1st batch

[gpalkar]

Hi guys.

I brewed my 1st batch last week. There are a few things which I know for certain I went wrong. 1st was sanitation. I used a non-aromatic bleach. But I'm not sure if it's the right thing to use. Can you suggest alternatives?
Secondly, it took me 45 mins to chill my wort. I chilled it using a bath of ice. Unfortunately, I realised later that I did not have sufficient ice.
I've kept the beer to chill at 20 degrees celsius in my fridge. I checked it today and there's a thick liquid on top of my rubber stopper. Attaching the image. What's wrong?

 

[RM-MN]

There isn't anything "wrong" with using bleach but you need to rinse well afterwards so you don't leave any behind as it will give your beer a "plastic" taste. A better alternative is StarSan as it is a wet sanitizer. It only works while wet so you don't need to rinse or wait to put the wort into the fermenter. Rinse the fermenter with StarSan, dump it out, and it is ready for your wort. I dump my sanitizer into a container so it can be reused.

I have tried a couple batches with no chilling at all. It took one of them 36 hours to come to pitching temperature. The difference with that is the hops have to be adjusted to take into account the extra time that they can be adding bitterness. As long as you chill fast enough to stop the hop bitterness from increasing within a reasonable time you will be fine.

If you pitched the yeast before you put the fermenter in the fridge, it is likely that you pitched too warm and that let the yeast get more active and pushed krausen out through the airlock, leaving you with a thick sticky liquid on top the airlock. Just clean it off and it will be fine. For your next batch, make sure the wort is chilled to pitching temp before you add yeast, whether that is 15 minutes or 15 hours. You'll get better beer that way.

 

[jt21150]

I mimic RM-MN.

Bleach is fine to use, but I would move to something more manageable like StarSan.

Also, 45 min cool down is not a problem. There are good reasons to want to cool as quickly as possible but 45 min shouldn't give you any issues if done in a sanitary manner.

The thin slimy film on the top of your stopper may just be seepage from the airlock or fermenter because the connections aren't secured tightly enough. But that shouldn't lead to any issues unless the leak is large, in which case oxygenation and bacterial contamination are potential problems.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Can't quite tell from the photo but t looks like your little eruption may have pushed your sanitizer right out of the air lock. When you clean up, be sure to put fresh sanitizer (or vodka) in the air lock.

 

[gpalkar]

At what point should I bottle my beer?

 

[seatazzz]

Do you have a hydrometer? Your recipe should tell you what your finishing gravity (usually abbreviated to FG) should be. If you don't have one, you should definitely get one. If you can't for some reason, 2 weeks in the fermenter should see it done.