First batch. How am I doing?

[Wiggleplum]

Hey everyone,

I bought an extract kit (Honey Brown) from Northern Brewer with the Safale S-05 yeast, and brewed it up this past Friday afternoon. On the instructions it said to put the carboy in a dark warm place and to let it go, but this didn't seem right to me based on all the reading I had done here and elsewhere. Since I don't want anything that tastes like banana or any other crazy flavor, I went to Wal-Mart and picked up one of those circular rope tubs. Swung by Burger King since they sell 10lb bags of ice for .99 each, and got two. Ive been keeping the water cool with the ice and ice blocks ive been making with tupperware containers, but I have no way of measuring it. Ive had the water level between half way up and 1/2" from the top of the beer level and have had a tshirt on it as well.

The airlock has been bubbling about once every 2 seconds or so since Saturday morning, and is still going. Kreusen still hasn't fallen yet as far as I can tell. I am a bit worried about temps since the air from the airlock still has a sweet indescribable aroma. Nothing bad, just sweet smelling; I could swear I could smell banana but my girlfriend said she couldn't. Of course this is my first batch and I have no idea what it should smell like.

Am I doing everything correctly? Just kinda confused since the instructions said to put it in a warm spot. Also the sweet smell has me a tad bit worried, but could that be the 1lb of honey in the recipe?

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/HoneyBrown.pdf

Thanks for the help!

 

[brewkinger]

It is all perfectly normal.

You did the right thing by cooling it in the ice bath. We call that a swamp cooler. The water level should be equal to the volume of beer in the fermenter for best heat exchange.

Get yourself a decent thermometer and check the temp of the water bath. Your beer temps will be within a couple of degrees.
Keep it cool like you have been and it should be fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[WayFrae]

Hey everyone,

I bought an extract kit (Honey Brown) from Northern Brewer with the Safale S-05 yeast, and brewed it up this past Friday afternoon. On the instructions it said to put the carboy in a dark warm place and to let it go, but this didn't seem right to me based on all the reading I had done here and elsewhere. Since I don't want anything that tastes like banana or any other crazy flavor, I went to Wal-Mart and picked up one of those circular rope tubs. Swung by Burger King since they sell 10lb bags of ice for .99 each, and got two. Ive been keeping the water cool with the ice and ice blocks ive been making with tupperware containers, but I have no way of measuring it. Ive had the water level between half way up and 1/2" from the top of the beer level and have had a tshirt on it as well.

The airlock has been bubbling about once every 2 seconds or so since Saturday morning, and is still going. Kreusen still hasn't fallen yet as far as I can tell. I am a bit worried about temps since the air from the airlock still has a sweet indescribable aroma. Nothing bad, just sweet smelling; I could swear I could smell banana but my girlfriend said she couldn't. Of course this is my first batch and I have no idea what it should smell like.

Am I doing everything correctly? Just kinda confused since the instructions said to put it in a warm spot. Also the sweet smell has me a tad bit worried, but could that be the 1lb of honey in the recipe?

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/HoneyBrown.pdf

Thanks for the help!

Most instructions that come with kits are just very basic guidelines to go by to make beer. Not necessarily good beer, but beer. By keeping your fermentor cool you will have a much cleaner tasting beer. You should invest in an adhesive thermometer that sticks to your fermentor to track your temps (they cost like $3, often called a Fermometer).

I think 62°F should be a good temperature to strive for with that yeast. Also, don't worry about the smells coming from the airlock, I am also an airlock sniffer and I can attest to the yeast producing some funky odors during fermentation. If there is still krausen then the yeast are still hard at work munching on those sugars so I wouldn't be surprised if it is still sweet smelling.

 

[grittanomyces]

By warm place, they just mean not a place that's not too cool.

Ales typically ferment best around 60-75 degrees, and a quick google search reveals that the range for S-05 is 59-75, but this yeast strand is said to be forgiving too.

As long as you don't get above that range (and maybe not even if you do a little bit or only briefly), you will not get the dreaded esters that give a banana/clove taste that's not appropriate for most styles.

A honey brown is obviously going to be sweeter smelling, and probably much moreso before the yeast eats all the sugars and it conditions to it's ideal flavor.

How cold are you keeping it? Because if anything you're risking it being too cold for the yeast to be active and do their work.

 

[Wiggleplum]

Thanks for the tips everyone! Ordered one of those Fermometers so I will have a better idea about what is going on next time. It is still going along at 1 bubble every 2-3 seconds.

 

[jekeane]

Because you are using a swamp cooler when you get your fermometer stick it some place above the water line it wont last long if it gets to wet. Good luck!

 

[rlonardo]

Because you are using a swamp cooler when you get your fermometer stick it some place above the water line it wont last long if it gets to wet. Good luck!

This. They're junk if they get wet.

I keep floating thermometer in my swamp cooler. $7-8 at the LHBS and I trust the accuracy more than the fermometers.

 

[Sacchattack]

Water baths can mitigate wild temp swings in fermentation, but i had poor luck with them when i first started. I would periodically add ice to the bath in the morning and late afternoon to try and keep the temp steady. However, even with a floating thermometer it was tough to get a really accurate reading of how my actual beer temp was doing.

I've had much better luck just wrapping it up double tight with some sleeping bags and blankets and putting it in the closet. Safale US-05 tastes awesome around 65, but still makes some really good beer around 70. Whatever you do, just don't let the temp swing one or two degrees each day. If your water bath starts at 68 each day and goes up to 71 by each night, you might have some bananaish beer.

 

[Chadwick]

Based on what I'm reading here I've got this to say about your brew.

Sit back, relax, you're doing it right! :rockin:

 

[flars]

Do you have any sort of outdoor thermometer you can stick in the water?

I would guess that with the volume of water you have, and the rate of bubbling from your airlock, that your wort temperature is 3° to 4° higher than the water temperature. This is just a wild estimate based on temperatures I have measured using US-05 with an ambient temperature of 66°.