First Time Brewer - Did I mess up?

[EverydayDiesel]

Did I mess up?

Last saturday I went to my local brew shop and bought this kit.
http://www.homebrewhq.com/ProductDetails.aspx?productID=1064

I got a can of muttons bock mix and barley/wheat.
The are the steps I took
1. Cleaned everything with starsan
2. Added hot water to my bucket (roughly a gallon)
3. Heated up the muttons
4. Added 2 lbs of barley/wheat and stired until it was all dissolved
5. Added the muttons to the bucket
6. From there my purified water quit so I wound up adding 4 gallons of distilled water
7. Added yeast.

For about 2.5 days I could see the reaction happening as it was giving off c02.

1. Did I mess up this batch? Should I start over since I used distilled water? I have been reading that they do not have the minerals needed for the yeast.

2. Also that kit comes with a bucket with a tap and a 5 gallon plastic carboy. Should I transfer everything from the bucket to the carboy? Why would I do this? The bucket is 6 gallons.

This is my first time, so I appreciate any input you can give.

 

[Ron_Blackhurst]

Did you ever boil the wort to begin with?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[Fletcher21]

You're fine just relax and have a beer. I would say home brew but this is your first batch.

Here is the worst case scenario..... You made beer... Whoah can you work with that? You saw active fermentation so you made something. Will it be the best thing ever... Only time will tell and that is the key there.... Time. If it doesn't taste great then give it more time.. Until you're at a year minimum don't count it out.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[insanim8er]

Did you ever boil the wort to begin with?

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app

It's probably a no boil kit.

The carboy is for fermenting. The bucket is for bottling. You'll end up with trub (sediment) on the bottom of the vessle when it's done fermenting. You rack off of it (rack means transfer) to the bottling bucket.

You'll be fine with the water. Just make sure you maintain your temp during fermentation. Keep it around 64 if possible. Don't let it go higher than 70.

 

[Fletcher21]

It's probably a no boil kit.

The carboy is for fermenting. The bucket is for bottling. You'll end up with trub (sediment) on the bottom of the vessle when it's done fermenting. You rack off of it (rack means transfer) to the bottling bucket.

You'll be fine with the water. Just make sure you maintain your temp during fermentation. Keep it around 64 if possible. Don't let it go higher than 70.

The bucket can be used for fermentation as well. You will find many people here who bucket ferment. Especially if your Carboy is only 5 gallons it is more likely for use as a secondary if you so choose to use one. Either way you will be just fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[insanim8er]

The bucket can be used for fermentation as well. You will find many people here who bucket ferment. Especially if your Carboy is only 5 gallons it is more likely for use as a secondary if you so choose to use one. Either way you will be just fine.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

Yes, but a bucket with a spigot is for bottling.

If he ferments in it, he will have to transfer out to bottle. Otherwise he will bottle yeast. Plus he would have a hell of a time getting priming sugar in there with out stirring up yeast.

 

[EverydayDiesel]

Thanks for the advice. It was a no boil kit but I did put the can in hot water since the directions said to to turn the contents into a liquid.

Should I move it into the bucket and let it sit? I might transfer it to the carboy so that I can make a second batch of something different.

 

[flars]

The instructions for brewing this kit most likely tell you to rack to the 5 gallon carboy after a few days of fermentation, clean the bucket you fermented in, then rack back to the bucket for bottling when final gravity has been reached.
A secondary vessel isn't needed unless you are aging for a very long time or have other additions like oak chips.
The carboy being 5 gallons is not large enough to ferment in. I would suggest buying a 6 to 6.5 gallon bucket or carboy to ferment in. Rack to the bottling bucket when the beer is finished and has settled clear.

No worry about using distilled water. The LME has the minerals necessary for a good beer.
Was there a kilo of sugar to add with the can of extract? Replacing the sugar that come with some of these kits with DME will add body and additional flavor to the beer. Replacing the sugar with DME also requires the use of Muntons Premium Gold yeast or a comparable 11 gram pack of another dry yeast to ferment out the extra complex sugars.

 

[EverydayDiesel]

Yes, but a bucket with a spigot is for bottling.

If he ferments in it, he will have to transfer out to bottle. Otherwise he will bottle yeast. Plus he would have a hell of a time getting priming sugar in there with out stirring up yeast.

When I go to bottle, is the yeast at the top or at the bottom?
I am guessing that I want to leave the sediment at the bottom and not bottle that.

 

[Fletcher21]

Here's a novel idea get a second bucket or if need be transfer to your Carboy for a short while and let it clarify some and wash the bucket for bottling time. Some like to point out what you did wrong. Pay no attention as at the end of the day you still made your own beer and should have fun doing it.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[flars]

When I go to bottle, is the yeast at the top or at the bottom?
I am guessing that I want to leave the sediment at the bottom and not bottle that.

The yeast and other sediments will compact on the bottom of the vessel given sufficient time.
I usually start taking hydrometer readings after two weeks. Final gravity has often been reached by that time. I'll give the yeast a few more days to clean up natural off flavors produced by fermentation and settle out. At about three weeks from the start of fermentaion I will bottle.
There is no rush to bottle. Bottling can be done when it best fits into your schedule.

 

[insanim8er]

When I go to bottle, is the yeast at the top or at the bottom?
I am guessing that I want to leave the sediment at the bottom and not bottle that.

It'll be on the bottom. Sometimes you'll get stuff on top. You do want to keep it in the fermenter.

Some people will do what is called a secondary to allow beer to clear. You can do a secondary like fletcher mentioned but the more you move the beer around, the more chance you have of infecting it or adding oxygen. Oxygenation to the beer can cause cardboard like off flavors.

I hardly ever do a secondary unless it's a fruit beer that needs to get off the trub. I also have a much more sophisticated set up where I ferment in stainless steel under pressure and transfer to a serving keg under pressure. So I don't worry about oxygenation.

Like fletcher said, get another bucket. But the way your kit is designed, the carboy is for primary.

The issue is you have a 5 gallon carboy, so 5 gallon batches will probably blow off (meaning you'll lose beer out the blow off tube or bubbler) when I did ferment in carboys, I would always do a 5 gallon batch in a 6.5 gallon carboy.

So fletcher is correct in saying it's better to do it in the bucket (assuming the bucket is larger in volume)

 

[EverydayDiesel]

The instructions for brewing this kit most likely tell you to rack to the 5 gallon carboy after a few days of fermentation, clean the bucket you fermented in, then rack back to the bucket for bottling when final gravity has been reached.
A secondary vessel isn't needed unless you are aging for a very long time or have other additions like oak chips.
The carboy being 5 gallons is not large enough to ferment in. I would suggest buying a 6 to 6.5 gallon bucket or carboy to ferment in. Rack to the bottling bucket when the beer is finished and has settled clear.

No worry about using distilled water. The LME has the minerals necessary for a good beer.
Was there a kilo of sugar to add with the can of extract? Replacing the sugar that come with some of these kits with DME will add body and additional flavor to the beer. Replacing the sugar with DME also requires the use of Muntons Premium Gold yeast or a comparable 11 gram pack of another dry yeast to ferment out the extra complex sugars.

It did say to move to a second bucket after a few days as part of the 'alternative method'.

I did not add sugar, the homebrew store told me to not mix in the sugar but instead use the barley/wheat that they sold me (I as trying to get a beer similar to aventenous)

Here is the muttons I used which had the yeast with it
http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/connoisseurs-range/bock-beer/

 

[insanim8er]

It did say to move to a second bucket after a few days as part of the 'alternative method'.

I did not add sugar, the homebrew store told me to not mix in the sugar but instead use the barley/wheat that they sold me (I as trying to get a beer similar to aventenous)

Here is the muttons I used which had the yeast with it
http://www.muntonshomebrew.com/connoisseurs-range/bock-beer/

This "Barley/Wheat" you're talking about... Do you still have the package?

Is it dry malt extract?

Barley/Wheat is grain. I know you didn't put that in there. But I'm concerned they had you put dry malt extract in a no boil kit. That could cause issues.

If you don't boil, you don't release the DMS of the dry malt extract. This can give you off flavors like creamed corn.

But I'm not educated on no boil kits. I only do all grain. It just seems odd to me.

 

[EverydayDiesel]

This "Barley/Wheat" you're talking about... Do you still have the package?

Is it dry malt extract?

Barley/Wheat is grain. I know you didn't put that in there. But I'm concerned they had you put dry malt extract in a no boil kit. That could cause issues.

If you don't boil, you don't release the DMS of the dry malt extract. This can give you off flavors like creamed corn.

But I'm not educated on no boil kits. I only do all grain. It just seems odd to me.

I do not have the package but I remember it saying dry malt extract. It was a white/light yellow very fine power.

 

[insanim8er]

I do not have the package but I remember it saying dry malt extract. It was a white/light yellow very fine power.

Ya... Dry malt extract is used as a source of fermentables (sugar) for the yeast. It's liquid extract (a very thick syrup) that goes through another process to dry it out into a powder.

Like I said, I don't know anything about no boil kits, but dry malt extract has DMS that needs to be boiled out. It just seems odd to add it to and boil kit.

I am, however, assuming a no boil kit already removes the DMS and adds hops to the extract... So I don't know.

 

[insanim8er]

For what it's worth...I did some reading

DMS is created during the malting process. During the boil, DMS continues to develop due to the heat. If not allowed to evaporate with the steam, it leaves off flavors of creamed corn.

The DME has some DMS in it, but probably shouldn't be much of an issue since a boil didn't occur.

 

[EverydayDiesel]

I dont know what DME or DMS is so I will look them up after typing this.

The really confusing part is that my kit came with a carboy and a 6.5 gallon bucket with tap. The airlock to relieve the co2 had a stopper that only fit the bucket lid (the carboy is a much bigger hole). Thats why I used the bucket for fermentation.
Oh well live and learn and dont make the same mistake next time. I do appreciate all the advice. Thanks everyone!


Edit:
For anyone new that might be interested...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/DME
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/DMS