dried "foam crust" around top of bucket.

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heertsy

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First batch went in the bucket last friday, stopped bubbling about tuesday. Took out a sample for #1 hydrometer reading today (will test and taste in about 1/2 hour)

Anyways, when i opened the lid, their was a really, looked almost hard, dried foam crust all the way around the top of the bucket.

Just checking with the board, this IS perfectly normal, right???

Smells good, strong, but good!

Will give it the taste test and hydrometer reading in just a bit (i hear you are suppose to let the sample settle for a 1/2 hour from somewhere).

Oh, BTW, check out my post in the general beer forum about finding homebrews 10 years later!!!
 
hyrdometer reading came out at 1.08. It tasted ok, SLIGHLY watery and first and still seemed to have a bit of a weird afterbite, but i think it tasted normal enuf for me to say i didn't destroy it.

Hey, my hydrometer also has a "potential alcohol" scale on it. That says the potential is only 2.5. That cannot be judged by that right???
 
The brown gunk at the top of your beer is perfectly normal. :mug:
Don't even judge your beer until it has been in the bottles for at least 3 weeks. You will be surprised how much the taste has changed.
 
i am getting worried, 10 minutes later, i still have this VERY weird and not good taste in my mouth. It tastes almost like soap or disinfectant of some sort.

I used BBrite for my sanitation part and rinsed everything pretty darn thouroughly....so i thought anyways.

Hopefully it will still mellow itself out. It smelled good, and the taste at first was good, but this aftertaste is NOT good.
 
heertsy said:
i am getting worried, 10 minutes later, i still have this VERY weird and not good taste in my mouth. It tastes almost like soap or disinfectant of some sort.

I used BBrite for my sanitation part and rinsed everything pretty darn thouroughly....so i thought anyways.

Hopefully it will still mellow itself out. It smelled good, and the taste at first was good, but this aftertaste is NOT good.
Click to expand...
AS I said, give it time. Don't throw it out yet! :mug:
 
heertsy said:
Hey, my hydrometer also has a "potential alcohol" scale on it. That says the potential is only 2.5. That cannot be judged by that right???
Click to expand...

You have (likely) more than 2.5% abv in there. That is your final gravity reading. To find you're AVB you must take you're original gravity reading from before you added your yeast and subtract your final gravity reading form it. This will tell you approximately how much sugar was converted into alcohol by the yeast and you can use that to find your ABV.

Good reading on how to do this:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter9-4.html
and
http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html
 
I did sanitize and rinse out the hydrometer flask before sampling....MAYBE i used to strong a mix (sanitizer) for that, as i did just guess at the amount and just put it in my sink. i did rinse it out good though but am just hoping maybe it was in the flask and not the entire batch. Ofcourse i did the same with the turkey baster that I did dip into the entire wort.

Uhh...this taste is NOT going away either. about 45 minutes later I still feel this nasty bite in my mouth and on the end of my tongue.

I dunno, i honestly think the batch might be bad. Let's hope you are right Rich! i especially hate to go thru all the bottling hassle and realize it's still bad.
 
orpheus, it's hard to explain. But i would say YES, it could be described as a band aid taste quite possibly.

Like i said, just like disinfectant, and it doesn't go away, it really sticks in your mouth. Not a good aftertaste AT ALL. Band aid could very well be a way to explain it!

Uh oh...
 
Still don't throw it out. There are too many stories around here of a beer that turned out great after it was forgotten about after 6 months, or after drinking a case and a half the brewer noticed it had improved.
 
Cheese- Thanks for the FYI. BTW, let it age for a few weeks yet BEFORE bottling?? Was planning to bottle probably next Friday (would be 2 full weeks fermenter time)

I remember drinking a sample of the wort BEFORE pitching the yeast and it had a really nasty aftertaste even then. Came on here and people told me not to worry, so i didn't.

I know when i sanitized, i filled the fermenter all the way up to about 7 gallons with 7 scoups of BBrite (the correct amount) and placed instruments inside the fermenter. Let it sit for a while (an hour or so) while i did the full boil outside. Rinsed everything out just prior to transferring the wort.

if i had to take a guess right now, it seems i didn't get all of the sanitizer out or something.
 
I found this online. Metallic is also a good way to describe what it tasted like. I did use a brand new aluminum pot (turkey fryer) for the full boil. Here is what it said

"Metallic
Metallic flavors are usually caused by unprotected metals dissolving into the wort but can also be caused by the hydrolysis of lipids in poorly stored malts. Iron and aluminum can cause metallic flavors leaching into the wort during the boil. The small amount could be considered to be nutritional if it weren't for the bad taste. Nicks and cracks ceramic coated steel pots are a common cause as are high iron levels in well water. Stainless steel pots will not contribute any metallic flavors. Aluminum pots usually won't cause metallic flavors unless the brewing water is alkaline with a pH level greater than 9. Shiny new aluminum pots will sometimes turn black when boiling water due to chlorine and carbonates in the water.

The protective (grayish) oxides of aluminum can be enhanced by heating the clean pot in a dry oven at 250°F for about 6 hours."

Hmmm
 
heertsy said:
I found this online. Metallic is also a good way to describe what it tasted like. I did use a brand new aluminum pot (turkey fryer) for the full boil. Here is what it said

"Metallic
Metallic flavors are usually caused by unprotected metals dissolving into the wort but can also be caused by the hydrolysis of lipids in poorly stored malts. Iron and aluminum can cause metallic flavors leaching into the wort during the boil. The small amount could be considered to be nutritional if it weren't for the bad taste. Nicks and cracks ceramic coated steel pots are a common cause as are high iron levels in well water. Stainless steel pots will not contribute any metallic flavors. Aluminum pots usually won't cause metallic flavors unless the brewing water is alkaline with a pH level greater than 9. Shiny new aluminum pots will sometimes turn black when boiling water due to chlorine and carbonates in the water.

The protective (grayish) oxides of aluminum can be enhanced by heating the clean pot in a dry oven at 250°F for about 6 hours."

Hmmm
Click to expand...

Do yourself a favor and stop worrying about what could be wrong with a "green" beer. Sure, taste it along the way and take some notes for future reference but let it mature out before going down the rabbit hole. I would recommend in general letting the beer sit for around 3 weeks before bottling then another 2-3 in the bottle (depending on the beer) before really considering it done.
 
Leave your beer in the primary for another two weeks to give the yeasties time to clean up after themselves. That will eliminate a BUNCH of off-flavors. But right now your beer is too young and you are too new to the process to know if what you are tasting is off-flavor or just young beer. No offense. That ability only comes with experience; no way around it.

When you bottle, leave it alone for 4 weeks. Then taste.

You should always boil a full pot of water in a new aluminum pot prior to brewing in order to form the protective oxide layer inside the pot. Once you condition your pot, you won't have any leaching issues (unless you scrub the oxide layer off with a Scotch-Brite, which you should NEVER use on your boil pot).

I'm not familiar with BBrite, but if it's anything like StarSan, you can't detect the taste of it, even in higher concentrations in water. What is the active ingredient?

Whatever you do, don't dump it. Age does wonders - I've had beers that were pretty rough at 3 months be glorious at 6 months. It's hard to avoid "buck-fever" with your first brew, but it really is as my sig says.
 
prrriiide said:
Leave your beer in the primary for another two weeks to give the yeasties time to clean up after themselves. That will eliminate a BUNCH of off-flavors. But right now your beer is too young and you are too new to the process to know if what you are tasting is off-flavor or just young beer. No offense. That ability only comes with experience; no way around it.

When you bottle, leave it alone for 4 weeks. Then taste.

You should always boil a full pot of water in a new aluminum pot prior to brewing in order to form the protective oxide layer inside the pot. Once you condition your pot, you won't have any leaching issues (unless you scrub the oxide layer off with a Scotch-Brite, which you should NEVER use on your boil pot).

I'm not familiar with BBrite, but if it's anything like StarSan, you can't detect the taste of it, even in higher concentrations in water. What is the active ingredient?

Whatever you do, don't dump it. Age does wonders - I've had beers that were pretty rough at 3 months be glorious at 6 months. It's hard to avoid "buck-fever" with your first brew, but it really is as my sig says.
Click to expand...

I hope he figured all of this out in the last 5 years!
 
The one thing that amazes me the most about brewing is just how significant the taste of beer changes with conditioning time. At one point you may have a beer with a very funny taste, then several weeks later it tastes amazing.
 
Again, it is a 5 year old thread, but my guess is that he thought that was sanitary enough. The instructions that come with the beginners kits give that impression. I even found a site where the manufacturer of B-Brite says that it is the same formula that they used to sell as a no-rinse sanitizer, but because of regulations they had to change the label and call it a cleanser instead.
 
bleme said:
Again, it is a 5 year old thread, but my guess is that he thought that was sanitary enough. The instructions that come with the beginners kits give that impression. I even found a site where the manufacturer of B-Brite says that it is the same formula that they used to sell as a no-rinse sanitizer, but because of regulations they had to change the label and call it a cleanser instead.
Click to expand...

Good to know. Thanks :drunk:
 

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