Too many mistakes?

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NYShooterGuy

NYShooterGuy

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I think I goofed. Badly.

I haven't stuck my face into the fermentation bucket yet, but mistake #1.)

Aerated Hot Wort! Put the aeration stone in the hot wort to sanitize the stone and figured "hey, why not save time by aerating the wort as I cool it?"

About 20 minutes from 155° F to 68° F with the aquarium pump going. So I'm expecting the 1.080 OG imperial IPA to smell like a sespool based on my research.

Mistake #2.) I split the yeast starter that was make with 2 lbs. of Light Golden DME and BRY-95 that I split into a 1400 ml starter and a 720 ml secondary starter for the next day.

Huh? What? Basically I pitched the 1400 ml starter after the aeration on brew day, and then 24 hours later, aerated the beer in the primary (thought I was a good idea since the gravity was so high and it was only 24 hours of fermentation) and pitched the 720 ml secondary starter.

So now it will taste like bandaids recovered from a toilet on Chilli dinner night.

So, who would like a sample when it's done in about a month?
 
I don't see either of those as being fatal.

My one question is: Are you controlling the ferm temp on that 1.080 brew? If not, that will more than likely cause more issues than what you described above.
 
yeah I think you can aerate the beer really any time before major signs of fermentation start, but I may be wrong....
 
2 pounds of dme in 1.12 liters. It should have been more like .47 pound. If this was not a typo you really stressed the yeast by dumping them in a really high gravity starter.

As far as the aeration goes, I don't think that will make a noticeable difference.

More likely you will have some minor off flavors due to the improper starter.

I suspect it will be good.
 
Two pounds of DME in two liters would be an SG of 1.160. SG is a little high for a starter. Growth rate would have been 1.4.

Did you mean two ounces? Growth rate of 1.2 then.
 
kh54s10 said:
2 pounds of dme in 1.12 liters. It should have been more like .47 pound. If this was not a typo you really stressed the yeast by dumping them in a really high gravity starter.
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flars said:
Two pounds of DME in two liters would be an SG of 1.160. SG is a little high for a starter. Growth rate would have been 1.4.
Click to expand...

I totally missed the starter size. On the bright side, if the yeasts survived the 1.160 wort (I'm sure they did), they should have no problem dispatching your measly 1.080 brew.
 
The temperatures are and have been steady at 66°F from first pitch to 5 days later.

The starter was 2 lbs DME to 1000 ml H2O and the 2000 ml flask was so full, that the total volume was beyond the 2000 ml. mark.

Oh yeah. 2 other mistakes I just remembered. (I'm really trying to make this a terrible beer)

During the prep for the yeast starter I absentmindedly dropped the 20mm stir bar into the water and DME flask and boiled it for 10 minutes. I am to understand that a boiled stir bar will cause it to become unmagnitized, but it spun for me as usual.

Then, durring the boil, I like to cut the top of my DME foil / foam seal and then squeeze out the LME and then for good measure, partially submerge the plastic container still lined with thick LME that I could not reach with any utensil, and get some hot wort in there, swirl it around and dump it out...
Well, this time around, the foil / foam seal broke off and boiled the whole 60 minutes with me trying to catch it with a strainer unsuccessfully until after the wort was chilled and poured over the primary fermentation bucket with the same strainer.

Yuck. It was a black shriveled toxin released foil mess.
 
Generally speaking the colder the temperature the more dissolved oxygen will remain in suspension. Although you're not really doing anything to hurt your batch by starting the aeration process at a high temperature, if it somehow adds to the difficulty of chilling your wort, you can always start the aeration process later and achieve the same amount of dissolved oxygen...
 
Look on the bright side, if it does have an off taste, just say you used some Brett and it's supposed to have that funk.
 
NYShooterGuy said:
The temperatures are and have been steady at 66°F from first pitch to 5 days later.

The starter was 2 lbs DME to 1000 ml H2O and the 2000 ml flask was so full, that the total volume was beyond the 2000 ml. mark.

Oh yeah. 2 other mistakes I just remembered. (I'm really trying to make this a terrible beer)

During the prep for the yeast starter I absentmindedly dropped the 20mm stir bar into the water and DME flask and boiled it for 10 minutes. I am to understand that a boiled stir bar will cause it to become unmagnitized, but it spun for me as usual.

Then, durring the boil, I like to cut the top of my DME foil / foam seal and then squeeze out the LME and then for good measure, partially submerge the plastic container still lined with thick LME that I could not reach with any utensil, and get some hot wort in there, swirl it around and dump it out...
Well, this time around, the foil / foam seal broke off and boiled the whole 60 minutes with me trying to catch it with a strainer unsuccessfully until after the wort was chilled and poured over the primary fermentation bucket with the same strainer.

Yuck. It was a black shriveled toxin released foil mess.
Click to expand...

I'll go ahead and be the nth person to point out that you used about five times too much extract in your starter, just to help the point sink in :mug:

JBIII said:
Generally speaking the colder the temperature the more dissolved oxygen will remain in suspension. Although you're not really doing anything to hurt your batch by starting the aeration process at a high temperature, if it somehow adds to the difficulty of chilling your wort, you can always start the aeration process later and achieve the same amount of dissolved oxygen...
Click to expand...

Hot side aeration is not a good thing. If I understand it right, he basically went a long way towad oxidizing his beer before he even got it fermenting

At the end of the day, the good thing is that beer is such a wonderful substance that it will probably forgive all of these screwups and taste good anyway.:ban:
 
I wish I could remember where I found the instructions for the 2lbs of DME, but if it helps, I measured the OG of the starter and it was 1.040.
 
I dont think you could even dissolve 2 whole pounds of DME into just ~2100ml if you tried....
 
There is no possible way that 2lbs of DME in 2Liters of water would come in at 1.040. Something is off, somewhere.

200grams of DME in 2L of water = 1.040ish

So, either there was less than 2lbs of DME. Or, there was more than 2L of water. Or the sample was not mixed thoroughly. Or, there is something wrong with hydrometer. Or a mistake reading the hydrometer. Or there is some other kind of DME that I don't know about with less sugar in it than the standard 1.040/gallon ratio.

Regardless of what was going on with this starter, like I mentioned earlier, going forward - for 1000ml (1L), use 100grams of DME to get in the 1.040 range.
 
I agree something doesn't add up. 2lbs. Of light golden briess DME to 1000 ml. Boiled and hydrometer showed 1.040 at 78° F.
 
NYShooterGuy said:
I agree something doesn't add up. 2lbs. Of light golden briess DME to 1000 ml. Boiled and hydrometer showed 1.040 at 78° F.
Click to expand...


Something is not even close to adding up. It is totally impossible to get 1.040 with 2 pounds of DME in 1000 ml.. As has been stated it would be close to 1.160.
As m00ps stated I would think it would be nearly impossible to get to even dissolve....

As also stated the biggest and only serious mistake is in the amount of dme in the starter..(if it could have even been 2 pounds)....
 
I'm a dummy. I found the recipe I used for the starter. It was 2 cups (that amounted to a lot of my 3 lbs bag of golden lighr DME) and got confused with weight and volume yet again. Sorry for the confusion.

The beer in discussion, The Double IPA I will rack tomorrow and I had a taste / smell test. Checked the gravity this morning and it was very bitter, but had no off flavors or smell. It just needs it's 4oz of cascade hops to hopefully balance out the bitter taste.

Now I need to discover a tool / object around the house to clean and sanitize to drop into a hop bag with the hop pellets. I found something outside in the parking lot that looks a lot like a compressor fitting. I plan to clean it well with degreaser (even though it is bright, shiny and rust free) the Oxy-clean stuff, the PBR or whatever it's called and then dunk it and the hop bag in some Sanstar solution.

"WHAT?!?! This idiot 'found' something in a PARKING LOT to drop into a fermenter? !?!"

Yup. I sure did.
 
I find a shot glass works well to weigh down a hop bag. Or a couple stainless butter knives. Both are easily sanitized and fairly heavy and compact. Glass marbles or stainless ball bearings are ideal. I am fairly relaxed about sanitation, but even I wouldn't throw in a used compression fitting from the parking lot!
 
ong said:
I find a shot glass works well to weigh down a hop bag. Or a couple stainless butter knives. Both are easily sanitized and fairly heavy and compact. Glass marbles or stainless ball bearings are ideal. I am fairly relaxed about sanitation, but even I wouldn't throw in a used compression fitting from the parking lot!
Click to expand...

A compression fitting is a solid piece of metal? The oject I mentioned as a compression fitting is a solid machined piece of metal with a hexagonal exterior and a female threaded inter surface on one end and a domed, polished surface on the other with a much smaller hole.

I guessed it to be a fitting for some type of hose or nossle.
 
NYShooterGuy said:
and a female threaded inter surface on one end
Click to expand...
..... that was in a parking lot, with a perfect area for bacteria and other nasties to be harbored in a hard to clean place.....

The beauty of a shot glass is that it is:
a.) already clean
b.) smooth/easy to clean/sanitize
c.) heavy enough to do the job

There is zero benefit to throwing this hunk of metal in your beer - plenty of downside.
 
NYShooterGuy said:
A compression fitting is a solid piece of metal? The oject I mentioned as a compression fitting is a solid machined piece of metal with a hexagonal exterior and a female threaded inter surface on one end and a domed, polished surface on the other with a much smaller hole.

I guessed it to be a fitting for some type of hose or nossle.
Click to expand...

The threading is your biggest problem, it's going to be almost impossible to clean the grease out if the threads, much less any bugs that are riding in it. If you don't have anything better to weigh down your hop bag, just let it float.
 
Huh, how bout that...I've never thought of using anything to way down my hop bag during dry hopping. I've always just thrown it in and left it.

Has anyone brewed two of the exact same batches and tried just throwing it in for one and weighing the bag down in the other and gotten noticeably different results?
 
So after dry hoping with a glass shot glass that was sanitized along with the hop bag, I got this nasty cottage cheese yeast rafts. Thought I had a major infection. Just happened to be the bag floating to the top and bringing all that yeast up in the process. (Note the weave of the hop bag imprinted into the yeast cake rafts).

No my problem is the beer is not carbing up. Too much Alcohol? Not enough time? Too cold to prime (66°F)?

At least it tastes semi-decent. Would be much happier if it wasn't flat.
 
FatDragon said:
The threading is your biggest problem, it's going to be almost impossible to clean the grease out if the threads, much less any bugs that are riding in it. If you don't have anything better to weigh down your hop bag, just let it float.
Click to expand...

That or not knowing what could leach into the beer from the metal. Personally, I'd hate to get lead poisoning from my beer. Maybe that's just me though...
 
TheZymurgist said:
That or not knowing what could leach into the beer from the metal. Personally, I'd hate to get lead poisoning from my beer. Maybe that's just me though...
Click to expand...

Rest assured, I tossed the questionable hunk of found metal into my tool box and used a glass shot glass that failed to keep the bag on the bottom of the carboy.
 
NYShooterGuy said:
I really don't want to open all these bottles and add more yeast.
Click to expand...


Don't. Unless you've done something like boiling the fermented beer, adding wine finings that kill yeast, or it's been sitting a year, there is plenty of yeast in suspension.
 
Are you thinking it will carbonate in the fermenter? Just asking because you sound surprised it's not carbonated at the moment.

You're going to need to bottle the wort mixed with a small amount of fermentable sugar. Once crimped the bottle cap traps the small amount of CO2 created in the new fermentation. Over weeks and months the CO2 will become fully saturated in the liquid and develop a nice amount of carbonation.
 

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