Had my first homebrew red ale extract

[jturman35]

So I took a class at my local HB store and guy gave us each 20oz bottle red Ale to take home. Hey used what looked like 2 cough drops for carbonation. We each got a chance to bottle. Anyway it's been 15days and we were told to wait at least 14days to drink so it would be carbonated. I tried it last night and it was carbonated, but had a twang to it.

I was curious what "green" beer tasted like? Something tells me it wasn't ready. I was expecting a better beer and was disappointed. Luckily I didn't brew it. But this guy owns the store and been brewing faience 1973. I currently have 5 gals of red Ale in the fermenter and also 5 gals of Black IPA. I plan on kegging and Bottleling a few to keep for later. How long Will an extract beer take to age in a bottle verse keg?

 

[adhomebrew10]

There are a lot of variables without knowing about the twang taste. A green beer will sometimes taste a bit like green apples, perhaps be a bit thin and cidery, etc. Twang could also be a result of some type of infection, but with only one bottle to compare against it is hard to know for sure.

Typically 2 weeks would be the minimum to wait for carbonation, but a month, especially with bottle condition beers, is better. It takes time for the flavor profile to adjust.

 

[Jtk78]

The twang is often associated with using extract. I've had it in a batch or two, but have not noticed it when using dry extract.

 

[jturman35]

Ok, just curious. I sampled my red Ale last Sat when I pulled my FG and didn't notice the twang. I plan on kegging/Bottleling my beer and just learned these both need at least a month to age a little. I have two extract batches in the fermenter and hope these turn out good. I'm starting to wonder if these extracts will have the taste Im looking for. I may do a BIAB to see how much better the taste is compared to extract.

 

[tooldudetool]

In my experience just because someone works at or even owns a homebrew store doesn't mean they know what they are talking about. Especially someone who has been brewing since 1973. There have been massive strides in homebrew knowledge just in the last 5 years with all of the information and experimentation that the internet, sites like Brulosophy.com and homebrew forums have brought us. I have found many homebrew store people do not keep up with the latest breakthroughs and trends, and probably do things the same way they have for the last 20 years... I wouldn't be surprised if that guy still uses iodine as a sanitizer, racks all of his beers to secondary, only uses 1-2 oz of dry hops in an IPA and still bottles. No offense to people who fit that profile, but I bet thats why his homebrew tastes like "homebrew".

 

[jturman35]

You are correct. Just because someone owns/works a home brew store doesn't mean they know what they are doing. I believe the beer I was given came from one of his classes. I just hope not all extracts taste this way. Hopefully the beer I had was just extremely green. I don't know, I have never had homebrew till now. I have gone all in with the fermenter/keezer, their is no turning back now!

I was told to by him to leave in primary for 30days despite the instructions.

 

[RM-MN]

You are correct. Just because someone owns/works a home brew store doesn't mean they know what they are doing. I believe the beer I was given came from one of his classes. I just hope not all extracts taste this way. Hopefully the beer I had was just extremely green. I don't know, I have never had homebrew till now. I have gone all in with the fermenter/keezer, their is no turning back now!

I was told to by him to leave in primary for 30days despite the instructions.

The purpose of a homebrew store it to provide supplies to customers and income to the owner. The owner may be a homebrew fanatic who keeps up with the latest developments in brewing.....or may not brew at all.

Your knowledge base will improve with continued reading here on HomeBrewTalk as people here are experimenters and will post their results for you to learn from. Not all experiments will be successful but you don't have to try that method because someone else has and recorded the failure.

BTW, most brews don't really need 30 days in the fermenter but few will be damaged by doing so. 30 days allows much of the suspended yeast to settle out so it doesn't end up in the bottles/keg and begins the maturing of the beer.

 

[jturman35]

Would I be better off kegging and letting it age in the keg in my keezer? It's been fermenting for 17days. Brew day was Aug 27.

 

[JordanKnudson]

Would I be better off kegging and letting it age in the keg in my keezer? It's been fermenting for 17days. Brew day was Aug 27.

Your beer may be done, but unless you have a hydrometer and understand gravity readings, be patient and just let it ride a bit longer. No harm will come to it.

Kegging is certainly less hassle than bottling. But as far as which one will be better for the quality of your beer, well, either one (done properly) should be just fine.

You mentioned a black IPA...I would recommend kegging IPAs (in a CO2-purged keg), as you are less likely to introduce oxygen, which will kill an IPA fast. Your maltier beers, like a red ale, should stand up to bottling without issue.

As for "how homebrew tastes," well, we all likely wouldn't be in this hobby for long if we couldn't make beer as good as or better than what's on the shelf at the store. Sure, there's a learning curve, and there are also some folks who never quite master great beer (usually the ones who don't care or try all that much), but if you experiment, learn, ask questions, research, and accept the occasional disappointing batch as a teachable experience, you'll end up with a hobby that is fun and yields a product that you can enjoy and be proud of and your friends will all envy. For the record, my wife's family, who comprise a lifelong coors drinker, a beer-hating wine lover, an IPA fan, and a German beer aficionado, all now prefer the beers that I put on tap, and will eschew their usual choices in favor of it more often than not.

 

[RM-MN]

Would I be better off kegging and letting it age in the keg in my keezer? It's been fermenting for 17days. Brew day was Aug 27.

Your beer will age faster at room temp than in the keezer. It also will begin the aging right in the fermenter.

 

[jturman35]

I'm growing impatient! I'm just Ready to try my first homebrew!

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1505339636.271200.jpg

I took a hydrometer on the red Ale last weekend and it came out 1.017 if my calculations are correct im at 5.9% abv. The Brewers Best Red Ale kit said 5.5% but I didn't correct for boil off, so I ended up with 4.25 gals in the carboy.View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1505339414.518043.jpg

I plan to keg the red Ale at 27-28 days because I'm impatient and have no beer in tap. I'm guessing it will take another week or so in the keg before it's prime. The black IPA will go exactly 30 days in the fermenter before I keg. The instructions for the IPA call for a dry hop 7 days before kegging.

 

[JordanKnudson]

I'm growing impatient! I'm just Ready to try my first homebrew!

I took a hydrometer on the red Ale last weekend and it came out 1.017 if my calculations are correct im at 5.9% abv. The Brewers Best Red Ale kit said 5.5% but I didn't correct for boil off, so I ended up with 4.25 gals in the carboy.

I plan to keg the red Ale at 27-28 days because I'm impatient and have no beer in tap. I'm guessing it will take another week or so in the keg before it's prime. The black IPA will go exactly 30 days in the fermenter before I keg. The instructions for the IPA call for a dry hop 7 days before kegging.

Since you have a hydrometer, you can be much more precise about when you are ready to package your beer.

The "number of days" instruction is an attempt to balance the reasonable amount of time expected for fermentation to be reliably complete against the impatient brewer's (you!) desire for quick turnaround, and is a terrifically unscientific method. The assumption is that as a beginner, you are too dumb to be able to monitor your fermentation on your own, so they give you a guesstimated time frame in which your beer should theoretically be done. For many newbies this is probably a good approach, but you are here, so let's get you leveled up at least a little.

If you take hydrometer readings several days apart (most folks recommend 3 days) and they are constant (not still dropping, even a little), your beer is ready to package. The added benefit of this is that those three days will be enough time for the yeast to perform its various clean-up duties, clearing diacetyl and other undesirable compounds created during fermentation. If your gravity is, on the other hand, still dropping, it is not ready to package, regardless of whether you are within your kit's estimated time frame or not -- you don't want to keg underattenuated beer, because ick; and you don't want to bottle it and create glass grenades.

 

[tooldudetool]

The fact you are controlling fermentation temperature puts you way ahead of most newbies. There is no reason pretty much any ale you brew shouldn't be ready to keg after 2 weeks. The key is to push the fermentation temperature up as fermentation is starting to slow down (usually by day 4-5). If you are fermenting at 65 degrees, go ahead and raise the temp to 70 around day 5 and let it finish up for another several days and it will be good to go. Raising the temp increases yeast activity towards the end when they naturally start to slow down. This shortens the time it takes for them to clean up, and helps them fully attenuate your beer. Check out the fermentation schedule at Brulosophy.com: http://brulosophy.com/methods/fermentation-schedules/ It is very effective at turning around great beer in a reasonable amount of time, and is similar to the methods used in commercial breweries. This is especially key for making fresh tasting IPA's. I try to get my hoppy beers on tap within 15 days or so of brewday. This method works great and I have won gold in back to back years in the IPA category in my local homebrew competition (against 25 other entries).

 

[jturman35]

Awesome info! I was thinking of going down to cooler temps after 2 weeks. The first 2 weeks I had the temp at 68. Yea, I tend to go all out when I do something! Seeing my red Ale ferment the next morning was like Christmas! Thanks again for to he info! This is what I was looking for. Although grain to glass in 2 weeks seems awfully fast?

 

[tooldudetool]

2 weeks may seem fast, but it's a pretty common turn around time for a craft brewery, and the key is manipulating the yeast activity with pitching rate and temperature. Realistically once you see your airlock stop bubbling, assuming you ramped up your temps for the last third of fermentation or so, wait 2-3 more days, then cold crash for a day, add gelatin, wait another day or two, keg and carbonate. I usually let it condition for 3 days or so then it goes on tap (if I have one open). Everyone has their own opinions about the brewing process, but this is what works very well for me. Over time you will develop your own specific process that works for you. Cheers!

 

[SoCal-Doug]

Step 1: Relax! You made beer! Congrats!

Step 2: Keep on reading. Scour the forums and articles. Don't pick the fly poop out of the pepper. Just absorb and enjoy the unlimited information and discussions available. Remember that everyone's tastes and opinions are different.

Step 3: Keg or bottle it when you think its ready. Taste it when you think its ready. Do a little research on flavors, good and bad. Ask questions.

Step 4: Plan your next brew

Cough drops seam a bit odd, but is that any weirder than people that drink pumpkin spice coffees, probably not Twang... Could be 10 different things, or it could just be something you don't like. Is your twang taste like yeasty? bandaids? alcohol? buttery? hoppy?

We've all been there!

 

[jturman35]

The beer In which I was referring had a twang was given to me by the HB store. I assume it was from one of his classes that made extract red ale. The twang was likely from green beer that's only been in the bottle for 15days. The class I took "we" bottled this beer from a previous class. We used some carbonation drop "cough drops" is what they looked like. The guy said they would work their magic in 14 days and not a day sooner. I tried this red Ale my first homebrew and was disappointed.

My guess is the twang is a yeasty taste or green taste. I'm still trying this learn these differences. I sampled my red Ale last weekend and didn't notice any twang. Then again my beer isn't finished.

 

[JordanKnudson]

The beer In which I was referring had a twang was given to me by the HB store. I assume it was from one of his classes that made extract red ale. The twang was likely from green beer that's only been in the bottle for 15days. The class I took "we" bottled this beer from a previous class. We used some carbonation drop "cough drops" is what they looked like. The guy said they would work their magic in 14 days and not a day sooner. I tried this red Ale my first homebrew and was disappointed.

My guess is the twang is a yeasty taste or green taste. I'm still trying this learn these differences. I sampled my red Ale last weekend and didn't notice any twang. Then again my beer isn't finished.

1 quick note, and forgive me if you already know this, I definitely am not trying to talk down to you. Make sure you've thoroughly chilled your bottles (once they're all carbonated and ready) to get as much of the yeast to drop out of suspension as possible 24-48 hours in a cold fridge is a good starting point. Then, when you pour, try to do a single, smooth pour, and leave the last bit in the bottle (try to avoid pouring out the sediment). That's yeast, and in my opinion, almost all beers -- with a few exceptions, red ale NOT among them -- are better with little to no yeast in suspension... I just really dislike the weird, sharp, funky flavor of the yeast cells themselves.

 

[jturman35]

Ok, so I just had the second bottle and boy what a difference! The first beer at the beginning of this thread was either green/ not carbonated (even though it was in a bottle for two weeks) The beer I just tasted had a heck of a head of foam and tasted freaking great! Totally different beer from the one I had 11 days ago. I'm starting to wonder if it was one of the beers that didn't get a carbonation drop.

 

[RM-MN]

Ok, so I just had the second bottle and boy what a difference! The first beer at the beginning of this thread was either green/ not carbonated (even though it was in a bottle for two weeks) The beer I just tasted had a heck of a head of foam and tasted freaking great! Totally different beer from the one I had 11 days ago. I'm starting to wonder if it was one of the beers that didn't get a carbonation drop.

I think the proteins needed for good heading need some time to do some polymerization. I find that my beers don't get good heading until 2 to 3 weeks after I bottle even though the carbonation is there in less than a week. Beers also go through a flavor change with time and the darker and higher alcohol they are, the longer it takes to mature into the best flavor. Try a barleywine at a week and compare it to one that has been bottled for a year and then compare again to one that has been bottled for 2 years. I think you will notice the biggest difference in the week to year but there will be a noticeable change between one and two years too.

 

[jturman35]

Well I kegged the Red Ale Monday and set the psi 30 for 48 hrs. I kegged the black IPA the next day at 30psi. The red Ale seems green and the Black IPA seems perfect. I guess it just goes to show how different beers can be. I am surprised how well the Black IPA turned out. I'm also disappointed in the Red Ale but hopefully it just needs more time in the keg.