keelanfish
Well-Known Member
I haven't homebrewed for more than a year and a half due to a pregnant wife who couldn't stand the smells. However, now I have a 9 month old son and a wife who is fine with it again. So, a month ago I brewed a kit I purchased from a local home brew store (Beer Necessities is the store, the kit is Bob's Rye Ale). The kit had a fair amount of grains as well as a can of LME. I Followed the instructions that came with the kit to the letter. The O.G. was 1.048.
After one week I transferred from the primary (6 gallon glass carboy) to a secondary (5 gallon glass carboy) by siphon and added some hops "dry hopping" as called for in the instructions with the kit. I took a sample and the specific gravity at the one week mark was 1.012. I also tasted the sample and it was actually pretty good (of course it was warm and not carbonated). It did not have any discernable bad tastes, so I was excited. After transferring I observed the airlock and it was bubbling, but very slowly...maybe once every minute.
After another week, I tested the specific gravity and it still read 1.012. I figured the fermentation was complete and decided to bottle. I dissolved the priming sugar in a small amount of boiling water and added it to the beer in the bottling bucket. I bottled using the spout, tubing and bottle filler and filled 48 12 oz. bottles that I capped using Brewers Best bottle caps.
After two weeks in the bottle, I opened one of the three clear bottles (I always bottle three clears so I can observe the color, clairity and sediment). Got the nice hiss sound on cap removal and poured into a glass. The head bubbles were fairly large and the head retention was all of about 15 seconds. After that, there was no head at all. Not even a film, just clear beer. The weird thing is that the beer was bubbling more than any champagne I've ever seen. I took a sip and it is horrible. No mouth feel, no body. Not good, not bad, just blah. It is quite possibly the driest beer I've ever tasted. The aftertaste was actually closer to drinking a typical dark soda than beer.
Any ideas on what went wrong between racking to the secondary and now? Is there any chance the beer will improve with more bottle conditioning?
Other information:
I'm obsessive about sanitation and used starsan on anything that came into contact with the beer at each step. The temperature of fermentation and bottle conditioning has been very steady between 72 and 74 degrees.
After one week I transferred from the primary (6 gallon glass carboy) to a secondary (5 gallon glass carboy) by siphon and added some hops "dry hopping" as called for in the instructions with the kit. I took a sample and the specific gravity at the one week mark was 1.012. I also tasted the sample and it was actually pretty good (of course it was warm and not carbonated). It did not have any discernable bad tastes, so I was excited. After transferring I observed the airlock and it was bubbling, but very slowly...maybe once every minute.
After another week, I tested the specific gravity and it still read 1.012. I figured the fermentation was complete and decided to bottle. I dissolved the priming sugar in a small amount of boiling water and added it to the beer in the bottling bucket. I bottled using the spout, tubing and bottle filler and filled 48 12 oz. bottles that I capped using Brewers Best bottle caps.
After two weeks in the bottle, I opened one of the three clear bottles (I always bottle three clears so I can observe the color, clairity and sediment). Got the nice hiss sound on cap removal and poured into a glass. The head bubbles were fairly large and the head retention was all of about 15 seconds. After that, there was no head at all. Not even a film, just clear beer. The weird thing is that the beer was bubbling more than any champagne I've ever seen. I took a sip and it is horrible. No mouth feel, no body. Not good, not bad, just blah. It is quite possibly the driest beer I've ever tasted. The aftertaste was actually closer to drinking a typical dark soda than beer.
Any ideas on what went wrong between racking to the secondary and now? Is there any chance the beer will improve with more bottle conditioning?
Other information:
I'm obsessive about sanitation and used starsan on anything that came into contact with the beer at each step. The temperature of fermentation and bottle conditioning has been very steady between 72 and 74 degrees.