racked first batch today...

[pariah]

Well today I racked my first batch. It had only been 4.5 days, but the bubbler airlock wasn't bubbling and it wasn't even under pressure anymore (water levels equal). I siphoned it with my mouth since I was too inept to use anything else, but I did rinse my mouth with vodka and submerge in sanitizer afterwards. Anyway, the beer that got in my mouth tasted pretty freaking good! Really freaking good!

The only problem was it was still very sweet/malty...and it's an IPA. The reason is because I only used four gallons of water instead of the five I should have...I got confused because with the added LME it came to just under five gallons total.

Do you think leaving it in the secondary for 7 days and then a week or two in bottles will get rid of the sweetness? Am I just going to end up with a a stronger beer? Should I consider adding a gallon to the secondary?

 

[Blender]

I have had the same experience and things should work out fine in the end. I guess you never measured your gravity so you don't have a reference to see how the beer fermented. The extreme sweetness will subside in the next 2 weeks or so and the carbonation seems to help a lot with flavor. I would not add any water at this point either. On the next batch just top it off to your desired level.

Oh Yeah ....get an auto siphon.

 

[pariah]

Sounds good!

I tried to pick an autosiphon up on tuesday, but the home brew store was out of them and the guy there told me to just siphon it with my mouth.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Try not to syphon using your mouth. Too many germs. Most people will gargle with vodka, etc.

Anyone around you that you can borrow one?

 

[ratm4484]

Rather than using your mouth you could try going to the local drug store and ask the pharmacy if they can give you a medicine dropper syringe. You usually get them if you get a liquid medicine prescription. I work at an Eckerd drug store and they give them out for free there. The syringe is plastic so you can just put the tip in the end of the air hose and pull back on the syringe. This would be just like sucking on the hose but not using your mouth. Probably much cleaner.

 

[pariah]

Try not to syphon using your mouth. Too many germs. Most people will gargle with vodka, etc.

Anyone around you that you can borrow one?

Yeah I know mouth siphoning can be pretty risky...hopefully not that risky though.

I'm buying an siphon pump as soon as they are in stock at the local store. I'm brewing another batch on wednesday, so if I can't get one by then I will try your method ratm.