homebrewers dark colonial

[ejr]

im sorry but this was continental dark beer from true brew i made it as my first batch i followed the instuctions exact but it came out so bitter i couldnt drink it ive already tossed it but im wondering what made it so bitter i followed the instructions it may have got infected i dont know the first 3 days it worked so hard it made a mess on top of the bucket overflow on the airlock. then i took it off it was bitter so i went ahead and carbinated it let it for a week then set it in a cellar for 2 weeks it didnt help it .if you have any sugestions all help appeciated. also i am a expericed winemaker.Om just wondering if this beer is bitter like that or maybe it got infected thanks

 

[Snicks]

Do you have a link to the recipe? It's hard to make suggestions otherwise.

 

[ejr]

Im sorry i wrote the supplier wrong its true brew instead of brewers best and the only thing ive got is continental dark beer the directions was good i checked the final gravity before i bottled it everything seemed ok excepted it was bitter so i carbinated it then stuck it in the cellar for 2 weeks needless to say it didnt get better thanks for your reply

 

[BobC]

im sorry but this was continental dark beer from true brew i made it as my first batch i followed the instuctions exact but it came out so bitter i couldnt drink it ive already tossed it but im wondering what made it so bitter i followed the instructions it may have got infected i dont know the first 3 days it worked so hard it made a mess on top of the bucket overflow on the airlock. then i took it off it was bitter so i went ahead and carbinated it let it for a week then set it in a cellar for 2 weeks it didnt help it .if you have any sugestions all help appeciated. also i am a expericed winemaker.Om just wondering if this beer is bitter like that or maybe it got infected thanks

First get yourself some blowoff tubing and put one end in the bung hole and the other in a bucket of sanitized water. This will keep it from making a mess.

Second did you take off the airlock and leave it off? How long did you let it ferment?

Third this is a dark beer and age would have improved the taste a lot.

 

[ejr]

blowoff tube would have worked .i just went and got a 6hf gal bucket and no i didnt leave the airlock off i cleaned it and placed it back,it just blew over the first night third i left it on for a week checked the level with the hydrometer it was on the money i carbinated and bottled avout 3 days later i drank a bottle ended up giving me a bellyache about 3 in the morning,wasnt for sure it was the beer so i drank 1 more the next evening same result with bellyache ;then i let it age for 2 weeks it didnt seem to help thanks for the information,maybe i didnt let it ade enough it reccondmented 2 weeks i did save 1 bottle i had in a soda bottle in the fridge ill let it age a while longer then try it in about another 3 weeks when my other batch is done.

 

[BobC]

You should have let it ferment at least 4 weeks, darker beers need a lot of time and patience. Another month in the bottle and it would have been fine. Sounds like a extremely green beer.

 

[ejr]

thanks ill let the other set see what happens ill feel bad if it turns out .it made me half sick when i poured out 2 cases but i did save one bottle back to see if it gets better it will be a mistake which ill learn from. school of hard knocks trail and error method.thats why im here ,all help appreciated

 

[broadbill]

thanks ill let the other set see what happens ill feel bad if it turns out .it made me half sick when i poured out 2 cases but i did save one bottle back to see if it gets better it will be a mistake which ill learn from. school of hard knocks trail and error method.thats why im here ,all help appreciated

Think you are pis*ed now??...wait until you try that last bottle and realize you had awesome beer and you dumped it all away!

Here is why you shouldn't have dumped: You already had it in bottles, so all the work was already done....the only loss you were recouping at this point was the bottles (i.e. freeing them up for another batch instead keeping the current batch in them).

You spend the money on the kit, you spent the time brewing it, there was no reason to dump it at this point, especially since you are a new brewer and really didn't know what the beer should taste like at the point you tried it. As BobC said, beers with dark grains take a long time to mellow.

 

[ejr]

live and learn if its the worst mistake i make this year it will be a good year,but time will tell thanks for the infor.what you said is true i did this and probably should have wait patence isnt the issue it was a bad decision from lack of experience with beer,i make wine batches that take up to a year no problem,i surfed the web trying to find out what i could and didnt get into this site till after i already did this.Thanks for the info iwill remember next time but im going to stay away from dark grains till i get a little more experience under my belt.