Help with first batch critique

[Jaha35]

Ok so it's now been a month and a half since my first foray into home brewing and I have started drinking my first batch and would like a little critique to help me with some inconsistencies I am finding with my first batch.

I started with an Irish Red Ale kit from MoreBeer.com.

Recipe;
Grains:
1 lb Crystal 120L
8 oz. Aromatic
8 oz. Caramunich
2 oz. Black Roasted
2 oz. Special B

Extract:
7 lbs. Ultralight LME

Hops:
2 oz. Glacier - 60 min
2 oz. Willamette - 5 min

Whirlfloc - 5 min

I performed a full 6 gallon boil for this batch and did everything as you would in a normal full boil. Steeped grains for 30 min at 160-170, full 60 min boil adding hops on time. Cooled to <70 deg in under 45 minutes, Drained to carboy with some splashing to aerate, took hydrometer reading, pitched White Labs Irish Ale yeast @ 68 degrees, capped and fermented in dark room covered for 16 days.

OG: 1.046
FG: 1.016
No airlock activity at all really for 5-10 min. No foam or surface activity.

I bottled by boiling 4 oz. corn sugar in 2 cups of water for 5 minutes. Put solution in my bottling bucket and spiraled my siphon hose to create a swirling mixture. Had very little bubbling or aeration of any kind during siphon. Couple of line bubbles were easily pinched out. Mixture swirled nicely. Bottled 12 large Grolsch style bottles and 31 12 oz. bottles. Stored cases covered in blankets at around 64-66 degrees.

Just in case I followed all cleaning and sanitation instructions I have had from on here and elsewhere. Everything from fermenters to bottles I used C-Brite to clean and Star Sans to sanitize. I did not fear the foam.

Ok so after 7 days in bottles I got greedy and figuring I am new an early taste wouldn't be a bad thing to help refine my palette as to what a "green" beer is. I had one 12 oz. bottle with only about 10 or so ounces in it so I felt that was a perfect test beer. I cracked it and obviously it had a lot of CO2 buildup in it that released quite violently.

The beer was very foamy naturally. Aroma was a bit chaotic and it took some doing to pour it all. First taste was ok. Carbonation was surprisingly high but I figure this is due to partial fill. It was a bit messy with flavors and bitterness hitting you all around but it was close to what I expected especially from my pre-carb tastes.

To push it I cracked a second full 12 oz. bottle. Little hiss and next to no foam at all on the pour. Aroma was fruity and the taste was way under carbonated. Strong presence of apple yet not cidery. Both bottles had a bit of harsh dry bitter after taste. I wasn't too worried as I knew they were still very young. I waited another week.

Exactly 7 days later I tried one more 12 oz. bottle. This time I poured a perfect 3/4 inch head with lovely aroma's. the taste was almost spot on to what I expected. Very close to the Sam's Irish Red I had a day earlier with yet still a bit of a dry bitter aftertaste but not so noticeable this time. The malty sweetness and bitterness really came together. I was extactic at how good this was. Both my mother and father thoroughly enjoyed the beer despite not being big beer fans.

Pleased with my first effort I figured it was only wise to stay patient and I waited another 4 days before grabbing a full 12 pack and heading to my friends party in Mass for New Years. They were looking forward to my brew. The case I grabbed had 3 bottles with noticeably popped up caps which looked to be carbing too much so I figured they would be good to grab. The rest all looked normal. The downside was it took me a good 4.5 hours to get there so the bottles were definitely shaken up a bit especially with the bad weather. I hoped on waiting a day or two to let them settle but my friend grabbed one and opened it. Naturally it was one with a slightly popped up cap and he got a ton of foam action. His pour into a 20 oz. beer glass produced foam all the way to the top with still some in the bottle. Not good I thought. When the foam settled it was not a good beer. It was very sweet and very bitter. I then decided to grab a regular looking one to see if they were better. Unfortunately this bottle was much like my first full 12 ouncer. It had maybe a 1/8th inch head which disappated quickly and the aroma was very sweet. It was under carbed to taste and had the now trademarked bitter aftertaste. It was ok and most agreed it was fine but it just wasn't anywhere near what I had had a week earlier.

Not wanting to get too down I tasted two more. One more raised cap blew a lot of foam and another regular one was under carbed. I brought a few home and left a couple with them with instructions to try them again in a couple weeks. Now I am drinking through the 3 I brought home and am finding them all under carbed and more like a Boddington's than an Irish Red.

Since returning home I have had one bottle I left behind too and it was much better than the ones I took with me.

So my questions are;

Did I do something wrong with carbing my beers to get such inconsistent results?

Can transporting your beer disrupt things so much as to seriously affect the taste?

Is it possible I had infection in some of my bottles?

Anyway thats my whole first batch story. Sorry for the length but this site has been awesome in all your help.

 

[dangerbrew]

Having brewed from a similar kit when I was starting out, I think I could probably shed some light on this -

"Did I do something wrong with carbing my beers to get such inconsistent results?"

As far as I can tell, from what you've stated above, it seems you've done nothing wrong in terms of prepping the beer for carbonation. You've followed all the basic steps and for all intents and technical purposes, you've been as spot on as you know how to be, and that's great.

However, keeping it in primary for 16 days is quite a long time, unless it is still visibly fermenting or the gravity isn't somewhere in the ballpark of where it should be. That could be a potential problem or an opportunity for some self-cannibalization of yeast to occur which can turn out to be just all kinds of bad.

"Can transporting your beer disrupt things so much as to seriously affect the taste?"

I have a friend at the Alchemist Brewery in Waterbury, Vermont who swears by this. He never lets his beer be transported for the risk that it might not be in perfect condition when someone tries it for the first time. A lot of temperature change and a lot of rough treatment can definitely leave its mark on your beer. In my experience, this is a iron-clad fact, but then again some people have no problems doing it so...

"Is it possible I had infection in some of my bottles?"

Probably the likeliest suspect. Using things like C-Brite and Star Sans have always caused problems for my friends and I, especially my friend Colin. Every time he uses a cleaner of that sort something always ends up infecting his brew and usually ruining an entire batch. More often than not, they're just not good enough at what they're supposed to do - disinfect.

In light of this, my friends and I have all moved on to simple, household Clorox bleach. It works great and absolutely guarantees that nothing is going to be alive in your bottles to wreak havoc on your beer. Not even once have I had a problem with my beer when I have used Bleach and properly rinsed my instruments afterwards. However, I can't say the same for C-Brite.

Hope this helps. From one humble brewer to another.

 

[Shawn Hargreaves]

I would be very surprised if 16 days in the primary caused any problems. From what I've read on this site, the general consensus among the more expert brewers (including the guys who win all the competitions) is that at least 3 weeks in the primary is a good idea, or sometimes even 4.

My guess here is that you maybe didn't mix the wort with the bottling sugar well enough? That, possibly combined with uneven fill rates, could explain some bottles being overcarbed while others are under.

I had somewhat inconsistent carbonation in my first handful of brews (although nothing as bad as what you describe). Since then I've given the wort a good (but slow) stir after racking onto the sugar, and also taken more care to have a consistent fill level in every bottle, and my results got a lot more consistent from one bottle to the next.