A Rookie's Tale

[KiniK]

Hey guys, total noob here. Just thought that I would tell the tale of a noob's first brew so that other noobs might get an idea or two of what NOT to do. The beer is sitting the basement and we'll know if its drinkable in 2/3 weeks. At any rate, here we go...

Excited, perhaps a bit cocky, because I watched a gazillion YouTube video's and read posts from this forum and other places on the internet. Purchased a Hefeweizen premixed 5 gallon kit from the homebrew store and brew day came.

It all started smooth enough. Boiled 3.25 gallons of spring water and overshot the temp to 168F as the info out there says that once you put the grains in the temp drops to the 152F where you need it for the recipe that came with the kit. Slowly poured the grains while mixing in the mash tub, there was no way in hell I was going to allow any lumps in my mash.

I'm Superman.

Problem is, I did it too slow and the temp fell to like 148F. Damn. Ok, no problem, I'll boil some water and bring the temp up. Boiled in an electric kettle about 1/4 gallon. Damn. Still not up to temp. Boiled another 1/2 gallon and brought the temp up but I lost like 20 min and I have more mashing liquid than the recipe calls for. Oh well, I'm sure I'm not the first one to make this mistake.

60 mins....

Boiled more water for the Splarge, mixed the Star San, disinfected, and put some in the spray bottle.

I start the Vorlauf. The first bit of wort comes out but then when I get to the 2nd pitcher and as it starts to clear up, it slows to a dribble. Damn. It looked like the bag of grains also had the rice husks to prevent it from getting gummed up but here we are. At the rate the wort was coming out of the tub, I could have kids and send them to college. So I take the mixing spoon and slowly try and move the grain away from mesh filter. The wort flows again but it's just as cloudy as before. Damn. I try a couple of times but I can't get the grains to stop gumming up the filter so I just use the spoon to clear the grain and just let it go. Cloudier than ideal wort.

I Splarge and get 6.5 gallons into the pot.

Boil. I realize the instructions have no time for the adding of the hops and the youtube guys didn't say and everybody has got a different opinion on when to add for a Hef, so I say whatever, I'll add 1/2 at the beginning of the boil, and then the other 1/2 at 30. If it works out, I'll have a new recipe.

I put the chiller into the wort for the final 15 to disinfect. Attach the chiller but for some reason, there's no water coming from the tap in my backyard. Damn. Move the wort and chiller to the garage but the tap is in an awkward spot so I'm playing Twister while chilling my wort. The water coming out is normally cold but its not today even though its winter here in Canada so I'm going through like 6 buckets of water to chill the wort. While I'm chilling, a few droplets drip from the hose of the chiller into the wort. Damn. Did I infect it? Damn. Oh well, we'll find out later.

I stop the chilling at 74F figuring that the wort will get to the 68F I need to pitch the yeast getting it in to the house and because it felt like somebody was inserting nails into my back from doing Twister while chilling and I couldn't go another bucket.

Get the wort into my kitchen. Damn. Temp not dropping quickly enough. Can't fit the pot into my sink. No problem, I'll let the wort sit with the lid on for 30 min to get to temp.

60 min later, the Wort only gets to 71F. 3 degrees in 60 min?!!

At this point, I think its a brilliant idea to try and filter and aerate the wort moving to the fermentation bucket so I use one of the fine mesh soup strainers. Bad idea. The hops and other solids gum up the strainer so fast, it was useless. Damn.

Whatever, I get the wort into the bucket and take another temp reading. I think the temp is still not ideal but it won't kill the yeast and time's a wasting. I pitch the dry yeast. The yeast sits there and floats, do I stir? Dunno what to do. I stir. I seal the lid and put an airlock on it and bring the wort to the basement where its consistently 68F. Not cold enough for Primary but it's the coldest spot I have in my place.

12 hrs, no bubbles, 24 hours, no bubbles. Meanwhile, I'm googling when the fermentation starts, is it weird that there's no bubbles, will my top blow off from the Krausen from just using an airlock when the Hef is supposed to have a crazy one? etc, etc...pretty much everyone says just chill...

48 hrs some bubbles but hardly. I figure I'll have a look inside and change to a blowoff line so that I'll have a peace of mind that I won't be cleaning beer from my ceiling.

Inside, I see signs of what used to be a small Krausen and some stuff floating on top but not a crazy fermentation.

72 hours no bubbling in the overflow bucket.

4 days later, no bubbling in the overlflow bucket. Damn. Did I infect it? Did I kill the yeast?

I figure I might as well change back to an airlock since the chances of a blowoff and now remote and I can take a gravity reading.

Gravity reading. 1.00X, can't tell exactly but its close to 1.000. Damn. I guess that means I have alcohol, around 5%. I take a small sip. It tastes like crap but maybe it gets to normal after another 2/3 weeks. At this point, I have no idea.

I put the Airlock on....Damn.....I pushed too hard and lost the stopper into the bucket.

It doesn't float so I guess it will be part of the beer....

I just hope that the StarSan did its job. So now I've resigned to the fact that it is what it is and we'll have to see in a few weeks what I have. Live and learn I guess.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Worse case is it was a good learning experience, but it does not sound like you did too much crazy. 1.000 might be lower than I would expect, so hopefully that is not a bad sign.

As far as your mash temp, did you move it to a different vessel or mash in the pot you heated the water? It could be that you did not account for the mash tun temp or the grain temps.

 

[gunhaus]

Yea - Had that day . . . .

 

[ESBrewer]

Yes, it is very much about the practice and process that is related to your equipment and circumstances. The YouTube guys have already solved the potential issues they had in their process when they started, making it look easy.

It seems that there was a leak in the lid or airlock sealing. This is very common and may prevent all/most of the bubbling on the airlock.

Next time you'll be better prepared. The good news is that the beer may still be drinkable, even if everything didn't go quite as you expected.

 

[RM-MN]

It all started smooth enough. Boiled 3.25 gallons of spring water and overshot the temp to 168F as the info out there says that once you put the grains in the temp drops to the 152F where you need it for the recipe that came with the kit. Slowly poured the grains while mixing in the mash tub, there was no way in hell I was going to allow any lumps in my mash.

Problem is, I did it too slow and the temp fell to like 148F. Damn. Ok, no problem, I'll boil some water and bring the temp up. Boiled in an electric kettle about 1/4 gallon. Damn. Still not up to temp. Boiled another 1/2 gallon and brought the temp up but I lost like 20 min and I have more mashing liquid than the recipe calls for. Oh well, I'm sure I'm not the first one to make this mistake

The strike temperature and strike volume need to be adjusted for the weight and temperature of the grain. Your grain might have been colder than the recipe anticipated and that cooled off your water. No problem, 148F is within the range where conversion occurs. You could have just left it alone and it would have made wort.

I start the Vorlauf. The first bit of wort comes out but then when I get to the 2nd pitcher and as it starts to clear up, it slows to a dribble. Damn. It looked like the bag of grains also had the rice husks to prevent it from getting gummed up but here we are. At the rate the wort was coming out of the tub, I could have kids and send them to college. So I take the mixing spoon and slowly try and move the grain away from mesh filter. The wort flows again but it's just as cloudy as before. Damn. I try a couple of times but I can't get the grains to stop gumming up the filter so I just use the spoon to clear the grain and just let it go. Cloudier than ideal wort.

Wheat beers are more difficult to work with as they tend to clog the drain. Your best bet would have been to do this batch BIAB where you would have had a huge filter area to drain the wort. Second best would be adding the rice hulls to gain more filter. Not to worry, you cleared the jam and got the wort out but it was cloudy. No problem. There is no relationship between clear wort and clear beer and besides, this is a Hefeweizen and they are supposed to be cloudy.

Boil. I realize the instructions have no time for the adding of the hops and the youtube guys didn't say and everybody has got a different opinion on when to add for a Hef, so I say whatever, I'll add 1/2 at the beginning of the boil, and then the other 1/2 at 30. If it works out, I'll have a new recipe.

Tyoically a hefeweizen has only bittering hops, not flavor hops and all hops can be added at the 60 minute mark. Fortunately, at 30 minutes left in the boil most of the flavor would be boiled away and most of the bittering happens in that 3 minute period anyway. I often just do a 30 minute boil for my beers.

12 hrs, no bubbles, 24 hours, no bubbles. Meanwhile, I'm googling when the fermentation starts, is it weird that there's no bubbles, will my top blow off from the Krausen from just using an airlock when the Hef is supposed to have a crazy one? etc, etc...pretty much everyone says just chill...

Bucket lids leak. Well most of them do. The airlock is there to keep the fruit flies out while letting the excess gas escape and for the entertainment of the brewer who likes to see bubbles. Krausen or a krausen ring on the inside of the bucket is a sign of fermentation. The hydrometer is a for sure sign as you have noticed. My beers taste way different after they are carbonated than they do at bottling time. I taste them by drinking the beer from the hydrometer sample for any real off flavors but I don't freak out if they don't taste great.

 

[KiniK]

Worse case is it was a good learning experience, but it does not sound like you did too much crazy. 1.000 might be lower than I would expect, so hopefully that is not a bad sign.

As far as your mash temp, did you move it to a different vessel or mash in the pot you heated the water? It could be that you did not account for the mash tun temp or the grain temps.

I moved the water into the Mash Tub that came with the kit, I didn't preheat. Next time I'm going to preheat. I guess, I don't know what to look for in a beer 4 days into fermentation so I couldn't tell if the beer will be good or not but it had no body and tasted more sour than I expected a Hef to be.

 

[KiniK]

Yes, it is very much about the practice and process that is related to your equipment and circumstances. The YouTube guys have already solved the potential issues they had in their process when they started, making it look easy.

It seems that there was a leak in the lid or airlock sealing. This is very common and may prevent all/most of the bubbling on the airlock.

Next time you'll be better prepared. The good news is that the beer may still be drinkable, even if everything didn't go quite as you expected.

Yeah thanks for the optimism, I think I'm going to buy a couple of Carboys. I realized that I like to actually see the wort turn into beer and frankly, I don't like the idea of not getting a perfect seal. It will also allow me mentally to not bother the beer while its fermenting.

 

[KiniK]

The strike temperature and strike volume need to be adjusted for the weight and temperature of the grain. Your grain might have been colder than the recipe anticipated and that cooled off your water. No problem, 148F is within the range where conversion occurs. You could have just left it alone and it would have made wort.



Wheat beers are more difficult to work with as they tend to clog the drain. Your best bet would have been to do this batch BIAB where you would have had a huge filter area to drain the wort. Second best would be adding the rice hulls to gain more filter. Not to worry, you cleared the jam and got the wort out but it was cloudy. No problem. There is no relationship between clear wort and clear beer and besides, this is a Hefeweizen and they are supposed to be cloudy.

Tyoically a hefeweizen has only bittering hops, not flavor hops and all hops can be added at the 60 minute mark. Fortunately, at 30 minutes left in the boil most of the flavor would be boiled away and most of the bittering happens in that 3 minute period anyway. I often just do a 30 minute boil for my beers.

Bucket lids leak. Well most of them do. The airlock is there to keep the fruit flies out while letting the excess gas escape and for the entertainment of the brewer who likes to see bubbles. Krausen or a krausen ring on the inside of the bucket is a sign of fermentation. The hydrometer is a for sure sign as you have noticed. My beers taste way different after they are carbonated than they do at bottling time. I taste them by drinking the beer from the hydrometer sample for any real off flavors but I don't freak out if they don't taste great.

Thanks for the optimism. I guess because I've never tasted after 4 days I have no clue what its supposed to taste like but it seems like it has no body and more sour than what I think I Hef is supposed to be at this stage. I'm actually cool about it all, I just think its funny.

Yeah, I knew it was supposed to be cloudy but with no experience, you think that you're overkilling it when the Vorlauf doesn't go to plan.

Gonna make the following adjustments

-BIAB for any wheat beer. Realize, not only do you not get the clogs but the clean up is way easier

-Going with Carboys, I hate buckets

 

[RM-MN]

-Going with Carboys, I hate buckets

Go with clear plastic fermenters, not glass carboys. The plastic ones won't send you to the emergency room like the glass carboys can.

Alternatively, put 1 1/2 cups of the wort into a pint jar and add a little yeast. You can see the fermentation there just like a carboy but with much less danger.

Many of us use buckets. The lack of a seal is no big thing, Check out the leak that Sierra Nevada has on their fermenter.

https://firstwefeast.com/drink/2014...-fermenting-at-sierra-nevada-is-amazing-video

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

I moved the water into the Mash Tub that came with the kit, I didn't preheat. Next time I'm going to preheat. I guess, I don't know what to look for in a beer 4 days into fermentation so I couldn't tell if the beer will be good or not but it had no body and tasted more sour than I expected a Hef to be.

A couple things that may help next time:

1) As you noted, preheat your mash tun. Are you using a cooler? I just fill my cooler about halfway with the hottest tap water I can get and let it sit for 10 minutes or so. I drain just before putting the strike water in.

2) I overshoot the strike temp by a couple degrees so that if it cools initially in the cooler MLT, it will still be good.

3) I use brew365.com to calculate water volumes, strike temps etc. They have a water calculator that works as well as anything I've seen. I'm almost always within a degree of my target mash temp.

4) Don't get too worked up about mash temp unless you're below 148 or above 160. In between, there will be subtle differences in the fermentability of the wort, but 99% of the people can't tell the difference.

5) Get a clear plastic fermenter (like a fermonster or Big Mouth Bubbler). They're clear, they're easy to clean, and you can see what's going on.

6) I always taste the beer from my gravity samples, but I don't get too worked up about them not being awesome. Beers change quite a bit with bottle conditioning or even just time in a keg.

Good luck with your next brew day!

 

[Lefou]

Splarge - the process of accidentally spilling or wasting your wort while attempting to mash out.
I've NEVER done that.

 

[isomerization]

I didn’t see it, but did you take a gravity reading before pitching yeast?

 

[KiniK]

A couple things that may help next time:

1) As you noted, preheat your mash tun. Are you using a cooler? I just fill my cooler about halfway with the hottest tap water I can get and let it sit for 10 minutes or so. I drain just before putting the strike water in.

2) I overshoot the strike temp by a couple degrees so that if it cools initially in the cooler MLT, it will still be good.

3) I use brew365.com to calculate water volumes, strike temps etc. They have a water calculator that works as well as anything I've seen. I'm almost always within a degree of my target mash temp.

4) Don't get too worked up about mash temp unless you're below 148 or above 160. In between, there will be subtle differences in the fermentability of the wort, but 99% of the people can't tell the difference.

5) Get a clear plastic fermenter (like a fermonster or Big Mouth Bubbler). They're clear, they're easy to clean, and you can see what's going on.

6) I always taste the beer from my gravity samples, but I don't get too worked up about them not being awesome. Beers change quite a bit with bottle conditioning or even just time in a keg.

Good luck with your next brew day!

Thanks for the advice, you've changed my mind, I think the Big Mouth Bubbler is the way to go.

 

[KiniK]

I didn’t see it, but did you take a gravity reading before pitching yeast?

Yes, I got around 1040

 

[Sadu]

Doesn't sound too different to my earlier attempts, but nothing catastrophic by the sounds of it.

I'd query a hydrometer reading of 1.000 (or thereabouts) though. The cooler mash temps will bring it down a bit, but not that much. If your sample is cold then it will read a couple of points lower than it actually is.

Either way, now the waiting game begins (the hardest part of the process by far) and you'll find out soon how you did. All good learning for next time.

 

[Toxxyc]

This was your first try. It happens. I remember my first. You go "well this looks easy, guess it IS easy!" I only started with extracts, so it was a little easier, but still. Picking up the heavy pot from the stove, knocking over the empty syrup tin because you can't see with this heavy pot in your arms, extract syrup running out, you know you have to clean it up because it's DAMN sticky, but you are carrying a hot pot, and it needs to chill, so you move the pot first but the syrup is running, then you realize the pot doesn't fit the sink, so you place it on the floor and clean up the mess, then you crack a tile from the hot pot, etc... Yeah I get it. It never rains, it pours.

PS: The beer came out frigging great. Yours will too. Flat, warm beer has never been tasty and I always tell people they should compare the taste with the leftover beer in the bottle the next morning after a party. Even that tastes not so lekker, and it's awesome to see how a few degrees colder and some carbonation can make a "crappy" tasting solution taste magical.

RDWHAHB.

 

[KiniK]

Doesn't sound too different to my earlier attempts, but nothing catastrophic by the sounds of it.

I'd query a hydrometer reading of 1.000 (or thereabouts) though. The cooler mash temps will bring it down a bit, but not that much. If your sample is cold then it will read a couple of points lower than it actually is.

Either way, now the waiting game begins (the hardest part of the process by far) and you'll find out soon how you did. All good learning for next time.

Thanks for the info. I'll do another hyrdrometer reading and tasting in a another week or two. Gonna give this some time now and forget about the batch.

 

[KiniK]

This was your first try. It happens. I remember my first. You go "well this looks easy, guess it IS easy!" I only started with extracts, so it was a little easier, but still. Picking up the heavy pot from the stove, knocking over the empty syrup tin because you can't see with this heavy pot in your arms, extract syrup running out, you know you have to clean it up because it's DAMN sticky, but you are carrying a hot pot, and it needs to chill, so you move the pot first but the syrup is running, then you realize the pot doesn't fit the sink, so you place it on the floor and clean up the mess, then you crack a tile from the hot pot, etc... Yeah I get it. It never rains, it pours.

PS: The beer came out frigging great. Yours will too. Flat, warm beer has never been tasty and I always tell people they should compare the taste with the leftover beer in the bottle the next morning after a party. Even that tastes not so lekker, and it's awesome to see how a few degrees colder and some carbonation can make a "crappy" tasting solution taste magical.

RDWHAHB.

Haha! We'll see in a few weeks!