? need quick answer

My first batch of beer was finished conditioning today. 14 days in the bottles. I put 10 of them in the firdge. No on the bottles that have been laying on thier side there is a form that on the outside of the bottle almost looks like it could be mold. I sure its probably just sediment that has settled and chilled on the side but this is my first batch.

The beer taste ok other than be extremely sweet, but i dont want everyone to look at the side of the bottle and think im harvisting mold in the beer.

Is everything ok of have I screwed up this batch.

Austin

You could just wash anything on the outside away. In fact, it's a good idea.

Anything on the inside is: Bottle conditioned!

cool, i guess its just some sediment, it didnt show up until the bottle was chilled.
The rest of the bottles that are still at room temp are all clear.

Austin

hm, how sweet is it? what style of beer? what was the OG and FG (original gravity and final gravity, taken by a hydrometer)?

my concern is that if it is sweeter than it is supposed to be, that could be fermentable sugars that could cause gushers or bottle bombs in the future. not to scare you or anything though.

14 days?C'mon,give em at least one more week.I may vary a little on my ferment times but 3 wks in the bottle is minimum for us.Just a thought,now i'll get back to my football game and homebrew and minding my own beeswax .
Cheers

I would have to agree with one scalerguy. I am a rookie to but (a few batches under my belt) but I use 1 week-10 days in primary, 3-5 weeks secondary then at least 3 weeks in bottles (keg now). I have had many sweet batches and the panic set in. Of course I got a lot of good advice from this board, some of the most important being...."be patient!!" Go buy some beer from the store and let yours mellow some more. Holy crap that rhymes. ANyway, I have found a week can make a huge difference. If it is still sweet, give it another week.

1 week in the primary
2 weeks in the secondary
3 weeks in the keg or bottle
Couple of days to empty
Rinse and repeat!

Extremly sweet? Let's see your recipe along with the other items requested.

There's loads of variables in your question, but there's also loads of folks here that are willing to help you troubleshoot your problem.

jma99 said:

1 week in the primary
2 weeks in the secondary
3 weeks in the keg or bottle
Couple of days to empty
Rinse and repeat!

Click to expand...

Pretty dang good rule! And I only have TWO thumbs!

EdWort said:

Extremly sweet? Let's see your recipe along with the other items requested.

There's loads of variables in your question, but there's also loads of folks here that are willing to help you troubleshoot your problem.

Click to expand...

Both recepies were brewers best extract kits. One Red Ale, and one Nut brown Ale.

They each had 3.3 lbs of liquid malt extract
2 lbs of dry malt extract
12oz of crushed crystal malt
1 oz willamette Hops (bittering)
1oz willamette hops (finishing)
Dry yeast cannot remeber brand.

Method
Bring two gallons of clean water to 160-170 steep 20 minutes. Drain that off into the wort.

Bring water to a boil and add extract. Stir continuously until back to a boil then add bittering hops. Boil for 55 minutes stir occasionally. Add finishing hops for the last 5 minutes of boil. 60 minute total boil time.

The next step is were I think I may have goofed. I added the wort to the fermenter. The trub from the pellet hops made that interesting because the wort didnt want to go through the strainer. The water i added it to was very cold, so me being a new guy and not realizing the importance of cooling it all the way pitched the yeast within the first 10 or so minutes i would say. Probably between 80-90 degrees.

Even pitching the yeast at a higher temp on both batches i had active fermentation within 2 hours.

Hope this gives a little insight.

Austin

did you take any gravity readings?

No. Im afraid i will somehow infect the beer. I know its somthing i need to do just not 100% sure how i should do it.

Austin

sanitize everything that will touch the beer and you should be fine. for example, sanitize: the hydrometer, the 'thief' (inside and out) if that is how you take out the samples. and that should be it.

I dont have a thief (not 100% sure what it is) so what would be the best way for me to take a gravity reading. Should siphon the beer out or can i just tip the carboy until a little poors out into a glass then put that in my hydrometer test tube.

thanks for the info.

do you have an autosiphon? i think best would be to siphon a bit out, but it's up to you.

No auto siphon, need to get one, oh well still learning.

Thanks for the help though gnef.

I use a sanitized turkey baster to take my samples. Take the sample, fill up the tube the hydrometer came in (if you don't have a test jar) and take the reading. The hydrometer has to float, so fill the tube up most of the way. Do it over the sink when you put the hydrometer in, in case it overflows. Then, read it and drink the beer!

Lorena

also sounds like a good idea, im gonna go pick one up later. Need to test my IPA 9 days in the fermenter today.

Austin