First beer - any recommendations...

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pcrawford

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last night i bottled my first beer. I used the 1-2-3 method for timing. The final gravity didn't come down as much as i thought it should. I kept shaking the secondary hoping for a few points but nothing. i think i should have kept it in the primary for a little longer but now its bottled. Here is what i did tell me what you think!


1/12 -
added crushed steeping grains to 2 gal water brought to 165 deg
boil water and added:
3.3 lbs of Coopers light malt extract
3.3 lbs of Briess LBW Sparkling Amber
added 1 oz of Northern Brewer Pellets for 60 min
added 1 oz of Kent Gldgs Pellets for 30 min
added to 3 gal of cold water in ale pale
cooled to 74 deg added 1 packet of dry Mutons Active Brewing yeast and stired in
OG was 1.042

took almost 3 days to for me to see bubbling in the airlock but after that there is bubbled steady for 2 or 3 days.

1/21 (9 days later)
Racked to secondary hydro read about 1.019
beer was good maybe a bit sweet
lost about 1/2 gal due to bad syphing

- shook the secondary a few time to try to get the yeast into suspenstion....

2/3 (13 days later)
added about 4 oz of priming sugar and bottled
hydro read 1.017

So the beer looks like its only 3.3% oh well. I didn't want to mess around and try too much since it was my first beer. Let me know what you guys think of this and if you have any recommendations for my second brew.

Also - the error in my hydro reading is probably +/- .003 so the beer is probaly between 3.1 to 3.5% if that matters.

Anyone know what the origional gravity should have been for that beer...

Thanks!!!
-patrick
 
What were you expecting the FG to be? I hope you didnt just bottle up a bunch of bombs.
 
yeah me too - i have no idea what the final was supposed to be. i was taking the RDWHAH approach and just following the directions for my first beer. :)

how can i find out what the final was supposed to be? this beer had 3 weeks to ferment at 66 to 68 degrees. I really hope it doesn't blow up. it tasted good - but maybe a tad sweet. Or maybe I think it tasted sweet b/c the FG didn't come down...
 
Yeah, you probably should have been down to more like 1.012 or so. From your description of the brew session I didn't notice you aerating the wort prior to pitching. The yeast being slow to take off makes me think that it either just wasn't a very healthy packet and/or the wort wasn't properly aerated.

If the yeast doesn't get off to a good start it can poop out on you.
 
I suspect that you're fine. Extract brews often don't ferment very dry, and the Munton's yeast isn't a terribly aggressive strain. If you're not pleased with the beer, try Danstar Nottingham for your next brew. I bet you still made some pretty good beer, though.
 
pcrawford said:
last night i bottled my first beer. I used the 1-2-3 method for timing. The final gravity didn't come down as much as i thought it should. I kept shaking the secondary hoping for a few points but nothing. i think i should have kept it in the primary for a little longer but now its bottled. Here is what i did tell me what you think!


1/12 -
added crushed steeping grains to 2 gal water brought to 165 deg
boil water and added:
3.3 lbs of Coopers light malt extract
3.3 lbs of Briess LBW Sparkling Amber
added 1 oz of Northern Brewer Pellets for 60 min
added 1 oz of Kent Gldgs Pellets for 30 min
added to 3 gal of cold water in ale pale
cooled to 74 deg added 1 packet of dry Mutons Active Brewing yeast and stired in
OG was 1.042
This is when you should have shaken the brew in incorporate air
took almost 3 days to for me to see bubbling in the airlock but after that there is bubbled steady for 2 or 3 days.

1/21 (9 days later)
Racked to secondary hydro read about 1.019
If you were not satisfied with the reading this was the time to give the primary a swirl, not a shake
beer was good maybe a bit sweet
lost about 1/2 gal due to bad syphing

- shook the secondary a few time to try to get the yeast into suspenstion....
No shaking allowed in secondary
2/3 (13 days later)
added about 4 oz of priming sugar and bottled
hydro read 1.017

So the beer looks like its only 3.3% oh well. I didn't want to mess around and try too much since it was my first beer. Let me know what you guys think of this and if you have any recommendations for my second brew.

Also - the error in my hydro reading is probably +/- .003 so the beer is probaly between 3.1 to 3.5% if that matters.

Anyone know what the origional gravity should have been for that beer...

Thanks!!!
-patrick

Just my .02
 
I had 3 gallons of cold water in the ale pale right from the shower head on the wide spay setting so I assume that was very aerated. That sat for 1 hour outside in the cold (with the top on) while I boiled. Then i dumped the hot 2 gallons of water in through a big strainer. So that probably aerated a little bit. But then everything in the ale pale was hot…so did that get rid of the oxygen in the beer?

Cooled and added the yeast and immediately stirred in.

Should I have aerated more by shaking the bucket?
 
I think you pulled it off the cake too soon. You only had like 50% attenuation when you racked to secondary. Even the most unfermentable commercial extract and the least attenuating yeast could hit 50%. I would have waited until this brew was AT LEAST 1.014 before even thinking about a secondary. Pulling the brew off the cake at 1.019 was the reason it stopped high. I don't doubt that over time it will finish down to 1.012-1.014... hopefully no bottles explode in the process. Lesson learned... I'm sure it'll still taste good tho ;)
 
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