. Zoe & Karl were around so Zoe helped do the bottling, she was definitely better than I was.
So now have 30 bottles with 2 carbonator pellets in each of the pert bottles . I am storing them in their original box and I need to leave them in a warm place for 5 days. We turned the bottles upside down so that the pellets would dissolve.
Next, 5 days in warm place and then put in cool place and can drink after 14 days. 2 weeks to go before the tasting.

 Day 5 of storing

I  tried a bottle on day 5. It did not have much of a head and was quite sweet, but pleasant enough, although not much of a bite to it. I'm glad I've tried but will wait for a while longer so hopefully it will get a bit more oomph.
Am supposed to put in a cool place but as temperature has dropped I'll keep it in the dining area for now.