mooseface

Recipes 

Thanks to everyones help...I made beer! It's not very good beer, but it's beer. It's very sweet like wine. I like a very strong almost bitter beer. My question is, was it the recipe or me? Brewer's Best American Light. Also, what would you suggest I try for my second attempt. I bought a kit for a Continental Pilsner will that give me better taste?

the_wrath_of_Khan

Recipes 

I am also a newbie, but I would suggest using more bittering hops. What were the instructions for making your wort? I would guess that American Light is going to be a very sweet beer. How many IBU is it supposed to be? I personally like William's Brewery if you are going for kits. Like I said I am still learning just like you. Take a look at this site: http://www.howtobrew.com/

ndhowlett

Recipes 

What was your O.G. and F.G.? Maybe post the recipie and we could help you out.

Sounds pretty far off if it tastes sweet like wine. Also how long did you let it sit in primary, secondary and time in bottle?

mooseface

Recipes 

IBUs = 15... I don't know what this should be to make me happy. I know I have a lot of homework to do! Thanks for the link I will research it. The pilsner recipe I have the IBUs = 30-40 is this barking up the right tree?

the_wrath_of_Khan

Recipes 

That should be a lot more bitter. Again being a newbie from what I understand it takes about 40 minutes of boiling for your bittering hops to release the alpha acids. How many hops additions did you do to your boiling wort and at what times? In my kits there have always been bitter hops additions after 5 minutes of boiling with another 55 minutes of boiling left. My beer turned out the opposite of yours, deathly bitter.

BuffaloSabresBrewer

Recipes 

Also a noob but it sounds like it didnt ferment completely. It shouldn't be that sweet. Was there airlock activity when you racked to secondary or just bottled?

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mooseface

Recipes 

Yeah, I added the bittering hops just like you. Same boiling time. Can't tell you the amount, they were pre measured. I wasn't sure about how to add them so I stuffed them in the sock and threw them in the pot and disposed of the mess after the transfer...there were no directions about that.
About my O.G. it was 1.042 (recipe 1.037-1.040) F.G. 1.014 (recipe 1.007-1.010) I was 3 days in the primary and 13 days in the secondary then 14 days bottled.
Thanks for your help!

the_wrath_of_Khan

Recipes 

Wow I don't think you are supposed to throw hops in a sock! Put them straight in the boiling pot. When you put the wort in the primary fermenter the protein and hops will be left in the trub. I'm guessing that maybe your hops didn't get a chance to flavor the wort since they were trapped in a sock.

the_wrath_of_Khan

Recipes 

Also shouldn't you have left the beer in the primary for at least 7 days before putting it in the secondary?

BuffaloSabresBrewer

Recipes 

Thats one of the greatest things I have ever heard. Using the sock as a hop bag! Does you beer taste like feet. Okay sorry. Next time you can just throw your hops into the wort. Or if your worried about getting them filtered out try a tea bag. Never heard of it done but it makes sense to me. They were probably pellet hops so you can just leave them in the bottom of you pot when you transfer to primary.

Im not experienced enough to tell you about your hydrometer reading but you possibly could have let it go a week. Feel free to correct me on that one everyone like I said dont know enough about hydrometers.

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