Well...how bad did I screw up?

Hi all.

Finally found the time to brew up my first batch today.

In my usual arrogant, smart-Alec fashion, I decided it would be a good idea to create my own all-grain recipe, naturally having zero brewing experience.

Yeah. I'm already regretting it.

My idea sounded kind of cool on paper; I wanted to do a sort of dark Oktoberfest/pumpkin-style ale with a bit of a twist.

For my one-gallon batch, I used about 1/2 oz of ground pumpkin, 1/2 oz Chinese Five Spice and some Allspice (a teaspoon or so). I also used a little (less than one teaspoon) Irish Moss in the last 15 minutes of the boil, as well as less than 1 oz in total of hops (pellets, probably about 3/4 oz in all).

After cooling the wort down, I strained it into my glass apple cider jug before pitching the yeast. Now here's the problem: there's just TONS of sediment sitting on the bottom of this thing. We're talking 3 solid inches collected on the bottom of the jug of like...I don't even know what. I mean, I guess it's all the pumpkin and spices I put in there, but I really didn't think I used THAT much!

What happened? Did I use too much Irish Moss? Did I just use WAY too much of the spices for only a 1 gallon batch? Would it have been fine if my strainer didn't suck so bad?

If I strain the batch into another glass jug to remove some more of the sediment, will it be salvageable? Should I give it 2-3 weeks then do a secondary fermentation to clear it up?

I'm pretty lost here. I have a feeling the batch is completely ruined and I should probably toss it to make room for a new one. But before I did anything drastic, I figured I would field these questions to the remarkably knowledgeable community on this forum.

Thank you for reading.

You don't sat anything about how you mashed the grain.

Hope it all works out OK.

Many of us like to get a lot of the 'trub' out before it gets into the fermenter, but it doesn't hurt; it just reduces the final beer volume.

Let it bee, and see what it does.

from what I have read, keep it. taste it. drink it up. did you take a gravity reading?

that's just normal trub. Protein and hops and whatnot. It'll be cloudy while it ferments and then it will clear up. Don't sweat it and don't do anything stupid like dumping it. Let it go, you'll be surprised how much it will clear.

Okay, I realize I didn't mention anything about the mash; I apologize.

I used four different types of grain, a total of 3 lbs. It was my first time doing this, but it seemed to go pretty well and everything looked a lot like the how-to videos I have seen. I used Vienna, Munich, Caramunich II, and Organic Munich, if that helps. The boil looked pretty good to my amateur eyes; the hot break came, then hops; 30 minutes in, some more hops; 45 minutes in is when I added all of the spices and stuff. In the last 10 minutes I added a little bit more hops. Again, a little less than 1 oz of hops total for this batch, less than 2 oz total of spices. It was pretty damn clear going into the boil, but after adding all the spices and hops it was looking rather blotchy. I thought the straining would have rectified this, and I did take out a lot of solids from the wort. The sediment at the bottom of this sucker is serious, though; I haven't seen any videos that looked like this.

I FORGOT to take a gravity reading before putting the wort into the fermenting jug, and I'm really upset about this. So I stuck the hydrometer into the jug as a last-ditch effort, anticipating a shotty reading, and it said something like 1.14. I don't think that's accurate, though. I anticipated about 1.08.

I am definitely happy that you guys are saying this kind of sediment might not be a problem. Do you think I should do a secondary fermentation to further clarify the beer? When I do that, should I strain the beer again, or would that reactivate the yeast too much?

Thanks so much for all of the quick responses.

Without saying what kind of grains and how much you used, it's a little hard to say what to expect. Trub is more significant with all grain recipes though, compared with extract batches.

knots said:

After cooling the wort down, I strained it into my glass apple cider jug before pitching the yeast. Now here's the problem: there's just TONS of sediment sitting on the bottom of this thing. We're talking 3 solid inches collected on the bottom of the jug of like...I don't even know what. I mean, I guess it's all the pumpkin and spices I put in there, but I really didn't think I used THAT much!

Click to expand...

knots said:

I'm pretty lost here. I have a feeling the batch is completely ruined and I should probably toss it to make room for a new one. But before I did anything drastic, I figured I would field these questions to the remarkably knowledgeable community on this forum.

Click to expand...

I would just leave it be and let it ferment. The trub will compact down a lot over time.

I unexpectedly had 2 gallons of trub with my last all grain pumpkin ale. Just let it sit in the primary for a few weeks then siphon off the usable beer. It will be fine I think.

You say .5oz ground pumpkin. Did you mean pumpkin pie spice? if so your spice is probably 1/2 of what I put in my 5 gallon batch so I think you are way over spiced.

JeepDiver said:

You say .5oz ground pumpkin. Did you mean pumpkin pie spice? if so your spice is probably 1/2 of what I put in my 5 gallon batch so I think you are way over spiced.

Click to expand...

No, I actually meant like a pumpkin ground up, not the spice. Either way I'm probably way over spiced. Thanks.

An update:

Already this afternoon the brew is looking a lot better. Some of the trub has already dissipated, it appears. And the yeast look to be having a field day.

Thanks very much for all of the great replies.

I used 3 lbs. of grains for this one gallon batch. Modeled it after recipes used by the Brooklyn Brew Shop, although I do now feel that it is over spiced and possibly over hopped.

The sheer amount of trub was just striking to me. Literally 3 inches of solid sediment was sitting at the bottom of this thing yesterday. Now it's already lessened a bit, but it still doesn't look pretty. I've never seen any videos that looked this bad, so I was/am pretty worried.

If I leave it in the primary for 2 weeks and siphon it over a strainer into a secondary for another 2 weeks (then bottle with some table sugar for ANOTHER 2 weeks), will this be a good idea to reduce even more sediment? My concern about siphoning over a strainer is that this will aerate the beer too much and wake up the yeast in the secondary. Think it'll be alright if I give it another 2 weeks in there?

Thanks again, all.

EDIT: If this helps, I'm looking for this thing to be 7%+ ABV. Used Carramunich, Vienna, Munich grains.

When you are done with your primary 2-3 weeks however your process is, cold crash your bucket or transfer to smaller buckets for a day. Refrigerator shelves typically can withstand 50 pounds of weight but you may want to check into your fridge specifications. I've even had my 6 gallon fermentor sit in an ice bath in my sink for 6 hours and that was enough to get most of the sediment to settle out. Usually grains and hops will settle anyways regardless of temperature. Before you siphon do not disturb the bucket at all, tip the bucket when you get towards the end and try not to get every last drop when you are near the bottom.

I need to pay more attention to that last step as well