Oxygenated the wort probably among other mistake. Don't know the best way to handle it.

[Jokkers]

Hi,
Sorry for the long message but multiple mistakes were made and I can only hope someone reads this and gives me some advice. Tried to make a Irish red ale from a kit and made some mistakes because I got too eager.

The kit was kinda old so yeast was taking relatively longer time than it was "supposed" to. Got a hydrometer from a friend that he hadn't used in like 10 years and I thought I would check the gravity even though I didn't have a OG. Beer kit says that it's ready when gravity is less than 1.013 and I measured 1.024. I got to my head that fermenting must be stalling because of the old yeast.

First I tried swirling the fermentation hoping that would make something happen... waited 1.5days and no reaction and then I bought a wine yeast and pitched it there and stirred it again. Noticed suspicious moldish looking spot on top of the beer but from what I googled it might not be mold especially because it happened after me stirring it.

Then after some testing with water and water+sugar mixtures... my hydrometer is probably showing .007 too much when measuring.

Now I'm thinking my brew might have been nearing the end at 1.017 gravity but I have stirred it 2 times within 48hours and actually even pitched wine yeast to it.

It probably needs time to clear because of the stirring but I'm worried if I leave it oxygenated it will just get worse because of possible bacteria etc.
Should I perhaps wait couple of days for it to clear a bit and then try to bottle it?
or any other good ideas how to handle it?

 

[T Murph]

When was it brewed? What was the temperature of your wort when you pitched the first yeast? And finally, is it showing signs of fermentation now?

 

[aceluby]

There's nothing really to "handle" and you likely have already made the situation worse. Close up your fermenter, leave it alone for a few days, and then bottle. It may still be drinkable, but it very well could taste like wet cardboard (I know my first 3 or so brews were just awful). Won't know until you bottle it, let it carb up over a couple weeks, and pour yourself a glass. I really try not to open my fermenter at all if I can help it. Sometimes it's required for dry hopping, but for a Irish Red Ale you should be making the wort, cooling it, pitching your yeast, wait 10 days, then bottling it.

 

[BAF]

What do you mean by "leave it oxygenated" ? If you exposed it to oxygen, then the beer will oxidize, and there's not much you can do about that at this point.

 

[Jokkers]

When was it brewed? What was the temperature of your wort when you pitched the first yeast? And finally, is it showing signs of fermentation now?

It's been 14 days now. First yeast pitching was 23celsius and whole fermenting has happened between 21-22celsius so very much according to instructions and should be good. bubbling had basically stopped when I first stirred it but after that no outside marks of fermentation.

What do you mean by "leave it oxygenated" ? If you exposed it to oxygen, then the beer will oxidize, and there's not much you can do about that at this point.

I guess a bit bad choice of words and I was mostly worried leaving it to the fermenter because of bacteria. But I guess I already did the damage so not much I can do now.

There's nothing really to "handle" and you likely have already made the situation worse. Close up your fermenter, leave it alone for a few days, and then bottle. It may still be drinkable, but it very well could taste like wet cardboard (I know my first 3 or so brews were just awful). Won't know until you bottle it, let it carb up over a couple weeks, and pour yourself a glass. I really try not to open my fermenter at all if I can help it. Sometimes it's required for dry hopping, but for a Irish Red Ale you should be making the wort, cooling it, pitching your yeast, wait 10 days, then bottling it.

I guess I will do that because I was thinking same too. Leave it for few days and bottle it and try to taste taste after carbonation and then decide is it drinkable or should I just pour it away.

Did way too soon stupid things after I got worried because of the gravity reading. Should have just left it alone couple more days after measuring and things might have been good after I realised the hydrometer problem. Well I guess you learn from mistakes.. haha

Thanks for the comment everyone.

 

[hotbeer]

other good ideas how to handle it?

The things you claim to have done were not good ideas Don't do them again if you ever make another batch.

Realize that beer usually only shows visual clues to what it's doing for a very brief 12 to 24 hours out of the many days or weeks you should leave it in the fermenter.

Patience is your best tool to use. Short time in the FV might be good beer might be bad beer. Longer times in the FV usually result in good to best beers for me.

 

[Jim R]

I have gotten to the point where I just forget about doing gravity readings and just leave my beers in the airtight fermenter for 2 weeks before I keg it. There is no reason for me to try to rush the process and the beers taste better with no oxygen exposure and more aging anyway. I have never ended up with a bad beer doing this.

One of the most common mistakes is overthinking the process.