Ok, I may have been impatient....advice?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

sayteller

Active Member
Joined
Jun 16, 2009
Messages
33
Reaction score
0
Location
Round Lake IL
I brewed up my first batch ever last night. All was well. Heated barley at 155 F for a half hour in water, added malt extract and water, added hops at correct times. Then came the cool down time. I used ice and water in the fermentor then added the wort. It didn't cool it down enough! My probe thermometer decided to stop working at about 97 F (don't bother buying the cheap red ones from Walmart). I drew a cold bath and with the lid on the fermentor I placed it in the bath to cool some more. Because my thermometer was busted I had to guess on the temp (bad I know). I had pitchable yeast in an Activator pack that never seemed to swell up even after multiple hits with my palm and 2 hours of waiting. Regardless, I pitched it in, put the lid on with the airlock, and went to bed. This morning I awoke to NO BUBBLES! Shouldn't I be seeing mad bubble action? I was pissed. I was sure that I killed the yeast due to the wort temps still being too hot. In a fit of rage I dumped the batch :( :( :( . I obviously made mistakes. Please advise on where I went wrong. I'm heading to the local brew shop to get ingredients to try again tonight. I want a batch for the 4th of July. Thanks in advance.
 
Well before you make your next batch, get some thermometers man! You can never have too many:D Then you won't have to guess the temperature of the wort either. If your wort was above 100 degrees when you pitched, then some of your yeast might have died and it would take even longer to get fermentation to start. Fermentation is also slower if you don't make a starter or don't get those smack packs to work: but also note that if the packs don't swell, you can still pitch with them....fermentation is just going to be slower because you don't have as many yeast cells to start off with.

Those Wyeast smack packs can be tricky....here's an instructional video on using them:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvch26L0_Lw]YouTube - How to use a Wyeast Smack Pack[/ame]
 
You dumped it? :eek:

It would have been fine. Worst case scenario is you would have had to repitch...no big deal. :confused:

BTW - remember to take the barley out of the water before the boil. Couldn't really tell from your description whether you had or not. Also, don't forget to get the OG before you pitch.

The 4th might be a little soon. You're going to need at least a week in the primary, even if you decide not to secondary...and, once bottled, you'll need 3 weeks or so to carb and have the flavors smooth out a bit.

Take it easier next time. :mug:
 
Thanks davesrose! Its good to see instructions on how to use that pack. Its odd because I smacked that pack several times to make sure it was broken, let it sit for 2-3 hours and it didn't swell one bit. Even when I did eventually open it to pour it out the inner pack was broken open, so I know it mixed up. Weird. Yes I am planning on buying a nicer thermometer on the way to the brew shop.

However with the airlock, shouldn't I see at least one bubble in a 20-30 minute time period? There was NOTHING going on in there. I also had to fill the airlock a bit more with more water this morning before deciding to dump it. Is this normal?
 
way way way overreacted. Fermentation takes time to get going....days sometimes. and if it doesn't, you could get more yeast and re-pitch. someone needs to fill you in on RDWHAHB!
 
carbon111... no I did not take the barley out before boiling it. LOL good to know. Like i said I'm a noob, but I am trying to learn.
 
If you had to refill your airlock with water, that means you had a lot of cooling going on overnight which caused a negative pressure inside your fermentor and sucked in some of the airlock fluids.....this is not cause for dumping either, but just an explanation of what happened.
 
snailsongs... haha, I realize all this now unfortunately. And I'd love to relax and have a homebrew, but I'm still trying to get my first batch to actually be able to drink it and relax. lol.
 
Well, some sewer rats are going to be enjoying the fruits of your labor right about now!

Next time, the only thing you've lost if you screw it up is time. Keep it in the fermenter, and be patient. Yeast is cheap. Wort isn't so cheap. Unless it is on fire, or growing a hideous fungus that is so tough, it doesn't even allow you to sample it, keep the beer. Even the worst screwups usually allow for beer to be made, and even worse screwups can be smoothed out with time.

And BTW, buckets and airlocks are usually really crappy to begin with and sometimes have air leaks. Add a hydrometer to your list and read up on it. Some fermentations are quiet and hard to even detect...and always have some spare yeast on hand (I prefer dry as backups).
 
ouch! :(
yeah dude
never dump your Beer!!!
even if it was bad you could not know that fast,

i remember one times years ago i was makeing a steam beer
and my liquid yeast , was out of date , but it was the only one the local shop had
so iused it any way.
it took 3 days before there was visable signs of fermentation
i was sweating it but it turned out great.

i would have made a starter but brew day was my only day off for the next ten days so i had to do it then
 
However with the airlock, shouldn't I see at least one bubble in a 20-30 minute time period? There was NOTHING going on in there. I also had to fill the airlock a bit more with more water this morning before deciding to dump it. Is this normal?

Sayteller, As for the Wyeast....if the nutrient pack did get broken and was empty when you pitched the whole pack....then maybe you didn't wait long enough. What I do is first try to locate that pack....smack a couple times....then shake the package....then feel around and make sure I'm not feeling a pack. Well that's what I do if I'm not making a starter.....but most times I make starters now.

You can't really go by airlock activity to gauge fermentation: you might not have any airlock activity when the wort is fully going if say your lid has a leak in it. I now ferment in a carboy....which makes it very easy to see fermentation take place. You don't just see the foam/kraeusen, but you also see the bits of floculents swirl around in the wort as those yeasts are farting so much gas. If you're really curious about the fermentation, it's acceptable to crack open your fermenter and take a peek in: contamination is still pretty minimal as long as you keep the fermenter covered most of the time. If the wort starts to have this foam layer....that's a good sign that it's actively fermenting. Once that foam disappears, you can start taking gravity readings and see if the gravity is reaching what the estimated FG should be. And even if you didn't see any foam when you did take a peak....after a week, you could still check the gravity to see if it is approaching your FG. So gravity readings are the best indicator of fermentation.
 
Davesrose, solid advice. I was under the assumption that once you seal the lid on the fermenter you shouldn't open it for around 7 days. All the reading I have done, makes sanitation such a HUGE issue that you become afraid to do anything to risk contaminating your beer. I realize sanitation is very important, but I see now there is a little wiggle room to do what needs to be done and still minimize risk.
 
snailsongs.... AHHHH that makes sense. So to prevent that next time, stash it in a slightly warmer area?


NO!!!!!

You want the wort to be in the mid-60s range. Next time, cool the wort, pitch the yeast and walk away for at least 3-4 days. Don't look for bubbles or count them. You may see bubbling; you may not.

To keep the fermenter cool, I have a cooler that I put it in with cool water around it along with a couple of frozen water bottles. You can buy one of those cheap thermometer strips to stick on the outside of the carboy to see the temperature of the beer inside. You want the fermentation to be in the mid 60s for almost all ales.

Yeast can easily take up to 72 hours to get started, because it's reproducing and acclimating before it gets to the business of fermenting. I'd suggest using dry yeast for your next batch. It gives you more yeast cells than you get with liquid, and tends to be a little quicker to get going to allay your fears.
 
I realize sanitation is very important, but I see now there is a little wiggle room to do what needs to be done and still minimize risk.

Yeah, sanitization is more important during that time period of letting your hot wort cool to the few hours after you pitch your yeast. Once your yeast are actively fermenting, then chances of contamination go down to 0 (well almost 0....assuming you are not an utter slob :) ). But even if you forgot to sanitize your spoon or some other mistake....more then likely you won't get an infection. I now have many brews under my belt.....I have tried different sanitizers and have experimented with different cleaning methods.....and only once have I had an infection. It wound up being the fermentation bucket I was using: no matter how much I cleaned and sanitized it....it must have been permeable enough to get some nasties in my wort. Once I changed fermenters, I was golden again.

Man has been brewing for many centuries, but has only known about sanitization for 2 centuries. What makes beer a safer drink to drink is that it's been inoculated with a healthy colony of yeasts that also give it alcohol :drunk:
 
You want the wort to be in the mid-60s range.

Well it's best to go by the manufacturer's suggestions. Both Wyeast and White Labs publish their suggested optimal temperature ranges. This is especially important if you're trying out hybrids of lagers vs ales.
 
I am sorry. I missed the part about you dumping it. Don't ever do that again, please.
 
i little less than 150 years but hey who is counting
before that we thought it was spontaneous generation
 
Thanks guys. This is much needed advice. I'll be sure to never pour out my wort again. Lesson learned.

I guess I will have to invest in some straining bags to pull out the barley before I boil tonight. How many of you have a spigot right on your brewpot to make transferring easier? I think about 1/4 of a gallon ended up on my floor when pouring it through the strainer.
 
Thanks guys. This is much needed advice. I'll be sure to never pour out my wort again. Lesson learned.

I guess I will have to invest in some straining bags to pull out the barley before I boil tonight. How many of you have a spigot right on your brewpot to make transferring easier? I think about 1/4 of a gallon ended up on my floor when pouring it through the strainer.

I have used a small sanatized sauce pan as a laddle to remove the first couple of gallons of wort from the boil pot before pouring it into the fermentor. This makes the pot lighter and easier to pour. Plus those first few laddles of wort are easy to get into the fermentor. No need to have a spigot just yet.
 
Biggest advice I can give you.....

Quit treating your airlock like some sort of calibrated fermentation gauge!!!!

Airlock bubbling, lack of airlock bubbling, stopped airlock bubbling really is not an indicator of what is happening to your beer. It is NOT a fermentation gauge, it is a valve to release excess pressure, excess CO2...NOT AN ACCURATE INSTRUMENT....

I have 9 different fermenters and have been brewing for a few years, and OVER HALF OF MY BEERS NEVER HAVE ANY BUBBLING IN THE AIRLOCK AND THEY ALL TURN OUT FINE!

Fermentation is not always "dynamic," just because you don't SEE anything happenning, doesn't mean that anything's wrong, and also doesn't mean that the yeast are still not working dilligantly away, doing what they've been doing for over 4,000 years....

You can't know if your fermentation is "stuck" unless you take a gravity reading.

So, get out of the idea of using "airlock bubbling" as a sign of fermentation, you have to realize that airlock activity is not an accurate indication of fermentation...an airlock is a vent for excess co2, nothing more...and half of my beers never bubble.

Read this for why arilock analysing is useless, and what is the only gauge of ferementation...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/1217925-post3.html And there is a link to my blog in there as well....

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in.....

If you don't have a hydrometer, get one...Don't dump your beer, don't repitch your yeast, until first you take a hydrometer reading AFTER 72 hours have gone by!

Capice ?:mug:
 
what took you so long to get into this thread Revvy?

btw - all my airlocks are made in Canada, not China :D

THere's only been about 20 of these nervous newb threads in the last 24 hours, it's hard to keep up on which is which...it wasn't until I notices that the OP had commited a beerabortion (or is it beeracide?) just because he didn't wait AND didn't see any bubbles.

China owns half of Canada, just like it owns the US, bub. :D
 
China owns half of Canada, just like it owns the US, bub. :D

just like in the 70s when everything was "Made in Hong Kong" -- HK isn't big enough to produce anything, they made it all in China and slapped the HK label on it because China was evil communists and HK was free enterprise UK.

sorry - back to OP - yeah, don't dump your beer again. it makes us all cry. thank you.
 
Ok, UPDATE. Made up a new batch last night. Took me about half the time cause I more or less new the steps in advance being the second time. I imagine the first time is always the most difficult and hopefully it just gets easier from here on out. I also removed the barley before boiling and was able to get the Wyeast activator pack to swell up this time which was nice to see. So if all goes to plan I should end up with (what I hope to be) a nice Amber Ale. Thanks to all the guys with the advice, it is much appreciated.
 
Ok, UPDATE. Made up a new batch last night. Took me about half the time cause I more or less new the steps in advance being the second time. I imagine the first time is always the most difficult and hopefully it just gets easier from here on out. I also removed the barley before boiling and was able to get the Wyeast activator pack to swell up this time which was nice to see. So if all goes to plan I should end up with (what I hope to be) a nice Amber Ale. Thanks to all the guys with the advice, it is much appreciated.

Sounds good, but if you don't see any bubbles, don't dump it!

If it gets really foamy or something on top of it, Don't Dump It!!

If it smells odd or begins to annoy you, DON'T DUMP IT!!!

If you feel yourself wanting to dump it, come here and let us talk you down.
 
Back
Top