Coopers Wheat Beer Kit

[canwebrewit]

Hi All, I am a complete beginner here so sorry if I start asking silly questions:)

I am on my second batch using kits the first being a Brewferm Tarwebier that for some reason has come out at around 7% (OG 1.052, FG 0.998) I am not to worried about that and will just let this one age in the bottles for a few months.
The second was a Coopers Wheat beer kit, I used the kit with 500G of light spray malt and 450g of honey instead on the dextrose, I also added 15g coriander and 15g orange peel. When I measured the OG it was 1.020?? so quickly made up 150g of dextrose syrup and added this but it made little difference and in all I ended up adding 450g of dextrose on top of the 450g of honey but still the OG was 1.036. (the instructions only suggested 300g of dextrose and no honey)
The other issue is that the brew seems to have finished fermenting after just 2 days and the reading has stayed at 1.010 for a further 48 hours.
I don't mind a 3.5% session beer but obviously I have gone wrong somewhere and any suggestions anyone has would be great.

Again sorry If I am being a prat but as I said I am a complete newbie.

Cheers

[Chuck]

It does sound low, but could be because your honey and extract aren't mixed properly - not a huge issue as the yeast will find it but means you can't get an accurate gravity reading. It does take quite a lot of stirring to get it all to dissolve properly and you don't need much left on the bottom to have a big effect on the gravity. I would leave it at least another week before doing anything else. Do you have an airlock as it might be a good indicator of fermentation - though no airlock activity doesn't necessarily mean no fermentation.

[canwebrewit]

That makes a lot of sense, so I may well end up with a stronger beer I just wont be able to get a true reading. I do have and airlock but there was only activity for 48 hours, it's been going now for 4 days so you suggest just leave it for another week before bottling.
Thank you so much.

[tazzymutt]

Give it 14 days in the FV. I've always found that this kit rewards a little extra time to clear up.

I usually brew it with 1kg of wheat spray malt and 300g of brewing sugar which gives me an OG around 1053. It ends up around 1012 (not bad considering all the malt in there).

Happy brewing,


Ian.

[canwebrewit]

Thanks Ian, That's good advice I was considering leaving it for a while and keep my fingers crossed.

Would you bottle form the primary FV or move it over for a little while or just before bottling?

Cheers
Graham

[tazzymutt]

Thanks Ian, That's good advice I was considering leaving it for a while and keep my fingers crossed.

Would you bottle form the primary FV or move it over for a little while or just before bottling?

Cheers
Graham

When I'm ready to bottle I take around 250ml of brew in a jug, add the priming sugar (100g is fine for this one by my tastes, some will prefer more fizz, some less) then heat that in the microwave to dissolve the sugar. Add the sugared brew to a cleaned bucket and then syphon my brew into the bottling bucket. That way the batch will be consistently primed. I then syphon into bottles from there.

Back to the brew fridge at about 20C or a week or ten days then drop the temperature to encourage clearing and faster conditioning. Then wait... It's OK after a couple of weeks, but does improve if you can keep your paws off it for a while.

Happy brewing,


Ian.