I need help.....lots of it

I'm a first timer at brewing (and to this forum), and seem to have made a few errors in my procedure. Hopefully someone can help me out on these. Both batches are taking place at present. Batch 1 is in secondary, 2 is in primary. Both are for ales.


Batch 1

Just racked it yesterday (1 day ahead of schedule) as bubling had all but ceased, and it stunk of dead yeast. Now there's less bubbling than prior to racking, and I wasn't planning on bottling it for another week.


Batch 2

Since I'm new, I've done everything with extracts, not grain. Problem is I bought a can of malt extract that I used in this batch, and I now realize that it probably doesn't contain any hopps. The previous can was a kit, with all the goodies ready to go, so I didn't notice the difference. Seeing as how it is in effect preservative-free, what can I do at this stage? It was started Saturday night, and I won't be able to get any hopps until Wednesday.


Can anyone tell me what I need to do here to set things straight? Thanks much.

Batch 1: is probably just fine. let it go and taste it when you bottle.

Batch 2: hmmm... no hops? it'll be sweet tasting. You can probably get some hops and boil them in a few pints of water to get teh hopy bitternes and flavor, and then cool this off. Open the fermener and pour it in.

-walker

Walker said:

Batch 1: is probably just fine. let it go and taste it when you bottle.

Batch 2: hmmm... no hops? it'll be sweet tasting. You can probably get some hops and boil them in a few pints of water to get teh hopy bitternes and flavor, and then cool this off. Open the fermener and pour it in.

-walker

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Will it hurt the beer if I add hopps late? Does it have to be in primary or would secondary suffice?

Some people dry hop in the Secondary or even the keg. I'm sure I read a post that said they strained the finished beer through fresh hops.

eastwood44mag said:

Will it hurt the beer if I add hopps late? Does it have to be in primary or would secondary suffice?

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You will not hurt the beer as long as you make sure things are clean when you handle it. The boiling of the hops in water will definately cleanse things.

And, as orfy said, you can just toss hops directly into the carboy if you want. Hops magically seen to never cause an infection, so they are safe to toss in.

HOWEVER, dry hopping (throwing hops right into the fermenter) only adds the AROMA of hops to your beer. It will not add any bittering. Since you have a beer that is just malt extract and water right now, you really need some bitterness to it to counter act the sweetness of the malt. It shouldn't matter if you do this in primary or secondary. Heck, I would probably do it when it comes time to rack Batch #2 into the secondary.

WHat kind of beer were you trying to make with this second batch? If we know that, we can suggest some types and amounts of hops to use to fix it.

-walker

Batch two will have very low IBUs no matter what.

cowain said:

Batch two will have very low IBUs no matter what.

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How do you figure? If he boils hops in some water and adds them now, there will be IBUs in there and he can add as many has he wants.

-walker

I've got a can of Munton's Dark Malt (3.3 lbs.?) and about 2 pounds of dark malt extract in there now. I was aiming for a Guiness/Amber Bock style of beer.

A stout contains other flavorings that you won't have in your beer (roasted grains), and a Bock is technically a lager, so think you are shooting for a dark brown ale at this point (like a bown porter).

I'd suggest some Fuggles. Maybe 2 oz.

Put them in a small amount of water and boil for 60 minutes. Cool and dump into fermenter (or do this when you rack to the secondary.)

You might also throw in a half oz of some Cascades when there is about 20 minutes left in the hor-long boil.

Anyone out there know how much the volume of the boil affects alpha acid extraction? If lower volume means lower extraction, you might need to go up to 3 oz of hops to get the bittering flavors you want.... or boil it for longer than 1 hour.


-walker

Walker said:

A stout contains other flavorings that you won't have in your beer (roasted grains), and a Bock is technically a lager, so think you are shooting for a dark brown ale at this point (like a bown porter).

I'd suggest some Fuggles. Maybe 2 oz.

Put them in a small amount of water and boil for 60 minutes. Cool and dump into fermenter (or do this when you rack to the secondary.)

You might also throw in a half oz of some Cascades when there is about 20 minutes left in the hor-long boil.

Anyone out there know how much the volume of the boil affects alpha acid extraction? If lower volume means lower extraction, you might need to go up to 3 oz of hops to get the bittering flavors you want.... or boil it for longer than 1 hour.


-walker

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Sure. I was going more for a Guiness color than flavor. I'd like to keep it a little on the malty side. Seeing as how I can only get a temperature down to 64 degrees, ale is what I have to work with.

from what I can find in my books on-hand, the volume of the boil doesn't affect hop utilization (GRAVITY of the boil does, but since you are just boiling them in water, your gravity will be 1.000).

So, unless someone else chimes in and tells you (and me) that I am a crazy man, I suggest:

ON THE DAY YOU PLAN TO RACK TO SECONDARY
bring 2 pints of water to a boil.
add 2 oz fuggles and boil for 40 minutes.
add 0.5 to 1 oz cascade and boil for another 20 minutes.
cool to room temp.
add this to the empty secondary fermenter (do your best to avoid the sludge in the bottom of your boil pot.
rack your beer into the fermenter and let it mix with the hop-tea you just made.

Although high hops levels can act as a preservative, a strong ferment takes care of itself. Alpha extraction is a function of time, temperature and protein content. Many people thought that the amount of sugars in the wort made a difference, but research shows it's the protein. An ounce of high alpha acid hops (Chinook/ northern brewer) should be enough. 60 minutes at a rolling boil in a quart water will do the job for a fix. Most Guiness recipes do not have any aroma or flavor hops, just bittering.

Would I be better off to use leaf or pellets? I'm using 6.5 gallon carboys with a 5 gallon batch, so I shouldn't think there would be a risk of clogging the air-lock.

Either will be fine. The leaves have the advantage that they can easily be removed from the hop-tea before adding it to the fermenter. A better choice, IMO, if you are going to add this tea into your secondary fermenter.

-walker