Sampled my first batch

OK, I brewed a Honey Brown from AHS. I left in primary one week and secondary two weeks. I bottled it and sampled after two weeks.

The results? It was flat and tasted watered down. What could be some causes? I followed the directions to a T. I did leave a lot of gunk behind when transferring and I only ended up with 46 bottles. I would have thought that would have made it more carbinated. Should I shake up the bottles and give it another try? The ABV ended up ~5.6%.

I'm even more worried about it because I've already brewed and bottled my second batch (a Newcastle clone from AHS). Since I only ended up with 46 bottles of the first batch, I added more water and only transferred the batch ones (no secondary this time). I ended up with 58 bottles. I'm worried these will be even more flat and watered down. The ABV ended up ~4.75.


**Edit** Forgot to mention that there was ZERO head on the beer.

thx

It's really too early to worry, because two weeks is just an estimate of when to start sampling. I usually don't try one until 3 weeks in the bottle.

Keep it at 70 degrees and wait another week or so before trying another.

If you ended up with 58 bottles in your second batch, that's 696 ounces, or about 5 1/2 gallons bottled. So that one might be watered down some. In order to bottle 5.5 gallons, you might have started with even more. The recipe is for a 5 gallon batch, so I wouldn't worry about whether you get 45 bottles or 50 bottles. I'd just make the recipe as written, otherwise, it will be watered down. I don't even count my bottles when I bottle- just count out enough to make sure I have enough sanitized!

You say you followed the directions to a T so im assuming you did this, but if you forgot to add the priming sugar at bottling tiime this would have caused the lack of carbonation. Also, did you store these in the fridge right after bottling? this also would have caused the lack of carbonation.

58 bottles is a lot for a 5 gal batch. i usually get right about 48

If you added priming sugar, you could also give the bottles a gentle swirl to help agitate things and get it going. Don't hake just a little swirl, then store at 65-70 and your off.

If you didn't circulate the priming sugar well this could also cause the lack of carbonation since some bottle may not have gotten enough of any sugar in them.

I boiled 1.5 cups of water and added the priming sugar. I then put it in the bottling bucket prior to transferring from the secondary (so it self-mixes).

On my second batch (since I was consciously trying to have more volume), I boiled 2.5 cups of water for my priming sugar.

If my first batch already tastes watery to me, I have a feeling the second batch is going to be bad!!

The beer has been between 68-72 for the full time (fermentation to bottling). I stuck one bottle in the fridge to sample it. I forgot to mention too that it had a bit of a medicine taste to it. Had a hint of an alcohol bite to it. Hopefully, it just hasn't matured yet. I'm going to try another bottle tomorrow. That will be 6 weeks from brew (1, 2, 3 method).

Tried another for the holiday. It's been bottled for 3 weeks now. Had a much better head on it, but it didn't last long. Beer tasted much better, but after I drank the first half, I noticed a STRONG rubbing alcohol smell. So strong, I had to dump the rest of the brew. Odd.

That means you had some fusel alcohols in the beer, the culprit is usually fermentation temperatures that are too warm, anything over 70-74F.

Patience!

The head will improves for months, the 'hot' alcohol flavours will mellow out, and generally your beer will improve with time. 3wks, in my experience, is an absolute minimum for drinkability (wheat beers excepted). Most of mine haven't really hit their stride for over a month.

Relax! Don't worry! Have a homebrew!
(or, if there's not one ready, a commercial beer.)

Ferminting temps ranged from 68-72 so that jives with what you are saying. I thought ales could go from 65-75.

I'm drinking some 420 Sweet Water and letting it melow. No worries!