Worst 1st Time Brew experience

[cbpilot24]

Well let me start off by saying long time reader first time poster. It all started friday night. My girlfriend came over and she was going to help be brew. So I was starting out cleaning everything and sanitizing everything. I was making the batches of solution and asked her to get me the hydrometer and airlock to put into the bucket. She picks up the package with the hydrometer not realizing the one end was open and hydrometer shattered into a million pieces. Seeing how I already had the grains steeping in the water at 160 degrees i figured i will just have to continue without knowing my alcohol %. Nearing the end of the 20 minutes i noticed a smell of something burning. Seeing how I have not added the LME i didn't think it was the wort until I saw black char flakes floating. (Yay for electric stove top). I added the LME and stirred like crazy making sure not to burn the rest of my brew. I figured a few black char flakes will hopefully not ruin the beer. Since I live in an apartment we have a giant ice machine, I had made one run to the machine to start getting a cold bath together. After the 60 minute boil I put the wort into the cold bath and the ice was melting rapidly. I went back to the ice machine to get some more ice but left my keys in my apartment(doors to hallways lock automatically). I was now locked out of my apartment with an open pot of wort sitting in my sink. About 30 minutes later I got someone to let me into my apartment. I then put the wort into the primary fermenting bucket and got the water out of the freezer that I was going to use to help cool the wort quickly. However about half of the 2.5 gallons of water was now frozen in the gallon jugs. So i poured in what I could and tried to melt the rest using some hot water in the sink. After about 20 minutes and having 4.5 gallons in the primary i decided I will just have some strong beer. I took a temperature reading and realized that my wort was now 54 degrees and pretty cold to pitch the yeast. I put the bucket with lid on top into the sink with hot water to raise the temperature. About 2 hours later and 4 water changes i got the temp up to 64 and pitched the yeast. Right now its day 2 post brewing and my air lock is going about a bubble a second and fermenting. However I am afraid that when all is said and done I will have 1. Possible Infection(right now smells like formaldehyde but could be from blueberry vodka in airlock, 2. Terrible tasting due to charred bottom of brew pot, 3. possibly very strong beer since only 4.5 gallons and not 5.

Anyone else with a bad 1st time experience? After doing this once I realize there are a lot of things I would have done differently and 2 a lot of things that were out of my control that happened. Anyone have any advice on what to do differently and what classic infection signs i should be looking for?

 

[KAMMEE]

If you sanitized correctly I doubt you have an infection. Its really not easy to get one and unless you see long white tenticle like things on the top of your beer, you probably don't have an infection. Stuff happens, its out of your control, and it gets better with each batch as you learn, prep, and get a good process down that takes the stress out of it. I would however suggest you not use flavored vodka in the airlock because if you get any suckback, you'll have a strange bluberry taste in the beer. It won't hurt anything, but it may taste funny if any gets into the brew. Otherwise, don't worry... sounds like a pretty harmless first brew day. Next time, just don't forget your keys...

And you could have pitched the yeast at 54... as the brew warmed up they'd get moving, it wouldn't hurt the yeast at all.

 

[mfrato]

I try and set up a checklist the night before. The key is to just be very very methodical. It sounds like you don't have any serious issues though, but I'm with Kammee on the blueberry vodka.

 

[Jiin]

Look on the bright side, it could have been a lot worse. You could have ended up burning down your apartment building somehow.

 

[Ralelen]

Welcome to the fun of home brewing. RDWHAHB!

 

[likwidbliss]

I am sure you will make beer. I have had my fair share of problems, but they get better. I have made a methodical list only to run into unforeseen problems. I gave up on the list and just followed the recipe. I still make beer.

I have never had an infection yet, maybe one of these days. I just sanitize equipment that didn't come in contact with the boiling wort.

RDWHAHB

 

[jmferris]

I wouldn't say that my first time experience was bad, just the end results.

Wound up that while I was make a fairly hoppy beer, I completely blew the means by which I added the hops. I wrapped the hops pellets for the additions in muslin, tightly. Very tightly. Did I mention I wrapped them tightly?

As we well know, hops pellets expand as they have been in the boil for a bit. I had taken out little muslin golf balls after flameout. Did not think anything of it at the time, either - just chucked them in the trash. Tasting at bottling was not completely unpleasant. There was more of an aroma of hops than any sort of bite. After about three weeks, cracked one open and it was the most vile thing I had ever tasted. The aroma was pretty much gone completely and it tasted like watery malt tea. I tried to drink my way through the batch - honest, I did - but it was to much to bear. Even after letting it sit for an additional two month beyond the initial conditioning, it never improved.

Best guess at the science behind it would be the lack of surface area exposed by tightly wadding the hops. Basically, extraction on the outside of the golf balls was probably about all the work I got out of those hops. Still, the brew day was fun and I don't mind that I got a bad batch out of the way early. Coincidentally, I had switched to polyester mesh bags by the time I had gotten to my second batch, so the problem did not repeat itself.

 

[JLW]

Look at it this way. When your drinking your own beer and maybe sharing with friends you will have an awesome story to tell about that beer.

Good luck on the next beer.

 

[ttk420]

don't feel bad. I did my first brew today and had my pot boil over twice and had a bunch of fun when my grains popped out of my bag when trying to tie it. overall, great fun but man time flies when your having fun.

 

[fezzersc]

you need to call it Murphy's Law Ale or something haha

 

[Inodoro_Pereyra]

After doing this once I realize there are a lot of things I would have done differently and 2 a lot of things that were out of my control that happened.

Well, other than the loss of your hydrometer (sorry about that), I'd say you should be pretty happy.
Yes, you had a lot of problems, but you learned a lot in a single batch. From being more organized (like, keeping your keys in your pocket, for example), to not wasting stuff (I can think of several better uses for vodka, other than filling up an airlock ), etc, and in the process ended up with good beer. You should congratulate yourself.
On a side note, if you have a scale, and an accurate way to measure a given quantity of liquid, you could've known your OG without the hydrometer. Just measure a quantity of wort (100cc, or 1000cc(1L), to make things simple), and weigh it. Once you subtract the weight of the container, you will be left with a pretty accurate OG reading (depending on how accurately you measured your wort). For example, if your wort's OG is 1.040, you will have either a 104.0g reading (for 100cc of wort) or a 1040g (1.040kg) reading, for a 1000cc sample. You can even use the same temperature correction you use with your hydrometer.

Other than that, relax, you're learning. I haven't made a single batch of beer yet, for lack of money. So, to practice, I brew with baker's yeast, and with any grain I can get my claws on. So far I've made 4 batches. The first 2 ones would've easily qualified as sewer water. I'm waiting on the last 2 ones.

Finally, don't kill your girlfriend yet. Hydrometers are cheap...

 

[LVBen]

I broke two hydrometers on my first 4 batches. The 1st time, I did the exact same thing. I picked up the hydrometer while in the tube and didn't realize one side was open. The next time, I had the hydrometer sitting behind one of my buckets, and pushed the bucket back for more counter space and heard it shatter.

 

[cadarnell]

after my first batch .. I just looked at my hydrometer the wrong way and it busted .. so keep the GF ... and an extra hydrometer .. great story !!!.. loved it

 

[flabyboy]

so your girlfriend was locked out with you or decided to not let you back in?

I scorched my first batch too. it may just darken your beer a bit

 

[VegasBrew]

Look at it this way, it`s all up from here baby!! Hehe...really, some brew days nothing goes right but keep at it!!!

VB

 

[cbpilot24]

Thanks for all the posts. yea i kept the girlfriend although she about cried when she did it...and one other question i had was should you filter out the hop pellets that were at the bottom of the wort or should you keep them in when transferring to the primary? I kept mine in but didn't really know.

 

[Corner_House]

Thanks for all the posts. yea i kept the girlfriend although she about cried when she did it...and one other question i had was should you filter out the hop pellets that were at the bottom of the wort or should you keep them in when transferring to the primary? I kept mine in but didn't really know.

it really doesn't matter if you leave it or not

 

[jwplessner]

The hop bits will settle to the bottom of the fermenter, which leads me to a strong recommendation, one novice to another. Practice using that siphon before transferring the beer off the yeast cake for bottling. If you're comfortable with the siphon, you'll avoid transferring unwanted sediment and oxygenating, infecting or accidentally dumping your beer. Bottling day will go much smoother than brew day.

 

[aidan]

Sounds like a stressful brew day! Each one you do gets easier, less stressful and more enjoyable. However I have batch #5 down now and I still find myself making little mistakes - last batch I added too much top-up water (forgot about the 2L volume of the yeast starter and forgot to add dextrose so then had to add even more water to boil the dextrose in). But you learn that little mistakes don't actually end up spoiling your beer - they just add to the unique character of it! Many good things result from happy accidents.

I found it helpful to plan my process out in advance and write it down then print it out and follow along on brew day. The latest version of my process is here: http://beerandgarden.com/updated-extract-brewing-process/

Keep us posted on how the beer turns out.

 

[LVBen]

Thanks for all the posts. yea i kept the girlfriend although she about cried when she did it...and one other question i had was should you filter out the hop pellets that were at the bottom of the wort or should you keep them in when transferring to the primary? I kept mine in but didn't really know.

In my experience, bittering hops should be removed. Aroma/Flavor hops should be left in. I use bags for my bittering hops, so it is very easy to take them out.

 

[emetcalf]

On a much happier note, the 4.5 gallons instead of 5 shouldn't be a problem. Assuming your target OG was around 1.050, the lower total volume at the end only bumps you up to around 1.055. So your beer will still be pretty close to the strength you wanted