First non-kit brew today!

[emccarthy25]

I just finished brewing my first non-kit beer. IMO it was just as easy as working with a kit(although I've only used the Mr. Beer kits before this).

Anyway, here's the recipe(which is an altered version of a Shed Mountain Ale Clone recipe I found elsewhere on the forums)

Boil Volume: 1 gal
Final Volume: 2.13 gal
Temp corrected OG: 1.060
Est. FG: 1.015
Est ABV: 5.9%

8 oz. Crystal 80L
8 oz. Pale Wheat Malt
2 oz. Chocolate Malt
2 oz. Black Patent

2 lb. Sparkling Amber DME at 10min
1 lb. Wheat DME

.5 oz. Perle 45 min
.5 oz. Cascade 15 min
.25 oz. Willamette 1 min

Safbrew S-33

I steeped the grains at 155 degrees for 30 mins in 2 quarts of water, rinsed the grains with 2 quarts of 155 degree water, then added the wheat DME and started the boil count down after the hot break.

Ice bath until 115 degrees, at which point I strained the wort into my fermenter(which is a Mr. Beer keg, so I divided the original recipe by half before altering). Fermenter had 1 gallon of 40 degree water already in it, which which after topping off brought the temp to 68 degrees, at which point I aerated and pitched my yeast. Now the waiting game begins

Beersmith gives me 24.8 IBUs and 28.1 SRM. Looks like I've got a (hopefully) pretty nice american brown ale fermenting. :rockin:

 

[emccarthy25]

Just a quick update: I've noticed a TON of yeast rafts(I ASSUME they are yeast related) floating at the top of my fermenter. This being only my fourth total batch, I've not seen this before. While I understand that it's nothing to worry about, is this typical of S-33?

 

[emccarthy25]

This weekend I bottled this beer and tasted a sample. There were two things I noticed - it was very cloudy, which I thought was strange for 3 weeks in the fermenter, and a cidery taste, which I was under the impression that I shouldn't get so long as I don't add simple sugars. I hope this will turn out ok, but I've got another 4 weeks before I will know how its coming along.

Any thoughts?

 

[LowNotes]

My first all-grain brew turned out very cloudy as well. I had some issues with mash-temps, so that may have contributed, but since that batch I started adding 1/2 a whirlfloc tablet to my 5g batches. I haven't tasted the beer yet, it will be 2 weeks in the bottle this Friday, but just from looking at the 2 beers side by side in bottles, the whirlfloc beer has waaaaaaay more clarity.

The good news is that clarity issues aside, the beer tasted good and my friends and family have all loved it.

I am not as experienced as many others on this forum, but I would guess the cidery taste is probably just because the beer is still so young at only 3 weeks. Given a couple more weeks for the flavors to mingle and get cleaned up will likely cure all woes. For the record my cloudy beer was pretty terrible after only 3 weeks (2 in frementer 1 in bottles). At right around 4.5 weeks (2 in fermenter 2.5 in bottles) it started to taste good.

 

[emccarthy25]

Thanks for the response. I have faith the cideryness(?) Will eventually go away...but its hard to not worry when I've got a brew that has been in bottles for almost two months and its still not ready(different brew). At least the aforementioned beer I KNOW the issue...ihad about 23% adjuntcts, so while its high abv, it will probablybe another 8 weeks before it is drinkable. I do have high hopes for the brown though, so I'll keep my fingers crossed