My First Bad Beer

Sigh.

I'm sitting on my first bad beer.

This batch is one of the couple I brewed with a friend. He doesn't like to batch prime, and we must have miscalculated on those little tablets, because this hefe is flat.

And by flat, I mean F-L-A-T, flat!

Having not brewed a bad beer until this one, I served it to a friend before even sampling it myself. Not long afterward, and experiencing this utterly flat beer myself, I took my friend's glass away and dumped the contents, not thinking it worthy of a guest, and got a bottle out of the fridge of the hefe I'd brewed a week behind the first one.

This is the one where I made the mistake of leaving the spigot open on my bottling bucket when trasferring beer, losing an unknown amount of priming sugar in the process.

Not knowing how much sugar I'd lost, I had no idea how much I needed to replace, and certainly didn't want to overcarb, so, in the bottles it went as it was.

This one wasn't utterly flat, just undercarbonated.

I'll see if a bit more time helps either of these batches. Of course, next in my pipeline is yet a third hefe. This is the one that if you've read some of my other posts stalled out at 1.020 and is going to wind up a bit sweeter than I'd anticipated.

It's a bit annoying, actually. My first couple of brews turned out, I think, great. It's just tough to have 2.5 batches (two of mine, and one split with my brewing friend) of sub-par beer.

Thankfully, I pitched the yeast on my fourth hefe this past Saturday. The brewday went great, no issues, and I'll be sure to double-check that spigot position when this one's ready to bottle!

It's just a pain to drink sub-par beer when I know I can, and have, brewed much better.

Live and learn, right?

Cheers!

Mozart said:

He doesn't like to batch prime, and we must have miscalculated on those little tablets, because this hefe is flat.

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How many tabs did you use per bottle, and what was the size of the bottles?

IMO Your decision goes like this.
Flat beer =
1) not enough active yeast. (add more yeast. Open sprinkle a little dry yeast recap)

2) Bottles left too cold or too hot or not given enough time. The yeasties did not process sugar and carbonate beer. Put bottles in a ideal temp and leave alone for 3 weeks. TRY THIS FIRST

3) Not enough sugar (even one tab should have given you some carbonation). So most likely try one or two.
Good Luck M8B

VT-NAV said:

How many tabs did you use per bottle, and what was the size of the bottles?

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I don't recall, exactly, but it was about eighteen. They weren't bottles, per se, but actually 5L recycled mini-kegs.

I know it's probably about half of what should have been done (3 tabs per normal bottle, if I recall, x about 10 bottles to a gallon, give or take).

Not really looking to fix the problem here, I know what went wrong, and aside from me leaving the spigot open that one time, I've had success with batch priming.

Just venting that at something, whether it be not enough tabs, leaving the spigot open, or a stuck fermentation, impacted not just three different batches, but three of them in a row.

Is the beer bad or just not carbonated? Those are very different statements in my mind. Carbing is fairly easy to fix. Unwanted fusels or esters or infections are more of an issue and indicate a flaw in your process.

DocScott said:

Is the beer bad or just not carbonated? Those are very different statements in my mind. Carbing is fairly easy to fix. Unwanted fusels or esters or infections are more of an issue and indicate a flaw in your process.

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This.

You have my sympathy. But don't feel too bad. My first batch was flat and cidery, my second weak, my third half infected. You're doing great!

DocScott said:

Is the beer bad or just not carbonated? Those are very different statements in my mind. Carbing is fairly easy to fix. Unwanted fusels or esters or infections are more of an issue and indicate a flaw in your process.

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It doesn't taste horrible, but it's hard to tell since it's so flat. No fusels, esters wouldn't be bad in this case, since it's a hefe, no signs of infection at all. I suppose I could have chosen better words - it isn't bad in that sense. The only problem is lack of carbonation.

I could and may go the suggested route above and give these more time, adding sugar and/or yeast if the time doesn't help.

Cheers!