More beer sweet stout EXtract kit

[Edbeenbreto]

Hello all, well long time drinker and fan of the craft scene so, like most why not make my own. So I went to more beer store and bought a kit (sweet stout) and went home cooked it to the directions but I made a bunch of mistakes.
1: did not take any reading although had my hydrometer near by
2: had no ice to chill my beer so had to use the frozen foods in the bath instead of ice (wife still pissed on that)
3: over thought every step hahaha.
After pitching the yeast, nothing happend for 24 hours. The following day boom a super healty fermintation could not be happier. At about week (5th day into fermitation) it all stoped "falling" or circulating in the Carboy so I called my lhbs. He basically told me sounds like a very healthy fermintation everything is good. Bottle at the week mark. So I did was that too soon? The directions are very generic and not specific to the beer. So after adding the sugar I let the bottles rest and after a week grabed one and opened it right up, tons of foam then stopped. Seeing I never took any readings I was kinda stuck. But I also didn't place it in the fridge before I opened it. I did taste it and it was slightly flat but tons of flavor. Any advice on this? This hobby is by far exceeded all of my expectations tons of fun thanks guys!!!

 

[Subdivisions]

Before bottling take Gravity readings with that hydrometer you're not using. That's how to tell when to bottle. When the readings are the same a couple days apart you can then bottle. That being said, two weeks is a safe bet for the fermentation to be done on most low to medium gravity beers.

It doesn't really matter that you didn't take an original gravity reading. Extract kits are usually right on their stated OG when made correctly. The more important reading to take is the Final gravity especially if you're bottling.

Leave your bottles to chill for a few days before opening. When they're warm the carbonation comes out of the beer quickly and gives you foam and flat beer. Two to three weeks in the bottle is the standard carbonation time.

 

[Edbeenbreto]

Subdivisions thank you so much man. Yeah I have been stressing my self out on this. So I'll wait another week or so before I open.

 

[tuckertonrr]

Though I'm still relatively new at this as well, you could have left it in the primary for another week. I left my first batch in the primary for two weeks, and it turned out great.

 

[CA_Mouse]

Just for future reference.... MB's Sweet Stout is a personal favorite. I let mine sit in primary for about 10 days before I checked the gravity, waited 2 days and checked it again and bottled it on day 14. It took about 6-8 days to carbonate correctly. Once chilled it was the best of the kit beers I had done. I changed to the partial mash version the next time and the all grain on the third go. It is the only kit beer that I brewed more than once.

 

[Edbeenbreto]

Yeah I was afraid I rushed to failed on this. I'm stil holding hope that when I get back from my business trip 1st week of May it will be fine.

Currently I'm doing a MB Hop Blonde ale. I just sent it to my secondary two days ago and waiting a week on that. I leave Thursday so I have to bottle it before I go. Otherwise a 3 week long fermintation

 

[Subdivisions]

Yeah I was afraid I rushed to failed on this. I'm stil holding hope that when I get back from my business trip 1st week of May it will be fine.

Currently I'm doing a MB Hop Blonde ale. I just sent it to my secondary two days ago and waiting a week on that. I leave Thursday so I have to bottle it before I go. Otherwise a 3 week long fermintation

There's no rush to get it out of the fermenter. Three weeks is a good amount of time to leave it in there. Much better than bottling too early.

 

[ncbrewer]

Bottling too early can cause bottle bombs - the residual fermentable sugar ferments in addition to the priming sugar.