First Brew

[NateM137]

So I made Big River brown extract kit from Midwestsupply. I brewed on June 10th, transferred to secondary 8 days latter, than bottled two weeks after that. It's been setting in the bottles for 3 1/2 weeks and I am still getting a very green taste. It's bitter at the beginning and not nearly as malty as I would expect a brown to taste.

The other problem is that I did not control the fermentation temperature at all so it was at 77-79 most of the time. Since than I have built a Son of Fermentation chamber and drastically improved my temperature control.

My question is: Is this beer ever going to reach it's tasty potential or is it destine to suck?

 

[idigg]

If the ambient temp was 79*F, your active fermentation temp was probably 81-83*F, which is way too warm, even for an ale yeast except maybe some belgian and saison. 3 1/2 weeks isn't a very long time for bottle conditioning, especially for a darker beer with a good amount of speciality grain. Try one at 5 weeks, and it might taste totally different.

My first beer sucked, just saying. You will learn new techniques and processes as you go, everytime. I have 27 all grain batches under my belt and learn something new everytime.

G'luck
justin

 

[vinper]

The 1st brew I made was great (did not cotrol fermentation temps ), the last 2 are bitter and have an aftertaste and not getting better after 4 months (did control ferment temps), so I bought a stainless kettle instead of aluminum and going to use better water this next time ... to me they dont seem to get much better

 

[COLObrewer]

1. Was fermentation complete before you transferred it to secondary?
2. What was the OG when you started and the FG when you bottled it?
3. What temperature were you storing the bottles at for 3 1/2 weeks?

It fermented a little hot so an extended primary and secondary would have helped this beer out greately.

 

[unionrdr]

I concur. You should've left it in primary a lot longer than 8 days. Darker &/or bigger beers can take longer to ferment down to a stable FG. Never be in a hurry or take instruction sheets as gospel. Especially at such high temps. It needed the extra time after FG is reached to clean up the by products of that high ferment temp. Letting it settle out clear is the point where this happens in primary. Try again at 5 weeks with a week fridge time.

 

[CarboyBoy]

Ditto to the thoughts about fermentation temp and racking too soon.

What's your serving temp? I have a brown, and the malt doesn't really come through strongly until it's up to around 55F. Colder than that and the bitterness is much more dominant.

 

[unionrdr]

Agreed on the serving temps. Even 47-50F is good to pour at. The malts & other complexities def come through more.
Just remember time in brewing is your best tool.

 

[NateM137]

Thank you for all the recomendations. Looking back I think I did bottle to soon. I didn't have a SG but when I transfered it the gravity was 1.0181. Final gravity was 1.0149 and the target gravity was 1.010-1.012.

I currently have a honey ale sitting in primary. How close to the target should it be before I transfer it to secondary?

 

[COLObrewer]

. . . . I currently have a honey ale sitting in primary. How close to the target should it be before I transfer it to secondary?

It should be done and have the same gravity reading a couple of days apart.

 

[NateM137]

Agreed on the serving temps. Even 47-50F is good to pour at.

I'm not sure exactly what temperature I am serving it at but I usually set it out for 10-20 mins before drinking it. I've always found that the flavor of beer changes significantly with temp but no matter what temp this is served at, it's still bitter.

 

[grem135]

My first brew was and English Brown ale brewers best kit with specialty grains. I think the grains steeped too hot (temps went up and down a lot) and fermentation was a tad to warm. It has a strong bite to it that the first few bottles didnt have after 3 weeks in bottle. It is now 6+ weeks in bottle and I think it's either mellowing out or I'm getting used to it... not really sure lol.