My first all grain beer, had to do gumballhead

[Hollywood260]

I've been a long time drinker of craft beers and i have a cousin who brews beer. He's kinda been the inspiration behind me doing this. But yesterday was my first brew ever and I made the jump straight to all grain. So, the beer has been fermenting for the last 24 hrs. I just went in to check on it for the night, why? because I'm OCD like that. But she's bubbling really nice, more then once a second. So, I decided to smell the bubbles...and I can honestly say, I cannot wait to get this beer kegged, the hoppy aroma is amazing.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Ah, the proud papa. Welcome to the obsession. Now you're one of us - mwahahahah!

 

[Jupapabear]

Welcome, friend!

 

[Hollywood260]

Ah, the proud papa. Welcome to the obsession. Now you're one of us - mwahahahah!

Welcome, friend!

Thanks, guys! This site is amazing. I've been reading posts and researching now over a month while collecting all the necessary brew items. I certainly do have a wish list of what I'd like to have, but not what I need. I got a brand new turkey fryer from someone on craigslist for free. Came with a 32 quart kettle. Works great for brewing a 5 gallon batch...just have to watch the first 10 minutes of the boil where the foam starts. Otherwise, I boiled down to my 5.5 gallons racked it to my fermenter, checked my gravity. Now my garage smells of hops and sweet unfermented beer.

 

[cubalz]

Congratulations!! I hate to tell you but you are now hooked like many of us. Welcome to the addiction, grab a seat on the bus.

 

[brewpool]

Ah, how I miss 3F beers since moving from Indiana. Good choice on Gumballhead. Let us know how it turns out. What recipe did you use? Congrats on the first batch!

 

[Hollywood260]

Congratulations!! I hate to tell you but you are now hooked like many of us. Welcome to the addiction, grab a seat on the bus.

This isn't the short bus I am riding on, correct? Because I forgot my helmet :fro:

Ah, how I miss 3F beers since moving from Indiana. Good choice on Gumballhead. Let us know how it turns out. What recipe did you use? Congrats on the first batch!

Arizona is a nice place to land though. I kinda of took a few recipes that I had researched and tweaked them a smidge. But, I have been using a site called Brewgr.com to hold my recipes and they even offer a water infusion setup on brewday. I am still looking into other brewing software. But for now, this works.

https://brewgr.com/recipe/16685/edit

I am looking at other Clones of 3Floyds like Zombie Dust and Alpha King.

 

[unionrdr]

I understand that gumballhead is supposed to be similar to the rare German Dampfbier, one that I brew PM?

 

[Roadie]

He's hooked... reel him in!

I think Stan Hieronymus in his Brewing with Wheat book has a recipe for Gumballhead. There is a huge thread on here for Zombie Dust if you search it. I got my boys a bunch of brew clothing for Christmas including work shirts from FFF. Their beer may be good but their website sucks!

 

[Hollywood260]

He's hooked... reel him in!

I think Stan Hieronymus in his Brewing with Wheat book has a recipe for Gumballhead. There is a huge thread on here for Zombie Dust if you search it. I got my boys a bunch of brew clothing for Christmas including work shirts from FFF. Their beer may be good but their website sucks!

I read a blog about Stan's book and his page on Gumball head. Kinda why I tweaked all the recipes I found to kind of work around what was in his book.

I found the Zombie Dust thread, its a long one! I think I'll brew the Zombie dust next. I'll wait till I keg my Gumball head and start on the Zombie Dust. The timing should work out perfectly.

Yea, 3Floyds website isnt the best. But it kinda goes along with their bar....load ass heavy metal playing. You have this really nice dinner and drink with heavy metal in your ear. I don't mind the music, but at times it was tough to manage.

 

[brewpool]

I read a blog about Stan's book and his page on Gumball head. Kinda why I tweaked all the recipes I found to kind of work around what was in his book.

I found the Zombie Dust thread, its a long one! I think I'll brew the Zombie dust next. I'll wait till I keg my Gumball head and start on the Zombie Dust. The timing should work out perfectly.

Yea, 3Floyds website isnt the best. But it kinda goes along with their bar....load ass heavy metal playing. You have this really nice dinner and drink with heavy metal in your ear. I don't mind the music, but at times it was tough to manage.

I made two versions of the extract recipe if Zombie Dust and it is a huge hit! I want to make an all grain version next. I made an extract version of Alpha King but accidentally screwed up on one of the grains. It didn't turn out so hot. I will want to reattempt that but as all grain as well.

 

[Hollywood260]

Welp, my gumball came out sour! Not sure if the beer is green, yeasty, or straight up sour. I used starsan on everything....do I need to let everything soak in starsan for a certain amount of time? I am at a loss.....whats even worse is that I brewed Zombie Dust clone saturday!! I am scared ****less!

 

[oogaboogachiefwalkingdeer]

How long in the bottle??

 

[Subdivisions]

Its been 2 weeks since you brewed this so I'm assuming you're tasting out of the fermenter. Bottle it up and let it carbonate for a couple weeks. Relax, it'll taste different the next time you taste it. Even if it's still off at that point let it sit in the bottle longer, time does wonders with beer.

As far as your star-san question, a couple of minutes is all you need.

 

[sputnam]

yeah, don't dump it. give it a week between tastings and let us know what happens. I've seen too many off tasting beers turn out well given some time.

 

[Hollywood260]

How long in the bottle??

Its been 2 weeks since you brewed this so I'm assuming you're tasting out of the fermenter. Bottle it up and let it carbonate for a couple weeks. Relax, it'll taste different the next time you taste it. Even if it's still off at that point let it sit in the bottle longer, time does wonders with beer.

As far as your star-san question, a couple of minutes is all you need.

yeah, don't dump it. give it a week between tastings and let us know what happens. I've seen too many off tasting beers turn out well given some time.

I decided to buy kegging system. There was a nice black friday deal on a kegerator system, so I bought one. So, heres my timetable.....brewed on the 6th, dry hopped on the 13th, cold crashed it on the 19th, and kegged it on the 22nd. I must say, it smelt amazing when I open the carboy!! The amarillo smelt amazing!!!! But I cleaned cleaned out my corny keg last night with 5 gallons of hot water to 1oz of starsan. It sat in there a good 15 minutes. I sloshed it around a bit. I then emptied the keg, and started tranfering the beer out of the carboy into the keg. I took some out of transfer and checked my FG. Then I took a drink.....and it was SOUR! Not even carbed and it was sour. So, I kept going. After it was full I added CO2 and force carbed at 30psi and rocked the keg on its side for about 10 minutes. I then hooked it up and put it in the frig. I let it set for about 2 hours to get any sediment to fall. I took about a pint of beer out and tossed it. I then drank it.....still sour.

Thoughts? I felt I anal on making sure everything was super clean.

Ohhhh another thing...I fermented my beer around 70degress......could this be the issue?

 

[unionrdr]

I got a bit of that sort of tartness in my kottbusser. All I could think of was something in my process? I added the molasses & honey in secondary with that one. Some say the ale was supposed to be a sour, but that lil bit of tartness was just right. Takes a lot of lagering to lessen it. But gumball head being a dampfbier, it should be basically clean.

 

[Hollywood260]

Another thing that happened was, at flame out and using my wort chiller. My thermometer broke....I used a back up thermometer and my wort temp was 56 degrees before I transfered it to my carboy and pitched my yeast....wonder if that was the issue.

 

[unionrdr]

Only if something was in there & multiplied while it was too cold for the yeast to take over.