bottling of first AG

Well last night bottling was quite the exciting time. I had started around 830 or so, cleaned out a bunch of bottles. I knew my first batch AG was slightly less than 5 gallons and that I had drank most of my first batch by this point, which was around 50 or so bottles. I had also gotten new ones from friends and what not, so I wasn't worried about having enough bottles. Well as i was bottling I noticed wow this seems like i'm going though most my bottles fairly fast...hm so i got off the floor and looked into the bottling bucket....hm, about 1/3 left, and 1 bottle left. So what was the only logical thing to do? Drink a bunch of my beers from previous batches, have a friend over and try to get about 10-15 more bottles. Well after 2 hours, beerfest, 1 pizza had enough bottles to finish bottling. Was quite the night, the friend that came over said he wants to always bbe there for bottling time.

On a more serious note, when i smelled the beer/tasted the very end it smelt very sweet and tasted basically like grain water. I used the recipe for Eds House Ale. Is this smell/taste normal for AG? or did i go wrong?
Thanks,
Daum

daum said:

On a more serious note, when i smelled the beer/tasted the very end it smelt very sweet and tasted basically like grain water. I used the recipe for Eds House Ale. Is this smell/taste normal for AG? or did i go wrong?
Thanks,
Daum

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My 4 bottled AG batches haven't struck me as being all that much different from PM/Extract batches in those respects.... You are just gonna have to wait it out and see how it tastes after some conditioning.

Did you follow Ed's recipe pretty closely? What was your OG and FG? If it smelled/tasted sweet-bitter, like unfermented wort, then it's all too possible that you had a stuck fermentation....meaning, if I'm right, you just may end up with gushers or bottle bombs. So what was your FG?

I have a batch of the Haus Pale that I'm bottling this weekend, and it tastes awesome out of the carboy. My FG is around 1.012.

My hydrometer decided to take a leap during the brewing of session to its death. So no opening and closing. It fermented really well I thought..went strong for about 2-3 days then i let it sit for about a week...and bottled...we'll see how it comes out I really hope it works well as I have a brew day planned for Saturday. Going to get a new hydrometer too!
Daum

Yeah, strong ferments don't necessarily mean finished ferments. You'll have to wait and see, I guess, but normally, finished uncarbonated beers don't taste weirdly sweet. Sure, you've got to factor in the priming sugar, but that's not usually enough to make a huge difference in the taste. Did you stir your priming solution into the beer really well?

Good luck. Bottle bombs are no fun...pray that you don't get any!

you guys have me all worried that im' going to go home and find my room shot to pieces with bottle bombs!
Daum

So, how long did it actually ferment? 1 week total or 9-10 days? That's kind of a short fermentation. You may want to put those bottles somewhere where they can't do much damage, and cover them up.

I did it for 10 days. Was what his recipe said I think=\. They are in my beer closet, it is a nice little closed thing but they are ontop of my other fermenters....we'll see what it looks like when i get home.
Daum

if you have a basement or an extra fridge, cooler temp's may help.

I bet you're fine. It's not a big beer and I doubt the SG would've dropped much (if any) after 10 days. Since you bottled so soon though, the bottles may benefit from a little more conditioning time before you start drinking.

My advice - RDWHAHB.

Lil' Sparky said:

My advice - RDWHAHB.

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yea, what he said.

well stopped by at lunch and they bottles are fine. i think i will RDWHAHB.
Daum

If you followed my recipe and used Nottingham, it would have fermented out within 2 days. Nottingham also ferments out dry, so it wouldn't taste real sweet.

Next batch, taste the wort before you pitch the yeast, and then again when you bottle it. You will notice a big difference. I'm sure you did fine. Nottingham is almost foolproof.

RDWHAHB