New to brewing...

Where to start... Yesterday marks 6 weeks since I began brewing. My first beer was an Oktoberfest kit from Brewers Best which has just finished conditioning. I currently have BB Irish Stout conditioning and BB Holiday Ale in the primary. I have some thoughts, questions, and concerns about the Oktoberfest.

Thinking back to brew day, the one thing I didn't do is sanitize the brew pot.. Huge mistake, I know, but I figured I'd see how it turned out. It is an aluminum pot and I did boil water in it before starting to create a layer of oxide. I feel that everything else that day went well. However I did not get an OG reading. I then left it in the primary for 1 week and in the secondary for 2 weeks. I did not lager due to lack of equipment, however the guy at my home brew store said it should turn out fine fermenting as an ale. The house was at about 72 throughout the fermentation.

The next thought I have is on bottling day. I used the corn sugar that came with the kit. Boiled it in water and added it to the bottling bucket. Siphoned the beer into the bottling bucket. Thinking that the flowing beer would mix everything together, I did not stir the mixture and I think this may have been a mistake.

I do understand that the beer should take about 3 weeks to condition, but decided to give it a try about 5 days ago. Now, the 3 week mark was yesterday.

This is the first one


The carbonation was good. It was smooth and tasted pretty good. But I am noticing an interesting off flavor. It has some sweet overtones. Not sour, not buttery, somewhat sweet. I'm not sure how to describe it... Maybe citrusy? I'm thinking that maybe this is from unfermented corn sugar? I have continued to drink this beer since and each one is kinda hit and miss with that flavor; some have it and others don't. I've noticed that as It ages the flavor tends to diminish over time. With yesterday being the 3 week mark, the beer still somewhat has this flavor but still hit and miss. Any thoughts on this?

Another embarrassing thought that I feel the need to share, is that this beer gives me extremely bad gas and diarrhea. Sorry TMI! At first I thought maybe this was because of the yeast, but I've also read that brewers yeast is supposed to be good for the digestive system.. Any thoughts on that?

Learning from the errors mentioned above, I have corrected them with the next 2 beers. I will be trying the Irish Stout next Monday! And hopefully with fewer concerns.

As for the Oktoberfest, I would really appreciate any input, thanks!

I never sanitize my kettle...you're boiling so it shouldn't matter

wtaylor3 said:

I never sanitize my kettle...you're boiling so it shouldn't matter

Click to expand...

That's exactly what I was thinking!

Agreed on the BK- no need to sanitize until you are dealing with cooled-down wort. Then be obsessive about sanitizing anything that comes in contact with it.
If the priming sugar that came with the kit was 5 oz., which seems to be common,most of the time that will yield too much carbonation. Use an online priming calculator(NB has a good one) and you'd probably see that around 4oz. was needed. But, unless your yeast was dead, all that corn sugar was consumed and used to produce CO2. There won't be any leftover to add sweetness.
So, my guess on the flavor(I hesitate to call it an off-flavor) is that it either may be part of the kit(some Oktoberfest-ale kits can be sweetish), or maybe just an early 'green' flavor that will improve/disappear with some more time.
Oh, and yes, the 'digestive issues' is due to the yeast. Your intestines should get used to it in time, and there will be less of the obnoxious side effects.

Yeah, as long as you maintain the oxide layer, boiling will sanitize it. You could be bottle carbing/conditioning it too cool of a spot? Besides, bottles around the outer perimeter of the box may carb a hair slower than those in the center. And using lager yeast at ale temps isn't a new idea. I just read about Anchor Steam's beers in the December BYO. It has the recipes & all. They start the ferment of their steam beer @61F, then ramp up. A very simple recipe I was surprised to learn. In my own experiments with "hybrid" lagers, I lager the bottled beers in the fridge for two weeks. The mag also mentions this sort of thing somewhere, so my theories were right on that one. The bottles might just need a bit more conditioning time. With the cool weather we had this year, for example, my Dampfbier V1, after some 4 months in the bottles & a week fridge time were a heck of a lot like my hybrid lagers. Interesting result there.

Thanks for your help and encouragement! The Oktoberfest has mellowed out and it's great! Broke open an Irish stout a few days early and have nothing to complain about except the carbonation is a little on the low end.