need advice/reassurance!

[benderbrau]

Hi there! This is my first try at brewing.
I made the wort on Tuesday night, and by Wednesday morning the fermentation had started, and yesterday was at a steady rate of 1 bubble every 2-3 seconds. But sometime today, it stopped. I was under the impression that this first fermentation took a lot longer than 3 days, and am worried that something went wrong somewhere along the line...
I am afraid to open the fermenter, in case everythig is ok, and i end up screwing it up by opening it!
Also, there is a wierd smell coming from the fermenter, that is very hard to discribe, except all i can say is that it kinda smells like black olive juice. (briney/salty/sour) This doent seem right, but what do i know?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[Pumbaa]

can you post the recipie and how warm is it where you are fermenting?

I have had beers ferment out in less then 48 hours and I have had some take 4 months. fermenting time depends a lot on the recipie and the temperature.

I wouldnt worry about opening up the fermentor for a minute or 2 to check on your beer unless you are covered in fecal matter or you sneeze directly into the fermentor you'll probably be fine. A lot of fine beer is fermented in the open so a quick peek shouldn't casue you much concern.

As for the smell . . . well I have had MANY wierd stench and not so nice smells coming from my fermentors since I have started. I was worried one day and asked the guy at my LHBS about it and he had the best quote I have ever heard on the subject . . . "Sometimes you need to smell a little horse **** to grow a beautiful rose"

to sum it up RDWHAHB

 

[ahsndpro]

I can't comment on the olive smell, but I can tell you that a quick ferment can be alright. I just finished my first brew (I'm drinking one right now) and it fermented in under 3 days. I was worried, but the guy at my LHBS (and this board for that matter) assured me that it would probably be fine....and it is!

Don't worry....it seems that it's pretty difficult to screw it up to the point that it is undrinkable.

 

[benderbrau]

Thanks for your help!

So I started out using the recipe from Alton Brown's Good Eats episode. (from a little searching, it seems that you are familiar with that around here)

There were a couple of variations due to that availability of items at the local beer-stuff store, but ithink they would account more for flavor differences than this type of problem... (if not, let me know and i'll figure it out)

I sterilized all of the equipment with hot water and bleach, making sure to rinse well before use.

I followed the instructions from the episode/website pretty exactly. The only place I was unsure about was when he says to boil the first hops for 10 minutes. I interpreted this to mean, "bring the mixture to a boil, and then wait 10 minutes", though on the episode, he made it seem like it would boil within 10 minutes, it took MUCH longer to bring the 3 gallons of water from the 155 deg up to a boil.

I cooled the wort using the ice technique from Good eats, but that only brought it down to 106 or so deg.F, so i put the closed fermenter on my mud porch with the probe thermometer sticking through the airlock hole to let it cool some more.

When it got down to around 90 deg.F, it was quite late and i wanted to go to bed, so i figured that yeast would be able to survive, and pitched them.

Then i resealed the fermenter, and put it in a room with a space heater to keep it above 70 until the fermentation began.

When the bubbles started to appear, i took it down the the basement, where it is cooler and darker for the rest of the fermentation. I'm not sure of the temperature down there, but i would guess somewhere in the mid to low 60s, since it hasn't been too cold here lately.

This was Wednesday, late morning. The bubble rate increased until they were at 2-3 seconds, and then stopped today.

Wow. that is a long post.

Thanks again for any help/advice!

 

[Pumbaa]

I have yet to see that episode of good eats but from what I hear Altons methods are a bit, well . . . .not good. I'm guessing though that you'll end up with a drinkable end product (probably a bit sweeter then you'll really want) even if it may be lacking. (EX length of the boil is usually atleast 1 hour depending on what you are making)

Let it continue to sit for a few days then take a hydrometer reading, let it sit for another 2 or 3 days and take another hydrometer reading. If it seems the reading are the same or are atleast VERY close (like a point or 2 EX: 1.015 and 1.013) your done with your main ferment.

If you can, put it into a secondary fermenter. There will actually be VERY little fermenting going on in the second fermenter and mainly you are doing this to let it age a bit and to let the yeast fall out of suspension and clarify. After 2 weeks inthe secondary add some priming sugar, bottle and let sit for another week or 3 then enjoy.

In the mean time check out www.howtobrew.com and ask more questions around here if ya need to. That link is fan-freeking-tastic for the basics and you'll find a lot of very knowledgeable and mostly friendly people here more then willing to help

 

[Pumbaa]

For the record I am anti hydrometer, but until ya get the basics down using them dont hurt

Leave the hydrometer wars for another thread though

 

[fatboy570]

As Pumbaa and beer4 said, take gravity readings each day for the next 3 days or so. If there is no change the beer is pretty well done with primary. Rack to secondary if possible for a few days to help with clearing, then prime and bottle. In the future, you might try to get pitching temps down some. 65-70 is good for an ale, but Ive had good luck up as far as 80. Your beer should be fine

 

[beer_baron]

Thanks a lot guys!
I'm going to try bringing it back to a warmer place upstairs, and see if that may reactivate the yeast. Otherwise if that doesn't happen, i'll do the hydrometer readings and maybe it is done. I'll keep you posted with the results.
Thanks again.
Next time i'll do some more resaerch on different methods and use another recipe. Though I'm a big Alton Brown fan, I guess I can accept that he might be wrong on something.

 

[benderbrau]

So now that I've used Alton's recipe, and have done a little reading of howtobrew.com, I'm wondering, what do you guys see as the main discrepencies with Alton's methodology? The main things that I am seeing are the boil times of the malt extract/hops, and the use of ice to rapidly cool the wart (which didnt work that well for me anyways). Is there anything else that I'm missing?

Also, what is the general opinion on the recipe he uses?

Thanks again for answering my many questions

UPDATE: I brought it upstairs, and within an hour, it started bubbling again. Yay!

 

[Pumbaa]

Also, what is the general opinion on the recipe he uses?

Generally my opinion on the recipie is that it has potential but recipies are very subjective. What I like you may hate. To me it looks like a very light pale ale which IMHO is always nice and I dont see why it couldnt turn out to be a very decent beer with the right methods. One thing you need to remember is Alton has to not only try and be informative but entertaining for his show, and he has a set amount of time and a set budget to make the show. When he did his show "Amber Waves" it made a lot of us here cringe at his methods because we know better. I am willing to be though that every show he does people who actually strive at making the dishes he is preparing do the exact same thing we did when we saw "Amber Waves" (again I still havent seen it but have heard about it A LOT). Is his method and recipie bad or wrong? I guess if you want a low IBU pale ale it's probably ok BUT there are much better methods that will allow you to make a much better beer

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_20302,00.html

4 gallons plus 1 pint spring water
1 (7-pound) bag of ice
1/2 pound crystal grain, milled
7 pounds light liquid malt extract
1-ounce Cascade hops
1 3/4 ounces Kent Goldings hops
1/2 teaspoon Irish moss
1 vial British Ale yeast
3/4 cup Priming sugar, boiled with 1 pint water for 5 minutes
Hardware:
1 large pot that will hold at least 3 gallons water
Probe thermometer
Colander
Metal mesh strainer
Cheesecloth
2 (7-gallon) fermenters, 1 with a spigot and 1 with an air lock
6 feet of plastic tubing that will fit the spigot
Bottling tube
2 cases plus a couple of bottles of 20-ounce Grolsh style bottles
Bottle brush
Long metal spoon
Unscented household bleach

It is very important to sterilize all equipment that will come into contact with the beer. Also the hops, yeast, and Irish moss need to be kept refrigerated until use. Begin by sterilizing your equipment that you will use to boil the mash; the pot, metal spoon, probe of the probe thermometer, colander and strainer, including the fermenter. To sterilize everything put 2 ounces of non-scented household bleach and 3 to 4 gallons of water into the fermenter. Place other smaller items in the solution to soak. The items that are too large to fit into the fermenter can be sterilized by pouring the solution in the fermenter into and over these items and then thoroughly rinsing all equipment, including the fermenter.
After sterilization is complete you can begin brewing beer by adding 2 gallons of spring water as well as the 1/2 pound milled grain to your pot and turn the burner on to medium high. Place the probe thermometer into the pot and set the temperature to 155 degrees, once the liquid reaches 155 degrees set a timer for 30 minutes. In the meantime soak the container of liquid malt extract in warm water; it will aid in removing it from the container. After the grain has cooked for 30 minutes add 1 gallon of water and the liquid malt extract and bring to a boil stirring so that the extract does not burn on the bottom until dissolved. The liquid will foam up to the top; when it does this, turn the heat off and let it settle then turn the heat back on and bring to a boil. Let it foam again and turn the heat off, let it settle and turn the heat back on and add the hops. Add 1-ounce of the Cascade hops and 3/4-ounce of Kent goldings hops and boil for 10 minutes. Next add 1/2 teaspoon Irish moss and boil for 5 minutes. Now add the last hops, 1-ounce Kent Goldings, cover, turn off the heat and let sit for 5 minutes. Meanwhile put the last gallon and 1 pint of water as well as the bag of ice into the fermenter and fit the top with the colander and mesh strainer. Strain the mash into the fementer and allow to cool to 80 degrees before pitching the yeast. Once the mash is cooled to 80 degrees it is now safe to add the yeast, shake the vial until the liquid is well mixed and then add to the fermenter. Cover with the lid and put airlock in place. Put into cool dark place to ferment for 7 to 10 days.
Attach the siphon on the spigot and transfer beer from one fermenter to the second one. Add the sugar/water mixture. Bottle using the wand. Cap and place into a cool dark place for another 10 to 14 days.
Open and enjoy.

The thing is if you are going to get into homebrewing as a hobby you need to not only enjoy the end product but you need to enjoy the method. If you dont want to work on a batch of beer for 3-4 hours and his method works well for you and you enjoy it and enjoy the beer you make with that method by all means use it. The thing is you need to realize that if you follow his methods you are going to be very limited in the types of beers you can make. An IPA can boil with it's hops for 120 minutes and even longer, My Imperial Hellfire was a 4 1/2 hour boil, my plain old gneric red ale is a 1 hour boil, and when I make my rootbeer ale I boil for a hour but only add the hops in the last 8 minutes.

There are so many "right ways" to brew beer it's insane and at times discussion over methods can get very heated.

• Use beach to sanatize, Dont use bleach.
• Take hydrometer readings constantly, Throw you hydrometer in the garbage.
• Aluminum kettles makes you retarded, Aluminum is fine.
• Malt/water/yeast/hops thats it, Adjuncts are ok to use.
• Real brewers do all grain, Exrtact brewing is just as much brewing as all grain

As long as you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it, you'll be fine, and as long as you are having fun and making a product you enjoy f*ck the right/wrong nazis

 

[Rook]

if no one minds me chiming in, I will say that it was Alton's Amber Waves episode that got me thinking "Gee, this really is something that I can do." Granted I did some research, bought Charlie Papazian's book, read it, got a full kit, and found a different recipie, it was becuase of that show that I even investigated it. Even if his methods aren't the most sound, what we can hope for is to have more people introduced into the hobby and learn/grow from there.

 

[benderbrau]

I agree with Rook, though for my first try, i obviously used his methods. Seeing the show made me realise that brewing beer is something that I could do at home, and I would have fun doing. Now that I've tried it his way, and I see that it is indeed a fun thing to do and bonus, you get some beer out of it, I will be doing more research on it and branching out to different methods and recipes.

 

[MariaAZ]

One thing I saw in Alton's recipe that goes "against the grain" with what I've read here and in Papazian's book is the grains weren't removed from the water before boiling.