giving it another go

Ok, so long story short I got all the equipment to homebrew about 2 years ago and made a batch of true brew ipa. I took it too serious, felt like I was screwing everything up, waited til the last minute to gather and clean bottles, blah blah blah. The beer tasted awful to me but friends told me it wasn't the worst they ever had. Ater reading around online and talking to people that homebrew i found out that perhaps it was the kit I used because a lot of people end up not liking it. I tasted the maple wheat when i transferred it and it was much much better.

Basically I turned myself off to it. But here I am 2 years later and i have a renewed interest. It helps that a friend of mine got into brewing so now I have someone to share the hobby with. Right now i have a maple wheat ale in secondary, and a chocolate cherry porter that was placed into primary last night. I was very happy to see the airlock bubbling away this morning. I also plan to get a batch of dead guy ale going this week.

Once you stop treating this like a job and more like a hobby It's pretty fun! I can't wait to taste that porter it smelled great after the boil. Waiting stinks! But if i keep this pace up I will always have delicious homebrews on hand.

Thanks for sharing the happy story. The forums focus on sharing experiences and solving common problems. Often can lead the the mistaken impression that every batch is a host of problems.

Congrats on gettin back on the horse. I hope the Maple Wheat comes out awesome.

smokeyfisherman said:

Ok, so long story short I got all the equipment to homebrew about 2 years ago and made a batch of true brew ipa. I took it too serious, felt like I was screwing everything up, waited til the last minute to gather and clean bottles, blah blah blah. The beer tasted awful to me but friends told me it wasn't the worst they ever had. Ater reading around online and talking to people that homebrew i found out that perhaps it was the kit I used because a lot of people end up not liking it. I tasted the maple wheat when i transferred it and it was much much better.

Basically I turned myself off to it. But here I am 2 years later and i have a renewed interest. It helps that a friend of mine got into brewing so now I have someone to share the hobby with. Right now i have a maple wheat ale in secondary, and a chocolate cherry porter that was placed into primary last night. I was very happy to see the airlock bubbling away this morning. I also plan to get a batch of dead guy ale going this week.

Once you stop treating this like a job and more like a hobby It's pretty fun! I can't wait to taste that porter it smelled great after the boil. Waiting stinks! But if i keep this pace up I will always have delicious homebrews on hand.

Click to expand...

I agree that waiting stinks and I'm guilty of sampling a bottle before it is ready just to get a hint of what it will be like when it really is ready to drink.

Your maple wheat was a good choice for this first (second) brew because it won't take too long to be ready to drink but your porter will take a while to get really good. Don't rush it. When you just can't wait any longer to sample, chill just one bottle (two if there are 2 of you) for at least 2 days, then let it sit out on the counter for an hour before you open it. If you have it chilled really cold it won't have much flavor and way too much bitterness but warmed slightly the chocolate and cherry will come out. Wait another 2 to 4 weeks to sample again and note the change. I think you will learn to wait after having that second sample.:rockin:

Thanks for the words of encouragment guys, I don't see myself "quitting" again this time. I will be asking plenty of questions on here but for the most part I will try to utilize the search feature so i dont ask things that have been dealt with a thousand times already.

I did the maple wheat because it seemed like the easiest recipe to follow in "clone brews" recipe book out of the ones I was interested in... I swear, the 8.5% abv had nothing to do with it

For the maple wheat I used a brew belt to keep it warm... What a PITA those things are! I was using pens to place between the belt and the bucket to control how much heat the brew got. Enough of that crap. My porter is sitting in a big plastic tote filled just past the 4 gallon mark on the bucket with water and i am using an aquarium heater to control temp. So far it is working great.

I just got home from work and holy crap, that porter is fermenting way harder than my 2 previous brews. I just counted 97 burps from that air lock in one minute. Yowza. Exciting to say the least. Instructions said ferment between 65 and 75 degrees... seems like a large range to me so i have it set to 70.

As far as aging it goes I am prepared to let the porter sit longer. The instructions said to let it sot for two months to age. I plan to set a case aside and drink one once a week and note the changes.

Ok... I just did some quick research on here and it looks like 70 is too high for a porter? A tad late now. Damn.

70F is a bit high for anything except a Belgian. One plus, since you have cherry in the mix, a little more fruitiness won't be the problem it could be in, say, a Pale. And 70F isn't high enough to develop fusel alcohols.

The lowest setting on the aquarium heater is 68. A lot of the recipes in clone brews I chose because they say to ferment between 68 and 72. When summer rolls around i was thinking of doing a mini fridge mod, but for now the aquarium heater is the best way for me to maintain consistency in ferment temps. That brew belt got my maple wheat up to 74-75. I hate that thing. Useless piece of junk with no temp control.

One oz fuggles pellets after steeping grains, 1/2 oz tetnang after 30 minute boil, additional 1/2 oz tetnang after 15 minutes gently boiled for 5 minutes. The cherry is a bottle of cherry beer flavoring added with priming sugar at bottling time.

EDIT: this is a kit bought from LHBS it was a recipe of the month kit. The owner of the shop seemed to feel it was one of the best ones they sell fwiw.

Gravity on the maple wheat is at. 1.020 right now and recipe says it finishes at 1.016-1.018 so with any luck i will be bottling on saturday. The brew is clearing up nicely in the carboy and it actually tastes a lot better than my original attempt.

Also, I read about using oxiclean to remove labels from bottles on here. I will be the next guy to say that works great. I started soaking 2 cases of Sierra Nevada bottles on saturday night. I just finished rinsing them off. The labels fell right off and the glue wiped clean with almost no effort. This is great because dealing with the bottles was a MAJOR downside to this hobby originally because I waited til the night before bottling to gather and clean all my bottles. I got them from the redemption center.... Never again. Now i just know i have to drink 4 cases of sierra Nevada for every batch. Probably my least favorite part of brewing

Clean bottles as you get them, what a concept! Save them up ahead of time, that just makes too much sense!

The advice given earlier about patience is invaluable and highly accurate.

Rather than shooting for bottling the maple wheat this Saturday it might be more beneficial to establish, over say a 2 to 4 day period, that your FG has indeed been reached and the SG readings have ceased dropping THEN wait at least a week more, two wouldn't hurt either, to allow the yeast to clean up certain flavours and aromas created during the initial attenuation phase that might impact negatively on your brew. 8.5%ABV is a pretty decent strength brew so I'd have thought it would definitely benefit from longer on the yeast cake and a considerable period of bottle conditioning. Just an opinion though.

Looking forward to hearing how it turns out.

After reading as much as i have on here in the last few days I am wishing I had just left it alone in the primary, I agree that leaving it on the yeast cake would have been a good idea. The recipe in the book said to rack to secondary after 4-5 days or "when fermentation slows". I waited six to be safe, and now i think I may be convinced by a lot of the members in this site to put brews into primary and leave them there for 3 or 4 weeks.

I brewed my third batch today am I'm all nerves... Again.... So I can relate. I Just want to hear it bubble once.... just so I know it's brewing..... AHHHHH!!!! WHEN WILL I STOP WORRYING!?!?! It's getting better though. I think....

BlainD said:

I brewed my third batch today am I'm all nerves... Again.... So I can relate. I Just want to hear it bubble once.... just so I know it's brewing..... AHHHHH!!!! WHEN WILL I STOP WORRYING!?!?! It's getting better though. I think....

Click to expand...

LOL. Possibly the first thread I read through in earnest after finding HBT was the one below. If you haven't already, read through and put your mind at ease. Not to mention having a good laugh along the way.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/think-you-ruined-your-beer-set-your-fears-aside-74520/

I think the next threads I browsed thoroughly after that were Revvy's threads on not dumping a batch, no matter how dire things seem initially and fermentation taking up to 72 hours to get going, in some cases.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/fermentation-can-take-24-72-hrs-show-visible-signs-43635/

I know.... I know.... I really shouldn't worry.I've read them all but I can't help it.....

I like a bit of fruity character to most of my english ales so I usually ferment on the hot side. You'll be fine. If the fruitiness is too pronounced for you, just serve in a chilled/frosted mug, and drink it before it warms up. I serve at 40 and pour in a warm room temp mug to get closer to a 50°+ serving temp. Oh yeah, leave it on the cake for another few weeks, It'll clean up. big beers take longer.

Random note here... I just looked at my join date for this forum and realized the other major reason I was able to walk away so easily the first time.... I was broke.

Now its winter, i have steady income, and since fishing and hunting is basically over for the next few months I got money to spend. This could easily turn into half a dozen primarys going at once...

Having a few beers in the pipeline will also give you more patience. You tend not to rush the current beer in the primary or secondary when you've already got 2+ beers bottled/kegged that you're drinking regularly.