watery during fermentation

Dennis_W · 11-28-2011, 10:20 PM

Hey guys Im new to brewing. I started my first batch a few days ago. It was the coopers lager extract kit. I followed all the directions and hope everything is going good. Its been in the fermentor for about 52 hours.... i took a reading and took a sip and it tastes very watery. Is this normal? Hell should i even be drinking it? Fermentation seems to be going well with lots of foam. Thanks guys!

**Piratwolf** · 11-28-2011, 10:31 PM

Welcome to the game! It can be frustrating once in a while, but it rocks to drink your own beer

As to your question, I'd say once it's in the fermenter there's generally not much to do but RDWHAHB!

Edit: I realized I missed something... No problem with drinking samples. Nothing in beer can hurt you and pretty much everyone does it.

"All your home brew are belong to us!"

**Revvy** · 11-28-2011, 10:32 PM

It tastes watery because it's not carbed....it's still in the fermenter.

Until a beer is actually carbed up you really don't know how much body it really has. Co2 adds that feeling of fullness to the beer. Think about soda in a fountain dispenser, like at your favorite fast food joint. You ever pull some that wasn't carbed? It was thin and watery, not because the mix of liquids was off, but because the gas was not saturating the liquid.

Dennis_W · 11-28-2011, 10:39 PM

Thanks for the info guys. Ive been thunking about brewing for awhile now and have done tons of research on this site. I already cant wait to start another batch! And driink this one!!!

Dennis_W · 11-29-2011, 10:13 PM

Ok, I have another question my sample readings have been stuck around 1015 for over 24 hours now. The OG was 1036 and I thought I wanted to get it down around 1008. Is there anything I should do to get it back going or am I being to impatient?

I'm going to move this to its own thread...

**Piratwolf** · 11-30-2011, 05:07 PM

1.036 is a pretty low OG, so I'm not surprised the beer tastes a little thin. I don't think I've made a beer that started under 1.046 and most have been over 1.065 (I like big beers and I cannot lie...)

That being said, a bit of quick-n-dirty math based on your posts shows only about 70 hours or so of fermentation? Even the quickest yeast rarely do their job completely in that short a period. I'd suggest you leave it alone for 7-10 days at least before you consider doing anything else to your beer. Give the yeast time, RDWHAHB, and start planning your next beer

william_shakes_beer · 11-30-2011, 05:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis_W

Ok, I have another question my sample readings have been stuck around 1015 for over 24 hours now. The OG was 1036 and I thought I wanted to get it down around 1008. Is there anything I should do to get it back going or am I being to impatient?

I'm going to move this to its own thread...

Yes you're being impatient. I generallly take a grav reading just before I pitch the yeast, take another just before racking to the bottling bucket and let the Beer gods deal with everything in between. Tasting beer BEFORE it's been in the fermenter (4 weeks) and bottle or keg conditioned (4 weeks) is just inviting more stress points into your life. I'd recommend you start planning your next brew, and buy a case of Sierra Nevada to while away the months. Bonus, you get another case of bottles to fill.

I understand where you are, I went through the same thing when I started. It helps when you have a pipeline of 2 or 3 different beers ready to keep you from dehydrating during the wait.

If you MUST sample early, I suggest you take a 6 of the batch after it has been in the bottle at least 2 weeks, chill it 24-48 hrs, and then try one per week to understand how time improves your beer. It'll help the waiting.

**unionrdr** · 11-30-2011, 07:19 PM

I've come to notice that ferments can take longer than 24 hours to show a gravity difference when it gets down close to FG. I'd say it should get down to at least 1.008-1.010 FG. Give it a total of 10-12 days to finish up. Then 3-5 days to clean up & settle out more.
Every brew is different,they may or may not have varying degrees of off flavors. I did some lil experiments myself to come up with that 3-5 day clean up time. It's an average of the actual times needed before I felt they were ready to bottle.