First brew - solo

[tanktop]

Wow!!! Walked in the door from work and damn does it smell good, and strong. Very aromatic smelling, doubt that is any indicator but I'm guessing that a bad smell would be.

 

[1977Brewer]

My garage smells like a dang bouquet of roses when I'm at peak fermentation. Can't be a bad thing.

 

[joshesmusica]

yeah, most often you're not gonna wanna go off of the way the beer smells. yeast have some wild smells! i read a lot before starting to brew, so i expected it a bit, but then i brewed a witbier. holy **** that stuff's crazy! i thought i for sure infected it. nope just the way that yeast smelled.

 

[tanktop]

So my airlock is still very active but has slowed to bubbles every 3-4 seconds, the first 48 hours I was worried about a mess. If it's still active at 2 weeks should I give it a 3rd week in primary or go ahead and rack it anyway. I've also decided to dry hop when I rack it. I will taste it first though to make sure it resembles beer so as not to waste the hops.

 

[joshesmusica]

So my airlock is still very active but has slowed to bubbles every 3-4 seconds, the first 48 hours I was worried about a mess. If it's still active at 2 weeks should I give it a 3rd week in primary or go ahead and rack it anyway. I've also decided to dry hop when I rack it. I will taste it first though to make sure it resembles beer so as not to waste the hops.

i would say to (almost) never go by airlock activity for deciding when the beer's finished. the only way to know if it's time is to take gravity readings. then the great part about testing the gravity is you also get to taste the beer to make sure it doesn't have any major off-flavors.

and by rack it, are you talking about to a secondary? to be honest, although some will disagree, plenty will agree that you can just dry hop in primary. i'm guessing the beer is gonna be just fine to use the hops on it. in fact, i would guess it's only gonna help it even if you picked up some off-flavors. i would personally wait until day 16 from when you brewed, then dry hop for 5 more days. then bottle it.

 

[tanktop]

Thanks for that advise. I dumped everything from my brew pot into primary so I think I'm going to move it to secondary mostly to separate from the trub. I'll dry hop in secondary by putting hops directly on top. At least that's my plan so far. A total of 3 weeks fermenting is enough?

I think it'll be a miracle if this stuff is drinkable!

 

[TheCondor]

I agree with joshesmusica with skipping the secondary. I only transferred to a secondary once and haven't looked back. It's safer to leave in primary as transferring could possibly lead to adding oxygen to your beer. Leave the beer until you get a few gravity readings that are the same, then just dump your hops in. That's my opinion. Just be sure when you transfer to a bottling bucket or keg to leave all the sediment behind. With enough time it will all settle out. You could cold crash if you have some room in a fridge.
If it has alcohol it will be drinkable [emoji1]

 

[joshesmusica]

Thanks for that advise. I dumped everything from my brew pot into primary so I think I'm going to move it to secondary mostly to separate from the trub. I'll dry hop in secondary by putting hops directly on top. At least that's my plan so far. A total of 3 weeks fermenting is enough?

I think it'll be a miracle if this stuff is drinkable!

here you go:
http://brulosophy.com/2015/03/22/the-impact-of-kettle-trub-part-2-exbeeriment-results/

and here you go:
http://brulosophy.com/2014/08/12/primary-only-vs-transfer-to-secondary-exbeeriment-results/

BUT, if you absolutely feel like you have to move it to secondary since you paid for the carboy:
1) make sure it's smaller than the bucket you've got now. or in other words, you want as little headspace as possible in there.
2) put the pellet hops in, then siphon the beer on top of that.
3) go ahead and check your FG, if it's at or within 1 or 2 points of your expected FG, go ahead and do it at the 2 week mark, whenever that was/is.
4) then you wanna leave it in there for at the most 1 week more. a lot of people report vegetal flavors (like grassy, aka not what you're hoping from the dry hop) for much more than that. if you really feel like you need to have it in the secondary vessel for 2 weeks because some kit instructions you read somewhere (or some really old school brewers, or even one of their apprentices) told you to, then wait until the last 5-7 days to throw the hops in.

BUT #2, can i ask why you feel it's important to move it off the trub (all the gunk at the bottom)?

3 weeks should be enough. especially for a hop-focused beer you want to try to drink it as young as possible, but still after it's no longer green. so if you're bottling, 3 weeks ferment, 3 weeks bottle condition should be plenty of time for it to round out enough.

and lastly, you have not even come close to effing this beer up. it's gonna be tasty. i've heard of people who have screwed up WAY worse than the small mistakes you've made (again your worst probably being the frosty mug ) and still had decent enough beer in the end.

 

[tanktop]

Thanks for ruining all my plans!!!!

So recommendations?

Dry hop into primary for a week?

Should I at least use a bottling bucket or just carefully siphon into bottles from primary?

 

[HarborTownBrewing]

Yeah throw those hops into primary for a week. Just pour them in.

Use a bottling bucket to bottle. Many people rig up their thief to their buckets spigot, then insert spigot into bottle and it fills the bottle when it is pressed to the bottom of the bottle. Release when the bottle is full, and when you pull the bottle from the thief there will be prefect airspace in the bottle.

 

[TheCondor]

I agree on both counts. Just toss the hops in primary. I used a bottling bucket when I was bottling. I felt it made things easier.

 

[joshesmusica]

Yes definitely bottling bucket!

 

[tanktop]

I think if there's no reason to rack to secondary why wouldn't you just use a carboy instead of bucket other than cost. Adding hops through a 3" hole rather than opening the 14" lid of a bucket would give less chance for contamination.

 

[xgfhfjh]

Just a tip, frosty mugs are for Banquet and Silver Bullets, not craft beer. When it's that cold, you lose a ton of flavor and aroma.

 

[MattyIce]

I think if there's no reason to rack to secondary why wouldn't you just use a carboy instead of bucket other than cost. Adding hops through a 3" hole rather than opening the 14" lid of a bucket would give less chance for contamination.

Buckets are far easier/safer to carry around, clean, etc. When it comes to dry hopping, I just yank the airlock and pour pellets through that hole.

 

[TheCondor]

Everyone has a personal preference. I like carboys personally, I like that the glass won't absorb Flavors or scratch like plastic. Carboys are heavy and I'm always afraid it will crack or I will drop them. I feel a little more comfortable after buying a brew hauler.

 

[tanktop]

Well it tastes like beer so I went ahead and dry hopped. Also took a gravity reading..,

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1428258924.179873.jpg
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Hmmmm.....
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1428258993.277181.jpg

Notice the lack of ice [emoji56]

 

[tanktop]

It does resemble a very hoppy vodka

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1428259961.502058.jpg

 

[joshesmusica]

It does resemble a very hoppy vodka

View attachment 269102

i went back and checked my numbers again on this. turns out that morebeer extracts yield only about 1.035 ppg. so all in all, with everything included in the recipe, plus your extra pound of sugar, you should've had (and likely did have, considering how hard it is to mix all that water and sugar water together) 1.088 OG. But beersmith is saying that you should've reached 1.009. so you're still quite a ways from that. how long's it been fermenting now? i guess that residual sweetness could help balance the high OG, but 1.017 (you typed in 1.014 into the shot of the calculator, but that hydrometer is at 1.017 at least, the bubbles are sitting at 1.016. could be even a bit more because of the angle of the photo. then add onto the fact that i'm guessing your beer temp is sitting somewhere around 70, and you're likely at 1.018 or 1.019) is pretty high still, especially considering how much sugar you added. definitely check it again at the end of dry hopping to make sure it hasn't gone down more. you should hope that it has, but you definitely don't want to bottle it if it's still fermenting some. you'll have some bottle bombs on your hands.
if you can somehow get it down to 1.009, then you'll get yourself about 10.5% abv. if it stays where it's at now, you'll have about 9.3%. either way, drinking more than a couple of those is sure to make for a fun night!

 

[tanktop]

It's been fermenting for two weeks now. I was planning to bottle next Sunday, you think ten days instead of seven would be best?

 

[joshesmusica]

It's been fermenting for two weeks now. I was planning to bottle next Sunday, you think ten days instead of seven would be best?

i usually try not to dry hop longer than 7 days. i've heard of people going longer, but i've also heard that after around that 7 day mark, you can start to get the vegetal flavor developing. in fact most of the time i only dry hop for 5 days. so just test the gravity again at the end of dry hopping (when you were planning on bottling). if it has moved down, i would wait. if it has stayed the same, you should be safe to bottle.

 

[turkeyjerky214]

The only time I dry hop more than 7 days is when I'm dry hopping in the keg, and even then, they sit at room temperature for 6 days, then I chill it and put it on tap so it just dry hops throughout the life of the beer.

 

[tanktop]

Bottled today, it was a complete disaster! The hose on the siphon that came with my kit didn't fit on the bottle filler. I cut a 3" piece of tube, forced it onto the bottle filler and put it on the spigot of the bottling bucket. The bottle filler was so slow, after my third bottle and about ten minutes I removed it, went to a 10" tube and made a huge mess. For some reason I decided to use conditioning tablets instead of sugar. Noticed as I was filling (and pouring everywhere) that it was pretty sticky. I took a reading 10 days ago when I dry hopped and fermentation looked about done so I didn't bother today. Well when I noticed how sticky I took a reading...

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1429129159.348564.jpg

It did taste like beer, maybe with the tablets I won't have bombs. Did 7 tablets per bottle as I'm using 22oz's. That is the size of a regular bottle right? I think bottling blows, I think I need to keg instead!!!

 

[joshesmusica]

Bottled today, it was a complete disaster! The hose on the siphon that came with my kit didn't fit on the bottle filler. I cut a 3" piece of tube, forced it onto the bottle filler and put it on the spigot of the bottling bucket. The bottle filler was so slow, after my third bottle and about ten minutes I removed it, went to a 10" tube and made a huge mess. For some reason I decided to use conditioning tablets instead of sugar. Noticed as I was filling (and pouring everywhere) that it was pretty sticky. I took a reading 10 days ago when I dry hopped and fermentation looked about done so I didn't bother today. Well when I noticed how sticky I took a reading...

It did taste like beer, maybe with the tablets I won't have bombs. Did 7 tablets per bottle as I'm using 22oz's. That is the size of a regular bottle right? I think bottling blows, I think I need to keg instead!!!

so this sg reading is without any sugar added? or it's with? if it's without, then you've got a problem with your yeast, or you bottled too early. with all those simple sugars you had in there to begin with, i can't understand such a high fg unless your yeast just got tired and quit on you. just for the future, you always want to remember to check your sg before you proceed with the bottling. in fact you should check it two days before you bottle, and then again on bottling day to ensure that the gravity isn't still moving slowly downward. but it seems from your previous pictures that the sg is higher now than before?

as far as the tablets, i don't use them, just table sugar in a small amount of boiling water, cooled, in my bottling bucket, rack on top of it. what do the instructions on the package say?

with the bottle filler, did you take the lid off the fermenter first, or at least crack the lid? if not, could explain why it was going so slow. and you could just take it down to your lhbs and find a spigot that it works on so that you don't have to ghetto rig it next time.

i think most normal size bottles are 11-12 ounces.

 

[tanktop]

I think the yeast quit on me, makes me glad I went with the tablets. I'm assuming if the yeast is caput adding sugar won't kickstart it. Also I'm guessing the difference in readings is because of the mixing that occurred when I moved the beer into the bottling bucket.

The siphon that came with my kit was one that only fits onto the carboy and you blow through a baffle to get it started [emoji107] I'm thinking blowing my germs into the beer isn't the brightest move. Also I fermented in a bucket and not a carboy. Thought about pouring into the carboy using the supplied funnel but the oxygenation would also be bad. I called the company I got everything from and explained my difficulties and issues I had, they told me not everything in the kit is straight forward and not all the pieces fit together quite right and some modifications may be needed. I asked him why they don't explain that considering this is a beginners kit and wouldn't know until I'm trying to use it and it's a little late. He said there is a learning curve with beer making... That's awesome, sell a beginners kit that needs modifications to people who have never made beer before. I told him thanks, I don't want anything else from your company, there's other places to shop (note to self, reason 62 to buy from local small businesses).

Lastly, 22oz is the standard bottle for me [emoji41]

 

[joshesmusica]

I think the yeast quit on me, makes me glad I went with the tablets. I'm assuming if the yeast is caput adding sugar won't kickstart it. Also I'm guessing the difference in readings is because of the mixing that occurred when I moved the beer into the bottling bucket.

The siphon that came with my kit was one that only fits onto the carboy and you blow through a baffle to get it started [emoji107] I'm thinking blowing my germs into the beer isn't the brightest move. Also I fermented in a bucket and not a carboy. Thought about pouring into the carboy using the supplied funnel but the oxygenation would also be bad. I called the company I got everything from and explained my difficulties and issues I had, they told me not everything in the kit is straight forward and not all the pieces fit together quite right and some modifications may be needed. I asked him why they don't explain that considering this is a beginners kit and wouldn't know until I'm trying to use it and it's a little late. He said there is a learning curve with beer making... That's awesome, sell a beginners kit that needs modifications to people who have never made beer before. I told him thanks, I don't want anything else from your company, there's other places to shop (note to self, reason 62 to buy from local small businesses).

Lastly, 22oz is the standard bottle for me [emoji41]

you have to put your yeast through some pretty extreme conditions to make them completely quit on you. if they had completely quit on you, your bottles won't carbonate. i think the point of the sugar tablets are to be able to add them straight to your bottle. i'm sure table sugar is much cheaper, and here's an online calculator to help you figure out how much:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

what do you mean by the mixing in the bottling bucket? with the sugar? if so, then that's the case. you could probably figure out what the FG was if you knew exactly how much sugar was in each tablet then figure out how many gravity points per gallon that amount of sugar would yield, and divide that by how many gallons you have. which at this point will only tell you how much alcohol you potentially have in there, and you already know about how much is there. the main reason to find the FG is to know for sure that your fermenting finished all the way. this may not be such a big deal when keggin (not sure though, i don't keg), but it is a big deal if you're bottling. could be potentially creating bottle bombs if there was a lot of sugars left, or at the least, creating gushers, which is just a huge waste of beer.

i see! i didn't catch your irony on the 22oz the first time. my standard bottle is .5L! it definitely makes it easier when you're bottling.

 

[ghhjjf]

i wouldn't bother. Seriously-follow the R part of RDWHAHB. you will enjoy the hobby much more.

 

[joshesmusica]

i wouldn't bother. Seriously-follow the R part of RDWHAHB. you will enjoy the hobby much more.

what, exactly, wouldn't you bother with?

 

[turkeyjerky214]

I don't have much experience with extract (only did two batches with extract before moving to all grain), but I've heard people talk about struggling to get below 1.020 with extract brews.

I've only used carbonation tablets once on a small batch of cider, but 7 per 22 oz bottle sounds like a lot. If I remember correctly, I only used 2 per 12 oz bottle.

I'm pretty confused as to how you actually went about bottling. Could you explain your process a little better? Also, where did you buy that starter kit from? I've never heard of a company selling a kit with parts that don't fit together and expecting a beginner to just figure it out.