Help a Newbie!

[cbarriere19283]

Hi all,

I just started brewing with the Northern Brewer 1 Gallon Small Batch Started Kit, using malt extract and grain steeping. I've made two ales and both have tasted disgusting ha. I know practice makes perfect but any tips or advice on how to improve would be greatly appreciated! A couple general questions:

- What temperature should I ferment at? My house is currently 60 degrees, is that too low for ales?

- The kit tells me to boil wort for 45 minutes, most other places I have seen 1hour boil, is 45min not long enough?

- my beer has been murky, no bubbly froth and no carbonated taste, any tips on how to correct these problems?

- I here a lot of different answers but as a rule of thumb, what should be my fermentation time and my carbonation time?

Any tips are greatly appreciated! I'll give you a home brew for your help, once it tastes edible!

Cheers!
Chris

 

[boydster]

There are 4 things that I think are the most important things to focus on when you are first getting started: Sanitation, pitch rate, fermentation temperature, and patience.

Look at your process and make sure you are cleaning everything, and then sanitizing anything that will touch your wort post-boil. ANYTHING. There are wild yeast and bacteria floating around everywhere and if you aren't diligent in sanitizing, you could pick up an infection that will cause off flavors.

Make sure you are pitching a healthy amount of yeast. If you are using liquid yeast, that probably means making a starter to get your cell count up to a decent amount. If you are using dry yeast, you should be rehydrating it instead of just sprinkling it into your wort in order to prevent half of the cells dying immediately upon hitting the liquid. Again - sanitizing is key here. Boil/cool the water you use to hydrate, and sanitize the bowl or flask you hydrate the yeast in.

Try and control the fermentation temperature (beer temp, not air temp) to the low end of the yeast's range. Most ale yeasts do well if you start them off in the low 60's and allow the temp to come up a few degree once fermentation slows down. Check out the specs on your specific strain to see what the ideal range is.

Finally, patience. Most kits try to rush the process. You would probably do well to try doing a 3 or 4 week primary for now, skip using a secondary entirely, and once you bottle you should leave the bottles sitting at 70F for 3 weeks before chilling one or two to sample. That 3 weeks should allow plenty of time to carbonate. Sometimes you'll get a chill haze, but if you leave the beer in the fridge longer (try 5-7 days), that haze will settle out.

One other potential source of off flavors is your tap water. If you have water treated with chlorine or chloramine, it can leave a plastic-y flavor (chlorophenol). You can fix that by using campden tablets to treat your water before you brew, or by brewing with spring water.

Good luck!

 

[mrboz]

Boydster hit the big four - sanitation, yeast health, water, patience. Cover those bases and don't try to go extreme until you learn a few things (like ph, water treatment and fermentation temp control).

 

[cbarriere19283]

Thank you Boydster! I will be sure to incorporate your tips into my next brew. Much appreciated!

 

[cobrem]

Not sure which recipe kits you used, but I'm going to assume they provide a packet of dry yeast with each, and that they instruct you to add half the packet. 2 things to piggyback on the advice above -

1. Half a pack should be ok for 1 Gal batches, but you should rehydrate the yeast (read the manufacturer's instructions online).

2. Fermenting in the low 60s should be fine (actually, it's usually a smart move for many ales), but be sure it is already at that temp BEFORE you pitch the yeast.

Some of the best beers I've made were NB 1 gal kits. Observe the 4 big ones above, and it should turn out to be at least decent.

 

[Brewmenn]

You did say how long you waited for carbonation, but I've found that, as I also keep my house around low to mid 60° it has taken a month to get full carbonation.