Waiting Kills

New to the forum and the hobby. I have two extract kits fermenting, robust Porter and Micro style Ale. The waiting is horrible. Will they turn out OK, or will I be wondering how I f'ed up?
Does the ending gravity always go to the mid to low tens? I put the Porter in a secondary fermenter after it slowed down, it was at 20, now it bubbles about every 5 min. This is at 7 days. Will it go much lower?

Thanks,
Mark

Musthavbeer said:

The waiting is horrible. Will they turn out OK, or will I be wondering how I f'ed up?
Does the ending gravity always go to the mid to low tens?...the Porter was at 1.020, now it bubbles about every 5 min. This is at 7 days. Will it go much lower?

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Yes waiting sucks, and yes you WILL be wondering about every concievable mistake you could have (and probably did) made.
Most likely your beer will be really good, even if in reality its just so-so it will SEEM to be the best beer youve ever had just because you made it (kind of like those ugly babies new parents cant stop admiring for all thier beauty).

The only things that should keep you up at night ruminating about whether or not your beer will be good are 1) sanitation: were you diligent in your cleaning and sanitizing of EVERYTHING that came in contact with your unfermented beer?
2) did you pitch enough healthy yeast: if your beer started fermenting within 24-36 hours the answer is yes you did.

thats pretty much it. Everything else: recipe variations, tempertures, times, etc. will have an affect on the beer, but nothing to worry about.

as to final gravity, robust porter's should finish at 1.012-1.016. (depending on the yeast, og, other factors) your 1.020 is a good sign that you beer is 90 percent done. It most likely will end up in the mid-teens or lower which is perfect...

cheers.

Yes, the waiting is the hardest part. Fortunately, in not too long, you will have some homebrew to help you wait.

Final gravities usually end up in that range, but it depends on the style and recipe. Your porter may not fall too much more. Let it sit for another week or so and take another reading while bottling. Then just wait another two or three weeks and dig in. It sounds like you are on the right track.

Welcome to the board and the hobby, and best of luck with it.

- magno

And yes, the process is incredibly resilient - you will realize from all the differences of opinion about the fine points that in large part, if you set the right beginning conditions (sanitation and yeast, as Bjorn points out), things mostly work out.

This is nothing like wine making. Anyone who knows a wine maker has had the experience of having a bottle of wine given to you, tasting it, and feeling forced to say something nice when you can really barely stand to swallow. Beer making is not like that - the end result is virtually always better than what you can buy once you get a feel for it.

Thanks for the assurance. I feel better now. My sanitation was real good on the porter and it started fermenting in about 6-8 hours after pitching. My sanitation was near perfect for the micro ale, but it started a little slower, 10-12 hours. The only difference was I stirred the micro yeast, (both nottinham dry) alot more.

Brew-ha

If it's fermenting, you've got beer. If you added all the ingredients and if your equipment was clean you'll have good beer. Guaranteed. Once you've bottled the beer and if you are impatient, like me, wait 5 days, cool one down and drink up.

Waiting is a pain, but realizing your brew is getting really good as you drink the last one at 6 weeks ...

To help with the waiting pains...brew lots of beer!!!

magno said:

Yes, the waiting is the hardest part.

- magno

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Who let Tom Petty in here????:cross: