First brew underway

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Glad to see you are enjoying your new hobby! Im new as well to home brewing as my first brew was only a couple months ago but I'm obsessive about processes and have thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of all aspects of brewing from brew day to fermentation to kegging. If you are interested in fermentation chambers and/or more precise control during fermentation, a lot of peeps on here use fermonsters (cheap) with ferm-wrap for heat and a mini fridge for cooling with some sort of temp probe on the outside. Thats what I did. Obviously you can make this as cheap or expensive as you want. I posted a Dual Fermentation Systems Build thread a little while ago that has a parts list if you are interested in seeing what might be required to build one yourself. Really none of those ideas were mine, but I put together lots of what others were doing to fit my needs. I bought everything new but you could certainly go cheaper if you sourced some of the parts, especially the mini fridge, off of craigslist. Welcome to the hobby though and glad you are having fun which is most important.
 
Well, bottling my fourth brew which I was most excited for.

this one utilized something homebrewing.org calls “steep to convert”. Not sure if there’s another name. It’s sort of like BIAB but smaller and I still use LME.

Today I mixed up my priming sugar and guava flavoring having confidence and then tested the FG and it was way too high for a Guava Haze IPA.

OG = 1.060
FG = 1.026

the taste is absolutely amazing but it’s lacking a bit of the alcohol sting. This one is supposed to land at the highest ABV of all my brews, 6.5-6.75%.

I need help ASAP, should I go ahead and bottle? It’s already mixed with the priming sugar and flavoring I only had one of. Don’t want two entire cases of bottle bombs. It’s been in primary for 3 weeks. Barely 55% attenuation? Verified with hydrometer...

Toss or bottle?
 
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KookyBrewsky said:
Well, bottling my fourth brew which I was most excited for.

this one utilized something homebrewing.org calls “steep to convert”. Not sure if there’s another name. It’s sort of like BIAB but smaller and I still use LME.

Today I mixed up my priming sugar and guava flavoring having confidence and then tested the FG and it was way too high for a Guava Haze IPA.

OG = 1.060
FG = 1.026

the taste is absolutely amazing but it’s lacking a bit of the alcohol sting. This one is supposed to land at the highest ABV of all my brews, 6.5-6.75%.

I need help ASAP, should I go ahead and bottle? It’s already mixed with the priming sugar and flavoring I only had one of. Don’t want two entire cases of bottle bombs. It’s been in primary for 3 weeks. Barely 55% attenuation? Verified with hydrometer...

Toss or bottle?
Click to expand...

Really pays to check your gravity over a couple days to make sure it's done fermenting. What temp has it been kept at? It didn't get too cold somehow which would have put the, yeast to sleep?

If it's been three weeks you're probably good. Still, keep them in something like a tub with a lid. Start checking them after a week.

Tough call at this point.

All the Best,
D. White
 
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dwhite60 said:
Really pays to check your gravity over a couple days to make sure it's done fermenting. How long has it been in the fermenter?

All the Best,
D. White
Click to expand...

So far I had been of the camp not to check it so I didn’t mess anything up some how with oxygen or contamination.

It’s been in the primary fermenter 3 weeks. I just transferred it to bottling bucket with 2/3 cup of dextrose and guava flavoring. It looks like my only options are to toss it, or maybe put an airlock on the bottling bucket and leave it for another two weeks and add 2/3 cup more dextrose...

I think I’m stuck here though, that high a FG they’re sure to explode.
 
With those numbers your beer is a 4.4 abv
What yeast did you use? That 1.026 seems high for an IPA. Did you check with a hydrometer or refractometer?

Seems like your past the point because you already added the priming sugar for bottling. Did the kit have a projected fg?
 
Airlock it and let it sit if you can.

DO NOT JUST DUMP IT! It'll be fine but will take a little massaging.

All the Best,
D. White
 
Jag75 said:
With those numbers your beer is a 4.4 abv
What yeast did you use? That 1.026 seems high for an IPA. Did you check with a hydrometer or refractometer?
Click to expand...

It was a kit. I unfortunately didn’t write down the yeast as I thought it was on the recipe sheet but it just says “1 sachet”. I can’t remember.

It looks like I’m going to have to toss it. As it’s been sitting in the bottling bucket for a while now.

I don’t have an FG offhand but the projected ABV was 6.5-6.75%, using the equation to find FG.
 
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dwhite60 said:
Airlock it and let it sit if you can.

DO NOT JUST DUMP IT! It'll be fine but will take a little massaging.

All the Best,
D. White
Click to expand...

Should I pitch anymore yeast? Or even the yeast at the bottom? This was right before I started using a starter.
 
Jag75 said:
What temp did you have it at? You might be able to swirl the yeast and bump the temp a bit
Click to expand...

After the first 5 days it was sitting at 73-74*F for the remainder of the 3 weeks.

it’s sitting in the bottling bucket now. The dextrose was already put in. I transferred 3 spoonfuls of the yeast cake inTo the batch and carefully stirred. Will see if any activity arises. I do not have any regrets, it’s all a learning experience. No skunked batches yet but this ones fermentation looked active at the time and the yeast cake looked proper, yet seemed to stall. No idea where it went wrong. Tastes great but too sweet and too little alcohol.
 
I wouldn't dump it either. I would just pop an airlock on that and let it go. Transferring like that kicked the yeast up again too. Probably won't be your best, but it will be beer.
 
The airlock seems to be bubbling again! However I don't plan on keeping it at anything other than 74F unless you suggest otherwise? I did not add any sugar besides 2/3 cup or so of dextrose, transferred the beer, and added three small scoops of the yeast cake to the beer. This is an interesting experiment! Surely the yeast will want to multiply, the beer, although ~4% ABV, was very sweet. There has to be sugar in there for them to eat other than the dextrose.

The only concern I have if it kicks up again is how their eating of the guava flavoring sugars will impact the overall beer. This is going to be very interesting.

You know things have taken a turn for the worst when you're fermenting in your bottling bucket....
 
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Very happy accidents happen. Bet this is better than you think. Probably little sugar in the guava flavoring. You may lose some flavor but not all of it.

Patience.

All the Best,
D. White
 
dwhite60 said:
Very happy accidents happen. Bet this is better than you think. Probably little sugar in the guava flavoring. You may lose some flavor but not all of it.

Patience.

All the Best,
D. White
Click to expand...

Even before the guava it was quite sweet... I checked FG again and it was still high. I created a starter with the yeast last night.

As an update I found out it was the Windsor British yeast, which after further research is apparently so flocculent some suggest stirring it daily, that may have been my issue more than anything... Ignorance. Which I then used to potentially sabotage and contaminate the batch with all sorts of attempts to save it. Let's hope the starter is healthy, should solve everything.
 
Stand said:
If I was starting over I would pick a style category like American Ales or whatever you like and work with one yeast, one base malt, one hop, one specialty malt. I would have made progress much quicker.

I kept hopping around, and I still feel I haven't mastered that many ingredients.
Click to expand...
I liked the "hopping around" bit.
 
Soon my first two batches will have been bottle conditioned for 3 weeks. What is the minimum amount of chill time needed to get the remaining CO2 dissolved in solution to help with the head formation and clear the beer up a bit?
 
To me two days chilled is minimum. But you have a lot of beer on your hands for one person, so trying one after chilling overnight wouldn't be too much of a waste.
 
lowtones84 said:
To me two days chilled is minimum. But you have a lot of beer on your hands for one person, so trying one after chilling overnight wouldn't be too much of a waste.
Click to expand...

I'm going to start giving it away at the 3 week mark (Friday) and needed to know a reference point to tell people that have never really had homebrew, as well as myself to make sure I am not under chilling it.
 
Don't underestimate some tutoring on pouring technique, either. Getting a bunch of yeast in the glass will put a lot of people off immediately. They might get annoyed, but too bad! They got free beer.

This video actually isn't amazing, but the clear bottle helps:
 
Still not sure if I'll be able to bottle this guava haze IPA... The flavor profile is surely altered after letting the flavoring and priming sugar sit for this long in the bottling bucket. I created the starter and pitched it yesterday, there seems to be no activity whatsoever. I did another reading today and it's still around the 1.026 mark :(
 
Update : I pitched my second yeast starter right into the bottling bucket and after adding priming sugar and flavoring already.

As of April 4th the FG has gone to 1.022 which is still too high. Recipe says FG should be 1.010 - 1.014. So it got mildly close to the high end of the range, but still not quite. Mine yields ABV of roughly 5.10% whereas it should be as high as 6.75% best case and 6.5% worst case.

What would you do? Stir it daily for another week and bottle? Toss? Bottle ASAP? The beer and yeast have been sitting with guava flavoring and priming sugar for a while now, even though they're only supposed to come into contact with them during bottling day. I'm at a loss for this one! It's just a kit, $35 or so, but at this point, it's become personal.

Cheers.
 
This has been the weirdest brew. It fermented to around 4% ABV, then did nothing for two weeks apparently. On this fourth week I pitched a started made with the same yeast and nothing for 3 days. Now it has started to bubble again, tastes stronger and has become darker! I left it at 74F after I pitched the starter.

Here's to hoping when I go to bottle it tomorrow the FG is on target!

One thing I want to clarify before I bottle it tomorrow :

I prepared to bottle it, meaning I added priming sugar and transferred to the bottling bucket, and added guava flavoring, then let it sit for however long post bottling day after pitching yeast again. Looks to be 10-12 days after pitching a starter.

Should I add more priming sugar as though I never did in the first place?
 
McKnuckle said:
Yes, because your original priming sugar fermented out, and is no longer available to carbonate the bottled beer.
Click to expand...

I just wanted to make sure, I will hopefully check FG tomorrow and it will indeed have been fermented out! Cheers
 
After pitching the yeast and waiting yet again, it barely got to 1.022... I'm not sure it's worth bottling :(
 
It sure isn't worth dumping without even letting a few bottles condition and age.

But, my friend, this is why brewing 5 gallons of every single beer is not always prudent! Strongly suggest again that you try some small batches as you get used to the ins and outs of brewing. Or at least do that for recipes with lots of funk and experimentation in them, such as anything remotely associated with guava. ;)

Your stout is done, done, done, and perhaps a bit abused by your attempts to resuscitate it. Bottle at least a portion of it and move on. I don't think anyone asked about your mash temp in this thread. What was it, and are you sure? A high-ish mash will easily cause English yeasts to attenuate in the 60% range, as yours did.
 
McKnuckle said:
It sure isn't worth dumping without even letting a few bottles condition and age.

But, my friend, this is why brewing 5 gallons of every single beer is not always prudent! Strongly suggest again that you try some small batches as you get used to the ins and outs of brewing. Or at least do that for recipes with lots of funk and experimentation in them, such as anything remotely associated with guava. ;)

Your stout is done, done, done, and perhaps a bit abused by your attempts to resuscitate it. Bottle at least a portion of it and move on. I don't think anyone asked about your mash temp in this thread. What was it, and are you sure? A high-ish mash will easily cause English yeasts to attenuate in the 60% range, as yours did.
Click to expand...

My chipotle porter and chocolate stout turned out fine. This guava hze was my fourth batch which is the only one that's been problematic. I had to do what homebrewing.org calls "steep-to-convert", sort of a mini mash. I steeped just a bit of grain for roughly 40 minutes, but I still used a large amount of LME as per the recipe.

The Guava Haze IPA, I followed the directions precisely and the temperature never got too high while steeping the mini mash and experienced this unknown issue. My mash temperature was within 1-2 degrees of what the kit said for the entire 40 minutes, I sanitized as I always have, did everything that I normally do which has produced fine extract beers so far. Still unsure about where the issue came from. My OG was spot on.
 
What were you using to measure temp, and what was the mash temp exactly? I would still bottle it just to see the result of all of that.
 
lowtones84 said:
What were you using to measure temp, and what was the mash temp exactly? I would still bottle it just to see the result of all of that.
Click to expand...

Mash temp was done with a crystal thermometer ziptied to the handle at the proper depth, and fermentation temps are taken with an infrared thermometer after the first night. This new bucket I'm doing a minor cold crash in holds temps really well compared to my old bin, I might not even need a fridge if I insulate this and get a temperature probe.

Brewer's Best steep-to-convert : 1) determine water volume 2) steep to convert : raise temp to 155F, place bag of grains into pot, and I kept the temperature as close to 150F as I could, it might have dipped low a few times, perhaps high, I really can't recall as I was so focused on it and it was kind of difficult on the stove. But the vast majority was around 150F for 45 minutes 3) rinsed grains. That was it, basically a mini BIAB that still used LME.

It wasn't substantially lowered LME, I think it was 6.5lbs the recipe called for.

Might as well just bottle it tomorrow. With the amount of times I've opened and closed the fermenting bucket trying to get it to ferment various ways and stirring it daily, I greatly increased chances of airborne infection. Should be interesting.
 
Depending on how accurate your crystal thermometer is, and the fact that it sounds like you were mashing with an active flame stovetop, your mash temperature may have been significantly higher (or just inconsistent) than expected. If you're accidently mashing around 160 or even a bit higher you'll likely end up with a less fermentable wort, which is really the only explanation for an otherwise extract recipe ending that high, especially after being transferred and more sugar added to restart fermentation. That should have kicked even a very sluggish yeast back into action.
 
lowtones84 said:
Depending on how accurate your crystal thermometer is, and the fact that it sounds like you were mashing with an active flame stovetop, your mash temperature may have been significantly higher (or just inconsistent) than expected. If you're accidently mashing around 160 or even a bit higher you'll likely end up with a less fermentable wort, which is really the only explanation for an otherwise extract recipe ending that high, especially after being transferred and more sugar added to restart fermentation. That should have kicked even a very sluggish yeast back into action.
Click to expand...

So my OG being spot on doesn't really indicate that everything went correctly? I have an electric stove with a flat top that covers the entire bottom of the pot.
 
No. A high mash temperature will still extract sugars (giving you the correct OG), but more sugars that are unfermentable. There are many variables, but the basic idea is that the lower end of mash temperatures (I consider below 150F) produce a more fermentable wort and higher mash temperatures (upper end of 150F) produce a less fermentable wort.

This is almost certainly what happened, plus a bit of lazy yeast likely. So you need an accurate thermometer, and once you stir in the mash well and find the temperature is correct, take it off of the burner and wrap it in a sleeping bag, heavy coat, whatever really to insulate. When I do small batches indoors this is the method that I still use and it works totally fine.

That was a good introduction to the processes of All Grain brewing for you!
 
lowtones84 said:
No. A high mash temperature will still extract sugars (giving you the correct OG), but more sugars that are unfermentable. There are many variables, but the basic idea is that the lower end of mash temperatures (I consider below 150F) produce a more fermentable wort and higher mash temperatures (upper end of 150F) produce a less fermentable wort.

This is almost certainly what happened, plus a bit of lazy yeast likely. So you need an accurate thermometer, and once you stir in the mash well and find the temperature is correct, take it off of the burner and wrap it in a sleeping bag, heavy coat, whatever really to insulate. When I do small batches indoors this is the method that I still use and it works totally fine.

That was a good introduction to the processes of All Grain brewing for you!
Click to expand...

Yes it was apparently! I have since upgraded to a propane burner for the 10 gallons I will have to heat, no way at all could my electric stove heat up 10 gallons of water. I await my replacement kettle! I will be brewing the Centennial Blonde from HBT, then my own pale ale recipe attempt :)
 

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