Starting over

[Apt23Brewery]

So two years ago, I started brewing and had great success. However as time went by I started to lose confidence in my brews as I came accross off tastes, films, and the final straw, mold during a heat wave. I was sure that i needed to stop for a while and regroup.
We now almost a year after my last batch I'm ready to start again, and I'm starting out doing duplicates of the first two batches I ever made.
An American Cream Ale, and A dry Irish Red Ale.
I've picked up all my ingredients and am on my way to getting everything sanatized and cleaned to my expectations.

My questions are.
1) For the cream ale, would anyone suggest adding lactose to this? I felt my first beer, a cream ale, was good, just lacking a touch of body. What would you add to give a cream ale a smooth, but full taste.
2) Has anyone added vanilla to a red ale before? If so, would you go with an extract or using vanilla sticks from the home brew store? if so when and how would you add these during the process? I think a red with a hint of vanilla sounds good? What do you think?

Let me know all your thoughts.

 

[MalFet]

Nuke your plastic before you jump in again, of course. Good luck this time around!

1) Hmm...cream ales are typically very dry. That's the point of the adjuncts. I certainly wouldn't add lactose, but ymmv. Depending on your recipe, perhaps consider replacing some of the sugar/corn with regular extract.

2) Go easy on the spices. Figure out how much you think you need, conservatively, and then cut that quantity in half. You could always try dosing a red ale that you like with some vanilla to see how it goes.

Welcome back!

 

[treznor]

Not exactly the most knowledgeable person around, but if you want to add some vanilla to your Irish Red, I'd probably go with adding a vanilla bean pod or two during secondary or the last week of primary if you aren't doing a secondary.

 

[Apt23Brewery]

So my "nuking" process envolves oxyclean soak and wash (all suds gone), and then using a solution of Starsan to sanatize it. Would you suggest "nuking" any other way?

 

[Mugsfull]

I had a very similar issue. I brewed for a year 25 some batches. All was great and then...

Film, bubbles, bottle bombs, off flavors. I was getting rings forming in the bottles after bottling even spider web looking things on the fermenters in secondary carboys.

I opened a thread and was told to nuke everything. As it turned out, over time, some bacteria had taken hold in my transfer equipment. Once I did the following. All has been well ever since.

1. Throw out your old siphon hoses. Its only .20/ft or something.

2. Have you scratched up the inside of your primary plastic fermenters? If so, persistent bacteria can take hold in there. Get new buckets.

3. Use 1 tsp bleach/gal of water and soak everything for a couple hours.

4. Oxyclean is excellent as mentioned above for soaking overnight.

5. Sanitize right before use.

I now bomb with bleach if it has been a few weeks since my last brew, then sanitize with one step. I'm back in business.

Good luck!

 

[vanceromance]

Mugsful,
just read the post on your issue and I had a similar issue also. Back in October I made two beers and decided to rack to secondary (I know - why secondary!) As soon as they were racked they started bubbling again. They ended up with a way low FG but I bottled to see what would happen. Both ended around 1.008 when they were expected at around 1.012. Both are sour and undrinkable. Its been about 4 months and no better - they are about to be dumped. Two more beers after them. No Secondary but did rack fromprimary to bottling bucket. Both beers are drinkable but definately a sour twang to them. I susspect that there is an infection in my tubing or wand so replaced both.