BrewOnBoard
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2008
- Messages
- 204
- Reaction score
- 7
I know, I know, wait and good things will happen.
So I bottled my first brew, which was mostly experimental, and I tasted it in all of its green, flat, warm, glory. Ick! It was sweet, tasted of apples, bananas and a hint of bubble gum. Not exactly what I was expecting.
The brew was a cooper's kit of dark ale (perhaps my first mistake) where I exercised restraint and followed the instructions against my will. On day 5 or so of fermentation I once spiked the temp to 90 deg in the fermentation room for about 30 minutes. I doubt that did anything too drastic though yeast activity stopped after that. Total time in the primary was 2.5 weeks.
I had some issues getting my bottling process down and much yeast was disturbed while bottling. It was quite sludgy and didn't instantly poof up and cloud the beer but I suspect that there is quite a bit of yeast in each bottle. Once I was done the leftover yeast sludge smelled of all the nasty things I tasted in the beer. Hopefully the abundance of yeast in the bottle won't contribute to ick taste and will instead facilitate quick cleanup of ick tastes and refinement of the proper flavors.
We shall see how this one ages.
BTW I boiled about a gallon of the beer at 180deg for 40 minutes or so. I then (with a sanitized spoon) scooped up some yeast sludge and added it back to the now NA gallon once it was at 80 deg. I added carb drops and bottled the NA beer.
Also a couple of plastic bottles which were 2/3 filled and capped were sitting precariously on top of the freezer. I think they fell in, though I'm not sure.... We'll see what happens with those.
Regardless of how the beer turns out, I learned a lot about the process and there's some changes in the pipe and, of course, more money to be spent at the LHBS....
BrewOnBoard
So I bottled my first brew, which was mostly experimental, and I tasted it in all of its green, flat, warm, glory. Ick! It was sweet, tasted of apples, bananas and a hint of bubble gum. Not exactly what I was expecting.
The brew was a cooper's kit of dark ale (perhaps my first mistake) where I exercised restraint and followed the instructions against my will. On day 5 or so of fermentation I once spiked the temp to 90 deg in the fermentation room for about 30 minutes. I doubt that did anything too drastic though yeast activity stopped after that. Total time in the primary was 2.5 weeks.
I had some issues getting my bottling process down and much yeast was disturbed while bottling. It was quite sludgy and didn't instantly poof up and cloud the beer but I suspect that there is quite a bit of yeast in each bottle. Once I was done the leftover yeast sludge smelled of all the nasty things I tasted in the beer. Hopefully the abundance of yeast in the bottle won't contribute to ick taste and will instead facilitate quick cleanup of ick tastes and refinement of the proper flavors.
We shall see how this one ages.
BTW I boiled about a gallon of the beer at 180deg for 40 minutes or so. I then (with a sanitized spoon) scooped up some yeast sludge and added it back to the now NA gallon once it was at 80 deg. I added carb drops and bottled the NA beer.
Also a couple of plastic bottles which were 2/3 filled and capped were sitting precariously on top of the freezer. I think they fell in, though I'm not sure.... We'll see what happens with those.
Regardless of how the beer turns out, I learned a lot about the process and there's some changes in the pipe and, of course, more money to be spent at the LHBS....
BrewOnBoard