is no airlock activity a bad sign...first brew!!!

Brewer's Friend 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
jethro55 said:
I can agree with these edits. If you mean that they should achieve that goal on the first few times, Then, no. It is not a reasonable goal in the beginning.
Click to expand...

But why not? Why is not making a good beer a reasonable goal? That's where I'm having trouble.

If a brewer uses a good kit, and ferments at 65 degrees, it certainly should be very drinkable.

I don't like seeing edicts like "leave your beer in the fermenter for three weeks and then four weeks in the bottle or it won't be good", as I don't think that's an achievable goal for newer brewers- at least not the first batch! But brewing is easy, and with good techniques and instructions a good beer is likely.

As long as sanitation is done, and a quality kit is used, then I see no reason that the first beer shouldn't be good.
 
I'm not arguing that it should be possible for the new brewer to make good beer in less than 2 months but have you read the instructions included in a Brewer's Best kit? Nothing about proper fermentation temperature, nothing about getting good, fresh yeast. I picked up one of those as my first brew without reading any book or finding HomeBrewTalk and my first beer was drinkable but certainly not good.

The question at the start of this thread was from a new brewer with a similar kit and he was 3 days into the ferment and the airlock hadn't bubbled. That was where I and others suggested the longer brew time and bottle time, to correct the off flavors that were almost certain to develop. You can't undo the things done to the beer in that period when it started too warm just by changing the temperature of the ferment.

That was the basis of my post #26 of this thread. The OP was getting confused by the idea that he could shorten his time and make his first batch quick and good. Let's work to make this brew as good as we can under the circumstances and then teach him to make the next batch right.
 
RM-MN said:
I'm not arguing that it should be possible for the new brewer to make good beer in less than 2 months but have you read the instructions included in a Brewer's Best kit? Nothing about proper fermentation temperature, nothing about getting good, fresh yeast. I picked up one of those as my first brew without reading any book or finding HomeBrewTalk and my first beer was drinkable but certainly not good.

The question at the start of this thread was from a new brewer with a similar kit and he was 3 days into the ferment and the airlock hadn't bubbled. That was where I and others suggested the longer brew time and bottle time, to correct the off flavors that were almost certain to develop. You can't undo the things done to the beer in that period when it started too warm just by changing the temperature of the ferment.

That was the basis of my post #26 of this thread. The OP was getting confused by the idea that he could shorten his time and make his first batch quick and good. Let's work to make this brew as good as we can under the circumstances and then teach him to make the next batch right.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. but then I would argue that three weeks (or even a year!) in the fermenter won't fix those mistakes. If you ferment a beer at 80 degrees, no amount of aging or conditioning will fix that!

But by "quality kits" I had been thinking more along the lines of Austinhomebrew.com or Northernbrewer.com, where the instructions are very good and the kits come with fresh ingredients and not canned LME.

Just like with cooking and poor quality ingredients, I wouldn't expect canned LME and poor quality yeast to yield a good result- even WITH a lengthy time in the fermenter.

Even so, saying "the beer should always spend three weeks in the fermenter" bothers me because it's simply not true.

Can it fix some mistakes? Maybe. Will it fix a bad beer? No. Leaving a beer in the fermenter for XXXX length of time is just not good advice. Generally longer the beer in the fermenter than a quick kit recommends is a good idea, but a blanket statement of "you must leave your beer for XX weeks in the fermenter" is misleading, as well as unnecessary for a well made beer.
 
RM-MN said:
I'm not arguing that it should be possible for the new brewer to make good beer in less than 2 months but have you read the instructions included in a Brewer's Best kit? Nothing about proper fermentation temperature, nothing about getting good, fresh yeast. I picked up one of those as my first brew without reading any book or finding HomeBrewTalk and my first beer was drinkable but certainly not good.[\B]

The question at the start of this thread was from a new brewer with a similar kit and he was 3 days into the ferment and the airlock hadn't bubbled. That was where I and others suggested the longer brew time and bottle time, to correct the off flavors that were almost certain to develop. You can't undo the things done to the beer in that period when it started too warm just by changing the temperature of the ferment.

That was the basis of my post #26 of this thread. The OP was getting confused by the idea that he could shorten his time and make his first batch quick and good. Let's work to make this brew as good as we can under the circumstances and then teach him to make the next batch right.
Click to expand...

All the more reason to tell the new brewer to control temps.
 
RM-MN said:
I think someone is making a Huge ass of himself, coming into the beginners forum and giving such advice.
First let's get them making beer that is drinkable.
Then lets work on getting them to make better beer by changing the way they brew.
Then we should work at refining their process so they can make great beer. Something to take to competitions and have a chance of placing if not winning.

Once they have all that down, then they can work on making beer fast.
Click to expand...

There's no constructive advice directed to the a OP in this post.

If you knew brewer's best's instructions omitted necessary advice, why not tell the brewer the right way to improve his/her brewing technique?
 

Similar threads

G
No activity in airlock, but there is Krausen
2
Replies
65
Views
2K
camonick
camonick
P
Taking FG reading
Replies
14
Views
810
Clint Yeastwood
Clint Yeastwood
_Keven
No activity after 12 hours using a yeast starter
Replies
15
Views
1K
_Keven
_Keven
Luxy
Fermentation...
Replies
6
Views
468
Rish
R
J
S05 Non Runner?
Replies
14
Views
403
Jack_0106
J
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top