Weak beer.

I haven't yet bottled my Blue Moon clone, but I tasted a sample from the bucket today and it was weak. Looking into the bucket, it's a nice amber color like it should be but in the cup it was colored like Coors light and tasted like beer flavored water. Maybe it wasn't mixed up (although I never thought flavor settles). I did calculate my efficiency a little low for what I wanted (assuming I calculated it right). Is there any way to fix it or will it improve with the priming and bottling?

On a side note, a friend told me he just started using a powder called 5.2 stabilizer, which makes the water a 5.2 pH, supposedly ideal for mashing. Since my water here is a perfect 7, that might have affected it. Has anyone used this powder and recommend it?

Did you brew from extract or grain?
What gravity readings did you get?

Samples from your fermenter are a gauge...that's it. The taste now is just a hint of what will come a month from now. The beer will gain mouth feel from the carbonation when you bottle and the beers taste will change as it matures. Of course, if you really missed your OG by a mile... you very well may have made a "lite" beer.

Post a recipe and method if you were AG.

sorry bout that. it was AG and my OG was 1.037, lower than my targeted 1.045. I'm thinking I didn't get good extraction b/c of my method of letting the grain sit in the water then straining it out. I did it in a stockpot rather than a cooler. And I originally had it in a grain bag, but I felt it would be better loose in the water.

A few things I noted:

1 - Blue Moon is a Wit style beer. Its supposed to be a very light color. Its just darker in the fermenter because of light refraction through the mass of liquid.

2 - your OG was a little low, but not a huge deal. Don't give too much judgement until its bottled and carbonated. You would be suprised how much it will improve.

yeah i know it's light, but this was barely colored in the glass. I'll just assume it's fine and bottle it then try it in a month.

Also, my friend recommended me use an airstone like those in aquariums to aerate the wort before I pitch the yeast for a more full fermentation. Anyone do something like that? If so, how long do you do it? I will try this out for my next batch, a summer ale

Yes, I do. You need oxygen in the wort for proper yeast health when they are in the growth phase. I use one of these setups from Brewmasters Warehouse. Most online suppliers carry something similar. It hooks up to the small red O2 canisters you can get at Lowes or HD. I give it about 30-60 seconds of oxygen.

Some people also use the same small airstone with an aquarium air pump (and inline hepa filter). You have to let it run for about 30 minutes in the wort for it to be effective.

Why the longer run time with a pump? is the outflow not as much?

A pump is only putting in air, which is only ~21% O2 vs 100% O2 from an oxygen bottle.

gotcha. Is it really important when buying a pump to look for psi output or something like that? I was just gonna get a cheap Petco one for up to 13 gallons

is there anything you can do when you measure your wort OG and it's weak? Can you let it steep longer?

mendozer said:

is there anything you can do when you measure your wort OG and it's weak? Can you let it steep longer?

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"Steeping" longer probably wont' work. Either you are getting conversion, or you aren't. The best way to tell is to use iodine and test the liquid out of the mash.

If you're so low on your efficiency, there are several things you can do to improve it. One is to look hard at your crush. Poor crush is one of the top reasons for low efficiency. Secondly, you mentioned mashing in a bag. Make sure the grain is in there very "loosely", so that the water can permeate all of the grain. Make sure it's thoroughly stirred and wetted, so that you can get all of the goodness out of the grain. For sparging, try to get your grainbed up to 168 or so. The higher temperature helps make the sugars more soluble. Just like when you make kool-aid- the sugar dissolves better in warmer water.

mendozer said:

is there anything you can do when you measure your wort OG and it's weak? Can you let it steep longer?

Click to expand...

After your mash is complete, you have a few options....boil the wort longer evaprating some water away, and making your batch smaller & more concentrated. This can cause some flavor changes that may not be desired though due to the carmeliztion of the sugars in the wort. Also you will have less beer than your targeted batch.

You could also ad some malt extract to the boil to boost OG. You could even add some sugar, but this would be a last resort IMO.

b/c the pump is pumping air, the O2 tank is pure O2

well i started the mash in the bags, but b/c they were plumping up so much, i let the grain out into the water then strained it out after. as for the grind, i bought my grains from a local brewshop and the grinder was preset for "optimal size".

mendozer said:

well i started the mash in the bags, but b/c they were plumping up so much, i let the grain out into the water then strained it out after. as for the grind, i bought my grains from a local brewshop and the grinder was preset for "optimal size".

Click to expand...

did you stir well, once you let the grain into the water? How were the temperatures? You need a nice steady temperature (preferably 150-155) to get complete conversion.

How did you sparge after you strained out the grain?

my temp was high. i stirred the grains up pretty well. i just strained out my grain, no sparging. i don't have a mash tun (like a cooler or anything) so it was done in a pot. my friend did his in a pot and sparged by pouring boiling water over his grain bag. it worked for him and i tried this.