Total Noob, 1st brew issue, maybe?

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mchubri

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Greetings all,

Total noob (1st post), so I apologize if this topic has been covered. So me and my 2 buddies decided to start brewing together, we've never done it before. Went to the Local Brew Shop, grabbed a 5gal beginner kit and a Trew Brew Brown Alr recepie kit. I just finished reading how to brew so i used a combination of what I learned from Palmer and the True Brew direction sheet.

Brew day went off without a hitch. OG was 1.042 Had some active fermentation, nice creamy Kreusen and then it settled off after about 48 hours. Sat in the primary for 17 days @ 69-75 degrees then we bottled.

Mistake #1 was I didn't take a hydrometer reading before emptying the primary into the botteling bucket. FG was 1.025 when it was supposed to be around 1.012. The beer tasted sweet, yet almost watery at the same time, far from good tasting beer.

I did some research and started to blame the incomplete fermentation (if that is indeed what happened) on the Malto Dextrin the recepie kit contained. Then I realized had I taken a reading before botteling I could have swirled the primary to wake up some yeast, or even pitched more yeast, but we didn't. We went ahead and primed and bottled hoping something magical would happen in the bottle conditioning phase.

Any thoughts on what may have gone wrong, or what might happen in the bottles? "Is my beer ruined" ? Might I have good drinkable beer in 2 weeks, 1 month 6 months? Also, what is the best method for taking a sample from the primary to take a reading? I was thinking sanitized turkey baster? What should your beer taste like straight out of the primary?

Thanks all!
 
First, congrats! You will have beer.

I'm not familiar with that particular recipe - I'm not at all sure why maltodextrin is part of it. But you are correct, it will contribute to the gravity but is unfermentable.

17 days seems a little early to bottle, but what's done is done. Treat this brew as a learning experience - heck, you should treat every brew as a learning experience. It will probably end up a little sweet, but still it will be beer.

And a turkey baster is what I use to get hydro samples - I think a lot here do the same. Just sanitize it beforehand.
 
Hoping something magical will happen rarely works. 17 days should have been enough to ferment out unless something odd was happening. I cant really comment on the malto dextrin as I never use it. When did you take the reading to get 1.025?
 
Your beer will improve immeasurably while conditioning in the bottles. 2 weeks is bare minimum, at 4 weeks it will really taste good. Dark beers benefit from longer conditioning, so even 6 weeks for a brown isn't too long. Do yourself a favor and save a bottle to try at 6 weeks, and another at 10 weeks or so.

Incomplete fermentation could have been a number of issues, but I'd suspect the yeast that came with the kit- was it dry? Did you reconstitute it, or make a starter? Often those kits have been sitting around for a while and the yeast gets old. Search the forum here for making yeast starters, it's very simple and makes a big difference. Your fermentation temperatures are maybe a tad high, but that shouldn't result in a high FG reading.

Not to worry you at all, because in all likelihood this won't happen, but you might want to put your bottles in a garbage bag. If fermentation wasn't complete before bottling, you might have a couple bottle tops blow off, which can make a huge mess.

I'd try a bottle at 1 week and see how much carbonation you have. This is also a great way to learn how the taste changes with conditioning. If you have lots of carbonation at 1 week, like the beer comes foaming out of the bottle, you can open each cap a tiny bit and let some of the pressure out, then recap after a few minutes.
 
I'm sure the flavours will mellow nicely and be much better in the next few weeks or so.

B
 
Thanks all!

We took the reading as the fermenter was emptying into the botteling bucket prior to priming.

We used the kit yeast. We checked the expiration date on it and it was still valid. It was dry and we reconstituted in warm water for 15 min prior to pitching.

I need to learn more about starters. I will revisit that chapter in How to Brew.

We brewed a Pale Ale this wekend and used a White Labs liquid yeast and the difference in fermentation activity was huge. With this batch i was able to experience the beer on the ceiling phenomonon! Kreusen everywhere untill I switched to a blowoff tube. The Brown Ale developed a kreusen, but not nearly at the level of the Pale Ale.
 
I wouldn't recommend making a starter out of dry yeast, but re-hydrating it might help. And unless the kit was sitting there for over a year, chances are the yeast is ok. Dry yeast packs have a life around something like 2 years.
 
If this was a good kit, the dextrin shouldn't be enough to drastically alter your gravities (your kit probably had 4 oz of dextrin powder to 6+ lbs of malt).

I don't know that dextrin is a cause for stalled fermentation.

I've never had a bottle bomb, but I would be careful, maybe someone else can chime in on that.
 
I also can't explain the high FG but I would second the opinion about putting a garbage around your bottles in case of bottle bombs. Not trying to worry you but I would do it to be safe. Also, imo, uncarbed beer will sometimes seem a little watery.
 
First, congrats! You will have beer.

I'm not familiar with that particular recipe - I'm not at all sure why maltodextrin is part of it. But you are correct, it will contribute to the gravity but is unfermentable.

17 days seems a little early to bottle, but what's done is done. Treat this brew as a learning experience - heck, you should treat every brew as a learning experience. It will probably end up a little sweet, but still it will be beer.

And a turkey baster is what I use to get hydro samples - I think a lot here do the same. Just sanitize it beforehand.

Very good input. I don't secondary. I leave most my brews on the primary yeast cake for two-three weeks, often a month at times, and come out with fantabulous beer.
I started with the turkey baster for hydo samples, then moved to the wine theif. I no longer trusted the rubber on the turkey baster.
 
I wouldn't recommend making a starter out of dry yeast, but re-hydrating it might help. And unless the kit was sitting there for over a year, chances are the yeast is ok. Dry yeast packs have a life around something like 2 years.

I also hear making starters out of dry yeast is not looked weel upon. Either rehydrate, or upgrade to whitelabs viles, pitch a wyeast propegator into your erlenmeyer , or smack a wyeast pack and pitch.

Just my view on things
 
I also hear making starters out of dry yeast is not looked weel upon. Either rehydrate, or upgrade to whitelabs viles, pitch a wyeast propegator into your erlenmeyer , or smack a wyeast pack and pitch.

Just my view on things

You should make a starter with liquid, you should rehydrate with dry... for best results.
 
Maltodextrin is commonly used in Imperial Nut Browns. It is to improve the quality of the head and mouthfeel. I really loved the effect it had on my Imperial Nut Brown over some of my other Nut Browns. But I am still learning too.

People usually dont make starters with dry yeast. I don't make starters with liquid unless it's a high gravity brew above .016 but some people always make starters.
 
Greetings all,

Also, what is the best method for taking a sample from the primary to take a reading? I was thinking sanitized turkey baster? What should your beer taste like straight out of the primary?

Thanks all!

I'm a noob also but was concerned about sanitization with a turkey baster so on my first brew i used a santized stainless steel ladle, poured into a bowl and then used a baster to get it into the hydrometer tube. my .02
 
Maltodextrin is commonly used in Imperial Nut Browns. It is to improve the quality of the head and mouthfeel. I really loved the effect it had on my Imperial Nut Brown over some of my other Nut Browns. But I am still learning too.

People usually dont make starters with dry yeast. I don't make starters with liquid unless it's a high gravity brew above .016 but some people always make starters.

I'm confused why someone would put maltodextrin in any imperial anything. There should be enough grain in there to make improving mouthfeel not necessary and adding unfermentables would just make it finish really high which is always something you have to fight when making imperials. Also, there are other ways to improve head, you can even cheat with grains (like crystal which is probably already in your nut brown and can also aid in mouthfeel).

Like I said, rehydrate dry yeast and make starters with liquid. I think the gravity you meant was 1.060 but I would recommend always making one no matter what the gravity is... again for best results
 
I'm confused why someone would put maltodextrin in any imperial anything. There should be enough grain in there to make improving mouthfeel not necessary and adding unfermentables would just make it finish really high which is always something you have to fight when making imperials. Also, there are other ways to improve head, you can even cheat with grains (like crystal which is probably already in your nut brown and can also aid in mouthfeel).

Like I said, rehydrate dry yeast and make starters with liquid. I think the gravity you meant was 1.060 but I would recommend always making one no matter what the gravity is... again for best results

I was stunned when I opened the kit to find the package of Malto, I tend to be a purist when it comes to cooking and now with brewing, don't want anything superflous in there. However, this was our 1st brew so we decided to follow the kit as it was.

This site is awesome, glad I stumbled upon it. Everyone's feedback so far has been awesome and made me feel better about my 1st batch (I was on the ledge Sat when we were botteling this swill, so bummed!) I will be sure to check back in to give updates on the status of this brew we have now started to call DDB (Doo-Doo Brown) because of it's initial taste.
 
I will be sure to check back in to give updates on the status of this brew we have now started to call DDB (Doo-Doo Brown) because of it's initial taste.

Before you let that name get too firmly in your head, give that brew a while to mellow and taste it again. I'd bet that in about 3 weeks the flavors will begin to work together and for the next 3 weeks it will continue to improve, if any of it survives that long. Some of the beers I have done have taken nearly 2 months to get real good.
 

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