First brew day soon...can someone check my math/methods?

[ZmannR2]

As your results show, you aren't supposed to dry hop until fermentation has slowed way down (about a week after pitching the yeast). Otherwise much of the aroma escapes with the co2 being released. So your dry hopped beers don't show much in the was of aroma on ones added at the beginning of fermentation

 

[ZmannR2]

What's the best way to tell if the fermentation is totally done? Just notice the massive layer at the bottom of the bottle? or take out a sample and use the hydrometer? I've been paranoid about infecting things so didn't test this batch at all until today

Take a hydrometer reading and again 2 days after that. When the reading doesn't change, it's done

 

[jm21]

As your results show, you aren't supposed to dry hop until fermentation has slowed way down (about a week after pitching the yeast). Otherwise much of the aroma escapes with the co2 being released. So your dry hopped beers don't show much in the was of aroma on ones added at the beginning of fermentation

The Willamette one was somewhat hoppy. Like a sierra nevada pale ale or something but less bitter and not as full bodied. The cascade one was more like the typical piss beer. No dry-hop at all smelled like crap. I've got another packet each of all the hops so will do another batch with all three dry hopped starting after the one week mark and see how much of a difference it makes. I think I had one more type of hops as well I might use instead of doing a control.

The Chinook one was extremely hoppy, but not bitter at all. Hop aroma and flavor of something like a lagunitas ipa. Very strong hop smell. The amount of flavor imparted to the beer is at least somewhat in line with how they smelled out of the bag. Chinook smelled very strong compared to Cascade. Who knows. Will see what happens next brew.

Would like to try some caramel malts and stuff but WAYYY over-bought on the grains, then what I thought was a specialty grain (due to a different name in Chinese) turned out to be the same stuff...so I've got about 120 pounds of aussie 2-row that needs to be whittled down a bit before the fiance lets me buy more...

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

(a little delay because I ordered s-04 yeast instead of s-05 by accident...how much difference does that make anyways?)

A little late to the party, but...

S-04 is a bit less attenuative (like 75 vs 85 % sugars converted), so you'll get a less dry (Sweeter, in theory, though not necessarily overtly sweet) beer; it has high flocculation, so you might have a clearer beer; it has a lower maximum alcohol tolerance, so you're less likely to be able to push it to a bit over 12% like I have with US-05; and it has a different flavor profile, with more esters (fruity and spicy flavors) and less accentuation of hops.

Also significant: fermenting US-05 "too warm" (IE, above 72-ish ambient) gives you peach/tropical fruit flavors, whereas fermenting S-04 "too warm" gives you burning rubber flavors.

 

[jm21]

Well damn. Checked on the bottles today and I think I'm screwed. My fiance was helping me bottle them and she just didn't have enough strength to get the screw tops all the way on. I didn't check and she didn't think it was a big problem...had them stacked sideways and a lot of beer has leaked out and I doubt more than a few bottles will be carbonated. Poopers. All that work basically down the drain.

Any chance of saving things in this sort of situation? I would think the yeast is pretty much gone at this point and chalking it up as a learning experience.

EDIT:
looked at some other threads and I was probably also carbonating at too low of a temperature (~70 at night and ~65 or lower during the day). Gave the bottles a shake and put them in the kitchen where it's a little warmer and see what happens. A few seem ok. They had some carbonation already when I bottled them...so should at least be drinkable for the most part. Just sucks that one small mistake spilled a decent chunk of our hard-earned beer.

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

Did I miss something? It's generally accepted that screw-top bottles can't be capped by homebrewer-accessible equipment.

Also, you don't want to stack beer sideways; that means more surface area in contact with any oxygen in the dead space, for the same volume of dead space.

 

[jm21]

Did I miss something? It's generally accepted that screw-top bottles can't be capped by homebrewer-accessible equipment.

Also, you don't want to stack beer sideways; that means more surface area in contact with any oxygen in the dead space, for the same volume of dead space.

They sold some bottles at the home brew shop that they swore worked. I seemingly can cap them down enough to work but my fiance can't. How would you test? Put it in a water bath and look for bubbles? put it upside down and see if anything comes out?

We had them sideways so they'd fit in the darkest part of the room...under the futon.

 

[jm21]

So doing some more research and it seems like I inadvertently used something like a partial no-chill method, which explains a lot. Those 5 and 0 minute additions I did would have been more similar to much earlier additions, so their hop flavor and aroma was pretty much lost and the beer was more bitter than it should have been. Apparently that's the biggest problem with the no-chill method and hoppy beers.

So next brew, probably tomorrow, use some bittering hops with no later additions and then dry-hop. I think the no-chill method is the only real method that works for me unless I had a freezer. It's either that or make some small batches that I can chill fast enough, which I might end up doing later, or wait for winter.