1st brew today - I had 4 errors!

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pkfrerich

pkfrerich

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Hi - thanks for everyone's input to the site...I've learned so much over the last few months. Today, I did my first brew - it was an extract IPA recipe. I think I made 4 errors...would love your thoughts on the severity. Did I ruin my batch?

Today was an incredible learning experience...yes, I'm oficially addicted!

1) I put the grain in the water right after adding water to the pot....then turned on the gas an brought it to 150, at which point I turned off the heat for 30mins to steep. Should I have waited to add the grain bag?

2) I totally had a brain freeze and forgot to add the last hops addition...the recipe called for 1oz of finishing hops after the heat was turned off. I was prepping the sink with ice to chill the wort and totally forgot. I assume my IPA will be more bittier than usual?

3) As I was pulling the pot from the chiller in the sink, I paused as my labrador came in to the kitchen...when doing so the pot holder dipped into the water on accident and then dripped (after I lifted my hand) into the wort for a second or two. I was so bummed - a few drops fell into the wort. Probably hard to predict, but the untreated tap water may intorduce unwanted bacteria?

4) When I pitched the yeast, the temp read just under 80 degrees...maybe 78 or so. My kids were super restless and I was under the gun - such is life. I"ve read that close to 75 degress is preferrable. How much will the few degress of heat impact the yeast.

Thanks for any insight. My carboy is is the closet and I'm anxiously awaiting fermentation. Hopefully, it's worth bottling in 3-4 weeks.

Thanks,
Phil
 
pkfrerich said:
Hi - thanks for everyone's input to the site...I've learned so much over the last few months. Today, I did my first brew - it was an extract IPA recipe. I think I made 4 errors...would love your thoughts on the severity. Did I ruin my batch?

Today was an incredible learning experience...yes, I'm oficially addicted!

1) I put the grain in the water right after adding water to the pot....then turned on the gas an brought it to 150, at which point I turned off the heat for 30mins to steep. Should I have waited to add the grain bag?

2) I totally had a brain freeze and forgot to add the last hops addition...the recipe called for 1oz of finishing hops after the heat was turned off. I was prepping the sink with ice to chill the wort and totally forgot. I assume my IPA will be more bittier than usual?

3) As I was pulling the pot from the chiller in the sink, I paused as my labrador came in to the kitchen...when doing so the pot holder dipped into the water on accident and then dripped (after I lifted my hand) into the wort for a second or two. I was so bummed - a few drops fell into the wort. Probably hard to predict, but the untreated tap water may intorduce unwanted bacteria?

4) When I pitched the yeast, the temp read just under 80 degrees...maybe 78 or so. My kids were super restless and I was under the gun - such is life. I"ve read that close to 75 degress is preferrable. How much will the few degress of heat impact the yeast.

Thanks for any insight. My carboy is is the closet and I'm anxiously awaiting fermentation. Hopefully, it's worth bottling in 3-4 weeks.

Thanks,
Phil
Click to expand...

Congrats on the 1st beer! It is a great, but addicting and wallet draining hobby.

1. You should have waited, but I don't forsee any problems because of it.

2. Forgetting the last hop addition won't add to bitterness but take away from flavor. You'll have less hop flavor that you should have for an IPA. Who knows, it could turn out great...

3. A few drops isn't going to hurt anything. I think people tend to get overly worried about infections because of the emphasis we put on sanitation. As long as your yeast takes off fairly quickly, you usually never have to worry because the yeast will overpower any bacteria that's gotten into the beer.

4. 78 is fine. Just try to get it a bit lower next time. I actually like to get mine to whatever temps I'll be fermenting at. Most of my ales ferment at 68 degrees with the exception of a few styles.

You're on the right track with the idea of waiting a few weeks to bottle. The longer you wait, the better the beer. Keep it in primary for at least 3-4 weeks for a great final product.
 
thank you for the thoughts. I'm already thinking of buying another carboy and having another brew day soon, even before I bottle this batch. As I mentioned, I learned so much today, looking forward to continuing my journey...
 
If you still have the finishing hops, maybe you could dry hop with them...
 
qvantamon said:
If you still have the finishing hops, maybe you could dry hop with them...
Click to expand...

This is precisely what I would do. If you still have them throw them in after a week or so, just be careful when racking to the bottling bucket/keg. Without this step you might be missing out on some hop aroma depending on the other hop additions.
 
++ on dry hopping with those finishing hops.

honestly, your errors are on the mild side.

my first brew went like this:

1. BOILED the specialty grains and left them in the pot for the duration
2. dripped runoff water from an ice bath into the fermenter
3. used bleach instead of sanitizer and thought it was no rinse

You got off easy. :)
 
1)
when i started out i was doing extract recipes from my LHBS, and all of them called for putting the grains in the cold water and allowing them to soak while the water heated to 160. then holding that temp for 30-60 min. so you should be fine.

2)
Dry hop, maybe even with 2 oz. this will give you some of the aroma and flavor that you missed by not adding the late addition. with an IPA i usually dry hop for 7-10 days with 2oz of hops.

3)
To this one i say, RDWHAHB :) Your beer is stonger than you think. Sure there is a very small chance that there might be something nasty in there, but i wouldn't worry about it. After all you usually add 1-2 gallons of top off water to the carboy when doing extract anyways, so a few drops from the tap shouldn't hurt.

4)
I usually shot for the low 60's when pitching, but that is just me. Both my brew buddy and I have pitched in the mid 70's and the beers came out just fine.

congrats on the 1st brew!! I think an IPA is a good way to start, it allows you to cover up any errors with all that hoppy goodness :ban: My 1st beer was an IPA.
 
great, thank you for the feedback. The suport here is exactly why I signed up. Thank you for helping me to decide to upgrade my membership.

I do still have the 2oz hops in the fridge - I figured out that I forgot to add while pulling a microbrew from the fridge after cleaning everything. Btw, is there anything finer than having a beer after you finiished brewing for the day???

BTW, a lesson learned this morning: get a blow-off tube! The foam this morning is ROLLING through the top! Paper towels are now firmly wrapped around the neck. I was told at my lhbs that an airlock would be just fine...ha! Hope the storm passes without too much more outflow.

Now off to use the search function to learn more about "dry hopping."
 
pkfrerich said:
great, thank you for the feedback. The suport here is exactly why I signed up. Thank you for helping me to decide to upgrade my membership.

I do still have the 2oz hops in the fridge - I figured out that I forgot to add while pulling a microbrew from the fridge after cleaning everything. Btw, is there anything finer than having a beer after you finiished brewing for the day???

BTW, a lesson learned this morning: get a blow-off tube! The foam this morning is ROLLING through the top! Paper towels are now firmly wrapped around the neck. I was told at my lhbs that an airlock would be just fine...ha! Hope the storm passes without too much more outflow.

Now off to use the search function to learn more about "dry hopping."
Click to expand...

There's not much to dryhopping. You just want to use a variety that you're familiar with and enjoy. You want the drop them into the fermentor and let them sit for about a week. After that, you can either siphon off of it and allow it to age a bit more or bottle. With IPA's, I suggest bottling after 2-3 weeks so it's as fresh as possible while you're drinking it.

As for airlocks...most of the time, you won't need a blowoff if you're using a 6.5 gallon carboy. Some yeasts like to go crazy more than others though. American Ale is one of my favorites to use, and it always creates a nice mess unless I use a blowoff.
 
I forgot my knockout hop addition once on a pale ale I brewed. While the wort was whirl-pooling, I took the hops and some water and heated them up to 180F and let it stand a couple minutes at that temp, the "hop tea" you can search for and read about here. That beer had some serious hop aroma. Happy accident. I don't see any reason you can't do that right now or maybe after fermentation is complete. Dry hopping is good, but it's a different aroma than flame-out additions.
 
I have to disagree with everyone here, you've made some VERY serious errors that will likely result in a perfectly drinkable beer despite your best efforts to the contrary. You should immediately rebrew but make a different beer (don't want to screw the same one up twice right?). As for the first, you should dump it, but wait until it is done fermenting, then begin to dispose of it carefully by putting it in bottles with a little sugar, cap them and age for a few weeks. Once they're done aging, you're set to start getting rid of the horribly drinkable beer you tried to not make by chilling the bottles down for a few days and then popping the tops off and forcing it down your throat to punish you for what you've done.

Congrats and welcome to the obsession! :mug:
 
Who is your local LHBS? I ask, because I did HopTech's IPA a few months back and you could either steep the last hop addition or dry hop, they kind of left it up to you. I dry hopped mine and it turned out good. We also changed up the hops from the regular kit they sell.
 
Gremlyn - thanks for the laugh!

Shooter - I used a lhbs in Livermore. I chose the "Livermore IPA" recipe and it called for the second addition of hops right after the heat was turned off. I just checked the bag and they're Czech Saaz. It's actually only 1oz, so maybe I'll go get another bag and throw in 2oz early next week to dry hop.

Update: just checked on my first born and the cork and airlock were sitting on the floor of the closet. No too much of a mess - just some foam drizzling down about a quarter of the way down the towel. I resterilized the cork and airlock and put back in position. Now I'm only getting bubbling with just a minimal amount of foam. This is too fun. Amazing hobby. Go yeast, GO!
 
pkfrerich said:
Shooter - I used a lhbs in Livermore. I chose the "Livermore IPA" recipe and it called for the second addition of hops right after the heat was turned off. I just checked the bag and they're Czech Saaz. It's actually only 1oz, so maybe I'll go get another bag and throw in 2oz early next week to dry hop.

Update: just checked on my first born and the cork and airlock were sitting on the floor of the closet. No too much of a mess - just some foam drizzling down about a quarter of the way down the towel. I resterilized the cork and airlock and put back in position. Now I'm only getting bubbling with just a minimal amount of foam. This is too fun. Amazing hobby. Go yeast, GO!
Click to expand...

I know the place you're takling about, but haven't had a chance to get out there. I usually go to either HopTech or More Beer. HopTech's a lot closer, but they have really restricted hours on Saturdays and are closed Sundays.

Keep an eye on that fermenter, you may need to rig a blowoff! :mug:
 
yes, I'm keeping a close eye on my fermenter - it's slowed to a bubble. The foaming has stopped, just a gentle consitent bubbling.

I'm the only one I know amongst my friends home-brewing. So this website is golden. I'd love to find out about other lhbs in the bay area or in NoCA. I've heard about more beer (I still need to visit). Thank you Shooter. I'll have to google HopTech. Never heard of that one. Again, thanks for the direction.
 

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