First Brew, I think I failed. Pic of fermentation

Hello,

Okay so Friday I attempted my first brew. I decided to jump right into all grain since I would end up there anyway. So I put together my brew system and away I went. BUT, I think I made too many mistakes this time to have a beer worth drinking.

First off, My Mash temp was 160 for the first 30 minutes. And of course I didn't take a reading until half way through. (duh) So I'm pretty sure the enzyme activity I was looking for was destroyed. I cooled the mash down to 150 and let it sit for another 45 minutes. I did notice quite a bit of bubbling at this point, not sure if that means anything.

Anyway, I decided to continue on, I figured even if everything fails due to this pretty major mistake, at least I get a little experience with the rest of the process.

Everything seemed to go well after this until after the boil. I put the chiller in there and it dropped the temp FAST, until about 80. It didn't seem to drop much further. I am figuring the water temp that was entering wasn't much cooler than 80 (Florida). Since I didn't have any ice on hand (for some reason) I went ahead and put it into the fermenter.

The next morning the fermentor was bubbling and gurgling like crazy! I thought perhaps there was hope yet. However I checked it a little bit ago, and it seems everything has stopped. The top doesn't even have bubbles anymore.

Here is a pic:



So here is what I think might be going on:
My extreme mash is the problem. Not enough fermentable sugars were produced.
The yeast did what it was supposed to do, but basically ran out of sugars, and stalled out.

So what I have is, a jug of sticky but nice smelly liquid.

My question is, should I dump it, and start the next batch. Or shoudl I leave it and see if anything else happens.

Oh and please excuse the duct tape. The stopper was to large!

What was your starting gravity?

What is it now?

There are recipes that call for mashing at 160, so at the very least, it'll still be beer.

Your cooling process was fine, and won't hurt anything. Next time, you could think about using a pre-chiller, but it's not completely necessary.

We really can't make useful recommendations without the gravities.

If I read it correctly 1.045. My Hydrometer didnt come with a container to float it in like I've seen others doing. So I sanitized and floated in the cooled wort. Was difficult to read since the pot is so deep but I grabbed it with my thumb as a marker. Anyway that was the reading that I got.

As far as gravity now, I was nervous to check it so early in the game. But I'll go do that right now and post what I find.

Looks like its 1.02

What was your OG? .045 might be mid ferment for a .075 OG Wort.

From the looks of the picture alone, it appears you had good fermentation, lots of yeasties in the bottom and a fair amount still susspended in your wort.

Looks like beer to me. Is it a Heff?... if not a cold crash after full fermentation (you reach the target gravity of the recipe) it could easily clear and be a nice beer!

So what did the wort OG sample taste like?

It could still be going. Check again in 3 days to see if the grav has dropped. Krausen and bubbling is a sure sign of activity but lack of doesn't mean no activity.

My guess is that your beer is fine. Dry yeast will go crazy at times and then look like its doing nothing. I've had batches finish up pretty quick with dry yeast. I think the fastest was just under 2 days. I left in in the ferementer for a couple of weeks though.

It looks like you had fermentation by kraeusen ring ring on you carboy.

I mis-read your post the first time. I thought you were saying it was 1.045 currently, but that was your Starting gravity.

I got the recipe here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/centennial-blonde-simple-4-all-grain-5-10-gall-42841/

Okay so the wort tasted kinda like sweet cereal with some hop flavors.

I did taste the sample I just took and it tasted like beer. =0D

So I will let it sit for a few days and test it again to see if it still changing. The recipe said the final gravity should be 1.008.

Seems fine. How long has it been? Just wait longer, take more readings. It will be fine. It has some nice flocculated yeast at the bottom and it looks like it had a krausen at some point, so SOMETHING happened. If it dropped from 1.045 to 1.020 that is pretty good, just keep waiting. You might not have a good seal up there with the duct tape etc so that would explain lack of bubbling in the air lock.

I thought he said his reading was 1.002. SO I edited this.

I think your fine. 1.020 doesn't sound to bad. As someone said don't use the bubbler as theonly indicator of activity. I've had plenty of batches with leaky lids or stoppers on them, but big huge kraeusen.

Great thank you guys for the help!

sounds like it's progressing well. you'll probably see the gravity drop slowly for a few more days then stabilize. If not you do a search for stuck fermentation and you'll find a lot of info.

You may not be seeing bubbles any longer because your bung may not be airtight due to the ghetto duct taping. It may have bubbled a lot earlier because the yeasts were super-active, and now that they have slowed a bit the co2 is able to escape through the gaps left by not having a perfect fitting bung without disturbing the airlock.

I would get a good fitting bung, you do NOT want an infection.......a couple of bucks is well worth preventing the heartache.

I think its fine. time will tell. don't bottle for a while though (just in case)

I would highly recommend the following threads:
Fermentation can take 24 to 72 hrs to show visible signs.

Think you ruined your beer? Set your fears aside!

Revvy's tips for the bottler, first time or otherwise.

If you haven't read them already, you really should.
There are more competent people giving you advice already so I will abstain.

Let's us know in a few weeks how your first beer turned out!

With a mash temp of 160, it is unlikely that you will get down to the projected FG - but so what? You brewed a variation on that beer, which is the greatest joy of hand-making beer: you get to experiment and create something new.

Yes I think you are right. The gravity has not changed since my last reading. Probably quite a bit of those unfermentable sugars in there.

I don't mind one bit, the beer tastes pretty good. It's has quite the bitter finish, I am hoping this is due to suspended yeast and it still being rather green, perhaps it will mellow out over time. I'm just proud to have made my own BEER!

Ordered 30ish pounds of grain today, eager for round two =0)

Good for you! Going AG your first round is a big jump and you're learning quickly. Brew might have more body, be a little sweeter and may have lower alcohol content, but as long as you kept everything cleaned and sanitized well, you should have a decent beer on your hands.

I would let it sit in the fermenter for at least 2 weeks, then test your gravity and taste it again. Make sure it is done fermenting.