mattkenzie
New Member
After years of contemplating becoming a Home Brewer, I decided to take the plunge and I believe that I just may have made every rookie mistake possible with my first batch. At least I will be able to get them out of the way. Let me illustrate.
I purchased an Irish Stout extract kit with my equipment set up and believe that everything went well, until pitching. As the wort sat in the fermentation bucket, I stirred it up a bit but I am sure it was not quite enough. My included directions suggesting just sprinkling my Muntons Ale Yeast over the top of the wort so, unfortunately, I took the easy way out. I sprinkled (no stirring), closed the bucket and set my bucket in the basement. I checked every day for seven days but never saw bubbles in the airlock. Reading forums, I decided to open and take a gravity reading which was 1.020. Unfortunately, I never took an OG so I had nothing to compare it to. Additionally, there were no signs that krausen developed and and it just looked like flat beer. I decided that I might as well rack to secondary to open up my fermentor so that I can take another shot. Little did I realize that the end of the tubing should be below the beer. I ended up with a carboy full of foam. I know now that this is probably going to taste horrible. I did see that there was a bunch of yellow residue in the bottom of the primary so I am guessing that some fermentation did happen. The beer has been in the secondary for 5 days and I am tempted to just get it bottled, open up my secondary and apply my lessons learned. I stopped myself and decided that I should join the forum that I look to for answers. Hopefully my mistakes and the knowledge from the veterans can keep me going in the right direction.
I purchased an Irish Stout extract kit with my equipment set up and believe that everything went well, until pitching. As the wort sat in the fermentation bucket, I stirred it up a bit but I am sure it was not quite enough. My included directions suggesting just sprinkling my Muntons Ale Yeast over the top of the wort so, unfortunately, I took the easy way out. I sprinkled (no stirring), closed the bucket and set my bucket in the basement. I checked every day for seven days but never saw bubbles in the airlock. Reading forums, I decided to open and take a gravity reading which was 1.020. Unfortunately, I never took an OG so I had nothing to compare it to. Additionally, there were no signs that krausen developed and and it just looked like flat beer. I decided that I might as well rack to secondary to open up my fermentor so that I can take another shot. Little did I realize that the end of the tubing should be below the beer. I ended up with a carboy full of foam. I know now that this is probably going to taste horrible. I did see that there was a bunch of yellow residue in the bottom of the primary so I am guessing that some fermentation did happen. The beer has been in the secondary for 5 days and I am tempted to just get it bottled, open up my secondary and apply my lessons learned. I stopped myself and decided that I should join the forum that I look to for answers. Hopefully my mistakes and the knowledge from the veterans can keep me going in the right direction.
ALWAYS check to see what your OG is. NEVER peek in the lid of the bucket. And try to relax. Everything is going to be alright!!!! 
