Followed Brewers Best Instructions , what the **** is this **** ?

[unionrdr]

Nah,just let'em sit for 3 to 4 weeks. Make sure the temp is 70F or a little better. Colder can take longer if they carbonate at all. I've had that problem in winter.

 

[justkev52]

Yes I'm upset for now but I'll get over it in time. I've been lurking on this forum for a while and have read a lot of similar posts.

it's just that this can be a very time consuming process for us newbies and to think that our efforts could be for naught is a little frustrating.

I'd have to say I have at least 6 hours invested in it so far(2 hours cleaning the stove after boil over)

Who knows,maybe I'm getting upset over nothing

It takes me at least 6 hours just to brew a batch. Relax...

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,for me,PB/PM BIAB 5G batch averages 6 hours. So you're not alone.

 

[Mozart]

Isn't there some sort of an altitude adjustment to be made for priming sugar? My LHBS makes free sugar bags for kits brewed in Calgary. That being said... they give all of the bags out of a big bin that they give away with various styles of beer kits..

I was intrigued by this question so decided to look up the answer, even though I live pretty much at sea level.

The answer is that yes, it does and can, but the impact is relatively small. I also suspect that one that only needs to be worried about if the altitude at which one bottles is significantly different from the altitude at which one drinks.

I am not a scientist and know only what I read and remember from science classes that were a long, long time ago, but...

The residual CO2 left in the beer after fermentation will be less at a higher altitude. The way my non-scientist mind wraps around this concept is that there is less pressure in the ambient air 'pushing' the CO2 the yeast produce into the beer. However: there is also less atmospheric pressure 'pushing' or keeping the CO2 in a fully conditioned and carbonated brew as well once opened. This leads me to believe that if something is bottled and opened at the same atmospheric pressure, there won't be much of an impact.

The difference would come in, for example, if I bottle at sea level, and then open my brew after my climb to the top of Mt. Everest. Can you say probable gusher?

Of course, if I bottle atop Everest and open that beer at home, it'd be pretty flat.

Either way, the impact is generally pretty minimal for most elevelations we homebrewers brew our beer.

There's also more information here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/does-altitude-effect-required-priming-sugar-233937/

That's my understanding at any rate, but again, I don't profess to be particularly knowledgeable here.

Cheers!

 

[Nargan]

I know you're already way past this but I just discovered this thread and wanted to share my first brewing experience. I decided to try all-grain right from the start. Why? Because I'm a masochist, I guess. The recipe was a random one I found on some other website that no one else had even rated or commented on. What's the worst that could happen?

I immediately ran into a problem with trying to regulate mash temperature on an electric stove. Then, I boiled too vigorously in a pot WAY too large for the smaller batch I was making and boiled off 50% or more of my volume. While trying to cool the wort in an ice bath, I accidentally splashed some of the water from my filthy sink into the kettle. Then, I transferred to a carboy and topped up with water but had a brainfart and threw in the dry hops immediately when I pitched the yeast. Whatever. A few hours later, there was vigorous fermentation happening and I was satisfied.

I woke up the next morning and it was dead. I could see no further activity at all and the airlock stopped bubbling. I let it go for two weeks but never again saw any signs of further fermentation. I decided to bottle it and got a taste of it in the process. It simply tasted like water with some hops bitterness in it. I laughed. I had my girlfriend taste some. She paused, said "welp..." and then we both laughed. I tried a bottle after a couple of weeks. It was so bad that I poured it down the drain after a few sips.

Fast forward to this last weekend when her and I were bottling my third batch (an absolutely FANTASTIC tasting IPA based on the Fresh Squeezed IPA recipe floating around) and we decided to try another bottle of it since it has had time to sit. We finished the bottle. Somehow, it wasn't as bad. We still laughed because it was wayyyy off from what you'd want an IPA to be and kind of just tastes like a bottle of soap but, whatever, it's beer. Total failure was an acceptable outcome and I think we've had more enjoyment from laughing at it than we would have from drinking it had it turned out right.

Pretty much all I'm saying is that I've found this hobby to be pretty fun as long as I don't take it very seriously. (for instance, my fourth batch was literally a bunch of left-over ingredients I threw together just to use them up. I ended up with an insane OG 1.108 wort, pitched in Wyeast 1762 belgian abbey II yeast because why not, and then threw in some bourbon soaked oak cubes just to make it extra crazy. I didn't notice the temp got to 78 the first day and now the thing smells like a giant batch of overly-ripe bananas from the 1762. I don't even care though because whatever comes out is estimated to be around 11.7%abv and will be downright hilarious.)

 

[FlyFisherman]

Holy $h&* did this batch come out good !!! Patience Patience Patience is defintiely the key. I am so P!$$@d that I wasted at least a half case doing tests.

It's my first batch , it took at least 3 weeks longer than expected. Carbonation was definitely the toughest period for me, the instructions said it would carbonate in 2 weeks but it took almost 4. I tested 1 beer almost every day since day 14 and it was flat up until today (day 24). today it is carbonated beyond my expectations and I think that it may have helped that i went back through and shook every bottle a couple days ago because it seemed as though the process had stalled.

I'm a proud pappa of a very good 1.5 cases of beer.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Dear GOD that OP was funny!!! Welcome to the obsession!!!!!!!And yes, if they left those typos in there, then those instructions SUCK!!!!!!

I sure hope you got the heavy scrub out though....otherwise that beer will taste like SH!T.

 

[Schol-R-LEA]

Also, pick up John Palmers "How to Brew" Or get it online.

+1 on the book recommendation. How To Brew is an excellent book, especially for novices, giving a great deal of detail with easy to understand explanations for all of it. The online version of the 1st edition is good, but the printed 3rd edition is significantly better. It has supplanted Dave Miller's Home Brewing Guide as my recommended beginner's book, simply because the explanations are such much clearer (Miller gives more detail, but tends to get bogged down in places).

You might want to take a look at The Complete Joy of Homebrewing as well, if only because it is such a fun book and Papazian's contagious enthusiasm often helps carry you through the long, fretful waiting times.

As for terminology, you might want to read this post, which goes over a lot of the terms and processes in brewing.

 

[WileECoyote]

Holy $h&* did this batch come out good !!! Patience Patience Patience is defintiely the key. I am so P!$$@d that I wasted at least a half case doing tests.

It's my first batch , it took at least 3 weeks longer than expected. Carbonation was definitely the toughest period for me, the instructions said it would carbonate in 2 weeks but it took almost 4. I tested 1 beer almost every day since day 14 and it was flat up until today (day 24). today it is carbonated beyond my expectations and I think that it may have helped that i went back through and shook every bottle a couple days ago because it seemed as though the process had stalled.

I'm a proud pappa of a very good 1.5 cases of beer.

Congrats on your first beer, on your next brew remember that 3 weeks at 70 deg is a minimum amount of time for a beer to carb up, also something that is often over looked is that when you finally chill a bottle, it needs to be chilled for 3 days to allow the c02 to get into solution.

Just an FYI, this is for most of my beers, 5 to 6 hr brew day, 2 weeks in primary, then I age/condition brew for 2 months or longer, then keg carbing for another 10 to 14 days or longer.

When I do bottle, I leave bottles to age/condition/carb for at least 1 1/2 months before trying one, most 2 to 3 months.

So as you can see, its around 3 months turn around time from start to finnish for most of my beers.

Brewing is not a fast process by any means, I have found that waiting a few extra months usually produces a much much better beer, their are exceptions to this of corse, such as wheat beers.

Patiences and fermentation temps are two of the biggies in brewing my friend.

Hope this helps

Welcome to brewing, and Cheers

 

[The_Nid_Hog]

I just came across this thread tonight. By strange coincidence, I was watching TV and pouring myself a pint from a bomber of Brewer's Best Double IPA. This is the first beer I've brewed in a long time. I'm not exactly a newbie--I did some brewing in the nineties but gave it up for a while. I had been thinking about getting back into it and my LHBS happened to have a sale on Brewer's Best Double IPA kits, so I bought one and took it home. My gear was sitting in the garage--I bought a new bucket for primary and got to work.

The directions weren't as complete as they could have been, but they weren't bad. I ended up getting everything safely into the bucket. A lot of reading here made me think that I would just keep it in primary and forget about secondary. About a week before I planned to bottle it, I dry hopped it with an ounce of Centennial. Just popped the top on the bucket and emptied it in.

Anyway, after about a month in primary, I bottled it. I was happy find out that I hit my FG of 1.015 and I got it all bottled without making a terrible mess. I let it condition for three weeks and cracked a bottle to check it out. Nicely carbonated, good color, great taste. A couple more weeks have gone by and it's developed into a respectable double IPA. It isn't as in-your-face as a lot of West Coast brews, but it isn't a wimpy, fakey clone either. This is a beer that I'd be happy to pour for my buddies (and will, later this week).

One of the things that I've liked about brewing in 2013 is the use of plastic buckets for primary. When I was brewing in the 90s, I always used glass carboys. You could see everything--and worry about everything.The nice thing about the plastic bucket is that I can't see what was going on inside. I just chilled out and assumed that what should have been happening was happening. After a month, when I decided to bottle it, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it wasn't filled with some terrible blob of festering botulism and it was ready to go. I guess it never hurts to be reminded of that. Plan carefully, do everything the best that you can, but relax and enjoy the process. That's what makes brewing fun.

Now that I've got a little of my confidence back, I have an all grain oatmeal stout in primary, and I'm getting organized to brew an English mild this week. I guess I just wanted to check in and tell FlyFisherman that I totally sympathize with what he was going through. Just relax and hope for the best. It looks like it turned out OK in the end, so that's a plus. But even if it is totally undrinkable, you learn a lot. The next batch will be even better. Hang in there!