Is my beer dead? (pictures)

Hi Everyone,
Im working on my second batch of homebrew. Here is what I started with

6lb amber LME
1lb grain
cascade hops at 60, 30, 5, 0
The Og was 1.042 (should have been 1.052)

I pitched the yeast too warm ~78f and the fermentation went very quickly. after 3 days there was no activity in my airlock. i checked and my gravity was at 1.01. I racked the wort/beer off into a secondary fermenter (a second bucket) as you can see from the pictures the beer looked like mud. there was about 2 inches of yeast on the botom of the primary fermenter.

So my questions:
Because of the warm and fast ferment is this beer going to taste bad?
Should I just dump it out?
will the final product be a cloudy as the wort is now?
how long should i leave it in the secondary?

Thanks for any info.
-Eli

First off, welcome to the best hobby out there!

Never dump your beer. Ever. Let it ride, bottle it, wait a few weeks, and then try it. Time can have wonderful effects on even some of the worst tasting young beer. Sometimes the longer the better.

Since you already racked to secondary, leave for 7-14 days, then bottle. Fermentation is over if you are at 1.010 (only way to tell exactly is to take gravity readings several days in a row, obtaining the same values each day). Don't rely on your airlock, its only function is to let CO2 out and keep O2/contamination from getting in.

Some folks leave it in primary for 3-4 weeks, others secondary, etc. You will ALWAYS find varying opinions on the subject. Do what works for YOU. Your beer, after sitting for 7-14 days should clear up much more. You can always cold crash it too (cool down to low temps for day/days), which helps the yeast flocculate and drop out of suspension better/easier. Look at your yeast strain to determine how flocculant it is. Higher flocculation means it should clump easier and settle better from your beer, low flocculation means that more yeast will remain in suspension. Again, depends on your chosen yeast strain.

Again, don't dump it! I had a similar experience with my first couple of homebrews (i.e. way too warm ferm temps, very high in fusel alcohols). Drank most, used it for marinade/water in my smoker, cooking, baking, etc. Learn from your mistake, determine the best way you can control ferm temps (i.e. swamp cooler, ferm chamber, extra fridge with temp control, etc.) and go from there. Ferm temps are one of the (if not most) important steps in brewing good beer, and can be some of the best money spent in improving your beer. Establish your system, and focus on re-creating those results for each brew/fermentation, every time.

You may be pleasantly surprised how it turns out...! Never know if you dump it...

Ryan M.

thanks for the note, it cheered me up. i will keep it. cheers.

Check it again, keep editing it so you have more info...

Ryan has some good info there, but i'd like to extenuate that the temp at which your wort is at the time of pitching is very important. It may take a long time to hit but if you pitch too warm it's going to run away from you. I pitch at 65F, personally.

Also, it may be important to note that the primary fermentation is an exothermic process, ie it produces heat. I generally find my beer is around 10F warmer than ambient during primary fermentation, after that it's more or less room temp.

Get your wort chilled down to pitching temperature. If you want to ferment hot for a reason, and you will eventually learn good reasons to, then use temp control or free rise to get the temp up, never pitch hot.

Beer clears, it's generally pretty good at it. It takes time and preferably some fridge time but it'll drop out and clear, be patient.

Don't secondary unless you have a very good reason to. Pour through the forums to find out what those reasons are. Racking it off the cake just adds oxidation, potential for infection, and potentially stressed yeast if you do it before you reach terminal gravity.

So skip secondary, bottle your beer, and let it ride for 3 weeks. After that, try a bottle and see if it's drinkable. If not, leave it another month and try again. Eventually, unless something horrific happened, it will be delicious.

By pics I saw nothing wrong... normal average scum

I'd probably be racking to bottle now but I no longer secondary unless it's a long brett or souring process which can go on for up to a year. but I mainly do ales which are ready at no more than 30 to bottle or keg.

quick update. i bottled 2 weeks ago and am drinking my first beer of the batch now. its not bad. none of the hot fermentation side effects ( esters, rocketfuel taste ) are present. the beer tastes ok, i was going for a pale ale but it tastes more like a nut brown or somthing like that... time will be the true judge. thanks for all the info and for the support. this forum is great. quick question, will hop flavor become more present with aging?

elielilang said:

quick update. i bottled 2 weeks ago and am drinking my first beer of the batch now. its not bad. none of the hot fermentation side effects ( esters, rocketfuel taste ) are present. the beer tastes ok, i was going for a pale ale but it tastes more like a nut brown or somthing like that... time will be the true judge. thanks for all the info and for the support. this forum is great. quick question, will hop flavor become more present with aging?

Click to expand...

Hops generally fade some over time (depending on style/recipe) but I think yours will come out as the beer ages and the esters fade out... All things considered.. RDWHAHB

I'm pretty sure hop flavor becomes more subtle with time. But good luck with future beers. The best advice i got when i started brewing and putting up questions on the forums was RDWHAHB... relax, don't worry, have a homebrew.
Cheers

I think for the most part you have an answer, eh? The only thing I could add is, even if a batch goes it's bad keep it around (maybe less than a whole batch) with a polite question there are folks in our brew club ( maybe there is one near you) here that will suffer the taste to help you trouble shoot the brew. Its better to know and know how to correct the problem during the learning process.

Even at that four off flavored beers boiled with herbs, spices and some sauce and some vinager makes a nice meat marinade.