Taking my lumps

Hello everyone! So i just brewed my first beer! it was a hoppy brown i thought that dark and heavy would be easier to manage. This experience has been a bit harrowing from the get go. So we had to do some math with the bittering hop it was supposed to be a perle (5oz) but the shop had none so we used what they handed us and had to do some substitution, which we of course did incorrectly. No worries though its the first beer. then we took the SG of the wort concentrate not the full 5gal (about a gallon of water diluted), so we really didnt know the SG.

During the boil the cat got out so we had to chase her for 20 minutes, when we got back the condensation on the ceiling was so great that it was actually raining in the kitchen..... back into the boil..... brushing this horrible horrible turn of events off our shoulders we decided to continue as planned. We fermented for a full 2 weeks untill we had no activity in the airlock, and, on the suggestion of the 'lets brew' store let it sit for an extra 2 days, however this is all a moot point seeing as how we did not actually know the starting gravity.

So bottling day came (HuzzaH!) and 2 bottles in the darn capper broke. so 50 minutes later we finished bottling the rest of the beer (after we bought a new capper).

Now i actually get to my question. we primed the unbottled beer by adding equal parts corn sugar and boiling water (less than a cup each) and mixed, then bottled. Now (2 days later) I can see a distinct layer of sediment on the bottom of the bottles. My questions are

A) will this batch kill me?

B) Did we just bottle too early?

Thank you all for powering through this epic tale of.......... bad..... technique... And your help is apprecieated!

First, congratulations on surviving your first brew. There will always be good brew days and bad brew days but the bad brew days are always better than good days at work!

Henryinoregon said:

During the boil the cat got out so we had to chase her for 20 minutes, when we got back the condensation on the ceiling was so great that it was actually raining in the kitchen..... back into the boil.

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Pre-boil is less of a disaster than most.

Henryinoregon said:

We fermented for a full 2 weeks untill we had no activity in the airlock, and, on the suggestion of the 'lets brew' store let it sit for an extra 2 days, however this is all a moot point seeing as how we did not actually know the starting gravity.

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But if you have the same final gravity over the course of 2-3 days, you should be able to bottle.

Henryinoregon said:

Now i actually get to my question. we primed the unbottled beer by adding equal parts corn sugar and boiling water (less than a cup each) and mixed, then bottled.

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Did you happen to boil this mixter and added to your bottling bucket?

Henryinoregon said:

Now (2 days later) I can see a distinct layer of sediment on the bottom of the bottles.

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Bottle Conditioned beers will have sediment. That should be your yeast going dormant.

Henryinoregon said:

My questions are

A) will this batch kill me?

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No. As I understand it, no pathogens will survive in beer.

Henryinoregon said:

B) Did we just bottle too early?

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That's hard to say without knowing your FG. Just to be safe you should condition your bottled beer in a container.

Good luck,
Wild

Definitely won't kill you. I promise. No known human pathogens can live in beer.

Now, I don't know if you bottled too early or not. Without taking a fg, there is no way to know for sure. I doubt it, though, since you waited about two weeks. There should be some sediment on the bottom, like you see in your bottles. Just to be sure, I'd store these bottles in a big rubbermaid container. If they were bottled without fermentation being finished, you'd have them contained just in case.

Next time you bottle, use 4-5 ounces corn sugar (which I think is about 2/3 of a cup) and boil that in about two cups water until dissolved. Then put it in your bottling bucket and rack the beer into it so that it swirls around and gently mixes without splashing.

well since noone else has done it yet.....

Yes!!! That beer is deadly! Do NOT DRINK....instead send to me for proper disposal


and welcome to the forum

this beer might be a little over carbed with that much sugar.

the sediment in the bottom is normal..its the yeast that's turning the sugar into CO2 to carb your beer. that's the stuff you don't really want to pour into your glass when drinking (and is why you don't drink homebrew from the bottle).

Henryinoregon said:

Now i actually get to my question. we primed the unbottled beer by adding equal parts corn sugar and boiling water (less than a cup each) and mixed, then bottled.

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This is the only potential issue that I see. I boil 3/4 cup of dextrose in 2 cups of water for bottling. You may end up with overcarbonated beer, or possibly some bottle bombs. You might want to think about taking precautions to make sure that if a bottle or two does explode, that it won't ruin and carpet, walls, etc.

I'm with the others on overcarbonation. You might be okay, since we don't know what "less than" is, but you might not be. When you prime, you need to consider the volume you actually are priming, and then measure out accordingly. I actually like to prime with DME, since you use 1/4 cup per gallon of beer. It makes the arithmetic that much easier, and the larger amount of priming "stuff" gives a wider margin of error.


TL

Thank you everyone i have all of my little bombies sealed in their nice new rubbermaid home. I will keep you all posted and i will be sure to post any pictures if they do in fact explode.. both of the aftermath and a full video of my girlfriend discovering the mess

First of all, welcome to the forum! Which homebrew store did you go to, if you don't mind me asking? Also..... how in the nine hells do you break a capper??



Oh wait, just reread your post. I shop at Let's Brew almost exclusively! Love that place. So yea, as everyone else said, unless you're adding Escherichia coli to the bottling bucket, you will be fine.

Hey Hey everyone! We just brewed our second batch! And cracked our first six of the previous beer. It was absolutely a first batch however it tasted GREAT! I just wanted to say thank you all for your responses to my obligatory 'did I kill it' post.


And yes, basically at 'lets brew' however Have recently been thinking that i may like to go to the brewcraft here in Portland.