2 and a half batches in, time for a few noob questions....

So, my 3rd batch of beer is in the fermemter as we speak and after drinking most of the first one I have a few questions.

For starters, my first 2 batches were a Boysenberry Blond ale, and a Cervesa like blond. Both were ok, far from something I would buy in a store, but not so bad I had to dump them down the drain. Both had a bit of a green taste but I think I just had too much air in the siphon when I moved them from the primary to the secondary.

However, for both I used 3/4 cup of corn sugar to bottle, and both came out with a soda pop like carbonation. By that I mean, large bubbles with a head that dissipates rather quickly. They didn't really taste flat but, I would like a better head, any ideas what I did wrong there?

My current batch is a Belgian Wit, and I used White Labs 400 belgin wit yeast. I was told that it usually takes up to 21 days in the primary, but it seems to have stopped after about 10 days. I (of course) didn't take a hydrometer reading before pitching my yeast, so I kinda don't have any good way of telling if its done, other than the bubbles in the airlock. My question is, is there anything wrong with leaving it in the primary for another week, or will it cause problems?

Thanks for helping this noob.

RyanPDX said:

I (of course) didn't take a hydrometer reading before pitching my yeast, so I kinda don't have any good way of telling if its done, other than the bubbles in the airlock. My question is, is there anything wrong with leaving it in the primary for another week, or will it cause problems?

Thanks for helping this noob.

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Well you may not have taken a hydro reading initially, but you can STILL take one now, and you can assume you hit the OG of the recipe anyway...so anything less than that will tell you it is stil fermenting. Bubbling is NEVER a good way to tell what's going on.

And obviously your recipe should list an anticipated final gravity, so by comparing your current grav reading with that, you'll know where your beer is.

And I would be leaving a AT LEAST another week. Many of us leave our beer in primary a month.

But you can feel free to take a grav reading ANYTIME you want to know what's going on....Even before you start a thread asking for help....you might have found that you didn't even need to start the thread, or you would be providing us with JUST THE RIGHT info to help you.

Your airlock is not a fermentation gauge, it is a VALVE to release excess co2. And the peak of fermentation has already wound down, so there's simply no need to vent off any excess co2.

The only way to truly know what is going on in your fermenter is with your hydrometer. Like I said here in my blog, which I encourage you to read, Think evaluation before action you sure as HELL wouldn't want a doctor to start cutting on you unless he used the proper diagnostic instuments like x-rays first, right? You wouldn't want him to just take a look in your eyes briefly and say "I'm cutting into your chest first thing in the morning." You would want them to use the right diagnostic tools before the slice and dice, right? You'd cry malpractice, I would hope, if they didn't say they were sending you for an MRI and other things before going in....

Thinking about "doing anything" without taking a hydrometer reading is tantamount to the doctor deciding to cut you open without running any diagnostic tests....Taking one look at you and saying, "Yeah I'm going in." You would really want the doctor to use all means to properly diagnose what's going on. It's exactly the same thing when you try to go by airlock....

Fermentation is not always "dynamic," just because you don't SEE anything happening, doesn't mean that any-thing's wrong,, and also doesn't mean that the yeast are still not working diligently away, doing what they've been doing for over 4,000 years..


Hope this helps.

Thanks for the help, any ideas on the carbonation question?

RyanPDX said:

Thanks for the help, any ideas on the carbonation question?

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Could be that you need to let the beer sit longer in the bottles or longer cold conditioning or it may just be the recipe that you are using. Soap residue can kill head to. I assume that you are brewing extract?

For the head retention, try steeping about 4 ounces of flaked barley with the specialty grains.

RyanPDX said:

... I would like a better head, any ideas what I did wrong there?

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i'm sorry this is just too funny. and no, i don't have anything meaningful to add on the subject at hand.

I think that more time bottle conditioning and a good chill in the fridge for a day or two before opening should stabilize your carbination issue.
I think getting "better head" is challenge we all face, but seriously there are easy ways to improve it in beer. The barley flake idea is good, or adding a little Carapils could help as well (.25 or .5 lb).