Thanks in advance to anyone that answers. I'm sure these "first time brewer" things get old...
I cooked up my first homebrew about 6-7 weeks ago now. It is a California common from Austin Home Brew. 8 days in the primary bucket fermenter until there was no action in the airlock. The best action I noticed was a solidly large bubble expelled around every 10 seconds during the primary fermentation period. Hope that is reasonable. There was also a fairly strong sulfur odor, apparently as expected for a lager type brew, during two of the early days of the fermentation, but that went away (which was a relief).
Then 7 days in the glass carboy for secondary fermentation. Smelled like beer, looked like beer. No noticable action in the secondary, though it did clarify nicely.
Bottled after 15 total days fermenting. This Sunday will be 4 weeks bottled.
The beer tastes, well, interesting. It is not by any means undrinkable. Great dark color, good carbonation (maybe a little too carbonated, but just barely), and definitely a stronger taste and flavor than your typical big-house beer (Bud, Miller, whatever). From what my friends and I could tell, it tastes a little yeasty. I'm slightly confused by that since there was no action in the secondary so I would have thought all of the yeast had been used up in the fermentation process.
Would it be possible that the yeast actually used up the sugars and there was actually left over yeast? I used all the proper amounts and followed all directions explicitly (I'm an engineer, we pay attention to detail).
Until last night I hadn't had more than one of the beers in a sitting. I've done the pour it out in a glass thing without disturbing the sediment in the bottom of the bottles. I've also done something where I actually purposely disturb the sediment and pour all of that in the glass with the beer. Doesn't seem to change the taste at all, though I wonder if I'm risking getting ill at all.
Anyway (sorry this is dragging along), last night I had three of the beers while playing poker with some guys from work (shared two six-packs with them of my brewed stuff). I noticed that when I took a piss after getting home that night, my urine smelled a bit like it does when you eat asparagus. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about. It is a strong sulfur like smell. What I'm actually wondering (since I didn't eat anything to cause that smell) is if there was extra yeast in the beer, and it somehow started a rapid fermentation process after I drank it, producing a sulfur by-product that was excreted in the urine? Any brewers that are also doctors that might know? I'd find it hard to believe, but very funny, that I was fermenting alcohol in my stoumach because of the yeast. Or, is there some other explanation for this?
Thanks again for any help. Like I said, the beer is drinkable, and actually enjoyable, but has this weird after-affect.
I cooked up my first homebrew about 6-7 weeks ago now. It is a California common from Austin Home Brew. 8 days in the primary bucket fermenter until there was no action in the airlock. The best action I noticed was a solidly large bubble expelled around every 10 seconds during the primary fermentation period. Hope that is reasonable. There was also a fairly strong sulfur odor, apparently as expected for a lager type brew, during two of the early days of the fermentation, but that went away (which was a relief).
Then 7 days in the glass carboy for secondary fermentation. Smelled like beer, looked like beer. No noticable action in the secondary, though it did clarify nicely.
Bottled after 15 total days fermenting. This Sunday will be 4 weeks bottled.
The beer tastes, well, interesting. It is not by any means undrinkable. Great dark color, good carbonation (maybe a little too carbonated, but just barely), and definitely a stronger taste and flavor than your typical big-house beer (Bud, Miller, whatever). From what my friends and I could tell, it tastes a little yeasty. I'm slightly confused by that since there was no action in the secondary so I would have thought all of the yeast had been used up in the fermentation process.
Would it be possible that the yeast actually used up the sugars and there was actually left over yeast? I used all the proper amounts and followed all directions explicitly (I'm an engineer, we pay attention to detail).
Until last night I hadn't had more than one of the beers in a sitting. I've done the pour it out in a glass thing without disturbing the sediment in the bottom of the bottles. I've also done something where I actually purposely disturb the sediment and pour all of that in the glass with the beer. Doesn't seem to change the taste at all, though I wonder if I'm risking getting ill at all.
Anyway (sorry this is dragging along), last night I had three of the beers while playing poker with some guys from work (shared two six-packs with them of my brewed stuff). I noticed that when I took a piss after getting home that night, my urine smelled a bit like it does when you eat asparagus. I'm sure some of you know what I'm talking about. It is a strong sulfur like smell. What I'm actually wondering (since I didn't eat anything to cause that smell) is if there was extra yeast in the beer, and it somehow started a rapid fermentation process after I drank it, producing a sulfur by-product that was excreted in the urine? Any brewers that are also doctors that might know? I'd find it hard to believe, but very funny, that I was fermenting alcohol in my stoumach because of the yeast. Or, is there some other explanation for this?
Thanks again for any help. Like I said, the beer is drinkable, and actually enjoyable, but has this weird after-affect.