First time.

[Awastatyme]

(Long read)
I think my brew will be ok but I did seem to stack the cards against me. Hang in while I tell my story.

First off, I received a BBS chestnut brown ale kit for Christmas in 2012. At that time as was in the process of trying to get my house ready to sell. So I never took the time to brew it. Finally sold the house in Aug of 2013 and moved in with my in-laws while we built our new home. I didn't want to brew beer at their house because they are strict Baptist. We finally moved into the new house in April of 2014.

Now it's late August and in trying my first brew using a kit from 2012. The hops are vacuumed sealed and the grain and yeast are sealed.

I followed the recipe. Heated 2qt water to 160 and mashed in. But all I did was turn off the burner (electric stove) and did not move pot off the burner. The heat rose close to 200. I did not add any cold water to bring down temp. At the end of 60min of cooking (stirring every 10 mins), the temp was down around 160.

I strained the mash and collected very little liquid. Then poured 4qt over the mash but it was so think that it took over 30min to strain and some how I only collected about 3qt of wort.
The boil went great and added hops at the right times during the 60min boil.
Transferred into the 1gal jug and only had about 2qt. So I had to add another 2qt. I don't have a hydrometer so I couldn't take a og.

So now she is sitting in a dark closet, waiting

 

[freisste]

Well the mash may not yield many fermentable sugars, but we will see. It would be nice to have hydrometer readings, but obviously that is not in the cards. You added hops and yeast, so you certainly made beer. It may just be a little thick and not have much alcohol. At this point, there is no harm in letting it go.

 

[myelo]

Yeah, you have several things working against you on this one. At 200F, most of the enzymes will be denatured which means you will end up with a lot of unfermentable sugar. How bad this will be probably depends on how quick the temperature got too high; that is, was there any time for conversion.

The other issue is 2-year-old yeast. If it was kept refrigerated it might be OK, if not I would worry. If possible, I would probably grab some fresh yeast and pitch it.

My guess is you end up with a high final gravity (sweet, low alcohol). In addition to the effects on taste, this may increase the risk of infection.

It may turn out great. If not, don't get discouraged. Just fix a few problems (and get a hydrometer) and you'll do fine.

 

[Awastatyme]

whould the thick and small amout of intial wort be the result from the high temp of the mash?

It did have a great smell when i transfered to the jug.

 

[rodwha]

My mash temp rose to 180* on a stout and it left me with a very sweet beer.

With the hops not frozen and the yeast not refrigerated these are likely degraded. And milled grains (assuming they were milled in the bag) don't last very long (weeks to months).

How sweet your beer will be will depend on how quickly it rose above 175-180* or how long it was below that.

Did you notice a cheesy smell to the hops? If not they likely only lost some of their AA value giving it a little less bitterness than intended.

If you aren't notching any activity within 48 hrs or so your yeast may not be alive anymore.

Are you near Austin?

 

[rodwha]

Was that a 1 gal kit?

 

[Awastatyme]

The hops were vacuumed sealed and smelt like they should. No off smell

I didn't have aggressive bubbling but it did start to bubble in less than 12hrs.

I'm east of Houston near Beaumont.

Yes a 1 gal kit Brooklyn Brew Shop chestnut brown ale minus the nuts.

 

[rodwha]

If it began bubbling that soon I'd think the yeast was good enough.

If the hops smelled as they should then all that could really be less than ideal is a loss of some AA's (Alpha Acids), which give it it's bitterness.

The only issue, it seems, would be if the grains were stale, and how much starch was converted to sugar.

Are you doing anything to maintain fermentation temperature? You'll likely want to keep the beer's temp below 70*, and that can be about 10* warmer than the air temp if not in a water bath or fermentation chamber.

Ready to get another and start another brew?

Beaumont's a bit of a drive...

 

[Awastatyme]

It's sitting in a closet and the house stays at 76. As soon as I get home going to get it in a water bath.
Going to the local brew shop after work. To get ready for another batch.

 

[rodwha]

Do you have a local homebrew store (LHBS) in Beaumont or do you have to order your stuff?

Do you intend on staying small batch or moving up?

Do you adjust your mash water?

 

[2drunk2]

I just want to watch this thread and see how it turns out. I'm interested. I can't really offer any input, but wish you the best of luck. The good news is that it's only a gallon. It can't go terribly wrong.

 

[rodwha]

And it's good experience!

I ruined my first two batches, and despite having brewed 39 batches other than those first 2 I ruined and 4 expired Mr Beer kits that didn't turn out good either, I still make mistakes, some of which got better with age, some that were just fine, and some that were awful.

Make sure you take good notes!

 

[Awastatyme]

Well I went to bottle the brew this weekend. I ended up dumping it out. Tasted a little before i went into bottleing and blah. It tasted bad just bad.....

On a good note, I was able to purchase a used upright deepfreezer and I have a STC-1000 on the way. So now I will be able to ferment with good temp control. Im going to try doing a extract brew this time but going to go with 5 gal.

 

[rodwha]

Sorry for your loss… But I'm sure you'll be pleased with your gain!

What was the awful taste like? I tried brewing 4 small extract kits that were 1-3 months past their date, but they mostly tasted like molasses. I used DME, hops boiled at 20 and 5 mins, and US-05 yeast. I dumped most of them and saved a few of the ones that weren't so bad for cooking with.

 

[Awastatyme]

Like oatmeal water