First Brew... /sigh

Well I went to bottle my first brew today. It was a Morebeer.com American Amber Ale extract kit. When I took a hydro reading and tasted it back after about 1.5weeks in fermenter it tasted a little sour, but not horrible. (it also upset my stomach which I handed off as yeast) Today, 3 weeks after brewing, I opened up the 6.5gal better bottle and took a wiff... It smelled, well, bad. Not like a "good" brew would imo. I looked in and noticed what could be a small film, this was somewhat proven later when I put my racking cane in and noticed that it looked like it separated. I went on my business sanitizing and what not, then I started racking it into my bottling bucket and took a small sample for another hydro reading and tasting... It was horrible! Maybe a sour taste, and my stomach immediately felt sick.

Now I'm left thinking it was infected? I would mark it down as very possible that I didn't sanitize well enough. I mean I sanitized everything I should have, but there might have been a chance that I handled it a little too unsanitary after...

At least I now have some good experience with the process and hopefully will make a good brew on round 2.

Id let that bottle condition for at least 3 weeks then mabey wait a little longer 2 more weeks before I make a decision.

What Lepersquatch said, One of my first beers tasted sour and horrible and made me feel ill, I thought I had left bleech in the fermenter and started it.

But I bottled it none the less and forgot about it, 4 or 5 months later I popped one and it was fine.

Don't get frustrated. It happens to the best of us. make sure you are using a good sanitizer like star San. Modify your practice and you will be busting out world class beers in no time.

Like that Druckenfool fool said (lol) dont get frustrated it happen to everyone. You can sanitize everything 300 time and you may still get a infecting some time it comes down to luck. But i would still give it some time to age let it sit in bottle for 4 or so weeks try one every week till the end of that 4 or so weeks and see how it tastes. If you dont notice and change in taste then you can be so sure that your batch got infected. Dum it and brew a new batch

A week and a half of fermenting, and 3 weeks in the bottle should be enough to give an idea of what it will be like. If it's "not quite right", or "tasted off", then I'd say give it a few more weeks.

When you say it tastes "Horrible!" then I gotta believe you got infected. But unless you need the bottles, I still think you should put them away and forget about them for a month or two. You may dump them after that, or you may be pleasantly surprised.

If you dump them, rinse each bottle with HOT water, then soak overnight in oxy, than sanitize with StarSan, or better yet, place in oven and heat up to 250 degrees to sterilize. You don't want that infection following.

And since you first noticed a tartness in the fermenter, bleach bomb that thing! Then rinse WELL before using again. If it happens again in that bucket, throw that thing out and get another. You could probably buy 2 buckets with lids and airlocks for the price of one ruined batch of beer.

Great advice guys!! I'm already in preparation for my next batch. I'll let maybe half the bottles sit for a long time if the taste doesn't shape up, but probably dump half of them in with a month to free them up for the next batch. Great idea on the bleach bomb of my better bottle. I have it soaking right now to get ride of the krauzen build up at the top.

You think I should get that all clean, throw in some diluted bleach, shake the hell out of it, (Let soak?? or rinse immediately?), then obviously rinse it very well and then obviously sanitize before next batch?

Homercidal said:

And since you first noticed a tartness in the fermenter, bleach bomb that thing! Then rinse WELL before using again. If it happens again in that bucket, throw that thing out and get another. You could probably buy 2 buckets with lids and airlocks for the price of one ruined batch of beer.

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Don't toss the bucket. Use it for grain storage or something else non-beer-contact related.

Sorry, i've been living on the most strict budget ever after buying a house and that just jumped out of me!

brewkrew said:

Great advice guys!! I'm already in preparation for my next batch. I'll let maybe half the bottles sit for a long time if the taste doesn't shape up, but probably dump half of them in with a month to free them up for the next batch. Great idea on the bleach bomb of my better bottle. I have it soaking right now to get ride of the krauzen build up at the top.

You think I should get that all clean, throw in some diluted bleach, shake the hell out of it, (Let soak?? or rinse immediately?), then obviously rinse it very well and then obviously sanitize before next batch?

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Sounds like a plan... as you say... after using bleach, rinse, rinse, rinse... then rinse some more.

drat said:

Don't toss the bucket. Use it for grain storage or something else non-beer-contact related.

Sorry, i've been living on the most strict budget ever after buying a house and that just jumped out of me!

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Never toss old bucket you can use them for storage , cleaning bucket so on