taste test

i swear ill let them sit for another week, but i had to taste my first beer today just had to. They have been bottled for about two weeks im going to give it another week. I chilled one in the fridge over night and im drinking it now. When i poped the bottle it was only a small fizz reaaly quick and light should it have been more of a pop and louder,im not too sure. it tastes carbonated (and good, a little lighter than i wouldve thought) and just a smaal amount of head. Will it carbonate more in the next week or did i do something wrong.

I brewed it in a kit with premesured priming sugar and everrything else.
Its an IPA extract kit.
I bottled it reaaly early, just about ten days in the primary fermenter, no secondary (forgot to take a hydrometer reading until it was almost done being bottled (1.019)
Its been in bottles a little cold for the past two weeks, about 60-64

Anything i should due to improve it over the next week. IM reaaly not worried at all, and im am having a hombrew and very relaxed, i was just curious.

At 60-64 degrees, it takes longer to carbonate. Don't worry- just give it more time. Or, put it somewhere it's 70 degrees and it'll carb up in 2 weeks or less.

My house is cold, and some of my ales take 3-4 weeks to fully carb. If you want, just move 5 or 6 someplace warmer for a week, then try those. They'll hold you over until the rest of them carb, assuming you only "sample" one per day!

moving them now thanks alot

IN regards to me bottling them at 1.019 has keeping them cool prevented them from these supposed bottle bombs i hear so much about if so should i worry about moving htem someplace warmer in regards to these "bottle bomb" things i keep reading about

It sounds like you did OK for your first time around. Don't get too hung up on the level of carbonation. Its better that you didn't overcarbonate. All the goodness in the beer doesn't come from carbonation. That just enhances the mouthfeel.

Just one hint though, after bottling store your bottles at the same temperature your primary fermentation took place at. This will ensure the yeast remains active. 60 degrees might have slowed down some of the yeast and hindered the carbonation a bit. Also the best way to know when to bottle, is to take hydrometer readings over a several days. When you are reading the same SG over a three day period, then it's OK to proceed with bottling.

Sometimes when you're starting out, it's better to brew a number of batches before you start making alterations to your technique, procedures or equipment. This way you'll be able to pick up on what things in your final product that are consistently "off". You can then set out to correct them from there. If you make big changes from batch to batch, it becomes a little more difficult to troubleshoot. In the end, homebrewing is a process that will teach you something new with every batch and you'll naturally improve.

Overall, you can be proud of your own handywork. Sit back and enjoy this batch and move onto the next.

If you move them or not, it won't matter. There is a certain amount of fermentable sugar added when you primed. That amount will eventually be consumed by the yeast, providing your carbonation. The rub is how quickly this happens is a function of temperature because the yeast activity is slowed at the colder temperatures. Of couse, if you put them too cold they will go dormant and you won't get any activity...but if you were to move those dormant yeasts to warmer temperatures (within a reasonable amount of time say less than 6 months is a guess, not sure how long they can live dormant off of their stores) then carbonation will resume.

The problem with bottle bombs comes into play when you add sugar on top of wort that has not pretty much fully fermented out. Then you have even more sugar and hence the potential for too much carbon dioxide which increases the pressure. Either that of if you dump way too much priming sugar the same situation will occur.

A cold refridgerator would arrest the yeast, but at the same time conditioning which mellows the flavors and completes the beer would halt which is why you don't want to make them very cold (unless of course you have a very tolerant lager strain which can remain active at fairly low temps).

Another often overlooked part of priming (and this is really a tweak to priming) is that the level of Carbon Dioxide that is already in your fermented wort is a function of temperature. In other words, there is more already there at lower temperatures, so there are charts where you can adjust for this fact.

here (from Palmer's site) you can see the dependency on temperature:

http://www.howtobrew.com/images/f65.gif

Oh forgot to add, I set my finished bottles in the basement and carbonate at around 56-58 F. It just takes longer than if I'd have them upstairs at 70 F.

ah that helps alot im getting dangerously obseesed with the hobby already. Ill be waiting on this brew fora nother week or two so i bought my self a couple smuttynose 22 ounce bottles a double bock and a wheat wine ale. i just bought them for the bottles but hell ill drink the beer too! maybe ill be inspired for the next recipee

tbulger said:

ah that helps alot im getting dangerously obseesed with the hobby already. Ill be waiting on this brew fora nother week or two so i bought my self a couple smuttynose 22 ounce bottles a double bock and a wheat wine ale. i just bought them for the bottles but hell ill drink the beer too! maybe ill be inspired for the next recipee

Click to expand...

Hehe. You know, whenever I make a new style I get the best commercial example I can to sample. That way I am reminded anew what it is I am shooting for.