Not completly satisfied after first brew.. should I pursue ?

[beauvafr]

I've done my first homebrew, it's a Festa Brew kit, bock style. The beer is ok, very drinkable, but I am not completly satisfied..

• Like I said the taste is ok, but there is something I dont like in it.. I think it's lightly sweet/sour.. I don't know maybe something plastic?? I am not sure on this tough.. This is the second homebrew beer that I taste.. they were different style but I would say both were sharing those similarities. Maybe a coïncidence tough.
• Carbonation is present, still I wish there was more bubbles
• Sediments in the bottom. Not sexy at all!

I did a 2 stages fermentation, 1 week for first / 2 weeks for second. I waited 2 weeks before tasting the bottled beer. Beer was conditioned in a dark / 70 F place.

Every cleaning routine was respected.

At this stage, should I try an ingredient kit like those from Northern Brewer or Brewers Best? Should I give another chance to an extract (i was thinking on the Festa Brew Outmeal Stout)?

Your thoughts are welcome.

 

[sweed]

Yes persue it if you enjoy doing it. You should ferment longer, 2-3 weeks, our longer if a bigger beer. No need to secondary of you're not adding anything else.
Extract should not be plasticy the boch you made, isn't that a lager? Did you ferment cooler for lager fermentation?

Carbonation takes time 3 weeks, or more. You need the right amount of sugar to carbonate. Sediment is sexy, lol. Its just yeast, and very normal for bottle conditioned beers.

I've made my own recipes from the get go, so I don't know how good the other kits are, but northern brewers and Austin I hear are good.

 

[Pappers_]

I'll take your last point - some of the world's great commercial beers are bottle conditioned, which means they have sediment in the bottle. Sierra Nevada, Bells, Chimay and Duval come to mind. Nothing unsexy about it - pour it in a glass leaving a 1/2 inch in the bottle. Its the height of sophistication

If you don't want to bottle condition, you can force carbonate your beer in a keg.

 

[RM-MN]

The longer you leave your beer in the fermenter, the less sediment you get in your bottles. Try leaving a brew in the fermenter for 2 months. You'll hardly see the sediment in the bottles.

 

[Yooper]

I've done my first homebrew, it's a Festa Brew kit, bock style. The beer is ok, very drinkable, but I am not completly satisfied..

• Like I said the taste is ok, but there is something I dont like in it.. I think it's lightly sweet/sour.. I don't know maybe something plastic?? I am not sure on this tough.. This is the second homebrew beer that I taste.. they were different style but I would say both were sharing those similarities. Maybe a coïncidence tough.
• Carbonation is present, still I wish there was more bubbles
• Sediments in the bottom. Not sexy at all!

I did a 2 stages fermentation, 1 week for first / 2 weeks for second. I waited 2 weeks before tasting the bottled beer. Beer was conditioned in a dark / 70 F place.

Every cleaning routine was respected.

At this stage, should I try an ingredient kit like those from Northern Brewer or Brewers Best? Should I give another chance to an extract (i was thinking on the Festa Brew Outmeal Stout)?

Your thoughts are welcome.

I don't think the Brewer's Best kits are bad at all, and have enjoyed them. The thing is, you have to go somewhere where there is very high turnover, because the grains are already crushed and the extract is canned. Within about 60 days, the kit starts to stale. If you can't find a super fresh Brewer's Best kit, then get an extract kit from Northern Brewer or Austinhomebrew.com. Both of them have great kits, with great instructions, and pour the extract when you order it and crush the grains when you order as well. So, it's fresher and better than the Brewer Best kits. I'd lean a tad toward austinhomebrew.com, because they have hundreds and hundreds of kits to choose from, and they have flat rate shipping. I've made kits from both northernbrewer.com and AHS, though, and recommend them both so choose whatever is cheapest for you.

 

[Glynn]

I'll take your last point - some of the world's great commercial beers are bottle conditioned, which means they have sediment in the bottle. Sierra Nevada, Bells, Chimay and Duval come to mind. Nothing unsexy about it - pour it in a glass leaving a 1/2 inch in the bottle. Its the height of sophistication

If you don't want to bottle condition, you can force carbonate your beer in a keg.

^^^^^ what he said. don't give up if your first few beers are not what you expected. the first thing that you need to make sure you are doing is fermenting at the right temperature. lager like cold temp (50). Start with ales and use a water bath with ice to ferment at around 65.

 

[AndrewD]

^^^^^ what he said. don't give up if your first few beers are not what you expected. the first thing that you need to make sure you are doing is fermenting at the right temperature. lager like cold temp (50). Start with ales and use a water bath with ice to ferment at around 65.

Yeah a bock is a rough one for your first beer. Just get familiar with the process for your first few tries. Brewing with extract will probably never give you perfect quality flavor. If you enjoy the process, then start investing in going all grain, which will be like being born again.

 

[Yooper]

I just saw that you're in Quebec. I don't know what you have available, but a quality beer kit will make quality beer, so I'd see what is available besides Festa Brew, Coopers, and Brewer's Best. Of those three, I'd go with Brewer's Best but I'd want something fresher if at all possible. I would not use cooper's or Festa Brew.

 

[jwalk4]

The great, or terrible, thing about homebrewing, depending on your point of view, are the dozens of ways you can approach making beer. It really depends on how experimental you like to be, and how forgiving you are willing to be with your beer.

Extracts and kits are tough to keep brewing sometimes because, depending on the freshness of the ingredients provided, something that is entirely out of your control, your beer will either be good, (*kit brews are rarely outstanding in my experience*), or just Ok (soapy, stale, cardboardish, etc.) But kits are good to use when just learning the basics. ie. proper cleaning, learning the function of each step, learning what method of brewing works right for you. Kits are also flexible because it is difficult to mess them up to the point of undrinkability.

If you want to be nit-picky about particular characteristics in your beer (and their are a lots of people like this out there, myself included) then you have to learn as much as you can, so you can start learning how to have total control of your beer, mostly this means brewing all-grain. As always, patience is a virtue, especially when homebrewing. I don't think that people who come into the hobby expecting amazing results right from the start last very long in this hobby. It really is a labor of love.

 

[BadBeagleBrew]

Def do the double oatmeal stout, I did it earlier this year and it was fantastic. Festa Brew includes lager yeast with their Bock so I'm guessing, due to this being the beginning of your brewing ( correct me if I'm wrong) that you didn't ferment at proper lager temps and where you might be getting some off flavors. If you can get a hold of it try their west coast ipa, their pale ale is really good as well. Found the cream ale a bit bland for my taste, though still good. Don't give up you have made beer and that's a wonderful thing. Cheers

Edit: Just to let everyone know festa brew is 23L of all grain pasteurized wort in a bag.

 

[beauvafr]

Ok thanks everyone I am very gratefull for all your advices! Now I need to decide.

What would be the best fail-safe plan :

A. Do the Festa brew stout or West coast IPA. Aerate the wort before adding yeast (shaking the tub), ferment min 3 weeks (primary and secondary) and make sure it does not go over 68 F. Put gelatin in secondary or cold crash before bottling.
B. Do an ingredient kit (Brewer Best / Midwestsupplies / Northern Brewer) and apply the same rules as above

 

[thood6]

I would do northern brewer/ midwest/ Austin. Fresher ingredients work better. Austin homebrew has a great selection and the customer service is great. They haven't disappointed me yet.

 

[Hackwood]

I'm doing strictly all-grain now, but I did 15+ Brewer's Best extracts before finally making the jump. I LOVE the BB kits and never had a single bad or even less than good batch out of them all. I'm not sure about the freshness of the kits that I purchased as I never checked. I just grabbed one off the shelf and took it home. My LHBS does seem to go through them at a good rate though. The Whiskey Barrel Stout was to die for. The Summer Ale was even better(might be my favorite to date, extract or all-grain) and SWMBO loved the Witbier until she tried the Kolsch and replaced it as her favorite. hahaha

Don't give up. You are sure to find a batch or 10 that you like/love more than some others. GL

 

[revco]

Brewing is a somewhat complicated thing, although it's certainly been simplified down to a "boil water" approach. Even with that, you can get downright decent, drinkable results. I never did kits, but started with extract recipes that I found in books or on here. For me, it took probably 6-7 attempts and then I hit a batch that I absolutely would have paid good money for. I attribute that to being a better brewer than day one, not necessarily the recipe, but it was also that. Since then, I've learned more and more...and more consistently, I brew better beers. In the beginning, it's mostly your process and sometimes equipment. Sometimes it the recipe, though. But, there are (quite literally) thousands of recipes out there for you to try...so you're bound to find a few that will do.

I hope you stick with it, but that's entirely up to you. You either enjoy the process of brewing, fermentation and all the other little details of brewing or you don't.

That said, get out while you still can. I just dropped over $1500 on a proper all-grain setup with nearly zero automation and it's STILL gonna be sitting on ghetto sawhorses.

 

[BadBeagleBrew]

Try the west coast ipa its seasonal so you can only get it once a year, where as the stout is available all year long and you can try any time. As for the kits suggested earlier they are not very economical for us canadians. Once you get the process nailed with the fests brew kits, try an extract recipe with some steeping grains and some hops. For now though you really can't beat fests brew as a beginner. Beautiful all grain beer without the hassle. Good luck.

 

[Peppers16]

I'm afraid that asking a forum of homebrew enthusiasts whether you should pursue homebrewing will probably give you a biased reply
I started off with beer kits, which aren't great, but actually found I've moved towards mead/wine. It's a lot easier to make a nice wine out a modest setup than it is with beer. You can just do gallon batches with whatever fresh fruit you have. With beer you have to live with extract or invest in all grain, so in some ways isn't such a great entry point to the hobby.
My 2 cents

 

[ZombieBrew83]

If at first you don't succeed, quit, quit at once!

But seriously, It took me about 5 batches before I started to really like what I was making. I just brewed my 25th batch last week and I am still far away from knowing everything. There are so many variables and techniques to learn about on this forum--not to mention all the books and brewing magazines. Ask yourself these questions:

-Do you like experiencing different types of beer?
-Do you enjoy learning new things?
-Can you follow procedures and take notes?
-Are you an engineer/technical type of person?
-Do you want to excel in a hobby that can get you drunk?

If you answer yest to a number of these, you should stick with it. This is the most uniquely rewarding hobby I have ever gotten into. Brew on!

 

[Rbeckett]

This is a hobby, and it takes a little time to get good at anything. The only way you will improve your brews is through practice. Attention to details such as fermenting temp and yeast types will also pay huge dividends in your quest for the perfect brew. I tend to stick to lower ABV brews that emphasize flavor over alcohol and have found a basic recipe that provides a smooth malty but still tangy hop flavor that is smooth and drinkable without excess bitterness or yeast aftertaste. It took me a while to get close to what I was looking for, but once I found the attributes that I was looking for I can adjust my grain bills and yeast to produce a very consistent brew that meets my needs nicely. You should probably carefully consider what you are looking for in a beer and brew to that goal, Midwest has a labeling system that will allow you to select the components based on your desired taste rather than just blindly ordering different kits. Hope this helps get you going in the direction you are looking for, just don't give up too early.
Wheelchair Bob

 

[beauvafr]

Just to let you know that I will not let go!

I bought a West Coast IPA extract and will start it just over the weekend!

 

[Rbeckett]

Great!!! I would definately look into your exact flavor profile preference and buy a kit or build a recipe that gets the closest to what your looking for. I ended up with a wheat hefe that is light, but malty with a fruity hop overtone, You can taste a slight bannana and clove taste and it is really great at about 35 degrees in a chiled mug...It took a while, but that one fits my taste profile perfectly. Your taste will vary, but keep looking.
Wheelchair Bob

 

[Gameface]

If at first you don't succeed, quit, quit at once!

But seriously, It took me about 5 batches before I started to really like what I was making. I just brewed my 25th batch last week and I am still far away from knowing everything. There are so many variables and techniques to learn about on this forum--not to mention all the books and brewing magazines. Ask yourself these questions:

-Do you like experiencing different types of beer?
-Do you enjoy learning new things?
-Can you follow procedures and take notes?
-Are you an engineer/technical type of person?
-Do you want to excel in a hobby that can get you drunk?

If you answer yest to a number of these, you should stick with it. This is the most uniquely rewarding hobby I have ever gotten into. Brew on!

Haha, I think the bolded part was what really drew me in.

 

[Beef_Supreme]

^LOL, definitely.