So I drank this…and is this okay?

This is not really a "did I ruin it" thread because I don't really seem to have that mindset; however, when I made my first hefeweizen (and first brew ever) I couldn't take the OG because upon removing the hydrometer from the package to sterilize, it was shattered. The local brew store said I should just assume that the OG is what the directions said. I'm sure there are gasps happening all over right now, but it is what it is. I was mid-boil, there was little I could do.

That said, I brewed Saturday night, August 17th and decided to take the first reading today. I guess this is a part that I overlooked and didn't realize the size of the vessel I needed to take a reading. I thought a tall glass would be fine. Sterilized everything and set the hydrometer in. You know the rest. It is too shallow for the hydrometer to float. Bygones, I can take a reading tomorrow when I get a test tube type container.

When in Rome, I looked at the beer, it smelled decent enough and took the temp. It is higher than I think it should be 80º. I strained it and took a sip. It tasted like flat warm and somewhat watered down hefeweizen.

tl;dr

Here's a pic. This is from the top of the fermentation bucket. Does this look like it should? Is watered down hefeweizen a characteristic of beer that hasn't fermented enough?

Thanks And if you're thinking that I should look at the other threads, I did, which is why I'm asking. I wasn't sure if this matched what I've seen.

I think it looks all right. I'm a relatively new brewer, but the floaties look like maybe yeast clumps.

Flat beer will taste 'watered down' just because it's flat - there's no carbonation to help carry the aroma into the nose which is a major element of flavor.

As for OG, if you brewed with extract, put all the ingredients in, and topped off to the right volume, I think the person at the local brew store was right. It's really, really hard *not* to hit OG when brewing with extracts.

Basically, if it smells like beer and tastes like beer then there should be no concern. Even in a bad beer there isn't really anything that will make you sick or kill you It basically looks to be a normal Hefe with yeast floaties in the sample.

Definitely verify the final gravity before bottling or you will risk bottle bombs!

Looks fine, you pulled beer from active fermentation so there is yeast, hops and other junk floating around. That will all settle out. I agree with your homebrew shop advice, if you used extract you likely hit your target on OG and that assumption would be the most reliable method without an actual reading at the time you pitched. So, the usual practice for a lot of us when taking readings is to use a sterilized item to pull the sample (i.e., ladle, glass measuring cup, wine thief, etc) and then put the sample into the plastic container that your hydrometer is stored in, filling it up about 2/3 of the way to the top. Then you take your hydrometer reading in there and don't bother to return the sample to the fermenter. This way you don't risk contamination as much, and don't need to worry about sanitizing everything. The added bonus is you get a chance to taste the wort to see how it is coming along. It will taste like crap at first, but as you get the hang of it all you'll start to see how the brew develops from your OG samples (very sweet) to your FG samples which will be much closer to your finished product. Its helpful for understanding the process, plus kinda fun to get a sample.

Just spray your hydrometer with a starsan solution and drop it in the bucket. Why waste beer?

Ster said:

Just spray your hydrometer with a starsan solution and drop it in the bucket. Why waste beer?

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Well there's that way!

Thanks for all of the suggestions. The hydrometer came in a container much like this:


I think dropping it in the bucket is a good idea but I may as well buy the tube so I can take a sample.

My temp was about 78º though. It's sitting in my kitchen and that doesn't get direct sunlight. I haven't read yet, but I wonder if I need to get that temp down somehow.

Hello said:

Well there's that way!

Thanks for all of the suggestions. The hydrometer came in a container much like this:

I think dropping it in the bucket is a good idea but I may as well buy the tube so I can take a sample.

My temp was about 78º though. It's sitting in my kitchen and that doesn't get direct sunlight. I haven't read yet, but I wonder if I need to get that temp down somehow.

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Yes im pretty sure you need to drop that temperature for your next brew. Im pretty sure its too late for this one since after one week, (especially at a high temp like 78*) your primary fermentation is most likely done or very close to done. Hefeweizens have a lot of estery flavors so i dont think this is the worst style to ferment at 78 but you will most likely have a banana bomb. even more so depending on the yeast you used. 78 is almost a saison like fermentation temp. Next brew you make. Id recommend cleaning out the floor of a closet if possible where it will stay very dark and buy yourself one of the big oversized buckets or a garbage pail and fill it with some water. Then youll want to save some water bottles afteryou drink them, fill them with tap water, freeze them and then add to you bucket/pail as you see fit to get the temp youre looking for. Its called a "swamp cooler" there are a few threads that go into more detail but this is the basic idea. For hefeweizens id say the low 60s would be ideal.

Hope this helps and FWIW any first batch that doesnt get infected and successfully turns into beer is an accomplishment in my book. You dont have to make a great beer your first time out. Just get your technique to improve with every batch and make sure you keep diligent with your sanitation practices and the good beer will come.

Good luck cheers

Dave

what is meant by the term banana bomb?

my first beer class is next friday and i'm going to make a wheat beer

cwbys4evr said:

what is meant by the term banana bomb?

my first beer class is next friday and i'm going to make a wheat beer

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Fermenting too warm makes fruity, often banana tasting beer.

FAR from desirable. I would have bet that fermenting at 80F would make banana beer for sure.

cheezydemon3 said:

Fermenting too warm makes fruity, often banana tasting beer.

FAR from desirable. I would have bet that fermenting at 80F would make banana beer for sure.

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Depends on preference. I'd much rather have a banana hefe than a clove hefe.

hefe yeasts are specifically selected for the fruity esters they produce. Ferment on the high side of the temp range you get bananna. the low side produces cloves. That is what the previous poster means by banana bomb. Personally I referement to favor banana.

beertroll said:

Depends on preference. I'd much rather have a banana hefe than a clove hefe.

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True, there is some personal preference, but 80* is pushing it. Especially if the entire fermentation was conducted at 80*.

If you get a sample tube for your hydrometer the only thing you need to sanitize is the utensil that you use to get the sample. Fill the tube, take the reading, then either drink or discard it. It is only a couple of ounces. Just limit the amount of readings. Some beginners take samples every day as soon as they think the fermentation has stopped. I ferment for 2 weeks and usually take only 1 FG sample. If it is within a couple points of predicted I say it is done.

Sanitizing your hydrometer and putting it right into the bucket is the way to go. As a previous poster said, you don't waste beer that way. Plus there is plenty of room in there.

I took a reading, it sat at the "10" on the hydrometer, which I think is 1.010, right? So then I used this site to calculate the adjustment based on my 78º heat bucket. That means the gravity is 1.011. The directions provided by the brew store said OG should have been 1.049 and FG is 1.014. I brewed Saturday, as I said and this seems like it's going a bit quick. I intended to leave it there for 10 days at the very least.

I will definitely take the advice of the swamp cooler. I'm hoping it is drinkable even if it tastes like bananas. That's a lot of beer to drink if it tastes like crap.

Thank you all for your help. It's invaluable.

Hello said:

I took a reading, it sat at the "10" on the hydrometer, which I think is 1.010, right? So then I used this site to calculate the adjustment based on my 78º heat bucket. That means the gravity is 1.011. The directions provided by the brew store said OG should have been 1.049 and FG is 1.014. I brewed Saturday, as I said and this seems like it's going a bit quick. I intended to leave it there for 10 days at the very least.

I will definitely take the advice of the swamp cooler. I'm hoping it is drinkable even if it tastes like bananas. That's a lot of beer to drink if it tastes like crap.

Thank you all for your help. It's invaluable.

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Yes if your beer is at 78* when reading you add one point to your gravity 1.011 sounds right. I'm guessing your FG might be lower than the expected 1.014 is because of the warmer fermenting temp. The yeast probably got a little hungrier or reproduced faster because of your high temp causing them to eat more sugar than anticipated. Your beer is most likely done fermenting but that does not mean the yeast don't still have work to do. Usual practice is leaving the beer in primary for 3 weeks to allow the yeast to clean up after themselves (eat some of the more difficult and off flavor causing sugars and compounds. Diacetyl, maltotriose, dextrins, and even the by products the yeast produce while chowing down) flocculate properly and allow your beer to clear. Although clarity isn't much of an issue in a hefeweizen.

This article here has some good info about yeast practices. Does not agree with HBTers about the 3 week primary. Says to leave or no longer than two, but the basic ideas and principles here are similar to what is being described to you in my and the other posts.

http://morebeer.com/articles/conditioning

Read up on this when you have time.

Cheers

Dave

Mozart said:

I think it looks all right. I'm a relatively new brewer, but the floaties look like maybe yeast clumps.

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+1 to yeast clumps and trub. Especially since it's a wheat. Drink it. It has vitamins.

Mozart said:

Flat beer will taste 'watered down' just because it's flat - there's no carbonation to help carry the aroma into the nose which is a major element of flavor.

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Bingo. It took me awhile before I really remembered this fact on a regular basis

Mozart said:

As for OG, if you brewed with extract, put all the ingredients in, and topped off to the right volume, I think the person at the local brew store was right. It's really, really hard *not* to hit OG when brewing with extracts.

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And you're 3 for 3. Good job helping put a new brewer's mind at ease.

Just remember. Brewing is not rocket science. It's magic. :rockin:

And it looks like you're already leaning toward temperature control. Good call. It will be much easier for you to control your outcome if you get a tighter control on what temperatures the yeast are doing their work at.

The 2 most stunning improvements in the quality of my beer came when I started controlling all fermentation temps, ale and lager alike, and when I began making starters and pitching an adequate quantity of clean, healthy yeast.

But don't tell SWMBO. I still have her convinced that it was the single-tier, stainless steel, 15-gallon brewing system.

winvarin said:

And it looks like you're already leaning toward temperature control. Good call. It will be much easier for you to control your outcome if you get a tighter control on what temperatures the yeast are doing their work at.

The 2 most stunning improvements in the quality of my beer came when I started controlling all fermentation temps, ale and lager alike, and when I began making starters and pitching an adequate quantity of clean, healthy yeast.

But don't tell SWMBO. I still have her convinced that it was the single-tier, stainless steel, 15-gallon brewing system.

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+1

Haha sounds purdy.

Dave37 said:

+1

Haha sounds purdy.

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There's my girl.

Sanitizing your hydrometer and putting it right into the bucket is the way to go. As a previous poster said, you don't waste beer that way. Plus there is plenty of room in there.

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The problem here though is that you've got to open up the fermenter to put the hydrometer in, exposing the fermenting wort to air.

I prefer using a fermenter with a spigot and drawing just enough liquid to fill the hydro tube. (Course you have to be careful you don't suck the vodka, etc. from your ferm lock when drawing...)

winvarin said:

And it looks like you're already leaning toward temperature control. Good call. It will be much easier for you to control your outcome if you get a tighter control on what temperatures the yeast are doing their work at.

The 2 most stunning improvements in the quality of my beer came when I started controlling all fermentation temps, ale and lager alike, and when I began making starters and pitching an adequate quantity of clean, healthy yeast.

But don't tell SWMBO. I still have her convinced that it was the single-tier, stainless steel, 15-gallon brewing system.

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Hahahahha, NICE! I should search SWMBO threads to make myself feel better about the flak I get from mine! She doesn't like beer which is good and bad for me.....

I always like to drop in on the Hefe threads, so heres my advice.

1. You can use your container for the hydrometer, but its preffered to have a standard graduated cyclinder so you can measure exactly how much sample you need to take without going over. You can test it, observe it and taste it AT EYE LEVEL. How can dropping your hydro into the pail be good when you cant get at eye level to observe the miniscus?!?

2. Watered down beer taste before its conditioned and carbed is normal. Warm, flat, sometime a bit funky... normal mostly.

3. 80 degrees is too hot, as you've probably figured out. Hefe's arn't the worst beers to overheat, but as others have said, you push from phenolics to esters, which means less clove and more banana. As you push past 72F you get into bubble-gum/vanilla twist to the banana, and then you get harsh alcoholic flavors. You're a begginer, and you will love your beer regardless. Next time, I suggest anywhere from 62-72F, with about 66F being a good middle point.

4. The floatings are normal and will persist in a wheat beer for awhile after attenuative fermentation (the bubbly frothy first 4-7 days)

5.For actually taking the samples, I have used 3 methods. The worst is a santized mug with handle, keeping your filthy paws out of the beer. The second best is a "Wine-theif" but I find they take too large of a sample and the hydrometer bumps against the side because you cannot hold it perfectly straight! Then you have to either pour out the sample (bad) or add it back to the wort (worse! Did you completely sanitize your theif...or want to take the chance?) I found my third method is best, which is a glass measuring cup. It had a handle, is glass so alot less likely to harbor bacteria/fungi, and thirdly I can know exactly how much wort I need to fill my testing graduated cylinder (80-90ml depending on stage of ferment)

6. Time in primary: Well with most wheat beers I find you can shave a good 25% of the time off the secondary stage of ferment, the conditioning stage. So that means a good week or two in primary at least, and then possibly another week if you are adding fruit. I've done about 7 different wheat beers now, fou from kits and now three partial mashes of my own design. I've found they all tasted great and all had a maximum of three weeks before bottling, with my Strawberry Hefeweizen taking only about 16 days including fruiting before bottling. And it is just my favorite hefe in the world, side by side with almost any other Hefe!

This is all valuable advice. With respects to the heat, I read a silly book on brewing that came with my kit and the instructions and never once read about temps during fermentation. It was an error for sure but it's too late now.

Since taking my first sample I've seen no activity in the airlock. Not sure how I should feel about that. I intend to bottle on Saturday next. That will be 14 days in the fermentation.

I hope the beer is good, drinkable, at least. It'd be discouraging to get over a month out after brewing and bottling to find out its terrible. :-(

Hello said:

This is all valuable advice. With respects to the heat, I read a silly book on brewing that came with my kit and the instructions and never once read about temps during fermentation. It was an error for sure but it's too late now.

Since taking my first sample I've seen no activity in the airlock. Not sure how I should feel about that. I intend to bottle on Saturday next. That will be 14 days in the fermentation.

I hope the beer is good, drinkable, at least. It'd be discouraging to get over a month out after brewing and bottling to find out its terrible. :-(

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Hey,don't feel like you overlooked something. I have three brewing books and none of them mentioned fermentation as being exothermic.

flars said:

Hey,don't feel like you overlooked something. I have three brewing books and none of them mentioned fermentation as being exothermic.

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I hope not. I mentioned it while I was out with friends and someone said it is impossible to not have known.

This is day 10. This is all fine, right? The bubbles on top worried me slightly to be honest. I tried to get an overhead and then more of an angle shot.

the bubbles are streams of CO2 rising from the bottom. Looks PERFECTLY normal. Why do you keep taking the top off the bucket? Every time you pop that thing open you are increasing the chances that something bad WILL happen.

Yea, your beer is doing fine stop playing with it. I know its hard, but your just introducing more air that could infect it by opening it instead of allowing it to live in its pressure bubble of CO2 under the lid.

If its infected, checking on it so often wont change that. Set it and leave it for a week or two minimum before you bother opening.

I thought before I was ready to bottle I had to take gravity readings.

It looks like a beautiful beer. If you are worried about infection look at the "show us your infection" thread. It will give you an idea of what a pellicle really looks like.

Hello said:

I thought before I was ready to bottle I had to take gravity readings.

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When I first started brewing I took gravity readings every few days or so, because I thought that was what you were supposed to do. Now i take a gravity just before I pitch yeast, and another 4 weeks later when I bottle. Haven't had a batch fail to attenuate. If you're curious and must monkey, by all means do so but be aware that you are introducing more opportunities for infection.

And taking away from the amount of finished product beer. Please tell me you do not pour your sample jar back in the fermenter (mist of us drink it because we wanna know how good it tastes). Though I will admit to having just dropped my hydrometer into my fermenter for measurements when I was just starting out.

william_shakes_beer said:

When I first started brewing I took gravity readings every few days or so, because I thought that was what you were supposed to do. Now i take a gravity just before I pitch yeast, and another 4 weeks later when I bottle. Haven't had a batch fail to attenuate. If you're curious and must monkey, by all means do so but be aware that you are introducing more opportunities for infection.

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You shouldn't obsess throughout the fermentation but should really take 2 readings prior to bottling (one about 4-5 days prior to est. bottle date, and then another one on est. bottle date) so you can make sure of ferment completion. I used to take only one at bottling b/c they always attenuated by 4wks, but my last one (RIS) unfortunately I already committed to bottling (sugar water ready, bottles and equipment sanitized). Now worried of over carbed/ruined beer just b/c I didn't want to do an easy SG check...not worth the time, effort, $$, & love given IMO.

Don't worry about opening the lid. Everyone does it their first few beers, I promise. If they don't, that have some sort of alien mind-control going on.

I've had entire air-locks blow off and not realize it for 2-3 days because I didn't look in on my "bucket closet". My plastic fermentor's have popped their lids occasionally too. It happens.

I highly recommend testing your gravity 2-3 times prior to bottling. It's better to have a TINY risk of infection, then to risk glass bottles exploding. Just pop it open, grab your sample, close the bucket, then test.

Aboo said:

Don't worry about opening the lid. Everyone does it their first few beers, I promise. If they don't, that have some sort of alien mind-control going on.

I've had entire air-locks blow off and not realize it for 2-3 days because I didn't look in on my "bucket closet". My plastic fermentor's have popped their lids occasionally too. It happens.

I highly recommend testing your gravity 2-3 times prior to bottling. It's better to have a TINY risk of infection, then to risk glass bottles exploding. Just pop it open, grab your sample, close the bucket, then test.

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Or invest in plastic fermenters with spigots. For me they are the best way to go. I initially started brewing swearing by carbons but now the simplicity of the buckets with spigots is really phenomenal. No auto siphon no beer thief. Want a gravity sample? Put your cylinder under the spigot and boom. Want to bottle? Add priming sugar to other bucket with spigot. Attach tube to fermenter spigot, boom.

Really simple. Amazingly easy to clean. Less likely to have an airlock blow out because of more headspace. Really a no brainer.

william_shakes_beer said:

When I first started brewing I took gravity readings every few days or so, because I thought that was what you were supposed to do. Now i take a gravity just before I pitch yeast, and another 4 weeks later when I bottle. Haven't had a batch fail to attenuate. If you're curious and must monkey, by all means do so but be aware that you are introducing more opportunities for infection.

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I was taking readings for bottling. I wasn't trying to play around.

DrunkleJon said:

And taking away from the amount of finished product beer. Please tell me you do not pour your sample jar back in the fermenter (mist of us drink it because we wanna know how good it tastes). Though I will admit to having just dropped my hydrometer into my fermenter for measurements when I was just starting out.

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No, that would be seriously dumb on my part. I discard the sample.

Dave37 said:

Or invest in plastic fermenters with spigots. For me they are the best way to go. I initially started brewing swearing by carbons but now the simplicity of the buckets with spigots is really phenomenal. No auto siphon no beer thief. Want a gravity sample? Put your cylinder under the spigot and boom. Want to bottle? Add priming sugar to other bucket with spigot. Attach tube to fermenter spigot, boom.

Really simple. Amazingly easy to clean. Less likely to have an airlock blow out because of more headspace. Really a no brainer.

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Sounds good. What do you recommend fermenter wise?