I bottled my first batch of homebrew yesterday. I couldn't resist so I had to taste the last little bit that wouldn't fill up a whole bottle. Of course I knew it would be flat, but the flavor was quite harsh. It had the basic flavors I expected but it tasted pretty rough (I'm not good at describing flavors).
I used a Fat Tire clone kit from my local homebrew shop. It had some specialty grains to steep and LME as the base, I followed the brewing directions supplied by the homebrew shop (using a dry ale yeast). It was in the primary for 6 days and the secondary for 10 days (it had about 1/2" of yeast poo in the bottom of the secondary when I bottled).
The shop recommended B-Brite no rinse sanitizer, so thats what I used to sanitize everything, it left everything a bit slippery but the shop assured me that not rinsing would have no effect on the flavor of the beer. I had a couple of problems and was wondering if I might have infected my beer with nasties. A couple of days after putting my wort into the primary bucket, I still saw no action in the airlock. Upon closer inspection the gasket in the lid that the airloock went into was 1/2 way pinced into the bucket, allowing room for the CO2 to escape from there. I took of the lid, sanitized everything again, and put it back together (gasket fixed) and the bubbling started almost immediately.
I guess my questions are is, is using the B-Brite stuff good enough sanitation?
Should I rinse after using it?
Does my beer taste off because its still young and not fully conditioned (and carbonated) or could it be infected?
Patience is difficult when beginning this hobby.
Thanks
I used a Fat Tire clone kit from my local homebrew shop. It had some specialty grains to steep and LME as the base, I followed the brewing directions supplied by the homebrew shop (using a dry ale yeast). It was in the primary for 6 days and the secondary for 10 days (it had about 1/2" of yeast poo in the bottom of the secondary when I bottled).
The shop recommended B-Brite no rinse sanitizer, so thats what I used to sanitize everything, it left everything a bit slippery but the shop assured me that not rinsing would have no effect on the flavor of the beer. I had a couple of problems and was wondering if I might have infected my beer with nasties. A couple of days after putting my wort into the primary bucket, I still saw no action in the airlock. Upon closer inspection the gasket in the lid that the airloock went into was 1/2 way pinced into the bucket, allowing room for the CO2 to escape from there. I took of the lid, sanitized everything again, and put it back together (gasket fixed) and the bubbling started almost immediately.
I guess my questions are is, is using the B-Brite stuff good enough sanitation?
Should I rinse after using it?
Does my beer taste off because its still young and not fully conditioned (and carbonated) or could it be infected?
Patience is difficult when beginning this hobby.
Thanks
