SUCCESS!! Sort of...

This was our 6th brewing attempt and I'm fairly confident this one will be our first successful brew. Our last attempt to reach proper efficiency was a failure and the Og was very low. This time around I picked a recipe geared towards a 60%(We hit about 50% last time) efficiency instead of a 75%, hoping we'd hit at least 55%. We ended up with 71% and too high of an OG. So I added just a smidge of tap water and got the OG down within recipe parameters. It felt very good not to finish a seven hour brew and have my hydrometer ruin everything with a disgustingly low reading. A little too high felt much better. I'm excited.

Congrats! A little more beer than you planned on is a good thing.

Depending on what you set out to do, those other beers may not have been failures.

Very few things are failures when they teach you not to fail next time.

Kevin Dean said:

Depending on what you set out to do, those other beers may not have been failures.

Very few things are failures when they teach you not to fail next time.

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Agreed just because you didn't get the ABV you wanted doesn't mean it was a failure. It means you call it a sessions brew and call it as such to impress your friends.

I agree! There aren't that many true failures in homebrewing, only alternative and unplanned successes. The only thing you might call a failure is when you just have to dump a batch (and I mean HAVE TO dump).


TL

Good efficiency is a continual goal. My 20th batch I finally hit over 80% efficiency. My first few batches were all in the high 60's. How are you calculating your efficiency? Are you adjusting for temperature and volume? If you are using your hydrometer with wort at, say, 150 degrees, you will be way off if you are not correcting for temperature. If you are measuring your pre-boil wort but using the post-boil volume you will also be way off. You might be closer to mid 70's than you think.

Bob,

What you're not telling us is how they taste.

We've only tasted our first......and it's not as awful as we expected...given all the issues we had while brewing it.....it's drinkable, but not tasty to any degree.....we're prtty positive that this #6 batch will be the first successful batch, as far as a brew that tastes good.

Cheesefood said:

Bob,

What you're not telling us is how they taste.

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I was convinced that the first batch would need to be dumped. We strongly considered dumping it but then decided to bottle it for the experience, in case we encountered problems later with a good batch. It pretty much tasted like the worst English style IPA I've ever had, and I don't care for English style IPA's. But if you put a bottle of that next to a bottle of MGD I wouldn't have to think about which one I'm drinking. It was very encouraging to see how an at least drinkable beer can be achieved through a complete cluster**** brewing process. I really should never have a beer worse then that first one, which is nice. This ESB I'm very excited for though. I think it will be like a real beer that real people would enjoy drinking, as opposed to chugging out of politeness.

bobwantbeer said:

It was very encouraging to see how an at least drinkable beer can be achieved through a complete cluster**** brewing process.

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Dude, you just about described my brewing history! (and, if you think I'm just foking around . . . .)


TL