Campden in the Wort

[ACbrewer]

Well I brewed a batch 2 days ago (more like 36 hours ago), put it in my bucket, and it has begun to taste 'off' I'm suspecting that it might be going sour from an infection.

What I'm thinking of doing (since I also home wine) is putting in some campden tablets to kill off everything waiting 24 hours and pitching a fresh batch of yeast. Will this work? I know I will have whatever I've got now as a 'base' and can't get rid of the sour generated, but I can prevent more from occuring. And I don't mind a beer a little sour.


Also a second question, I'm thinking of using idaphor for sanitizing - I've been using 1 step. I like to put my utensils in a pitcher full of sanitizer when brewing - instead of the counter, etc. Will this small amount of iodine present a problem?

Thanks.

 

[JoeBronco]

Don't do anything to it. Just leave it alone and let it ferment for at least two weeks before you take another sample. If its infected, it will still be infected in two weeks. If not youll have a good beer without the sour taste. If you keep everything sanatary its very unlikely that its spoiled.

 

[ACbrewer]

Well I followed 1/2 your advice.

I primary in my bottling bucket, so drawing a sample isn't hard or unsanitary from putting equipment in - Yeah introducing air in through the vent hole after taking out my airlock has risks. So I've been sampling first to take gravity then to taste. (if it goes into me, no need to worry about sanitation of hydrometer and tube

At this point I think I'm ready to rack to a secondary. my OG was 1.064 and currently it was 1.018. I was expecting a 1.016 following the rule of thumb of FG=1/4 OG - I know not stricktly true, but as you look over peoples recepies it makes a good benchmark to know if you are 'about done' or not.

The beer tastes, well beery with a hint of honey and a bit more Alcohol then I was intending.

Base receipe was 6.6 lb Amber LME, 1# Crystal L60 and .5# Chocolate L350 with 2.5# honey.

I'll let you all know about this in the end. I'm still wondering about the Campden tablets in the future, but I prefer to add as little to the beer as needed.

PS my last beer went bad (sour) which I didn't notice till after I'd bottled. I'm not possitive where I screwed it up, hence my over protectiveness of this one

 

[JoeBronco]

Sour beer is not always a bad beer...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/sour-new-hoppy-219152/

 

[ACbrewer]

So here is where this beer ended up.

1. I left it alone. (ie no additions)
2. Bottled it last night, not sure how much (in gallons) I got, there is always a little shrink and that leads to a different question about bottle filling (I'll post that elsewhere)

Taste wise, it is a damn good uncarbonated beer. Target taste wise? Missed. I was aiming for a orange honey flavor in with the brown ale (used safel 04 yeast). But I put in to much malt (6.6# coopers pale) to honey (2.5# honey). I should have done closer to 3.3# of malt. I debated adding more honey, but with a OG of 1.064, and a FG of 1.015 at bottling (pre primer) my ABV is like 6% which is for me plenty strong.

So yeah it will be a good beer, but not all that I hoped for.

 

[JoeBronco]

Beer is always good. It makes you a better brewer to experiment and try new things!