Big mistake

[meni0n]

So this was my first attempt at extract brewing. All I did was steep 500g of chocolate malt and 250g of dark malt and add it to a brewmaker velvet irish stout with 1.2kg hi malt glucose. Now I think I made a huge mistake and forgot to boil the wort after I removed the steeping grains. It's been fermenting for a week now and there's now a thick sludge and bubbles on top of the beer, although fermentation is still going. I just took a taste and it tastes very chocolaty. By not boiling the wort, is this a dump?

 

[Hello]

No. Never dump until you taste it. So I know, you brought your water up to 155F give or take, steeped the grains for what? 30 minutes? Then just cooled the wort but not before you added hi malt glucose, right? When did you add the hi malt glucose?

Taste wise, chocolately isn't bad if you don't hate chocolate but does it taste like beer? It's fermenting so it'll be beer, technically. As for appearance, hard to say without a nice photo.

 

[meni0n]

I brought it up to 165 then steeped for about 20-25 mins. Put the kit into the fermenter, then put the wort in, then the hi malt glucose and topped with cold water. I had to cool it in my cold room in the basement and then I pitched us-05 at the high end and brought it down to about 64-66 during the next two days. I was going for the chocolaty flavour which is why I wanted to do the chocolate malt.

I just took a picture, the bubbles are gone but it might due to me moving the fermenter around.

 

[ACbrewer]

I'm confused... Did you add hops? was there a boil for those? I'd guess your hop flavors will be lacking in bitterness, unless it was a hopped extract.

Either way, I'd let it complete and taste before bottling. If it tastes good, bottle.

 

[meni0n]

It was a prehopped stout kit.

 

[GrogNerd]

I say you're good. keep on keepin' on.

ferment 3 weeks, bottle, carbonate/condition 3 weeks, enjoy

good luck with future brews & welcome to the obsession!

 

[IslandLizard]

Pre-hopped extracts should not be boiled anyway. Now whether you like the flavor of them is a whole different question....

Look into some kits that are available from reputable dealers and with good reviews. Your LHBS may have some too. The better kits use Dry Malt Extract (DME) or Liquid Malt Extract (LME) or a combination of those two and are not pre-hopped. They don't include a bag of some fancy named brewing "sugar" either except a few ounces of corn sugar to be used for bottling only. The kits also contain steeping grains and hops, and sometimes yeast. For others you'll need to order or buy the yeast separately, so you know it's fresh. Read the forums here on those kind of kits and try one for your next brew.

 

[fartinmartin]

There are little mistakes and big mistakes, yours were big .

 

[flars]

So this was my first attempt at extract brewing. All I did was steep 500g of chocolate malt and 250g of dark malt and add it to a brewmaker velvet irish stout with 1.2kg hi malt glucose. Now I think I made a huge mistake and forgot to boil the wort after I removed the steeping grains. It's been fermenting for a week now and there's now a thick sludge and bubbles on top of the beer, although fermentation is still going. I just took a taste and it tastes very chocolaty. By not boiling the wort, is this a dump?

I would have done one thing differently if I was brewing the type of kit you used. I would have raised the liquor temperature to 185°F before adding the LME.
I think you will still be good to go. Give it at least two weeks in the fermentor before you start checking for Final Gravity.
This beer will probably take at least four weeks of bottle conditioning before the true flavor will begin emerging.

Come back in about six weeks and let us know how it turned out.

 

[ACbrewer]

if I recall correctly a prehopped kit doesn't need boiling. the DME, LME and HME all are fairly sanitary to begin with. At 155 you will kill most anything that was living on grain or such.

as everyone else said, give it 2 weeks - or 3weeks and a gravity reading and a tasting.

 

[Calder]

160 F for 5 seconds will sanitize the wort. 145 F for 20 minutes will do it too.

I think you are ok.

Pre-hopped extract should not be boiled, so you did good there too. Yes, there are things you could have done better, but you made beer, and it should turn out fine.

 

[boydster]

if I recall correctly a prehopped kit doesn't need boiling. the DME, LME and HME all are fairly sanitary to begin with. At 155 you will kill most anything that was living on grain or such.

as everyone else said, give it 2 weeks - or 3weeks and a gravity reading and a tasting.

^This is good advice. If your extract was already hopped, you don't need to boil it. As others have said, you may enjoy trying some recipes where you get to add the hops yourself (I love the smell of hops in boiling wort), but for this particular batch you probably have nothing to worry about.

 

[meni0n]

Airlock still going after 2 weeks. I did a taste on the weekend and it was a lot less sweet with the black and chocolate malt really coming on strong but losing some of the chocolate flavor. Hoping to bottle it in a week but I've never had a beer ferment for 2 weeks yet.

 

[roccobrews]

Don't dump. Happy Birthday Jesus!

 

[meni0n]

So the airlock is still bubbling away after two and a half weeks. I checked the FG and it's sitting around 1.018 which is kind of weird since since it's been fermenting this long. The SG was around 1.042. It also has these large bubbles on top but I don't see any rafts so I don't think it's lacto. I wonder if the airlock bubbling is just co2 escaping and the fermentation is actually done.

 

[logan3825]

The airlock bubbling doesn't mean it is still fermenting. The only way to tell if it is still fermenting is to check the gravity a couple days apart.

 

[meni0n]

What about all that stuff on top? Shouldn't most of the bubbles be gone if fermentation is done?

 

[logan3825]

Maybe. Take a gravity reading.

 

[GrogNerd]

as long as it doesn't smell/taste like feet/a$$, you're still good.

even it it does, keep going with it

 

[Budvar]

It can take a week or two for the krausen (thick sludge on top of beer) to fall out of suspension. Sometimes longer. Just be patient and let the beer sit.

 

[meni0n]

Gravity not going any lower. I did a taste and it has a really really strong, almost overpowering roast flavor. I think I'm going to add 1 lbs of lactose right before bottling to make it a bit sweet and hopefully mellow it out a bit. The roast flavor is so strong it tastes almost like an ash tray.

 

[fartinmartin]

what's all this "I did a taste" what ever you taste prior to three weeks in a bottle means diddly squat ! Annalise the recipe that's the taste, brew accordingly , and that's what you get or some thing similar .
Taste prior to conditioning, carbonation, maturation means nowt!

 

[boydster]

Based on your first post, it sounds like you started with a dark, prehopped extract and then added .75kg, or more than 1.5 lbs for us 'muricans on the forum, chocolate and roasted malt to the mix. The dark extract already had some dark malts blended into it, so this is going to be a roast-heavy beer and will probably not be at its peak flavor for several months after bottling. I probably wouldn't add the lactose myself because it's already at a high gravity and I wouldn't want it to get to the point of being syrupy, but that's definitely a decision for you to make. I think I'd just bottle it as-is and put some age on it, and in the meantime get to brewing some more beer.

 

[meni0n]

Thanks for the advice guys. I decided not do add the lactose. I'm going to measure the FG tomorrow and if it's the same as the last two days I'm going to bottle it and leave it be for a while. At this moment I'm doing my first partial extract so hoping that turns out well.

 

[boydster]

Good luck!

 

[Budvar]

what's all this "I did a taste" what ever you taste prior to three weeks in a bottle means diddly squat ! Annalise the recipe that's the taste, brew accordingly , and that's what you get or some thing similar .
Taste prior to conditioning, carbonation, maturation means nowt!

I agree, you shouldn't taste the beer while it's brewing. Too much risk of oxidation/contamination. Just be patient and it sit if you want it to turn out right.

 

[MindenMan]

I also agree, what the beer tastes like before it is bottle conditions, is a waste of good beer. Until it is conditioned, carbonated, and matured, you really have no idea what you've got. In my experience the chocolate flavor you mention is misleading; at the boil the chocolate flavor is there but not much, after fermentation the chocolate flavor is pretty much gone, after carbonation and a month or so, the chocolate flavor/aroma starts coming back. Give it a couple more months in the bottle, and the chocolate flavor becomes more pronounced, and smooth. Like I said, this is what happened to me in a couple of different beers, and yours may or may not act like mine did.