first time brewer

Hello everyone,

I did my first brew yesterday and I'm afraid it feels like a small disaster.
As I was boiling everything my A/C died, and as it's >95F outside my apartment quickly got to above 80F inside. I ran out of ice for my ice bath and wasn't able to get the wort below 85F or so before I put it in the carboy. I put it in the bathtub with a wet towel on it and a fan blowing on it. I'm not really sure the best way to measure the temperature inside the carboy as I don't have one of those thermometer strips that goes on the outside, but the water in the tub never got below 80F.

On the bright side the blow out I had over night was easy to clean up since it was in the bathroom. I thought I was supposed to be fine fermenting a 5 gallon batch inside a 6 gallon carboy without needing a blow off tube; would the higher temperature cause this? In the future I will try to get a dedicated refrigerator for fermenting. My A/C seems to be working at the moment and I think I can get the place down to the low-70's. Is there any way to fix the damage caused by the higher temperatures or do I just cross my fingers?

The other big problem I had was pouring the wort into the carboy. My funnel/filter would get clogged after only a few cups, so I had to clean it out constantly. I had a hard time physically lifting the pot and aiming it at the little funnel, I ended up spilling an unacceptable amount of wort. Are hop bags effective in reducing the amount of solids in the wort? Is siphoning it into the carboy a viable alternative to pouring?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions

KeithMoonsLiver said:

I ran out of ice for my ice bath and wasn't able to get the wort below 85F or so before I put it in the carboy.

Click to expand...

The primary danger here is killing your yeast. Since you had a blow out, that obviously didn't happen so no worries!

KeithMoonsLiver said:

I thought I was supposed to be fine fermenting a 5 gallon batch inside a 6 gallon carboy without needing a blow off tube; would the higher temperature cause this?

Click to expand...

It absolutely can. Generally, the cooler the temperature the slower the yeast work. You're less likely to have blow offs when the temperature is tightly controlled (though they can still happen).

KeithMoonsLiver said:

Is there any way to fix the damage caused by the higher temperatures or do I just cross my fingers?

Click to expand...

You just have to cross your fingers. What's done is done. In the end, though, you'll still have beer.

KeithMoonsLiver said:

Are hop bags effective in reducing the amount of solids in the wort?

Click to expand...

Yes. I use 5 gallon paint strainer bags I get at Home Depot. I clip it to the side of my pot with binder clips. Simple, cheap, effective.

KeithMoonsLiver said:

Is siphoning it into the carboy a viable alternative to pouring?

Click to expand...

Yes, but you won't get the nice aeration effect of pouring and will either have to shake the bejesus out of it afterwards or use an aeration stone.

Really, you don't have to worry too much about keeping the break material out of the fermenter. In my opinion, it makes little to no difference in the end product. The only reason I use the paint strainer bag for hops is so I have less to clean and so the hop sludge doesn't clog my valve and such.

I had a similar issue with the funnel and filter screen. I would lift up the boil kettle and start pouring and then have to set down the kettle and use a sanitized spoon to scrape the junk off the filter screen.

Now I usually siphon in to the funnel with the filter screen. That way it still helps filter it out but it also aerates it a lot because the wort will hit the filter screen and then drop in to the fermenter.

This weekend I'll be building one of these hop strainers to make it easier all around between hop additions and clearing out the trub.

I built one of these, cheap & easy. But the hop strainers those guys mentioned are probably easier.

I keep meaning to get one of these siphon aerators to try it out, but I keep forgetting. That might help you get oxygen in if you siphon into the carboy.

so it's been in the bottle for about two weeks and I tried the first one
it's supposed to be an english style IPA brewed with S-04, but it has an odd smell which reminded me of an Orval but less pleasant
the taste was terrible. I'm not the greatest at verbalizing these things, but it was a sort of a plasticy/medicinal taste. I use filtered water, so I don't think it's the chlorine. Some flavors that could be construed as fruity, but very unpleasant- esters I assume.

I don't plan on dumping it unless I'm ever desperate for some bottles, but be honest with me- is there any chance of it improving to the point where it's drinkable? This isn't a matter of a few off flavors- this is terrible beer.

On the bright side my second beer, a hefeweizen, is just about ready to drink and it tastes great.

The IPA off flavors could be from the higher fermentation temps. Pitching at too high of a temp can result in off flavors. I'd invest in a small sump pump and a cheap cooler to start an ice bath in. Use your ground water to chill the wort as low as you can then run the ice water through the sump pump and into your chiller and you should have no problems getting your wort chilled to the needed temp. I brewed yesterday and got down to 65 in just over 10 minutes.