Made a big mistake - will my beer be drinkable?

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FMWarner

FMWarner

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Hi, all...

I just got a homebrew kit for my birthday and messed up my first brew. I used the instructions that came with my fermenter without realizing that the ingredient kit also had its own instructions.

The recipe is for a nut brown ale. I was supposed to mix the can contents and the malt with hot water, then simmer and strain the hops and chocolate grain and add the strained liquid to the wort. Instead, I dumped everything in with the hot water, mixed it up, and added it to the fermenter with cold water to fill. So what I have is loose hops and chocolate grain swimming around in my wort.

I thought about trying to use a strainer to lift out the loose bits and simmer them, but I quickly realized this was kind of impossible. So now it is what it is.

Can anyone tell me if this beer will wind up being drinkable? I know it'll certainly be different than intended, but I hope I can choke it down, cause I'd hate to have to dump 23 liters of beer.

Thanks for any help!
 
So it was a partial mash kit? Meaning there was a small amount of specialty grains that were supposed to be steeped? Did you boil the hops at all, or did the kit come with hoped malt extract? Have you already pitched the yeast?
 
You say hot water did you boil everything for the correct time? With the chocolate grain? That can give a bit of a rough tannin flavor that can potentially age out. Most of the other stuff in the fermentor will settle out. Look for pictures of people dry hopping or secondary with fruit to see how much junk can be racked out from under. Might not be the greatest beer or could be spectacular. Just wait and find out.
 
+1 to beer being 'not lost' for a beer kit...at worst you are looking at a less than perfect taste. Best bet is to go with the kit instructions, since the fermenter is just a tool. My recomendation is to let the beer go, and follow the remaining instructions for brew time etc. Use this batch as a learning experience, you future brews will improve
 
JayDubWill said:
So it was a partial mash kit? Meaning there was a small amount of specialty grains that were supposed to be steeped? Did you boil the hops at all, or did the kit come with hoped malt extract? Have you already pitched the yeast?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what a partial mash kit is, but you are correct. There were two pouches of hops and one pouch of chocolate grain that were supposed to be steeped but went into the fermenter raw. The yeast had been pitched by the time I realized my mistake.

flars said:
Your beer is definitely not lost. Can you post a link to the recipe.
Click to expand...

Here you go:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b318/FMWarner/IMG_3947_zps2762948d.jpg

JINKS said:
You say hot water did you boil everything for the correct time? With the chocolate grain? That can give a bit of a rough tannin flavor that can potentially age out. Most of the other stuff in the fermentor will settle out. Look for pictures of people dry hopping or secondary with fruit to see how much junk can be racked out from under. Might not be the greatest beer or could be spectacular. Just wait and find out.
Click to expand...

Nothing was boiled. When I say hot water, I mean I mixed the can contents, the malt, the chocolate grain, and the hops with hot water before adding to the fermenter and then filling to the 23L level (30L fermenter) with cold water. Unfortunately I did not discover the recipe instructions linked above until the yeast was pitched.

MikeBergan said:
+1 to beer being 'not lost' for a beer kit...at worst you are looking at a less than perfect taste. Best bet is to go with the kit instructions, since the fermenter is just a tool. My recomendation is to let the beer go, and follow the remaining instructions for brew time etc. Use this batch as a learning experience, you future brews will improve
Click to expand...

Thanks! I will certainly go with the kit instructions in the future. Unfortunately I just did not notice they were there this time. I'm encouraged that everyone seems to think it will at least be drinkable.
 
How hot was the water? I am going to be honest, it is 50/50 on whether this is good/drinkable or badly infected. Grains have lactobacillis on them and if they get into your beer then it will get a sour flavor. Don't be discouraged though. Let it ride for about a week and give it a taste, if it isn't noticeably sour then you might have gotten the better end of the coin toss this time. Best of luck to you.
 
kaconga said:
How hot was the water? I am going to be honest, it is 50/50 on whether this is good/drinkable or badly infected. Grains have lactobacillis on them and if they get into your beer then it will get a sour flavor. Don't be discouraged though. Let it ride for about a week and give it a taste, if it isn't noticeably sour then you might have gotten the better end of the coin toss this time. Best of luck to you.
Click to expand...

Water was as hot as the kitchen tap will go - had steam coming up and it was too hot to dip my hand in. I only made this today, so I'll give it the week or so til bottling time and taste it then. Thanks for your input!
 
If you added the chocolate malt to cool wort it is probably not going to do much if anything at all to the flavour of your beer. I suppose it depends how much chocolate but doubt you will get any harsh tannins from it. I think you will most likely end up with a drinkable beer that is a bit bland due to being underhopped since the hops weren't boiled at all.
 
There are a few problems here.

Was the can of extract 'hopped' or 'unhopped'?

If it was hopped, your bitterness will be OK. If it was unhoped, the bitterness was to come from simmering the hops. Hops give very little bitterness if not boiled, so what you will get from adding them straight to the fermenter is 'aroma', which is closely linked to taste in our perception, but not bitterness. this may mean the beer tastes overly sweet but hoppy tasting. Might still be drinkable, but not great.

Adding the grain without steeping (soaking in hot water) means you will get little flavour from it. It also means that bacteria from the grain will get into the wort (bacteria are killed with boiling or extended soaking in very hot water). The bacteria will be in a 'race' against the yeast to see who takes control of the beer. If the bacteria win, it will taste sour fairly quickly. Hopefully, the yeast are strong enough to beat the bacteria. The odds are actually in your favour.
 
I would have suggested simmering the wort at 160°F for an hour to get some bittering from the hops. pH would be low enough not to extract tannins from the grain. 160°F would be hot enough to kill bacteria on the grains.

Being at 23 liters now that would not be practical. Let it go and see what happens.

Another 11 gram pack of rehydrated yeast wouldn't cause any damage. Could start a vigorous fermentation faster though.
 
You can steep chocolate malt at lower temps and still get flavor, and since your grains are in the fermenter, they will have lots of time for the water to soak through and extract sugars and flavor compounds.

The issue is the likelihood of infection, which seems high. Without boiling the hops, you will only have IBUs coming from the extract, and that is only if the extract was hopped. Otherwise, you have zero IBUs. Besides providing a bitterness to balance the malt sweetness, higher IBUs also help inhibit infections. The grains you added to the fermenter were probably carrying some microbes, and while they won't make you sick, they can have an adverse impact on the taste of your beer.

Can you bring the wort up to 160° to pasteurize it, then cool and pitch more yeast? Perhaps even boil it for a few minutes to get some of the bittering from the hops you used? If there isn't a krausen already developed, I might try that.
 
I think you will just have to ride it out and see what you get with this one. Definitely not ideal, but, sometimes beer can be more forgiving that one would expect. I agree that your biggest problem is going to be the possibility of infection. In fairness, the kit instructions are really not very good ( a problem with a lot of kits, but this one is particularly not great).

*Check this book out - online version here, but a good one to buy if you are going to brew beer: http://www.howtobrew.com/

*Those (and many kit) instructions are bad. You will either need to seek out other kits (northern brewer, austin homebrew, morebeer, etc....... not that their instructions are perfect - but better) or do some research to get a better process down to make beer with those kits.

*Cleaning and sanitizing - what did you do? PBW to clean (and rinse) and Starsan to sanitize (and don't rinse) is probably the best practice.

In general..... very general.......
1.) Heat water and soak any crushed grain as the water warms up. Take that grain out when water reaches 165 or so. Want grain to soak for 20 minutes at least.
2.) Bring water to a boil.
3.) Add malt extract - watch for "boil over" - turn burner way down or off when adding extract and stir well to mix in. Watch boil overs for the first 10 minutes in particular.
4.) Add hops at times as directed.
5.) boil for 30-60 minutes..... whatever is needed for particular kit.
6.) Chill beer down into the 60's
7.) transfer chilled beer to sanitized fermenter
8.) pitch rehydrated dried yeast (or liquid yeast)
9.) Keep beer in the mid to upper 60's for best results
10.) Might need "blow off tube" depending on fermenter size. Google it and you will see what it is.
11.) leave your beer alone for 14 days
12.) Take gravity reading to make sure it is done fermenting.
13.) move (gently, no oxygen, no splashing, no pouring - use autosiphon) to bottling bucket with appropriate priming sugar (boiled in small amount of water to make a syrup).
14.) Bottle and cap
15.) leave bottles in place out of light, mid 60's to mid 70's. Come back in 2 weeks and check to see if it is ready - drink one. May benefit from some more time at this point, but should be getting close.
 
Braufessor said:
I think you will just have to ride it out and see what you get with this one. Definitely not ideal, but, sometimes beer can be more forgiving that one would expect. I agree that your biggest problem is going to be the possibility of infection. In fairness, the kit instructions are really not very good ( a problem with a lot of kits, but this one is particularly not great).

*Check this book out - online version here, but a good one to buy if you are going to brew beer: http://www.howtobrew.com/

*Those (and many kit) instructions are bad. You will either need to seek out other kits (northern brewer, austin homebrew, morebeer, etc....... not that their instructions are perfect - but better) or do some research to get a better process down to make beer with those kits.

*Cleaning and sanitizing - what did you do? PBW to clean (and rinse) and Starsan to sanitize (and don't rinse) is probably the best practice.

In general..... very general.......
1.) Heat water and soak any crushed grain as the water warms up. Take that grain out when water reaches 165 or so. Want grain to soak for 20 minutes at least.
2.) Bring water to a boil.
3.) Add malt extract - watch for "boil over" - turn burner way down or off when adding extract and stir well to mix in. Watch boil overs for the first 10 minutes in particular.
4.) Add hops at times as directed.
5.) boil for 30-60 minutes..... whatever is needed for particular kit.
6.) Chill beer down into the 60's
7.) transfer chilled beer to sanitized fermenter
8.) pitch rehydrated dried yeast (or liquid yeast)
9.) Keep beer in the mid to upper 60's for best results
10.) Might need "blow off tube" depending on fermenter size. Google it and you will see what it is.
11.) leave your beer alone for 14 days
12.) Take gravity reading to make sure it is done fermenting.
13.) move (gently, no oxygen, no splashing, no pouring - use autosiphon) to bottling bucket with appropriate priming sugar (boiled in small amount of water to make a syrup).
14.) Bottle and cap
15.) leave bottles in place out of light, mid 60's to mid 70's. Come back in 2 weeks and check to see if it is ready - drink one. May benefit from some more time at this point, but should be getting close.
Click to expand...

I am impressed with your thorough and to the point explanation of the essential brewing process. Couldn't have explained it any better than that.

Another recommendation would be to use the recipes you see in the recipe section of this forum. There is a tab on the brown menu bar at the top of the screen. Many of the recipes are just as simple as your kit, ingredients wise anyway, and you can rest assured that the recipes with the greatest number of posts and highest rating make damn good beer!
 
I just wanted to thank everyone for their help. After bottling, I went on a long vacation and just had the first taste (was bottled for five weeks).

The beer is not ideal, but there are no signs of infection and the taste is pretty okay. The only drawback appears to be a bit of sediment in each bottle that I presume is residue from the hops. However, rolling each bottle before drinking (like you do with a Coopers) seems to take care of that. I'm encouraged that I could mess it up that much and still get a drinkable beer.

Next up is a pear cider - that's what the girlfriend likes and it's good to make nice when you're taking up room with a fermenter :)
 
FMWarner said:
I just wanted to thank everyone for their help. After bottling, I went on a long vacation and just had the first taste (was bottled for five weeks).

The beer is not ideal, but there are no signs of infection and the taste is pretty okay. The only drawback appears to be a bit of sediment in each bottle that I presume is residue from the hops. However, rolling each bottle before drinking (like you do with a Coopers) seems to take care of that. I'm encouraged that I could mess it up that much and still get a drinkable beer.

Next up is a pear cider - that's what the girlfriend likes and it's good to make nice when you're taking up room with a fermenter :)
Click to expand...

Excellent! The residue is more likely yeast than hop gunk. Careful pouring can usually leave behind most of it. I typically leave about a quarter inch of beer in the bottle to achieve a clean pour. Keep it up and remember this beer when you freak out about something you do "wrong" :)
 
To the OP;

Get a copy of "how to brew" and read the first part a few times. That will explain not only the process but the reasons behind each step. I generally toss the instruction from BOTH the equipment and the kit. A few things to remember, assuming you are not using a no-boil kit like Coopers:

1. Specialty grains are steeped in 150F ish water, then removed before the boil
2. base grains are mashed then removed before the boil.
3. wort is always boiled, generally for 60 minutes, although some here do 90.
4. Hops are added during the boil
5. Nothing added before the boil needs be sanitized, the boil does that.
6. Everything that touches the wort after the boil is over needs to be sanitized.
7. Grains are never boiled, as it releases tannins, which is the taste you get if you suck a wet tea bag.

Beer is like children; No parent ever thinks their theirs are ugly. That's why they survive infancy. Use this batch as a learning experience. I would suggest that if you don't like it, brew it again using the process we have descibed above and note the differences in taste.
 

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