First batch...ruined?

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slafaive

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First post here!!

Anyway, my first batch ever (pale ale) has been fermenting for five days now, and I opened it today to check the gravity (the stopper quit burping about a day ago). First off I noticed that there is a bunch of sediment mud ringing the barrel at the top. This worries me since I thought sediment was supposed to settle at the bottom. Now I'm worried that everything didn't mix well enough.

Another problem arouse when I noticed today that I actually forgot an ingredient!!! My kit called for adding two large cans of malt syrup (sorry, don't have exact weights with me now) "and/or" a bag of dried malt extract. It's the dried malt extract that I forgot. Would that just affect the flavor, and if so, how much would you think it would affect it? Since the instructions said "and/or" DME, I'm hoping it wasn't necessary.

Right now the gravity is 1.020 and it should 1.016. This confuses me further because shouldn't the gravity be really low if I forgot to add a bag of DME? Either way, I closed it back up and will let it sit for another day or two.

Overall, I would like to know if the sediment at the top is bad and if leaving out the DME will make my batch taste like crap. It smells like beer anyway :)

Thanks!
 
The sediment on top is fine. Perfectly normal after the krausen retreats. Your beer is not done yet it will probably slowly come down in gravity over the next week. As far as the DME I would have to read the recipe to understand that one. Did you take a SG reading? Was it close to what it should have been?
 
It isn't ruined. Might be weaker or "thinner" than is optimum but it will be beer I bet.
 
When I forget to add something, which happens at my age, I always rationalize. It's probably going to be better without it.
 
The sediment on top is fine. Perfectly normal after the krausen retreats. Your beer is not done yet it will probably slowly come down in gravity over the next week.

Thanks for the reassurance.

As far as the DME I would have to read the recipe to understand that one. Did you take a SG reading? Was it close to what it should have been?

The starting gravity was actually pretty close. The batch was still pretty warm (90 degrees), so I had to calculate it with the heat in mind.

On that note, I put my pot in very cold water before taking the reading, but it just wouldn't cool fast enough. Any ideas on how to rapidly cool it next time? What does rapidly cooling actually do, aside from let you put it into the fermenter sooner?
 
Keeps nasty stuff out.
One easy way to cool wort down is to freeze some spring water in a sanitized Gladware container, and then add it to the pot once cooling has begun.

I do this, and it takes a lot of time out.
 
Or if you want to buy equipment... an immersion chiller would be perfect (and incredibly easy to make DIY style). It helps fight off contamination and off flavors from extremely slow cooling (like DMS). By the way, if the SG was pretty close everything is fine. Maybe your DME is for carbing. Did your kit come with sugar for bottling?
 
Or if you want to buy equipment... an immersion chiller would be perfect (and incredibly easy to make DIY style). It helps fight off contamination and off flavors from extremely slow cooling (like DMS). By the way, if the SG was pretty close everything is fine. Maybe your DME is for carbing. Did your kit come with sugar for bottling?

Yep, it has the sugar to add prior to bottling.

And thanks for the immersion chiller idea. I'll look into that and see if I can manage to create one.
 
Oh, and concerning this missing DME, I found it odd that the DME was called "amber malt" when it's a pale ale kit. Does that sound odd to anyone else or am I wrong in thinking that "amber" necessarily means an amber beer?
 
Oh, and concerning this missing DME, I found it odd that the DME was called "amber malt" when it's a pale ale kit. Does that sound odd to anyone else or am I wrong in thinking that "amber" necessarily means an amber beer?

This whole kit sounds screwy... buy a better kit from someone else next time.
 
Good point. I actually bought a kit that was on sale for my first batch, thinking I might screw it up :D
Turns out the kit was probably screwed up.
 

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