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

[FlyFisherman]

I'm a newbie to this hobby and decided to try the Brewers Best double IPA as my first batch.

First off I'd like to say that the instructions with this kit is vague at best and pretty much suck. I followed them as closely as I thought possible but the main thing I did not understand was the part where it says to try not to transfer the heavy scrub into the fermentation bucket and I think this is the part where I screwed up the batch.

What the heck do they mean by "heavy scrub" ? Not once in their instructions do they mention using filter bags when adding ingredients to the wort and they say to sprinkle the hop pellets right in. So I came into this forum and read in another thread that people were recommending that someone else should just dump everything right into the ferment bucket which is what I decided to do.

So to make a long story a little shorter, today I transferred the batch into the carboy for the 2nd ferment and have to say it looks like nothing I would ever even consider drinking a cup full of and it has a sour taste and smell(yes I tasted it). There was darn close to an inch of something accumulated on the bottom of the primary fermenter bucket which I dumped behind my shed. Now the batch is in the carboy and I can see so much stuff floating in it that it appears that 2 weeks will be nowhere near enough for it to clear, to me it looks like an awesome batch of homemade apple cider.

So I guess if I'm trying to ask one specific question it would be should I just dump it now or is it worth proceeding to the bottling stage ?

 

[LKABrewer]

Do not dump. Give it a few weeks.

 

[Slainte-brew]

First off welcome to the hobby.

The instructions are kind of vague and outdated. Read on here and brew more and you will learn.

Transferring from the boil to fermenter is a choice, I personally dump it in but try and keep out the last bit of trub. Either way you wil have beer.

If your beer has a sour taste it might have picked up an infection. The stuff that usually comes with the kits is a cleaner only not a sanitizer.

Moving it to a secondary fermenter is something that most of the instructions still say. I'm not going to start an argument but many people do not move to a secondary. I would say I do 5% if the time for specific reasons. If you aren't really gentle moving it, you can oxidize your beer.

Don't pitch it yet, taste it again in a week or two and see what it taste like. If you really can't stand it think about getting rid of it. Otherwise drink it, it won't hurt you.

 

[beergolf]

Relax.

Fermentation is not pretty. They meant heavy trub, not heavy scrub.

Not evreryone uses hop sacks for the hops. I usually just drop the hops in and then transfer it all to the fermenter. Afterr enough time it all drops to the bottom. No big deal.

The inch of stuff you saw in the bottom of the fermenter is perfectly normal. Give it enough time and all the floating stuff will fall out and the beer will be good. Taste changes dramatically with time. Most of us leave everything in the fermenter for 3 weeks.

Just step away from the fermenter, let the beer do it's thing and report back in a few weeks.. Then bottle it up and give it 3 weeks to carb up.

Relax....

 

[DSorenson]

Chalk it up to experience... most first brews go this way it seems. It's kind of like paying dues to the brewing gods. You probably have an infection, but you might also have a good sour beer in a few weeks or even a few months.

 

[JRapp]

No no no, dont get rid of it. What this beer is now is NOTHING like it will turn out after its bottled. I taste my wort all the time just to see the way it evolves.

I've had beers taste awful after 2 weeks in the bottle, at 4 weeks they were fantastic.

Oh also That stuff at the bottom of the kettle (heavy scrub?) I just add it to the fermenter, no biggy. Its all preference.

Also that stuff at the bottom of your primary is called the trub. Its yeast, hops and byproduct gunk. Its very good for your garden and perfectly natural.

The floating stuff is also absolutely no big deal! Anything that gets added to bottles will all sink to the bottom and become a yeast cake, especially if you chill the bottles well after carbonation.

 

[FlyFisherman]

it just sucks knowing that I'm waiting 2 weeks for something that may not be any good

"The stuff that usually comes with the kits is a cleaner only not a sanitizer."

I believe I read that somewhere else on this forum. Why would they put that in the kit if it's not a sanitizer when they and the local home brew shops are indeed leading people to believe that it is?

My opinion of Brewers Best is that they're pretty pathetic, I know I won't buy anything from them again. As popular as home brewing has become it's hard to believe that there isn't someone out there that can put out a quality kit

 

[FlyFisherman]

Relax.

Fermentation is not pretty. They meant heavy trub, not heavy scrub.

Not evreryone uses hop sacks for the hops. I usually just drop the hops in and then transfer it all to the fermenter. Afterr enough time it all drops to the bottom. No big deal.

The inch of stuff you saw in the bottom of the fermenter is perfectly normal. Give it enough time and all the floating stuff will fall out and the beer will be good. Taste changes dramatically with time. Most of us leave everything in the fermenter for 3 weeks.

Just step away from the fermenter, let the beer do it's thing and report back in a few weeks.. Then bottle it up and give it 3 weeks to carb up.

Relax....

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

 

[grem135]

I have brewed a couple really good beers using brewers best kits. My best beers so far have been Northern brewer kits though and their directions are quite a bit better..but still dated.
NorthernBrewer
Also try Austin Homebrew

 

[Zuljin]

Oh no! Don't put the scrub in!

Yeah. Trub. It's fine. I dump the whole pot, scrub and all, into primary. You can bottle right out of primary and leave a lot of the scrub behind by:

-Not jostling the bucket around a lot. The scrub settles pretty tight.
-Use a cane, some call it a wand, with the little (usually) black foot on it. It keeps the cane out of the scrub and lets beer sort of go around it.
-Place your cane above the level of the scrub.

I usually secondary because. Just because. That's my reason.

And I'm so calling it scrub from now on. That's hilarious.

And those direction aren't so bad. I mean, it's a pamphlet. A leaflet, even. They're not going to print out all of HBT and put it in the box. That'd be a heavy box.

 

[masterblaster]

I am brewing my 2nd and 3rd batch of beer right now. My Noob to Noob advice - Patience is your friend when brewing, when in doubt wait another week. I wanted to get a very clear beer and racked my 1st batch twice (my noob mistake among many) but I found that the beer tasted nothing like the finished product I have now and it changed between both rackings and bottling, for the better.

 

[FlyFisherman]

Oh no! Don't put the scrub in!



.

Yea I don't have my notes in front of me.I figured I'd get the terms wrong so I've tried to avoid most of them

 

[FlyFisherman]

OK you guys calmed me down now,I'm obviously not a patient guy but I've got to leave it alone and we'll see what happens.

 

[RM-MN]

OK you guys calmed me down now,I'm obviously not a patient guy but I've got to leave it alone and we'll see what happens.

What you need to do is get into vegetable gardening. You plant seeds from some unknown variety of vegetable and wait months to find out if you like it or not. Beer is so much faster.

have you ever sampled a green tomato or green apple? Are you ready to throw out the tomato plants and the apple trees because they tasted sour? Same with beer, it takes a bit of time to develop.

 

[zx2tuner]

Never had any trouble with BB kits. Always came out tasting great!

 

[LBussy]

Just to put this into perspective .. 2 weeks is a rush. Generally with my "house beers" I wait about 3 weeks for the primary and then do whatever comes next (don't want to start a secondary or not argument). Watching your beer will let you know when it's ready. Instructions are generalities and you need to listen to what your beer is telling you.

Also, if you have room for it somewhere, cold-crashing the beer is an excellent way to accelerate clearing. I use polyclar or gelatin, I have just re-discovered gelatin though and I'll probably just use it exclusively from now on. Gelatin will work fine at room temp but gelatin + a fridge makes clearing unbelievably quick and easy. Doing this is NOT needed but you sound impatient and that will speed things up.

Now then ... sour is not a taste I normally associate with a normal green beer but we all have different ways to describe things. You have nothing to lose by waiting though so give it some time.

 

[unionrdr]

I think it could be the sharp,non-destinct flavor of green beer you're describing as sour. It is pretty easy to think of that flavor as sour. so it's likely fine at this point.
And never rack beer to anything before FG is reached. Leaving it in primary at least till FG ensures that it won't stall out before fermenting fully. Under mormal conditions anyway. My All NZ hopped IPA was in primary 3 weeks yesterday,but was a point or two higher than BS2 gave for FG. not to mention,a bit cloudy yet. This,for instance,tells me it isn't quite done yet,so I'll give it till Wednesday & check it again. You have to learn what the beer is telling you buy it's current state. This example says "I'm not quite done yet,I need a lil more time to finish" to me.
This is the kind of thing we all have to learn from experience,besides just discussing it here. Which does give a somewhat more common frame of reference. But experience is still the best teacher.
Brewer's Best kits are ok in my opinion. But applying your own process to them will bring better results. I think most instruction sheets are a bit contrived & slow to keep up with us out in the field.

 

[mojotele]

I think it could be the sharp,non-destinct flavor of green beer you're describing as sour. It is pretty easy to think of that flavor as sour. so it's likely fine at this point.

My thought as well.

It's actually probably NOT infected. Most infections are incredibly obvious - snot-like strands in the beer, white flaky stuff on top, or the super obvious presence of mold. Nothing the OP described screams infection to me. It just sounds like it isn't done fermenting and conditioning yet.

 

[FlyFisherman]

Lots of good stuff in this thread! Thanks for all the help and encouragement.

I've got a lot more reading to do on this website.

 

[JRapp]

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

Mine is so dog eared and worn down. Its pretty much mandatory to own as a home brewer and has everything you need to know.

 

[jpseaton]

It can take between 2 to 3 weeks in the fermenter. Leave the lid on and leave it alone! Make sure you use priming sugar not table sugar when you bottle carbonate. Wait another 2 to 3 weeks at room temperature for the beer fairy to do it's thing. You will be surprised how good your first batch can turn out.

 

[unionrdr]

Table sugar will work just fine for priming. Here's a calculator to find how much sugar to use; http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

 

[jpr0930]

Table sugar will work just fine for priming. Here's a calculator to find how much sugar to use; http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

+1 on this. Numerous threads and discussions on the topic. As suggested use a calc because you use different quantitities of each sugar due to their properties.

 

[FlyFisherman]

Someone told me that the kits like Brewers Best actually include too much priming sugar and if you use all that is included it over carbonates

 

[Echoloc8]

Someone told me that the kits like Brewers Best actually include too much priming sugar and if you use all that is included it over carbonates

Good advice. Lots of places, to save time, throw a standard premeasured amount into kits regardless of how much the style/recipe calls for. Always find out how much sugar you need by weight, and measure with a scale.

-Rich

 

[cageybee]

I've used a bunch of brewers best kits and never produced an overcarbed beer. despite pretty good instructions, I made lots of mistakes too on my first batch.

 

[Jayslay]

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..

 

[andy6026]

Not only is it possible to over-carbonate the beer, but you can have a disaster on your hands if you're not careful with how much sugar you use to carb. Even though I was totally aware that I needed to be careful, I still f*&$ed up my first two batches because I wasn't careful enough. It's probably the single most step that is very hard or downright impossible to recover from if you put in way too much. sugar.

 

[grem135]

The 5 oz packs of priming sugar you get with brewers best and other kits will give you 2.7 volumes in 5 gallons @ 70f. That is not enough to worry about bottle bombs and will be considered under carbed for some styles.
Use a priming calculator and save any left over sugar for that belgian you would like to carb to style.

 

[FlyFisherman]

I'm sure you guys get sick of responding to questions like this but....Come monday morning the batch of beer that I started this thread about will be in bottles for 2 weeks, I decided to chill one and try it today and it is still completely flat.Shouldn't it have at least a little fizz by now ? Shoiuld I be worried?