Batch started off fine, then downhill spiral!

[Krully]

Hi all,

I brewed the Brewers Best - Black IPA a few hours ago. The boil and cool down went fine, however when I poured the wort into the carboy I encountered much blockage in my strainer. This is only my second batch and my first was the same, trub blockage. I hope it wasn't a mistake, but once I couldn't get much wort out from the strainer I would dump it back into the pot and run into my kitchen to rinse out and re-sanitize. I did this about 3 times. My hope is that I don't encounter any infections.

After aerating the batch I drew some out to get an OG, which read about 1.038. Apparently it's supposed to be between 1.056 and 1.060....dang. My guess there was too much boil off and so the amount of water I added into the carboy to make it 5 gallons was too much?

After that was over I was about to pitch my liquid yeast. I forget the brand as I tossed the tube away, it's the one the popular one in the vial.
Anyways, I let it sit out for about 3 hours and I shook it up pretty well. Once I opened it, the thing blew up on me. It was my mistake as I wasn't careful because I was too worked up from the straining and OG issue. I still think I got a good amount of yeast inside, but I also got some on the outside and some is hanging out on the top, inside the carboy.

Any comments would be appreciated! Thank you for reading!


Twitter : @krullyness
First batch of brew : Belgian witbier - August 15, 2014

 

[Facinerous]

The first time I opened up a liquid yeast package I had the same thing happen. I was so surprised. Sorry for my entertainment but regardless I think many have been there. Live and learn, brew on.

Anyway. After I had the same incident happen I just let it ride. I can say that you will most certainly get beer. You shouldn't need to worry to much about sanitization as it sounds like you were very conscious about it. Straining wort after a boil can be counter productive. There are other ways which may be worth investing a little time looking into. As far as the yeast goes. That will happen almost every time. Just be prepared for it the next time.

 

[Krully]

Thanks Facinerous for the response! I almost dumped my dry yeast into the wort to be safe, but changed my mind.

I will look into better straining methods!


Twitter : @krullyness
First batch of brew : Belgian witbier - August 15, 2014

 

[Facinerous]

Rather than 'strain', I 'rack' my wort into whatever fermentation vessel I'm using. So I'm not dumping all the wort into a strainer from the pot, but using a syphon to draw the wort from the pot. This is pretty awesome because when you chill the wort most of the trub/sediment will settle to the bottom. If you are able to leave the pot undisturbed before racking then most of that stuff will want to remain at the bottom. A small investment and worth it in my opinion.

Second thing I feel I should point out it you really don't need to worry about the trub to much when it comes to primary fermentation. There are those who will disagree with me, and rightfully so. When it comes to first starting out though I will say that trub should not effect your final flavor to much.

Next is. I don't know what stage your fermentation is at, but. If it is in the extreme early stages, like less than an hour, you are more than welcome to dump more yeast in. If on the other hand you are more than 8 hours in from adding your yeast, I would definitely let er ride. Either way, the let it ride method will yield a result that you can learn from. With this being your second batch I would not add more yeast.

Last is for your OG. When you add fresh water to a boiled volume of wort it can take an extreme amount of mixing to get the sugars to fully mix into the fresh water. This can result in an improper OG reading and confusion. I can't tell you wether or not your result is good or not, but this is a possibility on your lower than expected OG reading.

Good luck dude.

 

[sikkingj]

Congratulations, you made beer!

You will dial in your process over time, Relax Don't Worry And Have A Homebrew (rdwahahb).

The true can go into fermenter, when you siphon you can leave it behind...

As for the low original gravity, that sounds like you didn't use all of your extract or had too much water. A lot of boil off would result in a stronger beer (higher OG).

Welcome to the club!


Sent from the window of an airplane...

 

[Krully]

Quick update : krausen is looking good and yeast looks very active!


Twitter : @krullyness
First batch of brew : Belgian witbier - August 15, 2014

 

[sikkingj]

She is a beauty, be sure to tell us how the beer turns out...


Sent from the window of an airplane...

 

[ChelisHubby]

for the yeast next time crack open the vail and reseal every 30 minutes or so after you get it out of the fridge till you pitch. Congrats on the Beer!

 

[Krully]

Hi all, It's bottling day! The FG turned out to be at 1.014, which is the range of where the brew needed to be! Bottling went great! However, I had a concern as I had what looked to be flakes floating around at the top of the brew. Quite a bit of these flakes got into the brewing bucket and ended up in the bottles. I am unsure if they were from the dry hopping, but I'm hoping that it won't affect my beer? Any thoughts?


Twitter : @krullyness
First batch of brew : Belgian witbier - August 15, 2014

 

[Yooper]

Hi all, It's bottling day! The FG turned out to be at 1.014, which is the range of where the brew needed to be! Bottling went great! However, I had a concern as I had what looked to be flakes floating around at the top of the brew. Quite a bit of these flakes got into the brewing bucket and ended up in the bottles. I am unsure if they were from the dry hopping, but I'm hoping that it won't affect my beer? Any thoughts?View attachment 230313


Twitter : @krullyness
First batch of brew : Belgian witbier - August 15, 2014

Yes, that does look like some hop debris. Usually careful racking to the bottling bucket will get rid of them, but aside from being unsightly, it won't hurt a thing.

I don't strain or anything into my fermenter, and I'm an old winemaker so I"m really proficient with racking, and my beers are clear. With practice, you'll be able to avoid the floaties as well and not worry about it. But it doesn't matter anyway, if you chill the bottles before serving as the debris does tend to settle well.

 

[Krully]

Great, thank you!


Twitter : @krullyness
First batch of brew : Belgian witbier - August 15, 2014

 

[eadavis80]

I have only done a liquid yeast vial once and I too was surprised by the tube's "reaction" to being opened. But, like anything in brewing - you learn from experience. Open more slowly next time, or use dry yeast or WYeast.

As for the OG being less than you anticipated, like another poster said, it very well might be to either too much top off water or you didn't shake up the primary enough prior to taking the reading. But, hey - you made beer. Even if it's a lower gravity than you wanted (and it might not be) you can always have 2 lower gravity beers to equal one stronger gravity

As for the hop stuff you got into your bottles, there are a couple of things you can try. One, cold crash your carboy for a couple days prior to bottling as that will help the hop stuff to settle to the bottom. Or, two, and I do this for dry-hopped and fruit beers, put a sanitized paint strainer bag over the racking cane. That should help prevent about 90% of fruit or hop stuff from getting racked into your bottling bucket.