Newbie Questions

Hello All,
OK, so I started in this fascinating hobby with a 1 gallon kit. Made a NB brown ale and tried it and it came out excellent. Really tasted great and I quickly (within a few days of each other) made two other kits, an IPA and their West Coast Red, just tried both of them...

So let me start by saying that as far as I can tell, I used the same procedures for all three except for:
1. Used Star-San instead of generic white powder to sterilize batches 2 and 3
2. Bottled using a bottling bucket I did not have for batch 1

So in trying both of the new batches their is just something very faintly "off". I'm having a real hard time putting my finger on it...not really sour, just not beer like. It's so subtitle that at first I thought it might just be the recipe, but both of these different beers are similar. Not undrinkable by any means, just something weird.

Second thing I noticed is they neither of these two have any head to speak of when pouring. Used the kit supplied sugar lossenge to carbonate all 3 and it seemed to work, all 3 are nicely carbonated and no bottle rockets, but the last two just don't have any head. First had some, but not great.

So...before I try kit number 4, any ideas?

Kevin

Not something specific to pinpoint, like an infection, so I'll just offer some points to consider.
Clean with something like PBW or One Step, then sanitize.
Don't use water for any part of brewing which may have chlorine or chloramines unless you can treat for removal.
Don't pitch the yeast in super hot wort.
Look up the optimum fermentation temperature for the yeast on the manufacturers web site. Normally keep the wort at the mid point.
Rehydrate dry yeast according to the manufactures directions.
Make a yeast starter for liquid yeast, using a pitch rate/starter calculator, according to the age/viability of the yeast.
Keep the fermenting wort out of the light.
Ferment in the primary until fermentation is shown complete by SG readings with a hydrometer.
Bottle condition warm and for at least 2 to 4 weeks before tasting.

edit: Make sure you have no soap in your glassware to kill the head.

How long was your beer bottled for? Did you leave them at 70F or better during this time? How much fridge time did you give them?

unionrdr said:

How long was your beer bottled for? Did you leave them at 70F or better during this time? How much fridge time did you give them?

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Beer was bottled for 2 weeks, which was the kit recommendation. It was at 70 plus or minus a degree or two. Beer was chilled overnight in refrigerator before drinking.

Kevin

I'm on my second 5 gal extract batch and I found that waiting an additional week after bottling, so 3 weeks, made the beer taste better. Not sure why. Maybe the yeast did some additional cleaning inside the bottle.

That doesn't help with the head question, but the list of things to watch for by the other posters above were good points. Double check your procedures and maybe brew a little slower and more methodically just to eliminate anything minor.

Kpfeifle0306 said:

Beer was bottled for 2 weeks, which was the kit recommendation. It was at 70 plus or minus a degree or two. Beer was chilled overnight in refrigerator before drinking.

Kevin

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Try leaving them in the warm spot for a third week. Some carbonate & condition slower than others. And give them 5 to 7 days fridge time. Overnight definitely is not enough time to get good carbonation. Not to mention conditioning & giving any chill haze time to develop & settle out like a fog. The head is driven by the carbonation after pouring. You could try adding a half pound of carapils to some steeping grains for better head & retention. Also, be careful how much clearing agents like Irish moss, Whirlfloc, etc you use. It's the dissolved proteins that form the head that's upheld by the carbonation in the glass.

Try leaving them in the warm spot for a third week. Some carbonate & condition slower than others. And give them 5 to 7 days fridge time. Overnight definitely is not enough time to get good carbonation. Not to mention conditioning & giving any chill haze time to develop & settle out like a fog.

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Good advice. I will try that with the rest of them and see if it improves, and thanks everybody else...all good advise that I will try with my next batch!