My first brew

[PearlJam]

Hi all,

I am very new to brewing and did my first batch this past weekend. I did an American Pale Ale.

I decided to split the wort into two fermenters and added US-05 and S-04 respectively.

As my luck would have it, we immediately started a heatwave with daily temps of 97f/36c. The buckets read around 89f/30c mostly which I know is too high, but I had nothing to cool it down and by the time I learned that I could do a wet towel and fan, it was basically too late imo.

So today I had to add dry hops and decided to take pics of it just to get some opinions whether it looks ok or not

Do they look ok? Both read a gravity of 1.012 which is the FG according to the recipe

 

[mrgrimm101]

Looks fine to me. Looks like they both have C02 bubbles coming out of suspension, which is normal. Personally, I would be worried about some off-flavors from fermenting at that high of a temperature, but there isn't anything you can do about it now.

The wet t-shirt method will drop the temp by a few degrees, but in your case it may not be enough. Next time, get a big tote or tub and fill it with water. You can place your vessels in the tote/tub to drop temp a few degrees. Add some frozen water bottles or 2liters (with water) to drop even further.

How much head space is in your vessel? You want to be careful to not open the lid a lot with a bunch of headspace, as this will introduce oxygen, and at this point that is not good.

 

[PearlJam]

Looks fine to me. Looks like they both have C02 bubbles coming out of suspension, which is normal. Personally, I would be worried about some off-flavors from fermenting at that high of a temperature, but there isn't anything you can do about it now.

The wet t-shirt method will drop the temp by a few degrees, but in your case it may not be enough. Next time, get a big tote or tub and fill it with water. You can place your vessels in the tote/tub to drop temp a few degrees. Add some frozen water bottles or 2liters (with water) to drop even further.

How much head space is in your vessel? You want to be careful to not open the lid a lot with a bunch of headspace, as this will introduce oxygen, and at this point that is not good.

Thanks for the feedback. There is quite a lot of headspace. I only opened it for the hop addition and the pic at the same time, otherwise I will be leaving it. For some reason I lost a lot of liquid in the process and the wort that was left for fermentation appeared to be quite a bit less than the anticipated 5G. I can only improve from here!

 

[mrgrimm101]

I try to aim for around 5.5 gallons going into the fermentor. That way, I can plan on having about 5 gallons in the end. Hops will soak up some of the beer during dry hopping. Excess trub will settle out and also take up space in your vessel. I typically transfer everything over from kettle to fermentor except the hop sludge.

 

[ncbrewer]

Don't be discouraged if this beer has some off flavors (and might give you headaches). In the future, you should be able to control the temperature better, so you can look forward to better beer. Good luck.

 

[mattdee1]

Nothing looks off appearance-wise, but don't be surprised if it tastes like diesel fuel.

Just kidding--I'm sure it'll be fine. Make sure you report back with results, I'm curious what that ferm temp will mean.

 

[lolcats]

Add a huge amount of dry hops, it will cover any off flavors due to the heat

 

[PearlJam]

Thanks Guys, I will report back once I have tasted the diesel!

 

[PearlJam]

I bottled today and only got 2,9 gallon (11 liter) out of this batch. I clearly made some mistakes in the calculations!

I tasted it and it had a strong alcohol taste (suppose to be expected with the high temps). Is there a chance that the taste can mellow out over time or is this it?

I also noticed that the FG was 1.010 instead of the recipe FG of 1.012

At least I learned a lot in this process to know where to focus better next time. Now the wait to really taste it!

 

[stuknkrvl]

Don't worry too much about the final gravity being a little lower than what the recipe estimated.

As for keeping your fermentations cool, I keep several frozen one liter bottles of water (twelve of them in fact). I place my bucket or carboy in a large plastic tote, fill it about half way with water, and use the frozen water bottles to keep the temperature in check. I live in south Texas where it gets pretty hot, but I manage to keep my fermentations around 64 - 68 F (17 - 20 C).

Good luck!

 

[PearlJam]

Thanks. I am def going to do the bottle of frozen water thing with the next batch.

 

[stuknkrvl]

It works really well for me. The first three to four days are (in my experience) the most crucial. I try to plan my brew days for when I have some time off so I can monitor the first few days closely. I've found that the temp pretty much stabilizes after that. I use a rinky-dink stick on external brewmometer and I check the temp at least three times a day, adding and taking away frozen bottles as necessary. My next big upgrade is a chest freezer with a digital temp contoller for a fermentation chamber, but this has been working for me so far.

 

[PearlJam]

At least now I know how bad the off flavor is for high temp fermentation!

I have done my second batch this past Sat and have been managing the temp with the frozen bottle method. Works well.

My OG for this new batch was 1.048 which should have been 1.052 according to the recipe.

 

[eadavis80]

YOu learn more from your first few batches that any others, but each brew day does bring with it, a new learning experience. To me, no brew day is a failure unless you don't either 1) learn something new or 2) create a drinkable beer. Do you have a wort chiller? IF not, I'd get one, so at least you can pitch at a cooler temp and then use the frozen water bottle method to keep things from getting too high in the future. As for your low OG on batch no. 2, do you do a partial boil (like 2.5-3 gallons) or a full boil (starting with 6 pre-boil gallons)? If you're doing a partial boil, the gravity sample you're taking might not be properly mixed with the extract so you're getting a diluted sample. IF you're using all the extract that comes with the kit and your water amount is right, you should be hitting the target gravities pretty much dead on. One tip to get all the LME out of jugs is to use a ladle and scoop out some hot wort from the kettle and swish it around the "empty" LME jugs and pour that wort/LME solution back into the kettle. Your LME jugs/cans should be clear when you throw them away/recycle them. You're paying for that fermentable sugar - get all you can!

 

[PearlJam]

I am doing only all grain at the moment. I started my boil on 6.3G and lost quite some volume during the boil. I then topped up with 3/4G water during the last part of boil to finish off with just under 5.5G. Could the topup be the culprit?

I do not have a chiller yet. Currently doing an ice bath and pitched this batch at 68f and keeping it around 72f during the past 2 days. My intention is to get a chiller by April.

 

[PearlJam]

Took a gravity today and for some reason it is very low at 1.004. The recipe FG is 1.012. Will check again on Sunday

 

[stuknkrvl]

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but the FG indicated in the recipe is likely based on the midrange expected attenuation for the yeast you're using. It's not uncommon to be a bit off in either direction, especially if you're using yeast starters. I brewed a Russian imperial stout with an OG of 1.096 that I pitched with a 1.75 liter starter of WLP004. According to the expected attenuation listed on the website, this beer should have finished out somewhere between 1.025 and 1.030, but it dropped out to 1.014. It's not quite five months old and it's extremely drinkable. I have a case stashed away in a dark corner that I'm trying to forget about until next winter.

 

[PearlJam]

After day 3 when I added the dry hops it looked good (first pic). I then opened it today which is after 7 days and yet again I fear an infection.

The taste is very dry and thin. Should i just finish this batch and bottle or should I look at adding something to lift the FG and hopefully make it tastier?

 

[stuknkrvl]

Best advice is as long as it doesn't taste bad, bottle it up and roll with it. The pics both look fine. The second one looks like hop debris floating around on top, which isn't surprising.