Just cracked open my first home brew! Thank you guys for your advice, here's the results and what I'm working on next.

[LegendOfDylan]

I don't know if anyone would remember me but I was stressing about my recipe kit missing a packet of hops, (that page is outdated, it was Centennial/Amarillo for the flavoring hops, missing columbus but I alternated the other two, and then ended up dry hopping with El Dorado because of the next bit), and then also that I made the rookie mistake of not taking into account that fermentation generates it's own heat and letting it get up much too warm and powering through my yeast.

After 48 hours it cooled itself down plenty, at 1 week I moved it to a secondary fermenter and dry hopped , then let it sit for three more. I got a little confused and instead of using the little attachment I bottled the beer right from the nozzle, so I'm guessing I put in some extra oxygen. Left it in my cupboard for two weeks, I know that's as early as you can do it and I plan to let most of it sit for a little longer in bottle, but I just got a new job today and wanted to see if it carbonated right. Which it did, carbonated just as much as a regular beer I've drank.

I poured it a little hard, but I was nervous to see head, and I was staring at it so much I definitely emptied out some sediment but I'll live. It definitely has some of those banana notes, that I was warned of when asking about how hot it got, but otherwise it tastes like a pretty regular beer! I'm interested to see if spending longer conditioning in the bottle will mellow out those notes. I've noticed that different bottles taste different (I've poured three) and I'm not sure if it was poured at different times when bottling, or maybe exposed to more or less light, or if it's because of how I'm pouring them. I did probably transfer over too much trub at each step.
Now I've started an oatmeal stout, I was a little more clear on the steps, and I have it sitting in a room closed off with an AC vent and it's been at a steady 64 degrees with the airlock bubbling. I'll probably take steps to not add as much oxygen, and I'm considering adding in some peanut butter extract at bottling because I love those beers.

Any thoughts?

 

[BoomGoestheTNT]

Sounds like you’re hooked. Enjoy your first brew!

 

[RM-MN]

Thoughts:
1. Carbonation doesn't take real long, much less than the 2 weeks you gave it if the beer in bottles is stored where it is warm. It does seem to take longer for the beer to develop good heading which is why some of us would recommend waiting 3 weeks to open the first beer.
2. Oxygenation of the beer is the bane of a dry hopped beer. The wonderful aroma and flavor will dissipate fairly quickly (2-3 months and it's gone in my experience) so don't keep that beer around forever. The beer will usually darken from oxygenation too, making your pale yellow beer into a more brownish color with time.
3. Sediment is something to be aware of but not to fear. For the nicest looking beer you want to leave the sediment behind and some people object to the flavor of the sediment. Leaving the beer in the fementer for a longer than the minimum time will let more of it settle out in the fermenter so you get less in the bottle. My minimum time in the fermenter is 10 days and I prefer longer.
4. Control of the temperature during fermentation made the biggest impact on my beer's flavor. I'm glad to see that you have taken that step.
5. As soon as possible you should start another beer, something lighter in color than a stout. I like my stouts much better with more time in the bottle. I tend to leave them 3 to 6 months from bottling to starting to drink them and I feel they improve from then on too.
6. Light has little effect on the beer's flavor....except for UV light which will make them smell a bit like a skunk. Indoor light normally won't do that.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Any thoughts?

Glad your first beer turned out okay!

One solid upgrade would be to move beyond the Brewer's Best kits. They are an easy way to get started with brewing beer, and I have brewed a few over the years. Canned extract sitting on a shelf at room temp with yeast and hops in the box are not ideal. Those kits are often toward the lower end of the gravity range and sometimes skimp on ingredients (especially in their hoppy beer kits).

Many homebrew shops sell custom recipe kit packages. Many online vendors have a great selection of freshly packed recipe kits. If you wanted to take the next step to assemble your own recipe ingredients, "How to Brew" and "Brewing Classic Styles" are excellent sources of extract recipes.

 

[LegendOfDylan]

Thoughts:
1. Carbonation doesn't take real long, much less than the 2 weeks you gave it if the beer in bottles is stored where it is warm. It does seem to take longer for the beer to develop good heading which is why some of us would recommend waiting 3 weeks to open the first beer.
2. Oxygenation of the beer is the bane of a dry hopped beer. The wonderful aroma and flavor will dissipate fairly quickly (2-3 months and it's gone in my experience) so don't keep that beer around forever. The beer will usually darken from oxygenation too, making your pale yellow beer into a more brownish color with time.
3. Sediment is something to be aware of but not to fear. For the nicest looking beer you want to leave the sediment behind and some people object to the flavor of the sediment. Leaving the beer in the fementer for a longer than the minimum time will let more of it settle out in the fermenter so you get less in the bottle. My minimum time in the fermenter is 10 days and I prefer longer.
4. Control of the temperature during fermentation made the biggest impact on my beer's flavor. I'm glad to see that you have taken that step.
5. As soon as possible you should start another beer, something lighter in color than a stout. I like my stouts much better with more time in the bottle. I tend to leave them 3 to 6 months from bottling to starting to drink them and I feel they improve from then on too.
6. Light has little effect on the beer's flavor....except for UV light which will make them smell a bit like a skunk. Indoor light normally won't do that.

Thank you that was very informative

 

[LegendOfDylan]

Glad your first beer turned out okay!

One solid upgrade would be to move beyond the Brewer's Best kits. They are an easy way to get started with brewing beer, and I have brewed a few over the years. Canned extract sitting on a shelf at room temp with yeast and hops in the box are not ideal. Those kits are often toward the lower end of the gravity range and sometimes skimp on ingredients (especially in their hoppy beer kits).

Many homebrew shops sell custom recipe kit packages. Many online vendors have a great selection of freshly packed recipe kits. If you wanted to take the next step to assemble your own recipe ingredients, "How to Brew" and "Brewing Classic Styles" are excellent sources of extract recipes.

I plan to do just that, I just wanted to get kits so I could focus on learning the process without fussing over the recipe and measuring and such, and once I have the process down I could move towards using recipes.

 

[renstyle]

I too have used Brewer's Best kits when I was starting out.

The ability to completely avoid dealing with a mash (aside from some steeping grains) and focus directly on the boil and subsequent fermentation/packaging was a good learning experience! Kettle sizes were more manageable with the 2 gal fermenter top-off.

Moving to MIAB three brews in was just that much easier as I was able to focus on learning the mash side, cuz I was already familiar with the rest.

Your pour looked just fine to me!

Question regarding your priming method... did you:

1. do a tertiary (3rd) bottling bucket with priming sugar solution that you racked the beer onto and filled bottles from that spigot?
2. use priming sugar tablets and racked beer from the secondary spigot?
3. added a pre-measured amount of priming sugar in each bottle and racked from secondary?
4. something else entirely?

Based on your own reports, you appear to have nailed the priming sugar addition, however it was achieved, since your carbonation is spot-on with your expectations.

The bottling wand will reduce the O2 left in the headspace of the bottle by allowing a more controllable fill. O2 scavenging bottle caps will assist with this as well.

The banana flavor may fade with time, or it may not. Either way, CONGRATULATIONS on your first brew! I am so glad it worked out well for you!

 

[Gunkleneil]

Congrats on your first brew

 

[hout17]

Your hooked! Welcome to a great hobby!