heertsy

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First batch went in the bucket last friday, stopped bubbling about tuesday. Took out a sample for #1 hydrometer reading today (will test and taste in about 1/2 hour)

Anyways, when i opened the lid, their was a really, looked almost hard, dried foam crust all the way around the top of the bucket.

Just checking with the board, this IS perfectly normal, right???

Smells good, strong, but good!

Will give it the taste test and hydrometer reading in just a bit (i hear you are suppose to let the sample settle for a 1/2 hour from somewhere).

Oh, BTW, check out my post in the general beer forum about finding homebrews 10 years later!!!

heertsy

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hyrdometer reading came out at 1.08. It tasted ok, SLIGHLY watery and first and still seemed to have a bit of a weird afterbite, but i think it tasted normal enuf for me to say i didn't destroy it.

Hey, my hydrometer also has a "potential alcohol" scale on it. That says the potential is only 2.5. That cannot be judged by that right???

RichBrewer

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The brown gunk at the top of your beer is perfectly normal.
Don't even judge your beer until it has been in the bottles for at least 3 weeks. You will be surprised how much the taste has changed.

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Rich

heertsy

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i am getting worried, 10 minutes later, i still have this VERY weird and not good taste in my mouth. It tastes almost like soap or disinfectant of some sort.

I used BBrite for my sanitation part and rinsed everything pretty darn thouroughly....so i thought anyways.

Hopefully it will still mellow itself out. It smelled good, and the taste at first was good, but this aftertaste is NOT good.

RichBrewer

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AS I said, give it time. Don't throw it out yet!

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Rich

JimC

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You have (likely) more than 2.5% abv in there. That is your final gravity reading. To find you're AVB you must take you're original gravity reading from before you added your yeast and subtract your final gravity reading form it. This will tell you approximately how much sugar was converted into alcohol by the yeast and you can use that to find your ABV.

Good reading on how to do this:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter9-4.html
and
http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html

heertsy

Recipes 

I did sanitize and rinse out the hydrometer flask before sampling....MAYBE i used to strong a mix (sanitizer) for that, as i did just guess at the amount and just put it in my sink. i did rinse it out good though but am just hoping maybe it was in the flask and not the entire batch. Ofcourse i did the same with the turkey baster that I did dip into the entire wort.

Uhh...this taste is NOT going away either. about 45 minutes later I still feel this nasty bite in my mouth and on the end of my tongue.

I dunno, i honestly think the batch might be bad. Let's hope you are right Rich! i especially hate to go thru all the bottling hassle and realize it's still bad.

Orpheus

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You said disinfectant. Does it taste like band-aids by any chance?

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heertsy

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orpheus, it's hard to explain. But i would say YES, it could be described as a band aid taste quite possibly.

Like i said, just like disinfectant, and it doesn't go away, it really sticks in your mouth. Not a good aftertaste AT ALL. Band aid could very well be a way to explain it!

Uh oh...

Brewsmith

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Still don't throw it out. There are too many stories around here of a beer that turned out great after it was forgotten about after 6 months, or after drinking a case and a half the brewer noticed it had improved.

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