Observations from a "D+" grade 1st attempt

I'm not sure which is greater: my excitement to begin my first homebrew, or my disappointment at this middle stage of the process.

I brewed a brown ale (extract kit) 11 days ago. The brewday seemed to go okay. I rehydrated the Munton's yeast that came with the kit (wasn't sure if it needed to be mixed with the water, or just sprinkled on top of some water when rehydrating -- I mixed it in). I proofed it with a small amount of sugar-water. After 25 minutes, there were a few bubbles, but overall pretty weak activity. Since I saw activity, however, I assumed it would be serviceable. When I pitched the yeast, I first poured the rehydrated yeast into the primary bucket, then poured in the cooled wort (2 gal.), then added 3 gallons of tap water. I did not aerate much at all; I though that by pouring the wort onto the yeast directly, it would be oxygenated enough. I took the hydrometer reading after the yeast was already pitched.

The OG was 1.044. I left it in the primary for 10 days. I took a FG reading of 1.019, which was higher (heavier?) than I would have expected. Foolishly, I did not leave it in primary, but racked to secondary. During this process, I accidentally but significantly sloshed the primary bucket, probably stirring up all kinds of trub. I tasted the hydro sample, and....

oh no. That's not very good.

It definitely seemed to be missing something. I understand that the beer is far from "finished", but it was definitely flat (tasting). I'm absolutely going to see it through, and I know I shouldn't be too upset that a rookie made some rookie mistakes...but it's disheartening nonetheless. Overall grade for initial attempt: D+

Next time, I'm going to:

1) Use different and better yeast. I still don't understand all the differences between all the strains or what's appropriate for different styles, but I can ask at my LHBS.

2) On brewday, mix the wort with the water, aerate vigorously, take hydro reading, then pitch the yeast.

3) take more than one hydro reading before racking to secondary, being careful not to slosh it all around like a bucket of water with my house on fire.

4) Give it 2 weeks (minimum) in primary, then rack according to hydro reading.

<sigh>

Sorry for the long post; if anybody read it all and has further suggestions, I'm open. After getting this all off my chest, I'm happy to report that the answer to my initial question is...my excitement is still greater than my disappointment.

On to Round 2!

EDIT: FG was 1.019

Not to worry, just bottle it let it carb and you will find the taste much improved. Carbonation does wonders for beer and you can't really judge it until then.

But your list going forward sounds good. Just remember there is plenty of god dry yeast out there. The ones you get from Munton's and Cooper's may seem low rent but they do ferment reliably and cleanly. I have used them both in my beers and had good results.

IMHO specialty yeasts are really only good for beers that have a specific taste profile that the yeast provides, Hefeweizen for example. If you just want a clean Pale Ale, then there is no shame in dry yeast.

^^^^^
Agreed.

Remember this, when tasting your hydro samples from the primary, you are tasting flat, warm, green beer.

Once it's carbed, chilled properly, and aged, it will be a different beer.
Hold back a couple of six-packs and age them for three to six months, and it will be a wholly different beer again.

My advice to you is to get another batch going ASAP and keep that primary full. You'll be sorely disappointed after finishing your last bottle of YOUR beer if you don't have another batch ready to drink, or at least close to it.

(I say that with a painfully empty fermenter -- work has been keeping me busy, so I'm wasting my 65F basement -- hope the beer holds out)

plus, my question to you is have you drank a lot of ales before? Since I hadn't ever had an ale, I was kind of taken back when I first tried mine as well and thought it was absolutely disgusting, undrinkably disgusting but sure enough with bottle time and getting used to the flavor it is now absolutely delicious.

Leave it in the secondary until it hits the target gravity. It will take a while longer because it only has a little yeast, but it will continue fermenting.

Learning how a beer tastes at various stages of the process takes practice and beer undergoes some amazing changes week to week.

Rather than a D+, I give you an Incomplete

Any ideas on why his FG was higher than his OG??? That doesn't make much sense..

You can't begin to judge your beer until it's been in the bottle at least 3 weeks...maybe longer...

Most of my hydro samples taste like grainy warm and flat tea, but they always taste different once the co2 has done it's job!

Don't judge a beer before it's time unless you have had at least a dozen beers under your belt....once you've tasted a ton of samples then you can begin to gauge what a beer will taste like....

New brewers have no reference to judge from.

sontavas said:

Any ideas on why his FG was higher than his OG??? That doesn't make much sense..

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Because the wort and water wasn't mixed thoroughly when he took his OG reading...It is really challenging to integrate the wort and water without stirring for 5 solid minutes. The wort sinks to the bottom of the top off water...So his first reading was not accurate.

Most beginning brewers OG readings are screwed up...

sontavas said:

Any ideas on why his FG was higher than his OG??? That doesn't make much sense..

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And............the fg is mistyped. I am sure that it should read 1.019. Which is still too high, but not totally out of whack.

grace1760 said:

I proofed it with a small amount of sugar-water. After 25 minutes, there were a few bubbles, but overall pretty weak activity.

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Per Palmer, you don't want to add sugar when rehydrating dry yeast - doing that can cause fermentation problems later on.

I'm always looking for detailed feedback, so I'll offer same. If I come off like a d**k, I apologize. It wasn't intended.

grace1760 said:

I'm not sure which is greater: my excitement to begin my first homebrew, or my disappointment at this middle stage of the process.

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Most beginners think they have failed. And are quite surprised to find out they haven't.

grace1760 said:

I proofed it with a small amount of sugar-water. After 25 minutes, there were a few bubbles, but overall pretty weak activity. Since I saw activity, however, I assumed it would be serviceable.

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Your talking about a culture. 25 minutes isn't enought time to tell anything of significance.

grace1760 said:

When I pitched the yeast, I first poured the rehydrated yeast into the primary bucket, then poured in the cooled wort (2 gal.), then added 3 gallons of tap water. I did not aerate much at all; I though that by pouring the wort onto the yeast directly, it would be oxygenated enough.

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Good mixing process, terrible aeration. Search aeration here and look at all the methods.

grace1760 said:

I took the hydrometer reading after the yeast was already pitched.

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Not a big deal.

grace1760 said:

The OG was 1.044. I left it in the primary for 10 days. I took a FG reading of 1.19, which was higher (heavier?) than I would have expected.

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1.019 was high for 10 days. What temps?

grace1760 said:

Foolishly, I did not leave it in primary, but racked to secondary.

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It'll live. Waiting to rack is for best flavor. It will still ferment out just fine.

grace1760 said:

During this process, I accidentally but significantly sloshed the primary bucket, probably stirring up all kinds of trub.

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The problem with sloshing is oxygen, not trub. Trub will be left behind when you rack to the bottling bucket.

grace1760 said:

I tasted the hydro sample, and....

oh no. That's not very good.

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First green beer, eh? You'll learn when green beer is tasting right. We all say it was "good" but sometimes good (WRT green beer) just means "like it should at this point"

grace1760 said:

It definitely seemed to be missing something. I understand that the beer is far from "finished", but it was definitely flat (tasting).

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Yep. That's like putting eggs and salt into a bowl and being upset that it doesn't taste like a poundcake yet.

grace1760 said:

I'm absolutely going to see it through, and I know I shouldn't be too upset that a rookie made some rookie mistakes...but it's disheartening nonetheless. Overall grade for initial attempt: D+

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20 bucks says you're over analyzing it. I was very disappointed that my first beer tasted like bananas. It was some time later that I learned that my wheat beer was a textbook example...

grace1760 said:

Use different and better yeast. I still don't understand all the differences between all the strains or what's appropriate for different styles, but I can ask at my LHBS.

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My advice, try the same beer again. You will learn more from multiple iterations of the same beer.

grace1760 said:

On brewday, mix the wort with the water, aerate vigorously, take hydro reading, then pitch the yeast.

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Yep.

grace1760 said:

take more than one hydro reading before racking to secondary, being careful not to slosh it all around like a bucket of water with my house on fire.

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Yep.

grace1760 said:

Give it 2 weeks (minimum) in primary, then rack according to hydro reading.

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Ignore the calendar and use your hydro. For rough gueses most of us use the 1-2-3 rule (primary, secondary, bottles). But no secondary is big now, and a process I now practice.

grace1760 said:

Sorry for the long post; if anybody read it all and has further suggestions, I'm open. After getting this all off my chest, I'm happy to report that the answer to my initial question is...my excitement is still greater than my disappointment.

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Sounds like you've done about par for homebrew #1. RDWHAHB, it will be homebrew and unless you try really hard to "F" it up, it will be good homebrew. As for what you didn't do, we all miss stuff from time to time (particularly when drinking and brewing) and it still ends up great beer.

pldoolittle said:

That's like putting eggs and salt into a bowl and being upset that it doesn't taste like a poundcake yet.

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I dig this analogy. Good call.

pldoolittle said:

I'm always looking for detailed feedback, so I'll offer same. If I come off like a d**k, I apologize. It wasn't intended.

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Great post...and I think you came off pretty d**kless, myself

Revvy said:

Don't judge a beer before it's time unless you have had at least a dozen beers under your belt....once you've tasted a ton of samples then you can begin to gauge what a beer will taste like....

New brewers have no reference to judge from.

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I agree. You also can't judge your beer off of one hydro sampling. A second sampling a week or two later will let you know how the flavor is developing.

To the OP: One thing that gets missed a lot. Many of us are geeks (myself) and apply a lot of science and technical detail to this hobby because of who we are. But the reality of this hobby is that it is not science but an art. And just like any creative art, there are a whole lot of ways to arrive at the same "picture".

Step out of the box and think about what you're doing for a second: You're cooking... Dash of this, pinch of that. Some prefer gas, some electric. And while you do need a basic recipe to start with, the step-by-step mechanics are far less important than the result. In fact, too much "step by step" and too little "heart and soul" can make for a very boring result.

One last thought: Don't forget that at the end of all your painstaking effort you are just going to dump in a big glop of fungus in and let it massively infect your work. Think for a moment; Have you ever had any real trouble getting fungus to infect food you left out for a month? No... So unless you try, it's pretty tough to screw this process up...

Revvy said:

I think you came off pretty d**kless, myself

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Touche! A most excellent backhanded complement.

pldoolittle said:

To the OP: One thing that gets missed a lot. Many of us are geeks (myself) and apply a lot of science and technical detail to this hobby because of who we are. But the reality of this hobby is that it is not science but an art. And just like any creative art, there are a whole lot of ways to arrive at the same "picture".

Step out of the box and think about what you're doing for a second: You're cooking... Dash of this, pinch of that. Some prefer gas, some electric. And while you do need a basic recipe to start with, the step-by-step mechanics are far less important than the result. In fact, too much "step by step" and too little "heart and soul" can make for a very boring result.

One last thought: Don't forget that at the end of all your painstaking effort you are just going to dump in a big glop of fungus in and let it massively infect your work. Think for a moment; Have you ever had any real trouble getting fungus to infect food you left out for a month? No... So unless you try, it's pretty tough to screw this process up...



Touche! A most excellent backhanded complement.

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+1 on this post as well....also add in one other variable...homebrew is a living thing, as opposed to BMC, or coolaid... pretty dead thing things...

Beer is the result of the birth, life, eating, waste producing and reproductive cycle of yeasties....and since they are living it is unpredictable, and has it's own timeframe as well....That's why one should never worry if their krauzen looks different, or if it isn't ready on a certain date, or it stinks....Fermentation is wild and unpredictable regardless of how we geeks try to scientific it up....