Grain made it into bottles- drink it?

Ok, apologies for this question. I got my kit and started cooking before reading anything or knowing about this website. I guess its my nature to enjoy learning by mistake more than going in to something prepared!

Couple of things happened while making an Irish Stout- I steeped the chocolate malt, but for some inexplicable reason just threw the crystal malt into the boiling wort- which did not settle well when it was cooled and most of which followed the wort into the fermenter. Then, after 10 days in the fermenter and decent gravity numbers, it was bottled. Much of the grain followed the beer into the bottles. After about 10 days in bottles, I cracked one last night to decide if this batch was a lost cause for a first try... It is WAY overcarbed (foamed right out the top of the bottle when opened) and has a great deal of sediment- not the normal "good amount"- but a good deal of floating junk including a couple whole pieces of grain.

I tasted it- its not as bad as I had thought, but very very green tasting and grainy. I'd probably drink it if I had to based on the taste, but doubt I would share it.

I have read alot on here and know that sediment is part of the game...but this is more than just sediment. I am also worried about the carbonation, could I have just had a stalled fermentation before I bottled? Do I have bottle bombs on my hands?

Sorry for the newbie questions. I'll improve, I promise!

Did you do a hydrometer reading after the 10 days? I suspect that the fermentation wasn't complete when you bottled the stuff. You wont be able to stop the fermentation that might still be happening in the bottles, but you can definitely slow it. I've found that freezing a suspect bottle and waiting for it to turn into slush is pretty effective for keeping the foam down and helping get the liquid into a glass without esploding.

Did you put priming sugar in the bottles too?

It sounds like you bottled way too early, what was the starting and final gravities and how much priming sugar did you use. Also how did you add the priming sugar? If that is the case, you are going to have to relieve the pressure by gently prying the caps without destroying them and then resealing.

Btw, WELCOME to the forums

Good God, man! That was the most horrendous brewing session I've ever read about!

You might want to get the rest of your bottles into the fridge ASAP, as they might continue to ferment inside the bottles and explode. Shards of glass can be dangerous!

As was stated above I'd try aging in a cool location for a longer period of time and just use a small strainer when you pour your beer into a glass...

If it tastes good, drink it
If not, seal it in a box and then put the box into a plastic tub and then the whole thing somewhere cool and wait a month. If any of the bottles survive, taste it again

and for future reference. Never boil and grains

Homercidal said:

Good God, man! That was the most horrendous brewing session I've ever read about!

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Haha. It might have been. I literally got out the stuff from the box (brewer's best) and started going at it. I have since read the Joy of Home Brewing and everything I can find here...so maybe the next batch I do this weekend will be a bit less sloppy. I was very meticulous about sterilization, so I guess I had something going for me, lol.

I don't have the FG in front of me, but I saw no change over the course of a couple of days. It was close to the recipe's suggestion. I now suspect fermentation wasn't done, though. I primed by boiling the provided corn sugar and siphoning the beer on top of it. Actually, I had a little more water in the fermenter than was called for (maybe a half gallon) so I would have guess if anything I would have had too little sugar.

I guess I will see what happens in the next couple of weeks, and crash cool these guys and maybe strain out any floaties when I drink em'. For now they will be stored in a plastic container.

Thanks all for the feedback. I appreciate this forum- its a great resource. I'm printing out as much good info as I can get my hands on.

If the priming solution isn't fully homogeneous then some bottles will overcarb while others will be near flat.

I just hope the grains don't leech tannins from the boiling.

Sounds like you brew like me. In a hurry to do it, no time to get organized. It's a constant battle for me. It's really worth the time to get prepared.

John Palmer's brewing website

Check that site out. It's John Palmer's first edition of How to Brew, but in free website format. Good stuff! Just a bit different from Papazian's book. Both are great resources!

Have you come up with an appropriate name for your beer yet?

I would just wait, if the FG was in range of the recipie the carbination may not have fully saturated back into the liquid. I know there is that you tube video floating on this site with the guy opening one bottle a week over the 4 weeks after bottling and it really over foams if you open in early at the one stage, but wait another week and it is ok. So if you FG was ok then it should settle eventually. However it may have very off tastes from boiling some of the specialty grains. Luckily Irish Stout has such a choclaty, roasted malt flavor that dominates it may mask the off flavors, now if it was a light lager or a kolsch maybe not.

The first beer i ever brewed in college was a choclate stout (this was like 12 years ago at least) and it did the never ending foam thing as well. Now that was the worst brew session ever, my friends and I boiled the water in a frying pan to steep the grains, and then boiled extra water in a sauce pan (like 4 qt.) combined the steep frying pan stuff (of which we over boiled also) together, then boiled and hopped and tossed into a fermentor. We drank all of those, they were like drinkikng fudge litterly and now I look back, we were drinking it 2 weeks after bottling, so it was green to say the least, maybe if we waited it would have been fine, but we just figured we sucked and never tried brewing again for awhile.

cheers, and rdwhahb.

Homercidal said:

Have you come up with an appropriate name for your beer yet?

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I am thinking chewy raw acorn stout. LOL.

Thanks again, all. Let's hope my steam beer and pale ale go better than this. I'll take it a little slower this time.

Cheers!