Questions about yeast and hops

[joshesmusica]

here's a great hydrometer reading adjustment calculator.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/

how long has it been fermenting now?

just wondering, not criticizing, what's your reason for moving to a secondary?

 

[whovous]

I am increasingly suspicious both that I simply read the gravity wrong, and that without an OG reading, whatever I read was pretty meaningless.

Why a secondary? Well, I did not do one in each of my three prior trys, and I wound up with tons of trub in my bottles. I figured if I auto-siphoned carefully I could solve a good 80% of the problem right there. Throw in a cold break (something I've never heard of prior to this brew), and I figured I'd have half a chance of getting at least a little bit of clarity in my brew. It doesn't need to be clear, I just don't want it to look as thick as paint!

I confess that the opportunity to take a taste was what pushed me over the line in the secondary decision making process.

I started the boil about 96 hours ago. It was starting to bubble 12 hours later, and spent a day or two at the rate of a bubble per second or greater before it died down. I think it was close to once a minute when I moved it.

I really appreciate all of your feedback, and I am completely psyched at the prospect of having something that tastes like beer this time. The two prior failures we talked about never tasted remotely as good as this does. It is not beer yet, but it definitely tastes like that is what it is thinking about.

 

[joshesmusica]

ok, a couple more questions.

1) what do you mean by trub? were there yeast and hops chunks in there? or was it just the color of the yeast? you will have this on every bottle if you don't filter it like the macros.

2) so i need to get this straight again. on the prior brews had you ever tasted it this early on in the process?

honestly i don't do a secondary. i leave it in primary for at least 2 weeks. then i bottle. a secondary isn't a horrible idea, but it seems that if you're not looking to enter a contest, and you're not doing some kind of additional flavoring, there's not much of a reason to go to secondary. i dry hop directly into primary. it should help produce clearer beers, but there are many out there who advocate that at such a small scale, leaving in primary for up to four weeks will give the same results without the risk of infection.

so since i'm no expert on using secondaries, i am not completely sure, but it still seems like you moved it to secondary a bit too early. especially considering that a lot of kits you can buy (and even old school homebrewers) often suggest 2 weeks primary, 2 weeks secondary, 2 weeks bottling.

 

[whovous]

1. I am doubtless misusing my beer vocabulary again. I do that a lot. I mean there was a noticeable amount of stuff at the bottom of each bottle. I think doing this will get me less, especially combined with a cold crash.

2. And now I get to abuse my memory again. It has been about a year since the previous brews, and I am not sure of just when I tasted them. My guess is that I tasted them shortly after the cold break, and/or around the time I bottled them. I did not do a secondary before, so I know I did not taste them at this point in the proceedings.

The only thing I can state confidently about those prior tastings is that I do not remember enjoying any of them. I do not recall if they somehow tasted bad, but I do not remember any of them tasting good. Today, it tasted good, and it tasted like beer. I am immensely encouraged by that.

The instructions for this kit, and all the Brooklyn kits, basically say ferment 3-4 days, replace the blowoff tube with an air lock, wait two weeks, bottle, and wait two more weeks. None call for a secondary.

Will I do a secondary again? I don't know, but it did give me a chance to taste it, and I've been pretty paranoid about it being bad after my prior results. Did I find a new way to mess things up? I hope not.

By the way, I've posted a whole new list of questions in the Beginners Forum under the title "Thousand and one questions."