Questions on my 1st brew

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Devildog03

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I choose the drunken farmer a Belgian saison for my first, one I enjoy the fruity, spicy flavor, but two I love the higher abv%. I have two questions, 1st after boiling my wort I chilled with my wort chiller dropped the temp quick. Then funneled it into my carboy, where aerated it with my oxygenation kit 2.0 for less than a min and had a real bad boil over and yes it was about 70 degrees and yes I tried adjusting with less oxygen but boiled out pretty good, but check my og and it was good about 1.095. Is that normal. 2nd 5 days later I notice my airlock not bubbling anymore made sure for no leaks I was good so I checked my gravity and it was 1.020 and it was good so left it a day came back checked it again and was the same right at 1.020 so I moved it to my secondary where I will leave it for a month last week put my dry hops and some gelatin and then bottle for another month question is I tasted it the last time I measured before going into secondary and it had a little fruity flavor a little spice a good smell but could taste the alcohol pretty good will that change or did o screw up somewhere
 
at what step did the boil over happen?

I don't think anything is screwed up. Just let it ride....you will have beer!
 
at what step did the boil over happen?

I don't think anything is screwed up. Just let it ride....you will have beer!

This.

If I'm reading your post correctly, it sounds like you didn't have a boil over as much as adding O2 caused the wort to bubble out of the fermenter? If that's the case then it is normal that it would not affect the original gravity, you just have less volume of the same gravity solution.

As for the tasting the alcohol, with your numbers you gave you have a 9.84% abv beer, I would think you'd be able to taste the alcohol! :rockin:

I wouldn't worry, it's the joy of homebrewing! It will likely taste delicious if not entirely how it was intended.

Side note: sounds like you dove in head first into brewing, that's awesome!
 
Good deal and yes it foamed over while aerating, but hopefully letting it sit for a month and dry hoping it at the end, and then bottle aging will help, because I've tried this beer before and had a real nice aroma and flavor but thanks guys
 
Everything sounds good bro!

Gelatin probably wasn't necessary being a saison, but that's all semantics. Cheers!
 
There's a lot going on here, let me just focus on a couple.

Did you add the gelatin at the same time as you added the dry hops? Dry hops should be added to the beer at room temperature, they're much less effective at cold temperature. But gelatin is the opposite - gelatin won't do much of anything at room temperature. You need to chill the beer first. Can you clarify how/when you did these two steps?

Secondary is widely regarded as unnecessary nowadays.

The alcohol flavour could be fusels - how did you control the temperature during fermentation? What was the temperature (of the beer, not the room)? How much yeast did you pitch, and how did you prepare it (i.e., made a starter, rehydrated dry yeast, sprinkled dry yeast directly, etc.)?
 
That's a lot there kombat, remember I'm a boot, But the six days that I had it in my primary I keep the temp at 67 to 70 that's about the best I could do for more, just racked it into my secondary while checking my last gravity I did a sample and tasted the high alcohol flavor. But I used white lab saison and but I wanted it up a couple of hours before pitching
 
I used white lab saison and but I wanted it up a couple of hours before pitching

I'm guessing auto-correct is rearing its ugly head, but what did you mean to say here? Did you just pitch one vial of yeast directly into the wort, with no starter?

What I'm getting at is, I'm trying to figure out if you stressed your yeast, as that can result in higher ester (read: fruity) and/or phenol (can be interpreted as alcohol) production. It sounds like your temperatures were fine, I'm just trying to get to the bottom of whether or not you significantly underpitched.

I'm also still curious about your dry hopping and gelatin protocol.
 
Yea sorry,i work offshore do when I'm home pretty much take over with the kids getting them up and out but no I use two packs of white lab saison, from all my reading that was a must due to cell counts depleting over time. And yes I heated them with water couple of hours before pitching in my wort. But just started my secondary two days ago and I'll let is seat for a month but that last week I'll add my 2oz of French Aramis and two days before bottling I'll add my gelatin to help clarify a little. I just order a yeast starter kit that I've still got a lot to learn do i want have to buy to packs of yeast anymore.
 
You heated up the yeast? Can you explain/describe this a little more? You don't need to heat them, just take them out of the fridge and let them warm up to room temperature.

Also, regarding the gelatin, are you chilling the beer at all before adding gelatin? Gelatin is much more effective when added to cold beer, but borderline useless when added to warm beer.
 
Yea I warmed a cup of water to touch just enough to warm the yeast, and left it ib there for a couple of hour to get to room temp or should have been close and I did cover and I did sanitize the pot, only reason I did this is because I wasn't sure it would be room temp when I was ready to pitch, waited too late when getting everything together and that's when I notice on the direction.

The gelatin I've read helps with clarity, I didn't plan on cooling the beer, I had plan on leaving it at the same temp 67 to 70 but if this want help then I can leave out, being it's my first brew of course I want it to look perfect. I've got some irish moss coming in for my next boil, a Belgian witbier, that should help in the future correct
 
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