First Homebrew in 10 years....and it sucks.

Tried a Weizen kit from the LHBS. 6.6 lbs of Munton wheat extract. Boiled for 60 minutes. Cooled and pitched the yeast. Spent a week in the primary. Had a gang buster fermentation going, as evidenced here.

After a week, racked off to secondary. Had almost no action for three weeks while it sat in the secondary. Bottled two weeks ago.

Taste is thin and watery and there is no carbonation. Is it possible to rack so cleanly from primary to secondary and while bottling that there is no yeast left to generate carbonation with priming sugar?

Thx
-K2

No, but it's entirely possible to have very little carbonation develop after two weeks. Put it back away for another seven days and try it again...

the_bird said:

No, but it's entirely possible to have very little carbonation develop after two weeks. Put it back away for another seven days and try it again...

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Saturday (3/17) will be two weeks so I'll try it again. But even if it develops some carbonation I think it will still taste like farm. REAL thin and watery....

Oh well, I think I'll quit screwing around with extract and try the new mash tun I built last weekend. Used a 5 gal cooler and I'm going to try a small (2.5 gal) all grain Pilsner.

-K2

not likely.

No carboantion at all? How cool is it where the bottles have been?

if it has been cool, move them somewhere warmer and wait another week or so that should help with carbonation. Assuming you did not fill the bottles too full or not add enough priming sugar.

As to the thinness and wateriness, not sure. Was it only the 6.6 lbs. of extract?

how much water did you add total? What were your gravity readings?

(edit) oops, stepped away mid-post

knights of Gambrinus said:

not likely.

No carboantion at all? How cool is it where the bottles have been?

if it has been cool, move them somewhere warmer and wait another week or so that should help with carbonation. Assuming you did not fill the bottles too full or not add enough priming sugar.

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Primary, Secondary, and Bottles all have inhabited the shower in my finished basement bathroom. Temp runs around 67 down there.

knights of Gambrinus said:

As to the thinness and wateriness, not sure. Was it only the 6.6 lbs. of extract?

how much water did you add total? What were your gravity readings?

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Yup, just the 6.6 lbs of extract. It was the Brewer's Best kit from my LHBS. Boiled two gallons, added three to help bring the temp down to pitch.

OG = 1.044 (kit says it shoud have been 1.048 - 1.052)
FG@racking = 1.014 (kit says it should have been 1.010 - 1.014)
FG@bottling = 1.012

Personally, give it more time.

I've made quite a few beers and don't try tasting the batch until 6 weeks after. It always tastes kinda crappy in the beginning, unless youre at the stage of brewing in the pot. I like tasting it then Mmmmm....

After that its real watery and lacks anything resembling beer.

Give it a week or more.

Yep. Patience is needed. In the mean time. Brew up another batch. Practice makes perfect. Give a mini mash a try or even go All Grain. I did after a 7 year sabbatical and WOW, what a difference. Life is good!

Is there somewhere a little warmer in your house that you can carbonate your bottles? Otherwise, you will just need to be patient, I guess. I have had a couple of batches that took their merry time getting fizzy. They all turned out fine later, though.

If it is just malt extract than it may seem pretty thin if you are use to fuller bodied beers. Try steeping some specialty grains next time for more dextrins. Or do a mini-mash for even more control.

It's impossible to rack without getting some yeast, but 67F is ot warm enough to carbonate in 2 weeks. Either find a place around 72F or wait another month.

Survey Says....... Move the beer.....and go to all grain, directly to all grain.

I'll move the beer somewhere else thats warmer.

Thanks for the info. Any recommendations on a good, easy, all grain German style pilsner?

"Easy" and "pilsner" don't go together. You *need* to be able to control fermentation temperatures very closely for a pils, and since the flavor is so subtle in many ways, any flaws in the making of it are going to be much more noticable. An old fridge with an external temp controller is almost a requirement. You could go for a light pale ale or a blonde ale for a first AG, but I'd steer clear of the pilsners for now.

the_bird said:

"Easy" and "pilsner" don't go together. You *need* to be able to control fermentation temperatures very closely for a pils, and since the flavor is so subtle in many ways, any flaws in the making of it are going to be much more noticable. An old fridge with an external temp controller is almost a requirement. You could go for a light pale ale or a blonde ale for a first AG, but I'd steer clear of the pilsners for now.

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Scheisse! So out of curiostiy, what do you get if you take the ingredients for a Pils, brew it like a Pils, use a lager yeast, but don't refridgerate it? or could you do it with an ale yeast?

Blonde Ale (or perhaps a hefeweizen) it is then. It's off to the recipe section.....

Thanks for the input.

-K2

You'd end up with a lot of flavors that aren't appropriate for a pils. Lots of esters and stuff. If you could keep temp at around 60, you could try using a California Common yeast, technically a lager yeast but designed to ferment at a bit higher temp, but that's still not going to give you a pilsner. You could also look into cream ale recipes, which, despite their name, are not full-bodied and loaded with lactose but instead are essenially light-American Lager wannabes (light, drinkable, quenching).

KTwo said:

Scheisse! So out of curiostiy, what do you get if you take the ingredients for a Pils, brew it like a Pils, use a lager yeast, but don't refridgerate it? or could you do it with an ale yeast?
-K2

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It's funny you should ask that, because I just did that this winter. I had all the ingredients to do one, but used steam beer yeast instead. It's still in the secondary, so we'll have to wait and see how it turned out.

I also did a Southern German lager, but used German Ale yeast instead. I'm drinking it now, and it's my best batch yet. I finally settled on calling it a pale alt. Whatever it's name is, it's really good.

IM a pretty new brewer too so I know how hard it is to wait... your life is wasting away while ou wait for beer...
2 weeks- is this beer? of course it is I remember brewing it. Doesnt taste like it. Shut up voices shut up.
1 month-hey carbonation and it tastes like beer even, see voices i told ya
2 months-dam this is good, did I brew this?

What temp were your bottles stored at?

EdWort said:

Yep. Patience is needed. In the mean time. Brew up another batch. Practice makes perfect. Give a mini mash a try or even go All Grain. I did after a 7 year sabbatical and WOW, what a difference. Life is good!

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Let me know how that Koelsch goes. I'd like your recipe too!
)

SpecialEd said:

IM a pretty new brewer too so I know how hard it is to wait... your life is wasting away while ou wait for beer...
2 weeks- is this beer? of course it is I remember brewing it. Doesnt taste like it. Shut up voices shut up.
1 month-hey carbonation and it tastes like beer even, see voices i told ya
2 months-dam this is good, did I brew this?

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Patience is the key! I am new too and I've learned that extra cleanliness and
patience are the ultimate key!!!

My beers are usually carbonated enough to give me a decent head after 1 week... I keep them stored at 70-75F though.... I bet the temperature is the key... I used nottingham a lot as well.

seefresh said:

My beers are usually carbonated enough to give me a decent head after 1 week... I keep them stored at 70-75F though.... I bet the temperature is the key... I used nottingham a lot as well.

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I have noticed the same thing with mine. The house is normally 72-74ish and the beer carbs up in a week, week and a half, which actually makes it hard for me to keep out of them. I know they will be better if I let them age, but their fizzy they must be ready:cross: I have a vanilla stout that is really green but since I know it is carbonated(I tried one this past weekend) I keep wanting to get into it. If it were flat I wouldn't have that temptation.