First brew with mistakes

Here is a rundown of my first 5 gal brew and the mistakes I made:

True Brew Pale Ale kit
3.3 lbs Muntons light hopped LME
2 lbs pale dry DME
.25 pounds crystal grains
1 Oz UK First Gold hops
OG 1.042-1.050
FG 1.010-1.012
IBU 13 (this seems a little low to me for the style)

1845: Put 5 gallons spring water in 11 gal pot on the SQ-14

1850: First mistake In the house, brought 1 gal spring water to 170 degrees and cut heat--added grains and put lid on. My thought was that the grains would bring the temp down to 155-160, so I went outside. Apparently my pot holds heat very well because I came in 15 minutes later and the temp was 171. I took the lid partially off and got it to 165 for the remaining 15 minutes.

1850-1925: Imbibe

1925: Added "grain juice" to outside pot

1945: It's boiling. Take the pot off the heat and stir in LME, DME, and hops. Back on burner. Proceed to boil (I'd guess somewhere between "vigorously" and "violently"--boy does that burner put out some heat)

1945-2030: Imbibe

2030: Add irish moss. Also put IC in boiling wort to sanitize.

2045: Burnout. Place pot in ice/salt bath (in a large plastic container) and crank up the IC

2055: Wort is 80 degrees. Leave chiller in and put lid on. Go in and rehydrate yeast. Second (and biggest) mistake

2055: I live in a red state, meaning we don't know celsius from shinola. I rehydrated the yeast at 40 degrees F instead of 40 degrees C. It didn't dawn on me until a couple of hours ago that it seemed a rather cool temperature to rehydrate yeast. Live and learn. I guess I'll drive the 70 miles to the LHBS and pick up another packet.

2110: Wort is 70 degrees. I double strained (fine splatter guard on top of a strainer) the wort into my bucket, then back into the pot, then back into the bocket. It foamed like it was a Duvel being poured right down the middle. It foamed over the edges of the fermenter bucket on the last pass into it. I assume this means it's sufficiently aerated.

2110: A little more than 5 gallons in the bucket (though I did not calibrate the 5 gal mark so I'm not 100% sure). OG 1.038. Pitched yeast.

2115. Put fermenter into my plastic container and stick it in the spare bathtub. I put water in the container and have a couple of frozen litre PET bottles on the ready in case the temp goes up. Holding steady at 70 degrees. No signs of fermentation yet but it's early.

Question is, is it advisable to go ahead and pitch another packet of yeast? I certainly now know it's advisable to keep a couple of extra packets on hand.

I wouldn't think the 40* rehydrate would harm the yeast, and since they are already in a state of slumber, it wouldn't even do so much as to slow them down. You should be ok. Just out of curiosity, what strain of yeast was it?

It was Munton's Standard Ale yeast.

I read somewhere that at that low temperature, up to 60% of the yeast would lose their viability? Then again, I'll believe anything I read on the internet.

Don't bother with the second packet, give the first one a chance to take hold. Ideally you want to rehydrate at a temp closer to your wort...still, it's unlikely you did any serious damage to the yeast with cold water. In future, I'd just sprinkle the dry yeast onto the wort, at least for beers in this relatively low OG range.

Munton's yeast is notorious for not attenuating all malt recipes very well, so don't be surprised if you don't reach your FG.

Likewise, I wouldn't sweat the high steeping temps. Worst scenario is that you pick up a bit of astringency from the grain husks, but I doubt you'll have a problem. Steeping temperature is not as critical as mashing temperature.

All in all, it sounds like you did really well!

I will leave it as is. Thanks for the advice!

In practice it makes very little difference to rehydrate your dry yeast unless you are making a high gravity ale, since in that case the osmotic pressure will cause the yeast to hydrate very slowly.

40*F is fine for rehydrating. Lower temp just means it takes longer but the yeast are still dormant so it will not cause any harm.

Your procedures sound really solid! Your beer should be great.

If those were your two big mistakes, you did damn well for your first go. As far as mistake one - I wouldn't worry about that temp. I do all grain, and the temperature of mash differs greatly depending on where you take the temp. It might have been a little high, but if you're only doing 0.25 lb. of specialty malt, you're not converting, so like BlindLemonLars said, temperature is not as critical.

And rehydrating the yeast at 40F won't hurt it at all. It might not get it going real quick, but they'll be fine. Some people don't rehydrate the yeast at all, just go right from the fridge, so it would be similar to that.

Yep, 40F shouldn't be an issue at all. Most of us keep our yeast in the fridge where it's 38F or so and many of us just dump the packet into the wort and don't bother rehydrating so they'll wake up just fine.

Oops, I just found another mistake when I went in and checked the temp (been averaging around 70). My airlock had not been bubbling, but thanks to this forum I knew that a bubbling airlock is no indication of fermentation so I've left well enough alone.

After I checked the temp, I put my nose to the airlock and gave the top of the lid a little push. Ahhh, the sweet smell of beer mixed with CO2; the fermentation was indeed taking place. The problem came when, after I took pressure off the lid, air got sucked back into the fermenter. I knew immediately what I had not done: I failed to put the domed piece in the airlock. It was confirmed when I opened my bucket of sanitizer and found it. I took it out and put it on.

I humbly beseech thee, Beer Gods, please kill any nasties that may have gotten into my semi-sweet-semi-bitter nectar.

No worries. CO2 is heavier than oxygen, there's a layer of CO2 over the beer that should keep it safe.

Professor Frink said:

No worries. CO2 is heavier than oxygen, there's a layer of CO2 over the beer that should keep it safe.

Click to expand...

That's what I was sorta thinking, thanks for the verification. A prayer to the Beer Gods never hurts either.

Keep it safe from oxygen, however living nasties are more dense than CO2 and will fall through it. Not to be a debbie downer though, im sure your brew is fine and healthy!

So I'm brewing my first batch as I type here, and made a stupid mistake. Gotta remember, drink while brewing, not before brewing...
Anyway, I'm doing a pale ale via malt extract, with 3 gallons of water in a 5 gallon pot. When the water came to a boil. I added the hops, then the LME, then the DME. I'm waiting and waiting for the foam and boilover, and it never came even close. I then realized I added the hops too early. It's been boiling for about a half hour now, should I boil it a little longer than an hour? Will boiling it too long ruin a beer?

mev, what does your recipe say about boil time for the first addition of hops?

how much, and what type of hops did you toss in?


to the O.P.,
man, you make me look like a tard with your "mistakes".... mine were worse, and after dozens of hours reading here about others mistakes, i felt way better!

im doing third brew this weekend.... next weekend, first AG. tired of $50.00 batches!


good luck!

I've got a new thread going, but it says to bring the wort to a boil, then to add the hops and cook for 55 minutes, then add the finishing hops. They are Kent Golden Bittering Hops from a Brewers Best extract kit.

OK, after two weeks in the bottle when I first taste-tested this brew I noticed that it was very twangy, and had an almost metallic taste to it. It was puckery-dry too, so I decided to let it sit for a couple of months. On Sunday I took one of the bottles out if its cool dark storage area and stuck it in the fridge.

Fast forward to yesterday. I took it out and drank it. It was nicely carbonated and I was impressed with the clarity and the creamy white head. The lacing was nice also. Tastewise the twang and dryness were still there but not as strong as last time. Definitely a hundred times more drinkable than last time. The problem came when I noticed a white ring around the neck of the bottle when I went to rinse it out. The ring didn't rinse off. I grabbed a few of the other bottles and they all had white rings around the neck at the beer line. One of them had what looked to be little hop pieces suspended in the beer and another had what looked like milky strings dangling from the top of the beer.

Some background on the bottling process: I sanitized the bottles in the dishwasher on high heat without detergent. (since then I started rinsing the bottles with StarSan). I carbonated with corn sugar.

Question is, was I tripping or would I be best served to put these puppies in the fridge and drink them before they go bad and explode all over the pantry?