Just pulled a sample of my brown ale (pic)

Just excited. My first batch I didn't measure gravities and I sort of bottled by sight and smell.

I forgot to take a FG pic, but it measured right at 1.013. Poured beautifully brown and tasted fantastic. My OG was right around 1.039 (a bit short of the recipe, added too much H20). Cant wait to bottle later! Going to LHBS to buy some grolsch gaskets and I will get it started.

That looks delish my friend, congrats.

Good job! Nice looking beer!

I did that exact kit as my first batch and it looked identical to your sample. I also was a little low on the OG but it was and still is very tasty. With all the things that I did wrong while brewing and fermenting it I was totally surprised on its outcome. Enjoy!!!

The results:



Newcastle bottle in front so I can check the clarity and stuff.
Cheers!

Euripidez said:

The results:

Newcastle bottle in front so I can check the clarity and stuff.
Cheers!

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Those bottles seem short-filled to me...not sure if that will be a problem...just an observation

There is about 1" of headspace. I left the caps off to let the C02 Expand before I capped. It isn't enough room to develop acetylaldehydes (like a half full bottle), and these were bottled with prime tabs, so I am not worried about exploding.

Thanks for the observation.

Euripidez said:

There is about 1" of headspace. I left the caps off to let the C02 Expand before I capped. It isn't enough room to develop acetylaldehydes (like a half full bottle), and these were bottled with prime tabs, so I am not worried about exploding.

Thanks for the observation.

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Maybe not enough headspace for acetylaldehyde, but why not just full them to a proper level? Get a full glass from each bottle? Also, I'm not sure unsubscribe to the theory of leaving the bottles uncapped for a while. The risk of something getting in there just seems unnecessary.

Yep, fill it and cap it.

If those are only an inch from the top, you have some short bottles my friend.
Judging by the clear glass one since it's the easiest to get a good feel for, if that's about an inch down, the bottle is only about 3 1/2" tall.

do you use a bottling wand with the valve at the end? those make a perfect fill every time. fill up to the mouth of the bottle and lift the wand.

Are those green bottles?

The Brewer's Best brown ale was my first beer ever also! Good choice, it was not bad but I realize that it could have been better if I had realized that I needed to keep the fermenter at an ambient temp of 60F for the first 3 days and then gradually bring the air temp up to 65 or 68 as it finished fermenting. Also I bottled after only 11 days in fermenter...would have been better if I waited 3 weeks! But none of us are patient on our first batch...we want so bad to taste our work!

Patience and temperature control are two of the most important parts of homebrewing! Keep up the progress!

dmashl said:

do you use a bottling wand with the valve at the end? those make a perfect fill every time. fill up to the mouth of the bottle and lift the wand.

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+1. Bottling wand displacement = perfect amount of headspace.

headykilowatt said:

+1. Bottling wand displacement = perfect amount of headspace.

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+2

Thanks for the feedback.

This batch had mistakes across the board. I took notes on everything and I will chalk this one up as a learning experience. Ill bottle more carefully next time.

Your first couple of batches are for figuring out your process, so you have exactly the right attitude. I'm sure your beer will come out fine, so I wouldn't even necessarily use the term "mistake" to describe anything you may have done.

Many batches behind me and I still learn something or refine my techniques every time I brew.

Thanks for the kind words. I need to slow down and be patient for my next batches and be more methodical.