oops!

Hi Brewheads,

My first batch of wort ever is on the stove boiling as we speak. Used a True Brew Nut Brown kit, but made a novice error (imagine that!). I added the hop pellets in with the grains in the steeping bag and steeped them for 30 min.. The recipe calls for the addition of the hops for 2 min. at the end of the boil. What have I done???

Thanks!

Probably increased the ibu's of the wort more than the recipe called for, tho not as much as a 60 minute boil would have. Ride it out and see how it is, you'll still make beer.

Essentially you've done something called a First Wort Hopping (FWH)

Check out
http://beersmith.com/blog/2008/03/17/the-first-wort-hop-beer-brewing-techniques/

I hope that link works.

I would think the hops will now bitter the beer more and give a little less flavor and aroma. It looks like that kit only has 1oz of hops so it probably wasn't going to be very hoppy anyway. I'd guess you'll still get good beer. I've seen some American Browns that even dry hop, so you might try that if you wanted more aroma.

Well it sounds almost like a FWH but did you put the hops in the bag with the grains? Then remove after the steep? If you did then it's more like a hop stand before the boil. ... don't know for sure but that's what it sounds like. What was the hop schedule anyways?

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Also, relax - it will still taste fine. Congratulations on your first batch!

Relax, its not that critical, you will have beer, just not the one that the recipe should have been lol
look at it like you are learning about hops and how time and temp can effect the finished beer.

If you added the full amount of your hops in the steep, the alpha acids won't really be isomerized and bind in the wort. It won't balance out the maltiness. I've got no grounds to stand on with this but I'm guessing it will be a bit sweet and won't last as long once bottle conditioned. The biggest component of the hops is that it helps keep the beer from spoiling. So if that's the case, drink it quick.

I'm assuming you didn't mess up that bad and only added the aroma hops (the small amount added at the end of the boil) to the steep rather than the entire amount. In which case, you will have a decent tasting beer with little to no aroma.

Either way, relax and enjoy. Learn and try again.

Thanks again for all of your comments and suggestions. I still have a few questions:

Given that the [unconventional addition of] hops is suspect of not having had the opportunity to balance the maltiness, and the purpose of the hops is to help the beer last, is there any guesstimation on how long should I expect it to last after bottle conditioning? Or by how much the lifetime has been reduced by doing this?

Is "bottle conditioning" that period of a few weeks after the beer has been bottled?

How does one know when a beer has expired?

"and the purpose of the hops is to help the beer last"

That is about the least useful thing hops do since the invention of modern sanitation. Hops provide the bitterness of beer as well as much of the taste and aroma in may styles. A nut brown recipe doesn't have a lot of hop flavor or aroma, so you lucked out on that front. Also, if the only addition was at 2 minutes, you certainly started with a pre-hopped extract, so you shouldn't worry about the bitterness either. So, overall - you'll be fine.

Your beer will easily last longer than it will take you to drink.
Bottle conditioning is just letting it sit in the bottle and carbonate. Stronger, more complex beers tend to improve with age.
Beers don't really expire. Some flavors - hops, spices etc - fade with time. Unless you stick these bottles in the back of a closet and forget about them, you don't really need to worry about your beer going bad.

I helped a friend get started over Christmas with that Truebrew kit. The can of Munton's LME is a 'Hopped extract', so all the expected bittering hops are already in the canned wort. The 1oz. of EKG hops(I think it was EKG) was meant to be added in the last 5 minutes and will add aroma, and a touch of flavor. So, I think you'll find that unless you have a developed palate, you won't notice any difference in your beer's flavor vs. someone else that followed the instructions perfectly.
Expiring beer- I have a few bottles left over from batches I bottled 2 years ago- an Irish Red and a Honey Ginger Wheat. Not 'spoiled', well carbonated, and tastes about the same as they did back then(due to the learning curve they weren't fantastic then, but good enough to drink). With most people, your beer will be gone long before the taste fades.
Good luck- you made beer!

I keep saying 'thanks' for all the advice, but what else can I say? In spite of an apparent screw-up, I've gotten nothing but encouragement. I guess it means we're basically all in the same 'vat' together... :-D

As a beginner, I have a million questions --- here's another re: tap VS. filtered water:

Prior to brewing this first batch, I intalled an under-sink AquaSana water filtering system. I used strictly filtered water for the entire brew, with the understanding that, wherever possible, any taste of chlorine should be eliminated from the beer. Although our water doesn't exude a strong chlorine taste, and although I haven't tasted the beer yet, I have noticed that having used the filtered water in our Keurig for the past week, the taste of our coffee doesn't seem as robust/flavorful as it did with the tap water. We have decent (town) water here and I wonder if having filtered it was the wrong thing to do/overkill? I'll see how the beer tastes in a few weeks, but any thoughts on filtered/unfiltered/straight tap, etc.? Thanks again.

That really depends on your tap water. You should be able to get a water report from your city that would shed some light on this. In general, you want fairly soft water without any chlorine or strong mineral tastes. If a particular style calls for a higher mineral content, then you can add various brewing salts to get there. You definitely don't want 100% pure water with no salts to minerals. Brewing is kinda like cooking. You don't want a ton of salt on your food, but you need a little for the flavors to shine.

Depending on your water, the best option may be tap, filtered, or half and half. Some people even have to buy jugs because their home water is so hard.

I hope I'm not over-topic-ing this thread, but I have a couple more questions relative to this first brew attempt:

When I steeped the grains in the bag, the bag floated in the mix. I have read and seen where it is usually recommended to tie the bag to the pot handle so it doesn't touch the bottom (meaning it sinks) during steeping. But that was not case here.

Also, when I pulled the bag out of the mix, I let it drain a few seconds and then transferred it into a small sanitized collander in a sanitized bowl and using a sanitized dish, pressed out the remaining liquid and put it back into the pot. No-no, or yes-yes?

After spending a couple hours reading through some of the posts here, I've come to the conclusion --- correct me if I'm wrong --- that although the variables in the beer-making process are many, they are not infinite (that is, if you want a particular brew to fall within the parameters of the taste and drinkability it was designed to have). That said, I believe that even with the best of attempts to replicate one beer to another, no two beers (even neighbors using the same kit) will ever taste exactly the same.

Ultimately, a "good" beer to me is one that tastes good to me, so that's what I am hoping for/expecting.

"When I steeped the grains in the bag, the bag floated in the mix"

Grain doesn't sink like a stone. Don't worry about it. You are literally just dropping grain into hot water, so don't stress.

For draining, you don't need to sanitize anything. You are going to boil that mix for an hour and that will be all the sanitizing you need. Once you stop the boil and start cooling, then EVERYTHING needs to be sanitized.

There are about a million ways to drain and all of them work. Some people like to pour a little more hot water over the the bag to make sure they get all the tasty goodness out.

And yes, no 2 brewers will be the same (at least on a homebrewing scale). Bud spends billions standardizing their process and still need master brewers to sample and tweak each batch to keep them tasting as much like "bud" as possible. Beer brewed using the same recipe and similar processes will taste similar, but there are always some variation.

It's been 7 days since I brewed my first Nut Brown Ale and I just went downstairs to check the SG. My hydrometer is nothing fancy and I didn't have a nice glass vessel in which to place it, so I took both the BG and today's reading in the plastic storage tube it comes with. Before anyone says it, I realize that's probably a no-no as far as getting a truly accurate reading.

Anyway, the kit instructions call for a BG of 1.049-1.051, and this BG was 1.048. FG for the kit is 1.012-1.014 and this just now was 1.016-1.017. Does this mean it needs more time?

The aroma is nice, and the taste was OK, not knowing what to expect at this stage.

Just leave it alone for another week before you start taking any more gravity readings. Nothing good comes from rushing a beer.

Will do, Bill. Thanks!

Pete_WNY said:

Also, when I pulled the bag out of the mix, I let it drain a few seconds and then transferred it into a small sanitized collander in a sanitized bowl and using a sanitized dish, pressed out the remaining liquid and put it back into the pot. No-no, or yes-yes?

Click to expand...

Not recommended. Forcing it out can bring some unwanted flavours out of the grains that would have been better left behind. Somewhat like squeezing a used tea bag. You'd be better off sparging: heating water to around 160-170 and pouring it over the top of the grains, then adding the water. Basically rinse them off instead of squeeze them out. Don't panic, your beer isn't broken. It will be fine.

Zepth: "Not recommended. Forcing it out can bring some unwanted flavours out of the grains that would have been better left behind. Somewhat like squeezing a used tea bag."

I certainly understand, and while I thought of that, I'm one those cretins that thumbs the tea bag against the spoon after steeping to get as much of the "flavor" out of it I possibly can. Perhaps it's not applicable to the beer-brewing process, but the justification is that my palate enjoys the stonger side of whatever I'm drinking at the time: coffee, tea, beer, etc.. Hopefully this grain bag-squeezing maneuver erred in my favor... or would that be that flavor? For the record, and especially for the sake of the beer, it's not likely I'll do it again. Thanks for the tip!

Tannin extraction requires a high ph and high temperature. You should be fine squeezing the grain bag, plenty of people do it.

It's common practice for BIAB brewers to squeeze the crap out of their grain bags, and no one reports any unwanted flavors from doing so. I think it's one of those old myths that everyone passed around for a while that has since been debunked.