bdaddy
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 13, 2009
- Messages
- 81
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Just finished bottling my Irish Red Ale from Midwest.
Some background info on the brew:
- Extract with steeped grains and had a late extract add for 2/3 of the LME. Left Hop schedule as stated in original recipe
- Boiled 3 gallons and added to 3 gallons in fermenter. Struggled bringing it to boil and in fact boiled off less than I expected (so amount in fermenter was > 5 gallons slightly)
- didn't cool it enough before adding yeast...was 80-82 when yeast added.
- Fermentation temp was steady between 68-70 (LCD therm measured 72 at highest during active fermentation). Took around 40 hours to start bubbling, then bubbled for 2 days or so and stopped. Left in Primary for 3 weeks 5 days before bottling.
- SG was 1.041, OG was 1.010.
I've linked to a few pics (since I don't have permissions to post photos here) so hope it works:
Flickr: bdaddy31's Photostream
Just curious if things look normal as a couple of things were unexpected by me
1) I thought the krausen line would have been thicker. As you can see it is just a very thin line. Normal?
2) Similarly I was expecting the trub to be thicker, especially sitting in the primary that long. It was only a thin sandy coating at the bottom. Also normal?
3) Beer looked like muddy water. Not sure if you can tell in the pics of the bottled beer (had a few clear bottles). Hydrometer sampling taste was also not very good, though didn't taste any specific off flavors (just didn't taste good.) Trying not to make any judgements until 3 weeks in bottle, though. Regarding the looks, will it clear drastically while in the bottle? I thought the long primary would have cleared more than this? I'm wondering if I racked too much? (but it was liquid and I didn't see any solid going into the tube?)
Anyways, I'm trying not to make any rash judgments as I'm going to see it through the bottling, but I have to admit that I'll be surprised (and a convert to Revvy's thinking) if this actually ends up a good beer in 3 weeks based on how it looks right now. Don't people keg and drink a few days after primary? I can't see drinking this in 2 days????
Some background info on the brew:
- Extract with steeped grains and had a late extract add for 2/3 of the LME. Left Hop schedule as stated in original recipe
- Boiled 3 gallons and added to 3 gallons in fermenter. Struggled bringing it to boil and in fact boiled off less than I expected (so amount in fermenter was > 5 gallons slightly)
- didn't cool it enough before adding yeast...was 80-82 when yeast added.
- Fermentation temp was steady between 68-70 (LCD therm measured 72 at highest during active fermentation). Took around 40 hours to start bubbling, then bubbled for 2 days or so and stopped. Left in Primary for 3 weeks 5 days before bottling.
- SG was 1.041, OG was 1.010.
I've linked to a few pics (since I don't have permissions to post photos here) so hope it works:
Flickr: bdaddy31's Photostream
Just curious if things look normal as a couple of things were unexpected by me
1) I thought the krausen line would have been thicker. As you can see it is just a very thin line. Normal?
2) Similarly I was expecting the trub to be thicker, especially sitting in the primary that long. It was only a thin sandy coating at the bottom. Also normal?
3) Beer looked like muddy water. Not sure if you can tell in the pics of the bottled beer (had a few clear bottles). Hydrometer sampling taste was also not very good, though didn't taste any specific off flavors (just didn't taste good.) Trying not to make any judgements until 3 weeks in bottle, though. Regarding the looks, will it clear drastically while in the bottle? I thought the long primary would have cleared more than this? I'm wondering if I racked too much? (but it was liquid and I didn't see any solid going into the tube?)
Anyways, I'm trying not to make any rash judgments as I'm going to see it through the bottling, but I have to admit that I'll be surprised (and a convert to Revvy's thinking) if this actually ends up a good beer in 3 weeks based on how it looks right now. Don't people keg and drink a few days after primary? I can't see drinking this in 2 days????
