1)
My second batch of beer ever was a True Brew hefeweizen kit. As the directions suggested, I fermented the wort for a week before bottling. I've since come to realize that this is far too early and that fermentation is not yet complete after only one week. However, that still leaves me with 48 bottles of improperly fermented hefeweizen. It has been 3.5 weeks since bottling and I've tried two bottles (one at 2 weeks, one yesterday). While I don't expect perfection after only 3.5 weeks, it seems to be tasting worse! It has a very sour taste (sour candy sour, not rotten milk sour) and is damn close to un-potable. Should I dump it or assume it's eventually going to taste closer to acceptable. Keep in mind that, as I bottled after only one week, it is heavily carbonated and should become more so as time goes on.
2)
My fourth batch is a Blueberry Wheat kit compiled by my local brew store. The listed OG is 1.040 with a FG of 1.005. However, upon brewing, my OG came to 1.056 (I doubled checked). The recipe called for and came with a can of blueberry pie filling to be warmed and added directly to the fermenter BEFORE the wort. My first guess is that they added the pie filling AFTER the wort and took the OG without accommodating for all that extra sugar. I'm wondering two things:
a) How did I manage to get an OG much higher than listed if I only used the ingredients provided?
b) How can I tell fermentation has completed since my OG is 0.016 high? Do I wait for it to hit the listed FG or do I adjust the target FG by +0.016?
Thanks in advance!
My second batch of beer ever was a True Brew hefeweizen kit. As the directions suggested, I fermented the wort for a week before bottling. I've since come to realize that this is far too early and that fermentation is not yet complete after only one week. However, that still leaves me with 48 bottles of improperly fermented hefeweizen. It has been 3.5 weeks since bottling and I've tried two bottles (one at 2 weeks, one yesterday). While I don't expect perfection after only 3.5 weeks, it seems to be tasting worse! It has a very sour taste (sour candy sour, not rotten milk sour) and is damn close to un-potable. Should I dump it or assume it's eventually going to taste closer to acceptable. Keep in mind that, as I bottled after only one week, it is heavily carbonated and should become more so as time goes on.
2)
My fourth batch is a Blueberry Wheat kit compiled by my local brew store. The listed OG is 1.040 with a FG of 1.005. However, upon brewing, my OG came to 1.056 (I doubled checked). The recipe called for and came with a can of blueberry pie filling to be warmed and added directly to the fermenter BEFORE the wort. My first guess is that they added the pie filling AFTER the wort and took the OG without accommodating for all that extra sugar. I'm wondering two things:
a) How did I manage to get an OG much higher than listed if I only used the ingredients provided?
b) How can I tell fermentation has completed since my OG is 0.016 high? Do I wait for it to hit the listed FG or do I adjust the target FG by +0.016?
Thanks in advance!