My First Beer

[TTownEP]

I just got done with my first brewing session by myself. I used the only thing I could conveniently get my hands on, one 3.3 lb can of Munton's Light Hopped extract and a 3 lb bag of Munton's Light Dry extract. The brewing process went fine it seemed. I had a problem though when I went to put my airlock on the fermenter. The rubber grommet fell in through the lid and into the wort. Luckily it was sanitized, but I have no idea what to do with it now.

 

[Revvy]

LOL!!!! You have one of the most common brewer's accidents...Consider it popping your brewer's cherry.

It will be fine, it happens to all of us at one time or another.....Just leave it in there, like you said it is sanitized. You can ether get another one at the hardware store, or just stick your airlock in without it (it doesn't need to be tight, as long as co2 is venting out even through the gap between lid hole and airlock, nothing bad can get in.

In fact many folks don't use airlocks anyway.

Just leave the grommet alone and make sure to get it after bottling day and not pour it down the drain.

Read this thread and you will see grommets are the least of the things that have ended up in our beer, and it's turned out fine,

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wh...where-your-beer-still-turned-out-great-96780/

Welcome to the club!

 

[TTownEP]

Thanks, I actually just read your post about not dumping a batch just because something happened to it. I wasn't planning on dumping mine, but it was a good read.

 

[TTownEP]

So I have been wondering if this is fermenting. Since the airlock is not sealed well, I don't think it is bubbling like it should. I have no movement from the airlock. I assume the CO2 is escaping around the airlock and not through it. But when I pull it up and smell it, it smells like beer and what I imagine fermentation to smell like. Should I pitch some more yeast to be sure?

Brewed on Sunday.

 

[pkpdogg]

So I have been wondering if this is fermenting. Since the airlock is not sealed well, I don't think it is bubbling like it should. I have no movement from the airlock. I assume the CO2 is escaping around the airlock and not through it. But when I pull it up and smell it, it smells like beer and what I imagine fermentation to smell like. Should I pitch some more yeast to be sure?

Brewed on Sunday.

Depends on what temp you're fermenting at. Lower temps will take longer to kick things into gear. Maybe try to seal the top up a little better ... hell, maybe saran wrap around the airlock? As long as you're keeping the elements out of your beer, you should be good. Take a gravity reading after another week and see what's happening.

 

[TTownEP]

I have it in a big tub of water, and the temp gauge on the side reads about 70.

And, I didn't buy a meter yet, so no readings...

The airlock seals the hole up, I mean it rests evenly across it, so I don't think anything will be getting in.

 

[philrose]

As long as your Post boil volume was good, you can skip the og reading on this brew. Check a similar recipe that uses the same yeast for a plausible final gravity. When it's right around that reading it's done fermenting- not when the airlock "says so." when most people do extract brews they'll skip taking gravity readings and just let the primary go for a bit longer, but that's not a great idea if you're unsure of your process and attenuation.

Welcome to the hobby!

 

[Spludge]

I wouldn't worry a bit about the airlock not bubbling. Without the gasket you may not have a perfect seal, and thats fine. RDWHAHB

You are right on to be monitoring fermentation temperature. Impressive for your first batch, it took me awhile to learn the importance.

Congrats on your first batch

 

[TTownEP]

Ha, thanks. I read "How to Brew" and "Homebrewing for Dummies" cover-to-cover, I should hope I picked up something...

 

[TTownEP]

Yeah, so this ended up tasting like dookie, haha.

It ended up spending about 10 days in the primary and about 13 in secondary. Long story short, I got all ready to bottle and couldn't get my hands on any bottle caps. I got some of it into some Grolsch bottles though. Finally a brewing friend ran into me and when I told him what was up, he gave me some caps and I got it bottled. I tried some this weekend at the 2 week mark and it tastes like it has rubber in it. I don't think I have the words to correctly describe what I am tasting though. I know someone could tell me what was wrong if I knew what to call these things...

My roommate seems to think it tastes OK, not great, and he has agreed to drink them, and pass them out to other friends so it doesn't get wasted. I'm going to set aside a sixer for a few months and see it it mellows out.

Then I'm going to start a new batch, and not make all these mistakes again, haha!

 

[Shooter]

Could you also describe it as a sulfery taste? I had one beer that had a slightly off taste and my brother described it as a rubber flavor, but, to me, it seemed a little sulfery. I've read that can be a yeast issue, autolysis, or a contamination/infection issue. I don't think the yeast had time for autolysis. So, in my case, it could have been a problem with sanitation, though I don't know how. The beer did ferment WAY to warm. So, I'm not sure if it has something to do with that.

Anyway, it seems like the off taste has gotten a little better with age. and it's not undrinkable, but, it is there.

 

[TTownEP]

I don't really consider it a sulfery taste, no. It's also hard to describe it because I don't really want to remember it, haha. I have some more in a Grolsch bottle I could try, but I don't want to. I'm scared to put it in my mouth again.

Here's some potential problems I had, as I spotted them:
1) Too long in both fermenters.
2) My siphon hose I bought for the auto-siphon was a bit too big, and wouldn't siphon correctly, so I basically ended up pumping it out when I moved from primary to secondary. I soon tired of this however, and just poured it over gently, trying to stop before getting the sludge off the bottom in there.
3) I tried to move the bottling bucket after I filled it up and bumped the spigot and it started to leak all over the floor. I had a full bucket of sanitizer, so I swished my arm around in there for a few seconds, then put it down in the beer to screw the spigot back on *facepalm*
4) I didn't use a real recipe. I just threw stuff in my brew pot.
5) I screwed up all of the above things, and so by the time I got to bottle it, I really didn't care how it turned out.

So I guess I consider it a small success that it actually came out the other side as beer, albeit a mostly undrinkable one (for me at least).

 

[Headcase]

Welcome to homebrewing. At least you were able to identify what you did wrong and adjust fire on your next batch. Keep brewing as often as you can and you'll get the jist of it pretty quick.

My second batch is allready in my primary before my first batch has even had enough time to condition in the bottles. I'll be doing two more batches as soon as I get home from work next week.

Good luck to ya!