I started taking gravity readings of my Janus’ Shades brew on Thursday although, based on the appearance, I wasn’t surprised to find that it had already bottomed out at about 1.008 @ 20°C. Today I managed to get it into bottles, for a total yield of about 6.5l, primed with 40g sugar. I’d expected a little more beer as I’m sure I had about 7.5l going into the fermentor, so rather than siphoning into the jerry can to measure I was a bit presumptous in my calculations. My previous brew was a little on the flat side so I don’t think I’m in danger of creating too much of a bomb!
The other thing I did with previous brew was to put it straight into the unheated larder. I think that inhibits further yeast activity as, although it hasn’t yet been particularly cold, the ambient temperature would have been well below where yeast would feel comfortable kicking in for a final hurrah. With this batch, I’ve put the bottles in the brew cupboard in the front room and made a note in my diary to transfer them after a week for longer term storage and conditioning which other people’s experiments suggest should make a positive difference.
Now the wait begins!