Hello from WV

tackett · Jan 11, 2013

Hello all.

My name is Ben. I, like many others before me, received a mr beer kit for Christmas that sparked my interest into something that, quite honestly, had never even thought existed. So through some searching I found this site.

So before I get into my current beer adventures, a little about myself.

I am 33 years old, and I'm a male nurse. (Feel free to let the "meet the parents" jokes fly.)

My wife is also a nurse, and we have a little 19 month old girl together.

I have a lot of hobbies. I enjoy saltwater aquariums, playing music, motors and cars, off roading, home improvements and DIY, guns, movies and a bunch of others. Now we can add home brewing to that list.

Well......where to start.

My first batch was an epic fail. After reading, i think my sanititation efforts were a bust and my beer was infected with acetobacter. It has a very sharp and unpleasant venegar aftertaste and smell. I used the mr beer LBK for this batch.

I also was very impatient by bottling this batch with it sitting in the primary for only 8 days. Then letting it sit in the bottle for only a couple weeks. I also bottle primed with honey instead of batch priming.

So. I have embarked on a new batch.
I used a 5 gallon bucket with a DIY blow off tube. But I already have a couple mistakes under my belt. I was stressed about the previous infection and decided to use bleach to sanitize everything, and I didn't rinse. So that's fail #1

I think I boiled the wort too long and I used an enamel pot, so that's fail #2.

This batch has sat in the fermenter for about 2.5 weeks and is almost ready to bottle. I plan on using the LBK to batch prime and bottle this beer. I don't have much hope for this beer either.

Can't wait to start batch #3 and keep learning from my mistakes!

lumpher · Jan 11, 2013

welcome, ben, and good on you for learning from mistakes instead of becoming frustrated and quitting immediately. this batch should be ok. if you dumped the bleach pretty thoroughly before adding the wort, even though you didn't rinse, should be very little taste to it. using an enamel pot? don't worry about that unless you scorched the wort or the enamel is chipped. otherwise enamel pots are fine

tackett · Jan 11, 2013

Thanks for the encouragement.

I'm not easily deterred. I also don't expect to automatically pick this kind of thing up. It's like playing an instrument. You can read a ton of theory, but until you pick it up and start screwing up your favorite song, you'll never play it right.

My end goal is to start brewing my two favorites. Wit bier and barley wine. But, again, no one expects to get behind a drum set and start playing dream theater or rush tunes.

J-Drew · Jan 12, 2013

I'm not sure where in WV you are, but I think there might be a homebrew store in Huntington, Charleston, and Morgantown. If I remember what I read correctly, they might be pretty limited in their offerings, but it's worth checking out if you are close. If not, you can find a host of online sites to take care of your needs (www.brewmasterswarehouse.com/ near Atlanta and www.austinhomebrew.com/ in Texas, just to name two).

If you are up for reading, I recommend How to Brew by John Palmer (the first edition is online for free) and Brewing Classic Styles by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer. You can find many of those recipes out there for free as well. The Brewing Network also has a bunch of podcasts you can listen to about different styles and about different brewing issues.

I would also recommend staying away from bleach. I'm sure it works, but I think it's too hard to wash off of bottles and equipment, and it can create an off flavor. In my opinion, it's much more trouble than it's worth. I would much rather pay for sanitizer from the homebrew store than use bleach. I ruined a batch once by using it, thinking I could wash it off, and I'll never use it again.

Aside from that, you might want to upgrade to a kit that has the "essentials" from one of the homebrew stores. You can find them for around $100, which I think is well worth the investment if you plan on brewing much. Of course you can spend more (and if you stick with this hobby then you will), but this will get you everything you need to move to the next level.

Good luck and have some fun with it.