Rookie Errors

[Arpeggiator]

Just finished brewing my first beer, a stout. I'm a little concerned over some of the mistakes i made. First off, I used a mesh bag that I bought at the home brew store to put all my milled grains (and some espresso grounds) into for steeping. However, there was still a great deal of solids that steeped into the wort. Is this normal? I tried straining when put the wort in the carboy, but there is still about an inch of sediment at the bottom.

My second mistake is that I went straight from the pot to the carboy without aerating or taking a hydrometer reading. I did let the wort cool before putting in the yeast, but was unable to take a temp. since it was already in the carboy. I pitched the yeast when the carboy felt slightly warm (not hot) to the touch.

It's been about 7 hrs. and there is absolutely no activity in the carboy. Plus, the airlock dripped some tap water into the wort when filled it (halfway) with water. I realize that it is still premature to expect much action in the carboy, but the sediment on the bottom still concerns me. Any suggestions?

 

[Pappers_]

The sediment is fine. It will drop to bottom of your carboy with the rest of the trub and you'll rack your beer off of it, leaving it behind.

The temperature is more of a concern, IMHO. It sounds like your yeast are fine, but you might consider working out your process and/or quipment so that you know what temperature you pitching at.

In any case, soon you will have beer! Cheers!

 

[hercher]

Sure: relax, don't worry, have a homebrew!

While an inch seems like a lot, it is normal to have sediment at the bottom. It is called trub (pronounced troob), and it is the remnants of your hops (assuming you used pellets) and protein that precipitated during the boil and cooling periods. It is largely harmless. Much has been written about the effect of trub on fermentation, but for the homebrewer it really isn't significant.

If it really bothers you, you can stir your cooled wort with a sanitized spoon in a circular motion to create a whirlpool. The trub will gather in the middle of the pot and you can siphon off from the edge. You can also use a strainer to get some of it out. Or you can do what I do: ferment in a plastic bucket so you can't see it. Ignorance is bliss!

As for not aerating your wort, you must receive 15 lashes with a wet noodle. And then I would go give your carboy a good shake, and let the wort really splash around, it you have the head space in the carboy. Then go have another homebrew, cause you are going to be tired. You may not get as quick a fermentation as you would like, and it may not be as complete as you would like. But then, you may have aerated it more than you realize -- did you allow the wort to splash into the carboy, or did it siphon gently down the sides?

My biggest concern would be the wort temperature when you pitched your yeast. It is possible that, even though the sides of the carboy were only warm to the touch, the wort itself was too hot, and may have killed your yeast. If you aren't seeing any activity at all after about 36 hours, you may want to consider getting some more yeast and repitching.

Assuming your sanitation procedures were adequate, your beer should be fine.

As for failing to take to hydrometer reading, you lose points in the beer geek contest. You also won't be able to estimate such critical elements as alcohol, carbohydrates/liter, calories/liter, etc.

 

[ZehBaron]

No fears-- sediment happens, and it's certainly not going to ruin your batch. If you're careful, you can easily rack the beer off the sediment once it's time to move to secondary or bottling. And by then, grains won't be the only sediment on the bottom of your carboy; a whole slew of yeast and hop trub (if you used pellets) will have collected, and it's all going to get left behind when you siphon the beer.

From what else you've told us, I'd actually say that the pitching temperature was the bigger mistake. If the wort wasn't hot then the yeast should be fine, but you definitely want to take temperature readings next time and, optimally, pitch the yeast once the wort is at the desired fermentation temperature.

And I wouldn't worry about the lack of activity so far; the yeast can take a good while longer than 7 hours to start working its magic, especially if you didn't aerate.

So I wouldn't worry; you made mistakes that are easy to learn from, and more importantly, your beer should be just fine. Hope it turns out tasty!

EDIT: Two posters beat me to it..man, I'm a slow typer!

 

[Grinder12000]

For your typical 5 gallon batch aerating is over rated. Yea it helps get things started but it's actually not necessary at all unless you have a high OG. Just getting the wort into a carboy gives you enough surface for air to get into the wort. also - if you added yeast nutrient (which you REALLY should) that helps a ton,

Everyone makes mistakes, even after 35 batches things can slip up. When I went from half boils to full boils the process changed and I had to remember to do things differently.

As hercher said "Assuming your sanitation procedures were adequate, your beer should be fine."

 

[bonzombiekitty]

Just finished brewing my first beer, a stout. I'm a little concerned over some of the mistakes i made. First off, I used a mesh bag that I bought at the home brew store to put all my milled grains (and some espresso grounds) into for steeping.

oooo... That's what I should do for my porter I'm gonna make. I wanted something a little extra in it, I forgot about coffee.

However, there was still a great deal of solids that steeped into the wort. Is this normal? I tried straining when put the wort in the carboy, but there is still about an inch of sediment at the bottom.

That's normal, don't worry about it. The solids are expected and whether or not you want to siphon off the the wort from the solids is a matter of preference.

My second mistake is that I went straight from the pot to the carboy without aerating or taking a hydrometer reading.

Meh. I didn't do those either the first time and things seem to be working out just fine. Granted, I won't know what the alcohol content is or how close I got to the getting the recipe just right, but at this point in time, I don't really care.

I did let the wort cool before putting in the yeast, but was unable to take a temp. since it was already in the carboy. I pitched the yeast when the carboy felt slightly warm (not hot) to the touch.

You're probably just fine. I didn't take the temp the first time I brewed either. The lady at the local home brew store said, "unless you're being really precise about your brewing, if you'd give it to a baby, it's fine for the yeast".

It's been about 7 hrs. and there is absolutely no activity in the carboy. Plus, the airlock dripped some tap water into the wort when filled it (halfway) with water. I realize that it is still premature to expect much action in the carboy, but the sediment on the bottom still concerns me. Any suggestions?

Just relax. It's commonly said here that it can sometimes take 2 days before fermentation really gets going. A couple drops of water isn't going to do anything and the sediment is fine, and is to be expected.

 

[Grinder12000]

I've given up talking to my LHBS about tips! They have steered me wrong 2 times and last week I asked them about oak-ing and what THEY said and what everyone said here is much different.

BTW - there is a GREAT thread about wood aging.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/tips-wood-aging-119445/

 

[MisterGreen]

Just finished brewing my first beer, a stout. I'm a little concerned over some of the mistakes i made. First off, I used a mesh bag that I bought at the home brew store to put all my milled grains (and some espresso grounds) into for steeping. However, there was still a great deal of solids that steeped into the wort. Is this normal? I tried straining when put the wort in the carboy, but there is still about an inch of sediment at the bottom.

My second mistake is that I went straight from the pot to the carboy without aerating or taking a hydrometer reading. I did let the wort cool before putting in the yeast, but was unable to take a temp. since it was already in the carboy. I pitched the yeast when the carboy felt slightly warm (not hot) to the touch.

It's been about 7 hrs. and there is absolutely no activity in the carboy. Plus, the airlock dripped some tap water into the wort when filled it (halfway) with water. I realize that it is still premature to expect much action in the carboy, but the sediment on the bottom still concerns me. Any suggestions?

and just to play it safe, use sanitizer or vodka in your airlock. Who knows what nasties live in your tap water.

 

[Catch-22]

+100 on sanitizer in airlock. Document what you do and..... read, read, read. There are plent of wrong answers out there. Some on this site as well but if you do research, you are able to weed through the nonsense and you'll be a brewing quality beer in no time.

 

[Arpeggiator]

Thanks guys. woke up this morning to a clickity-clackity sound and upon inspection I have a carboy full of activity. Music to my ears! I think a lot of my errors were made in haste. I've been reading the "Joy of Home Brewing", and the section regarding finishing hops says this, "...is to add a small proportion of my best hops a t the end of the boil-no longer than 5-15 minutes for deriving hop flavor and no longer than 1-2 minutes (steeping) at the end of the boil for hop boquet. You must be ready to transfer and cool your hot wort immediately when using this method." I guess I was afraid that once I added my finishing hops, if I didn't work quickly enough it would leave an unpalatable bitterness. Plus my obsession was to strain out as much of the hops as I could, in this haste I forgot about taking all the readings.

Also, since I forgot to take the hydro readings, how will I know when to transfer to the secondary fermenter. The guy at the home brew shop told me this process was only necessary if I was going to keg the beer.

 

[phatuna]

the use of a secondary is not crucial for what you are trying to accomplish. My advise is to leave this one in your primary for at least 3 weeks, then proceed to bottling or kegging.
A secondary is helful to:
clear a beer (who cares, you're making a stout)
dry hopping (you most likely are not doing this)
adding fruit or other additives (you most likely are not doing this)

 

[bonzombiekitty]

Also, since I forgot to take the hydro readings, how will I know when to transfer to the secondary fermenter. The guy at the home brew shop told me this process was only necessary if I was going to keg the beer.

In a few days, take a hydro reading, then a couple days later take another. If it doesn't change, it's done fermenting. If it changed, wait another couple days and do it again.

 

[jbambuti]

Many people don't even use a secondary, even for bigger beers. It just adds more possibilities for contamination. After researching longer time in primary, I now routinely let my beer sit in primary for 4 weeks before bottling. This lets the yeast clean up after themselves. If you're using bottles, the beer will condition in the bottles. Leave them at approx. 70 degrees for at least 3 weeks for carbonation, longer to condition bigger beers, if you can stand the wait. Once you have some finished product in your pipeline, it will be easier to resist the temptation to pop open bottles early. I used to worry about every aspect of my fermentation and spent too much time fussing about what might go wrong. Now I've learned, although I'm still pretty noobish, that the best thing to do is to make sure conditions are good and then walk away. You'll have much less stress and will benefit by having better beers.

 

[hercher]

Also, since I forgot to take the hydro readings, how will I know when to transfer to the secondary fermenter. The guy at the home brew shop told me this process was only necessary if I was going to keg the beer.

Which part did he say was only necessary if you are kegging your beer: using a secondary fermenter, or taking hydrometer readings? If it's the hydrometer readings, I would suggest not taking too much advice from this guy. And to be quite honest, I keg my beer (the wife got tired of all the bottles, and asked me, that's right, she asked me to convert to a keg system) and I don't use a secondary.

Despite the snideness of my earlier post, I do strongly recommend taking numerous hydrometer readings.

Someone else has noted (I think in another thread) that in general you are better off carefully assessing advice you are given, and comparing them to what you can read in any of several excellent homebrewing books on the market.

Anything by Papazian is good, as are books by Dave Miller and Greg Noonan.