Any suggestions on first beer?

Found this website online and this is my first post. I made a beer recently that I think is quite good, although maybe a bit sweet due to my use of Palm Sugar. Although the sweetness is kinda honey-like or caramalish which is kinda nice. Here was my method, it would be great if you could tell me if you spot anything easily wrong.

1) cleaned everything with no-rinse cleaner
2) boiled 25L water and let chill
3) Put 10L in carboy, put 15L in pot
4) Only let carboy water chill to 65-70 deg.
5) Add 250g Cara-crystal malt in stocking for 30min
6) Remove malt and boil
7) Add 3 kg Muntons light dry extract and stir
8) Right after add 20g hops "East Kent Golding"
9) after 20 min add another 20g hops
10) after 40min add another 20g hops and take off heat
11) add 10g Irish moss and let sit 10min
12) Put wort in carboy and chill as quick as possible
13) when wort reaches approx 24deg add 14g "Safale S-04" dry ale yeast
14) stir and put lid on

I did this on March 9th and then I bottled on March 16th which I realize is a short time. When I bottled, I boiled around 80 g palm sugar with .5L water and added to the wort 15 mins before bottling. Again, if anybody can see anything wrong with the method let me know! Also, if it would help, I can post a picture of the beer! One problem is the large amount of "milky goo" that was left on the bottom of my carboy. Because some of it made it's way into my bottles!

Sorry for everything being in the Metric system, but I live in Denmark and can't figure out the imperial system for the life of me...hope some of you know how to convert!

I am a new brewer as well but the first thing I notice is your addition of Irish Moss. You state adding 10g of irish moss which is equal to 2.02 teaspoons. I have always used 1 teaspoon for a 5 gallon batch. Which is what the instructions on the bottle call for as well as most recipes that call for it.

Also, you mention adding the moss after turning off the heat. It should be added the last 15 minutes of boil.

One thing I wouldn't do is adding boiling or near boiling wort directly to a carboy. I would do a ice bath in the sink

Ok thanks. Is there any reason for not adding it directly to the carboy? Just easier to cool down? Also, Pros or Cons to adding more or less irish moss? Thanks a lot guys, really appreciate it.

Adding near boiling water to directly to the carboy can break the carboy.
The wort will cool quicker in the metal brew kettle. Put the brew kettle in a ice bath to cool it down to the yeast pitiching temp, then transfer to the carboy. I follow the directions on the Irish Moss.

I wouldn't worry about the irish moss. It doesn't contribute any flavor. If you add too much the other problem is you will run out faster. As Irish Moss is dirt cheap I wouldn't worry. The biggest thing I noted was your use of cleanser. That is fine for your first batch as your equipment is fresh, but I would move to a sanitizer. (Like a Cleanser but it kills more things!) Another nice this about sanitzers like starsan is that you can leave them in a bucket for extended periods until it gets dirty.

Can anyone comment on the full boil? I never did a full boil with extract because I didn't have a big enough pot and my stove wasn't powerful enough, but it sounds like he has the capability of doing a full boil.

I'm a little confused by:

Step 4) Only let carboy water chill to 65-70 deg.

Was this supposed to mean the water you put in the carboy for later, or the water left in the boil kettle? I'm going to assume that you're using metric throughout, and this means ~150F. If you're steeping your grains in the kettle at that temp, that's perfect.

If that was the carboy water, not the kettle water, what temperature were you steeping your cara at?

Also, were you using a one-step cleaner/sanitizer? Because cleaning and sanitizing are not the same thing, and you need to do both unless you're using a one-step.

+1 on adding irish moss 15 minutes to the end of the boil. Although I don't think you used too much. But I wouldn't go much more than that.

and +1 on not cracking your carboys with a rapid temperature shock.

Wow, this is great, thanks again everybody. Duly noted on the Irish Moss, and you're right it is dirt cheap. I used a "no rinse hygenic cleaner" called "chemipro oxi". @Qhrumphf I guess that step does sound very unclear. That was the water that I left in the boil kettle, and I steeped the malt at that temp for 30 min. Also, didn't mention that my carboy is plastic and probably less likely to crack, but it's also probably a good idea to have it chill in the boil kettle. Any upside to letting it stay fermenting for longer than 1 week before bottling? Everywhere I read said to leave it for around 3 weeks, but it tastes good even after this 1 week and 1.5weeks in the bottle.

tak for hjælpen! (thanks for the help!)

What is the carbonation level like? I would be worried with that short of a primary and only a week and 1/2 in the bottle so far that there is still unused sugar in your beer and that could contribute to some of the sweetnes you are tasting.

The carbonation isn't super high right now, but it's definitely alright. I've been having 1 beer every 4 days to mark the change in carbonation, and it's quite rapid. I'm hoping that by week 3 it will be fully carbonated. A longer primary will make it more carbonated/alcoholic?

I should also mention that I put the hops, malt and irish moss all in stockings and removed after use instead of straining. Not really sure if this is right, but it seemed to work!

Looks like your Chemipro Oxi is sold as a one-step cleaner/sanitizer. I'd never heard of it, but from what I'm finding through Google some folks are saying it's not the best sanitizer out there. If it works for you, that's great. But if you start getting infections, in your brews, I'd switch to something like Idophor or StarSan for sanitizing (they are not cleaners but are VERY effective sanitizers) and PBW or oxyclean for cleaning.

If that was you're kettle water, that's a great steeping temperature.

With near boiling temperature, glass can crack or shatter, and plastic can warp or even melt. Plenty of folks have destroyed their Better Bottle plastic carboys by doing just what you did. Fortunately it was ok this time, but I wouldn't do it again. Leave it in the kettle until it's chilled.

And yes, 3 weeks = better than 1 week. Allows the yeast time to clean up after themselves. And in some cases, the yeast may take longer than a week to even finish active fermentation. The only beers I ferment less than 3 weeks are wheat beers, and then I do 2 weeks (assuming my hydrometer says the gravity is stable).

Longer primaries will not increase carbonation or alcohol, but will reduce/eliminate compounds that can cause off-flavors, and allow the various flavors of your beer meld together properly. The only way to increase carbonation is to add more priming sugar (or more C02 in your keg). Increasing alcohol would require either a recipe change (more fermentables or different yeast) or changes to your mash schedule (irrelevant if you're doing extract brews).

roedoejedeoerreder said:

Wow, this is great, thanks again everybody. Duly noted on the Irish Moss, and you're right it is dirt cheap. I used a "no rinse hygenic cleaner" called "chemipro oxi". @Qhrumphf I guess that step does sound very unclear. That was the water that I left in the boil kettle, and I steeped the malt at that temp for 30 min. Also, didn't mention that my carboy is plastic and probably less likely to crack, but it's also probably a good idea to have it chill in the boil kettle. Any upside to letting it stay fermenting for longer than 1 week before bottling? Everywhere I read said to leave it for around 3 weeks, but it tastes good even after this 1 week and 1.5weeks in the bottle.

tak for hjælpen! (thanks for the help!)

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Cleaning your equipment is removing matter from it. Sanitizing your equipment is killing germs. You can sanitize the top layer of gunk in your carboy, but it won't kill anything underneath it. A lot of people use PBW and Star San. You can get a jet cleaner that attaches to your faucet that blasts water into your carboy and bottles.

You can tell if your beer is done fermenting if it has reached its target final gravity. This is typically 1.012 - 1.008 for many styles. If it hits that, primary fermentation is done.

After primary fermentation is done, if you leave the beer in the fermenter for a total of 3 weeks, the yeast will begin to eat the byproducts it created earlier. That is, it cleans up after itself. At some point later than that, the yeast will start adding off flavors to your beer.

Most styles do not call for the beer to be sweet. In many cases, this is an indicator that your beer had not finished fermenting. If your beer is dry before priming but sweet after, you should wait a few more days and try it again.

All bottle conditioned beer has yeast sediment in the bottle unless it has been roused. For most beers, you will want to pour them into glasses and try to leave the sediment in the bottles. The exceptions are wheat beers, where it is acceptible (sometimes traditional) to rouse the yeast.

It's great that you enjoyed your beer. But you should not be afraid to trying to make it into a better beer.