Tasted my first batch

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TheCatman

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I opened my first bottle on Saturday and gave it a taste. It's a porter and has only been in bottles for a week, but I wanted to see how it was coming along and carbing up. It's already carbing nicely, and it looks and smells good, but it has a distinct sour taste to it. Is this a sign of infection, and should I expect it to condition out? I plan on opening a bottle in one-week intervals to see how it's coming.
 
Sounds like green beer to me, leave it alone for a month or two and let it condition is my advice. When did you brew, when did you bottle, what was your OG / FG?

Congrats on your first batch!
 
That's what I hope it is, and I plan on letting all of it (minus the single bottles I take out weekly) to condition as long as it needs.
 
I planned to do that too...just have one every week to test it...then about 10-12 days in the bottle I'm like, "this beer is good enough..." and now I've had half the batch before it hit 3 weeks in the bottle :drunk:
 
I planned to do that too...just have one every week to test it...then about 10-12 days in the bottle I'm like, "this beer is good enough..." and now I've had half the batch before it hit 3 weeks in the bottle :drunk:

Haha, I've already planned my next recipe and plan on getting the ingredients this week. I was able to acquire more empty bottles than I had originally thought I would, so I can already get some pipeline action going :ban:
 
Sounds like green beer to me, leave it alone for a month or two and let it condition is my advice. When did you brew, when did you bottle, what was your OG / FG?

Congrats on your first batch!

I brewed on 1/30 and bottled on 2/5.
OG was 1.038; way low, I know :(
FG was 1.015; I think I fermented a little cool.
 
Haha, I've already planned my next recipe and plan on getting the ingredients this week. I was able to acquire more empty bottles than I had originally thought I would, so I can already get some pipeline action going :ban:

I've got two batches fermenting right now, one is 2 weeks old, the other from saturday. Still, I want to leave both in primary for 3 weeks, so I'm another week out before bottling, then 2-3 weeks for conditioning/carb. 3-4 weeks before I have more nectar :mad:
 
How cool we talking? That is really crappy attenuation. What yeast was it?

It fermented between 63-65, with ambient closer to 60. It was Burton Ale WLP023. The way my apartment is, it would be hard to get the ambient up much higher without cranking up my energy bill.
 
I'm fermenting a APA at 62-64 right now in the basement, per a recommendation of a friend and fellow brewer. Those temps aren't horrid, how long was it in the FV?
 
From what I looked up, a minimum of 65 was recommended for the Burton Ale. It was only in the FV for 6 days...too short, I know.
 
less than a week in the fermentor and a week in the bottle...

Yikes, give that beer time man... It probably wasn't even done fermenting. Minimum 2 weeks in primary(I go a month or two). You brew and you learn.:mug:
 
Yeah, if the bottles are at a decent temp (70ish) I'd leave it alone and let the yeast finish the job. Next time def. leave in FV for 2-3 weeks. The temp doesn't scare me, but it might take longer to ferment, so check gravity a few days in a row for stable reading before bottling next time.
 
I have the bottles stored in a dark, warm cupboard, so I'm hoping they'll be able to finish out nicely.
 
TheCatman said:
It fermented between 63-65, with ambient closer to 60. It was Burton Ale WLP023. The way my apartment is, it would be hard to get the ambient up much higher without cranking up my energy bill.

You can buy a brew belt or look into other heating methods. You don't have to heat an entire room to warm up a fermenter.
 
TheCatman said:
Yeah I'm already doing some research into that.

Cool. I have a big tupperware that I fill with water and then put the fermenter in it. I use a floating fish tank heater to keep the water at the temperature I want.
 
I brewed on 1/30 and bottled on 2/5.
OG was 1.038; way low, I know :(
FG was 1.015; I think I fermented a little cool.

Oh yeah, green beer for sure. Probably pretty bitter as well.

This is always a back and forth argued topic so I'll lay out my thoughts and leave it at that - leave that beer alone! My advice: With your next beer, leave it in primary for at least a couple of weeks, some of us around here leave them for months - Yes, that's normally not necessary but time has done nothing but good things for me, I keep it on my side and stick by it. Truth be told your hydrometer will let you know once you are done fermenting, this could be 3 days, this could be 3 weeks, but let the yeast work a bit afterwards, clean up, settle out - let your beer clear up some. Once you're in the bottle, leave it alone for a couple more weeks, then place a couple in the fridge and leave those for a week. Give it a go and you'll be pleasantly surprised at the increased quality of your brew.

I know this is your first batch, I opened a bottle every week with mine as well, tasting it as it matured and came around - excitement leads to the premature drinking of so many beers with this hobby, every week I was sure it was peaked and amazing, then the next week would be better. Then a month later, it REALLY came around, a couple weeks after that - amazing, this was the point I thought to myself "Damnit I wish I would have just left it alone, I could have had 5 gallons of this awesome brew in oppose to what I have left". If you're still going down that route, keep notes. Write down flavor, hop, taste, quality, bitterness, clarity, etc... every time you pop one open, you'll see the change.

You should comment back in a month and share your tasting notes at that time. :mug:
 
I agree, i would ferment at least 10 days for 1.040-1.050 light body and at least 14 for med-full, but tasting every week during the process helps me learn a lot about my brew, is fun and just great to watch (taste/smell) how it begins to meld together defiantly one of the joys of homebrew.
 
Yeah, this being my first batch is a huge learning experience for me, so I'm willing to trade a few bottles of a likely better end product in order to see how it improves over time.
 
Your on the right track, being part of homebrew talk well increase the quality and consistancy of your brews nodoubt about it. I have only been brewin for 3 years now read a few books and some forums just started gettin envolved on the chat side,
Brew On
 
I had way too much sparge water (didn't experience the grain absorption my recipe anticipated) on Saturday. Had about 7g. in a 30qt. BK that I boiled carefully down so I could add the rest of the first wort back in. Still ended up with 6g. in the FV at 1.040 instead of 1.049.

Talked with neighbor/fellow homebrewer and he said, "you're paying attention to things, details, and that's great."
 
I have run into that problem also, i have access to three burners so if i think the beer can hadle the extra flavor ill boil the extra gallon down at the same time as my large kettle is going and add some extra bittering hops to help compensate for the extra malt flavor. Or ill start the boil slowly watchin the temps like a hawk to get just the right amount of flame to not induce a boil over then boil to about where i had hoped to start. Usually its around a 90 min boil 60/15/flameout additions
 
That's like 3% ABV so at least it won't take many sessions to drink through it all!

My first beer, an extract Kolsch that turned out very light and sessionable...well it's going quickly! Think I had 4 during Saturday's brew day and another...6 that night :drunk:
 
Alright, I had my second-week tasting last night.

The beer is carbing VERY well, which I'm happy about. Just about all of the sour taste that was present a week ago is already gone. Really the only qualm I have with this beer at this point is how watery it is, but that was fully expected, considering how low the OG was. The body is so light on this beer that even though its a porter (based on the ingredients), I think it'll be conditioned enough to drink for real after one more week.

Maybe my mistake of bottling early actualy helped me. Having a higher amount of active yeast in the bottles really helped clean the beer up.
 
This beer is very light bodied, but still has some good roasty, chocolate flavor. Even though it was supposed to be a porter, calling it a mild would probably be most accurate. Either way, I'm happy with it for my first batch ever :)
 
Cheers, got your next batch planned that porter/mild will be gone before you know it
Brew On
 
Why not do a 5g batch and supplement the xtra gravity pts with your lme
Brew On
 
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