Can I still pitch yeast?

[amateur_hour]

Hello everyone, new here to the forum and brewing itself. I love craft beers and decided to make my own with an all grain brew in the bag kit.

So my first attempt is an oatmeal stout. My friend and I thought it went pretty good until a few days after we put it in the carboy and I noticed it was flat. I asked the guy I bought it from and took pictures and he never told me to but I didn't put in any water into the airlock bubbler as I was never instructed too. Very amateur thing I am sure.

Anyways I noticed I think 3 days after I put the beer into the carboy, added the water and gave it a shake to try to wake up the yeast. It has sat for 3 weeks now and I was hoping to bottle it this weekend. I bought a hydrometer and checked it and it only read 1.020 specific gravity. So thats 1.6% beer right? hahaha

That is the saddest stout I have ever heard of lol. Anyways, my question is can I give the carboy a good shake and another yeast in or is this basically a throwaway? Or possibly am I missing something?

Thanks!
Amateur Hour

 

[Gavin C]

There are a number of gaps in the story.

What was your starting gravity.
What yeast did you use, describe your yeast management.
What temp did you pitch it at, dry/liquid,starter yes/no, oxygenation yes/no, Sanitation yes/no, if yes what type.

What do you mean by brew in a bag. BIAB is an all grain methodology.
Was it all grain or did you use extract?


More info and you will likely get super helpful answers from the beer boffins here.

 

[amateur_hour]

Well all I can do is answer to the best of my abilities right now. I had no starting gravity as the person I bought it from said if I leave it for 3 weeks I should be fine so theres my first mistake.

I used a Wyeast powder that I added water at their temperature and added it to the carboy once it was transfered. I want to say it had to be between 30-35 degrees and it was at 30.

I sanitized the new glass carboy with bleach and water for over an hour.

It was all grain I did not use any extract. I thought it was going fine up until I didn't know I needed water in the airlock. The yeast was doing something the first day making the top foamy but the third day it looked like flat coke.

I am going to guess its a throw away? Or can I somehow salvage it?

 

[rlmiller10]

What temperature did you mash your grain? 1.020 is a little high but if you mashed at 156 to 158 and had a grain bill with some non-fermentable then it is within reason.

Can you give the grain bill (list of grains used and amount of each) and the volume of your wort in the fermenter? From that we can calculate something close for a starting gravity which will allow us to determine the ABV. Also do you know which Wyeast you used? There are many different varieties of Wyeast.

 

[davehuge]

How did you calculate the 1.6% abv without a starting gravity?

No water in the airlock won't affect the fermentation, it just slightly defeats the point of the airlock, as air can still move into the fermenter. You should fill the airlock with sanitiser, rather than water.

 

[Gavin C]

Your wort will be flat until you carbonate it. No worries there. 3 weeks sounds good.

Bleach not the best idea but better than no sanitation

Wyeast powder. Sounds like a dry yeast. I'm guessing 30-35 Celcius yes?. Again for hydrating dry yeast that is good. If you didn't measure that then it's a guess

If your worried because your beer is flat you should not be. That is normal and desirable after fermentation is complete which it likely is at 3 weeks.

I'm surprised you were able to complete an all grain brew first time out of the gate and not know what to expect from carbonation/fermentation.

That's not easy. Good job your beer will be fine

 

[shtoive87]

The 1.6% likely came from the abv markings on the hydrometer. These are for use in the wine industry and have no basis in beer brewing. You beer is fine. The water in the airlock is just to keep things sanitary. It by no means ruined your beer.

 

[amateur_hour]

Well thats great news then. This was suppose to be a 6% stout for a reference but I was told a hydrometer wasn't needed.

My friend and I got excited to have the kit so we brewed that same day without any knowledge. We bought it from a local homebrew enthusiast who sells equipment on the side.

It was all brand new and everything looked of good quality. He made our recipe so I dont know what ingredients were in it but it was all grain there was no extract.

So heres what we did to the best of our ability. (he wrote instructions for us which is partially why we missed parts)

filled pot halfway and added the grains, filled pot rest of the way. Brought pot to 152 and held temp for 75 minutes.

Pulled the BIAB out and squeezed the crap out of it. Probably overkill but we squeezed for almost 45 minutes to get the sugars out. We heated some water to 170 and poured it through to get as much as possible.

boiled water and kept at a rolling boil for 60 minutes. added pellet hops once it was at a boil. they were in a bag so no clue what type of hops they were.

used a wort chiller to chill the wort to 20. then transferred it over to my glass carboy and pitched the yeast. it was a wyeast and we had to add water to it and let it sit for 15 minutes then stir it and add it to the carboy.

I think it went smooth for not knowing at all what we were doing minus the slip up of not adding the sanitizer to the airlock.

So since I bought this from another homebrew guy I dont know what to do next.

I bought new 500mL swing top bottles (36 bottles). So will I sanitize the bottles and tops and just siphon it into the bottles? What is this conditioning? Do i need to carbonate the beer?

 

[Gavin C]

Well thats great news then. This was suppose to be a 6% stout for a reference but I was told a hydrometer wasn't needed.

My friend and I got excited to have the kit so we brewed that same day without any knowledge. We bought it from a local homebrew enthusiast who sells equipment on the side.

It was all brand new and everything looked of good quality. He made our recipe so I dont know what ingredients were in it but it was all grain there was no extract.

So heres what we did to the best of our ability. (he wrote instructions for us which is partially why we missed parts)

filled pot halfway and added the grains, filled pot rest of the way. Brought pot to 152 and held temp for 75 minutes.

Pulled the BIAB out and squeezed the crap out of it. Probably overkill but we squeezed for almost 45 minutes to get the sugars out. We heated some water to 170 and poured it through to get as much as possible.

boiled water and kept at a rolling boil for 60 minutes. added pellet hops once it was at a boil. they were in a bag so no clue what type of hops they were.

used a wort chiller to chill the wort to 20. then transferred it over to my glass carboy and pitched the yeast. it was a wyeast and we had to add water to it and let it sit for 15 minutes then stir it and add it to the carboy.

I think it went smooth for not knowing at all what we were doing minus the slip up of not adding the sanitizer to the airlock.

So since I bought this from another homebrew guy I dont know what to do next.

I bought new 500mL swing top bottles (36 bottles). So will I sanitize the bottles and tops and just siphon it into the bottles? What is this conditioning? Do i need to carbonate the beer?

Learn how to bottle.Tons of info here. You need to carbonate beer.

 

[user 141939]

You'll probably want to get a bottling bucket with a spigot and bottling wand. Then you will boil a cup of water or so with about 4 oz of sugar. Put it in the bucket and siphon the beer into it. I'd watch a video of it if I were you or check out the bottling forum I think there is a good stickie about it there.

The not taking a initial gravity reading is pretty terrible advice. Oh well. Because you did all grain you OG could have really been anything. Did the wort taste sweet before you boiled it? Or starchy?

At a gravity at 1.020 you might have a stalled fermentation. You can bottle it but you might end up with bottle bombs.

 

[shtoive87]

Www.howtobrew.com is a great resource for beginning brewers. Check it out for how to's on lots of subjects.

 

[amateur_hour]

here are some pics so far. I have looked up on how to bottle and condition, Ive read that I should have beer up to the neck of the carboy. Can I still add water when I am putting the beer into the bottles? If so is there a temperature I should have the water at?

 

[Gavin C]

Don't add water. That is not a component of bottling.

Think about what that would do to a beer.

 

[user 141939]

The reason you read you should have beer up to the neck was probably in regards to storing beer longer term in carboy. Where over time the extra headspace could result in the beer becoming exposed to oxygen.

Because you are bottling soon this is not a concern. So no do not add water. Only the water you use to boil the sugar in which only needs to be a cup or so.

 

[Saboral]

So you need to get yourself a bottling bucket, some priming sugar, bottles, caps, and a capper. Also get some sanitizer like StarSan instead of using bleach. Use the starsan and sanitize your racking wand/tube, the bottling bucket, and your bottles.

While this is going on, boil an appropriate amount of water and priming sugar solution as noted by a previous poster. Cool the sugar mixture and pour it in the bottling bucket. Rack your beer into the bottling bucket. Using a sanitized spoon gently stir the beer.

Now using the valve on the bucket fill your bottles. Perhaps another user can comment about the appropriate amount of headspace to leave. Once each bottle is filled, cap it and store it in a dark cool location. Cool as in basement, not refridgerator. Let the beer condition for several weeks.

After several weeks, pop a cap, relax, and have a homebrew.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[rlmiller10]

some tubing and a filling wand will make bottling easier. Put the tubing on the bottling bucket spigot and the wand on that. The wand is designed so that pushing it on the bottom of the bottle opens a valve in the wand which allows the beer to flow. When the bottle if full and you remove the wand the level of the beer will lower to just the right level in the bottle.

If you have an auto-siphon you don't have to have a bottling bucket. I siphon (rack) from primary into another carboy which has my priming sugar (dissolved and boiled) and then put the bottling wand on my auto-siphon hose and bottle out of the second carboy. You could siphon from primary back to your boil kettle and then to bottles if you just have the one carboy.

 

[dyqik]

The good news is that from the pictures, you've definitely had yeast activity and so it's almost certainly beer!

For bottling, from the How to Brew link above - Priming and bottling

 

[amateur_hour]

so the stout has been bottled and it turned out really good! for my first batch I was definitely not expecting it to be this good. Few things I will change and have learned along the way though.

Now for another very beginner question, its been bottles and tucked away in a room temperature dark place for 3 weeks, can I leave the bottles out or do I need to put all of the beers in a fridge?

 

[amateur_hour]

anyone with a quick answer? can they stay at room temp or should i refrigerate after the 3 weeks after bottling?

 

[chuckcomm]

put as many as you want/need in the refrigerator the rest can sit at room temp until you want to chill therm

 

[BigFloyd]

For future reference, once fermentation has begun do not shake your beer. Introducing O2 later into the process will cause oxidation and leave you with stale beer that tastes kind of like wet cardboard.

 

[EuBrew]

If you just bottled them they need to be at or close to 70F for 3 weeks..ish to carbonate. If you put them in the fridge too soon you'll drop the yeast out of suspension and they won't eat the priming sugar, thus won't create CO2 to carbonate your beer.

Good luck!

 

[RM-MN]

anyone with a quick answer? can they stay at room temp or should i refrigerate after the 3 weeks after bottling?

I've left my stout for up to 2 years at room temperature. It seemed to continue to improve as I kept sampling. Unfortunately I drank the last bottle at about the 2 year mark so I can't tell if it would have continued to improve.

 

[ericbw]

I've left my stout for up to 2 years at room temperature.

I saw the title of this thread and the little preview. I thought the question was if you could pitch after leaving it at room temp for 2 years!