First Brew Questions

[half_whit]

I usually carb for at least two to make sure it's consistent across the whole batch

 

[Imprezed86]

well my bottles have been carbing for two weeks so i guess ill throw them in the fridge tonight after i get home from work.

I am a little worried if im giong to like them though, i've been spoiling myself with really good beer lately

 

[half_whit]

Worry? Aw shucks don't do that. Brewing is supposed to be fun. Worrying isn't much fun!

I'm sure you're going to like it. I mean, you made it. So there's something to be proud of. You'll pick up on things as you keep brewing...things that you want to do again and things you'd rather not. Enjoy the learning experience and try not to get discouraged. "Worrying is like paying a tax on a debt you may have never owed." Throw a couple in the fridge tonight and see how they taste. That way if they end up not being fully carb'd yet, you haven't put ALL of them to sleep.

I get impatient sometimes...I just cracked one of my IPA's the other day and it's only been conditioning for a week. My excuse is "I'm measuring the progress!" My pumpkin ale took like 3 weeks to carbonate. My recent porter was ready in a week and a half.

 

[Imprezed86]

So I threw one in the fridge tonight for tomorrow after work. Let them carb up for two weeks and a day. So we will see the out come soon. Luckily I have another beer brewing in the lbk.

 

[half_whit]

Cool! Let us know how it turns out!

 

[Imprezed86]

Well lets see where i should start with this beer....... It carb'd up really well, was extremely clear, it was fun and easy to make and that's about all the good things i can say about it.

The actual beer was awful, it smelled like apple juice and just had a horrible taste. This going back to me thinking with the tempature changing so much and unable to keep my house at a steady tempature I let the yeast get to cold so it stopped half way through.

Like i said earlier I didn't have great expectations for this one, it was my first beer and a Grand Bohemia Czech Pilsner.I was expecting a PBR or even Natty light taste or somehting along the lines of that. Was i expecting something totally different?? The only "pilsner/ light beer" i drink is miller lite and that's if I'm at a bar that doesn't have anything worth drinking on tap.

Luckily i have a second beer brewing in the LBK... which is the Aztec Mexican Cerveza. I am hoping this is going to be at least better than the first one since i had a steady tempature in my house during brewing. It hit two weeks on monday and ill probably let it sit another week to a week and a half. Any ideas on what this one may taste like??

 

[nukiwaza]

The actual beer was awful, it smelled like apple juice and just had a horrible taste. This going back to me thinking with the tempature changing so much and unable to keep my house at a steady tempature I let the yeast get to cold so it stopped half way through.

"Acetaldehyde
A flavor of green apples or freshly cut pumpkin; it is an intermediate compound in the formation of alcohol. Some yeast strains produce more than others, but generally it's presence indicates that the beer is too young and needs more time to condition."

So because of your temperature variations your beer has not finished. I would take those bottles and keep them for another month and then try it. I am willing to bet they will be much better after that.

 

[Imprezed86]

Well I checked the LBK when I got home from work yesterday.... It has been sitting for a little over three weeks now. Needless to say it smells and taste exactly like the last batch i made.

Could this just be bad yeast from the MB kits that i got?? the last batch and this one have around the same amount of trub in the bottom and i did see active fermentaion for a day or two then it goes away. I pitched the yeast at the recomended temp so I have no clue what it could be.

I am so tempted to go to the LHBS and get a 2.5 gallon kit put together of something that i could possibly enjoy. I want to be able to make a drinkable beer before i upgrade to a 5 gallon kit and spend the money.

Any suggestions on what could be happening??

 

[nukiwaza]

Well I checked the LBK when I got home from work yesterday.... It has been sitting for a little over three weeks now. Needless to say it smells and taste exactly like the last batch i made.

Could this just be bad yeast from the MB kits that i got?? the last batch and this one have around the same amount of trub in the bottom and i did see active fermentaion for a day or two then it goes away. I pitched the yeast at the recomended temp so I have no clue what it could be.

I am so tempted to go to the LHBS and get a 2.5 gallon kit put together of something that i could possibly enjoy. I want to be able to make a drinkable beer before i upgrade to a 5 gallon kit and spend the money.

Any suggestions on what could be happening??

Well I have had a slightly different experience than you. I had placed my fermenter in a closet that was too cold and put a heater (set to 65F) in the closet with the door closed. This kept the section the fermenter was set in between 66-67F.

Each day I checked on it I continued to see bubbles rising so I kept leaving it alone. I stopped seeing bubbles at around 3 1/2 weeks so I bottled on the weekend after a month on the fermenter. When I bottled it I there was a strong smell of apples in the fermenter so I was sure there was a problem.

After a week of bottle conditioning I refrigerated one bottle last night. It was lightly carbonated and had no sent of apples, it had hardly any sent at all. The beer was clean but more red than a pilsner should be. The beer had hardly any flavor at all. Nothing particularly off, but nothing I would want three six packs of....

 

[Imprezed86]

It turned out that age didnt help this one at all. i poped a bottle open two nights ago and.............. Cider!

I also let the other kit sit in the LBK for 5 weeks before even trying ( maybe to long i dont know) and it to was cider tasting. Hopefully its just the curse of Mr. Beer and not what my future in brewing is going to look like.

Im going to head down to the LHBS this weekend and see about getting away from Mr. Beer, i would like to stay with using the lbk until i make a drinkable beer. That way im not wasting money on a bigger set up . Is this a good idea to keep using the lbk or should i just invest in the 5 gallon?