Struggling newbie! Help!

[Tomweeds]

Ok so im just getting starting with basic home brewing.

I bought a Mangroves Jacks craft beer kit.
First brew was a golden larger and turned out terrible.
Insanely fizzy where it would just turn completely to foam and taste metallic??
I figured i had bottled it too early so it was still fermenting in the bottles?

Second brew was a American IPA, made sure i gave the fermenter a good clean and sterilize as well as the bottles. Using mangrove jacks carbonation drops. I tried one after being bottled for a week and it was amazing, being away for work for 5 weeks, come back and now all the beer is again extremely fizzy and back to tasting metallic?

What does it sound like im doing wrong? Im close to giving it up and just buying beer again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Redpappy]

How long are you fermenting for? Do you have a hydrometer? If so what were your readings. What are the temps that you are storing your bottles at?How many carbination drops per bottle and bottle size?

 

[RM-MN]

Ok so im just getting starting with basic home brewing.

I bought a Mangroves Jacks craft beer kit.
First brew was a golden larger and turned out terrible.
Insanely fizzy where it would just turn completely to foam and taste metallic??
I figured i had bottled it too early so it was still fermenting in the bottles?

Second brew was a American IPA, made sure i gave the fermenter a good clean and sterilize as well as the bottles. Using mangrove jacks carbonation drops. I tried one after being bottled for a week and it was amazing, being away for work for 5 weeks, come back and now all the beer is again extremely fizzy and back to tasting metallic?

What does it sound like im doing wrong? Im close to giving it up and just buying beer again.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

You still may be bottling too early. Use a hydrometer and take at least 2 measurements with it a couple days apart. Any change in the reading means your beer needs more time in the fermenter. When it shows no change in reading you then may bottle. Beer doesn't like to be rushed and kits will tell you to bottle too early. I usually let mine set in the fermenter for 10 to 30 days.

You also may have an airborne wild yeast that is infecting your beer. There is no real cure for this but some things that can help are to keep the fermenter lid on as much as possible during the transfer to the bottling bucket and keep that bucket covered as much as possible. This only limits the amount of wild yeast that can infect the beer so it takes longer to over carbonate.

A possible solution that I have experimented with is using an air filter system that utilizes a UVC lamp to kill bacteria. This will help scrub the wild yeast too but it will take time to filter all the air in your brewing area and as soon as you open a door you introduce more wild yeast. Its a tough problem to overcome.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/is-my-beer-ruined/common-off-flavors

This link has a list of common off flavors, one of them being metallic. Plus browse through it and buy the book. It's an extremely valuable tool.

Sometimes trying to help someone online is like playing Pin the tail on the Donkey

I bought a Mangroves Jacks craft beer kit. -Extract or All Grain? If its extract how is your water? If you're just using tap water try switching to distilled or spring water with low mineral content. Also, filter your tap water to remove chlorine.

Insanely fizzy where it would just turn completely to foam and taste metallic?? Was fermentation complete? The only way to tell is by using your hydrometer or other device. If it wasn't, this could be your over carb issue. Or to much priming, or contamination.

I figured i had bottled it too early so it was still fermenting in the bottles? How much did you prime with? Using to much can cause over carb issues. Or you have an infection and need to address cleaning/sanitizing.

Second brew was a American IPA, made sure i gave the fermenter a good clean and sterilize as well as the bottles.- This should always be SOP. Clean often and clean even if you think its clean.

Don't give up. Revisit your entire process. Focus on the details. I would also recommend not buying expensive or difficult kits to start with. K.I.S.S. as they say.

 

[eric19312]

Welcome @Tomweeds hope we can get you headed in the right direction. I read the Mangrove Jacks instructions and see this is probably a no boil kit. Put boiling water into your fermenter, stir in some liquid extract and either dry extract or corn sugar. Top up with cool water, chill to below 75F, and then pitch your yeast. Keep the fermenter at the appropriate temperature range for the yeast and come back in a couple weeks, check gravity with hydrometer and bottle if ready.

Please confirm you followed these steps or any you might of overlooked.

For example if you pitched the yeast into beer that was too warm you may have killed most of your yeast and fermentation from the few survivors could take much longer than expected.

The behavior in bottles sounds like a gusher. You might be bottling too early but twice in a row seems unlikely and easy to confirm with the hydrometer testing. If possible let us know how many days you fermented these beers and what the hydrometer said before you bottled. Really it would be surprising if the yeast you pitched wasn't done fermenting after two weeks. Also what did the beer look like when you bottled? During fermentation beer gets cloudy with the yeast, once fermentation is done the yeast falls to the bottom and the beer clears up. Not brilliantly clear but transition might be something like coffee with milk turns into iced tea.

So think about your process and consider if it still seems likely that you bottled too soon.

If really does sound more like you may be dealing with contamination. That first batch where you were relaxed with sanitation may have left some contamination on some of your equipment that you didn't think to clean and sanitize on your second batch. Maybe a bottling wand or the tap on your fermentor. Racking cane if you have one of those and any plastic tubing. Your spoon for mixing in the extracts. Anything you touched the beer with to sample it for your hydrometer (you aren't returning the hydrometer samples back to the beer right? samples are intended to be tasted for QC purposes and discarded after measuring gravity). Remember every part that touches the beer needs to be cleaned and sanitized. Any plastic parts such as fermentor taps need to be disassembled so you can make sure every surface is visually clean before you sanitize. After cleaning give them a soak in sanitizer solution (Mangrove's Total San sounds like a good product probably same as the Star San we use here).

You may also have issue with chlorine in your water but this would not cause the gushing. Even a small amount of chlorine, below what most people can taste or smell, can interact with the yeast to make some off flavors that everyone will be able to taste.

 

[WestMichBrewer]

With my smaller batches I was really hesitant to waste samples of beer for checking gravity with a hydrometer, so I didn't.

One other option is a refractometer. Though not as accurate once the beer is fermenting, you should be able to tell if the beer is done with multiple consistent readings.

Another option is patience.
Leave your beer fermenting for 3 weeks and you should be able to bottle it safely.
I'd recommend waiting longer for big beers or beers that want to be really sure are fermented out, like a crisp lager.

Though I do have a refractometer now, I usually do not measure for attenuation completeness, I rely more on patience and controlled fermentation temperatures.

 

[Tomweeds]

How long are you fermenting for? Do you have a hydrometer? If so what were your readings. What are the temps that you are storing your bottles at?How many carbination drops per bottle and bottle size?

Fermenting for nearly 2 weeks and yes using a hydrometer. have been following the instructions religiously so bottled when it was 0.014sg
Once bottled they are stored in the garage in a box, out of sunlight and cool, approx 10-15deg Celsius. Using 2 drops per 750ml bottle, again just following instructions. First 2 beers were no good and I have just bottled the 3rd.... fingers crossed

 

[Tomweeds]

You still may be bottling too early. Use a hydrometer and take at least 2 measurements with it a couple days apart. Any change in the reading means your beer needs more time in the fermenter. When it shows no change in reading you then may bottle. Beer doesn't like to be rushed and kits will tell you to bottle too early. I usually let mine set in the fermenter for 10 to 30 days.

So you cant leave your beer for too long in the fermenter? The 3rd beer i have just bottled I left for even longer and the SG was stable for about 4 days.

You also may have an airborne wild yeast that is infecting your beer. There is no real cure for this but some things that can help are to keep the fermenter lid on as much as possible during the transfer to the bottling bucket and keep that bucket covered as much as possible. This only limits the amount of wild yeast that can infect the beer so it takes longer to over carbonate.

A possible solution that I have experimented with is using an air filter system that utilizes a UVC lamp to kill bacteria. This will help scrub the wild yeast too but it will take time to filter all the air in your brewing area and as soon as you open a door you introduce more wild yeast. Its a tough problem to overcome.

The latest conclusion I am at is that its my towns water, chlorine and lime?? so have got some natural spring water for my next attempt

 

[Tomweeds]

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-4/is-my-beer-ruined/common-off-flavors

This link has a list of common off flavors, one of them being metallic. Plus browse through it and buy the book. It's an extremely valuable tool.

Sometimes trying to help someone online is like playing Pin the tail on the Donkey

I bought a Mangroves Jacks craft beer kit. -Extract or All Grain? If its extract how is your water? If you're just using tap water try switching to distilled or spring water with low mineral content. Also, filter your tap water to remove chlorine.

Insanely fizzy where it would just turn completely to foam and taste metallic?? Was fermentation complete? The only way to tell is by using your hydrometer or other device. If it wasn't, this could be your over carb issue. Or to much priming, or contamination.

I figured i had bottled it too early so it was still fermenting in the bottles? How much did you prime with? Using to much can cause over carb issues. Or you have an infection and need to address cleaning/sanitizing.

Second brew was a American IPA, made sure i gave the fermenter a good clean and sterilize as well as the bottles.- This should always be SOP. Clean often and clean even if you think its clean.

Don't give up. Revisit your entire process. Focus on the details. I would also recommend not buying expensive or difficult kits to start with. K.I.S.S. as they say.

Thanks for the link.
I think (hope) you have hit the nail on the head with your first comment, im using extract - probably the most basic starter kit and yes using tap water. Apparently our water is quite "hard" and has lime in it??? so i have got some natural spring water for my next brew.

I believe fermentation was complete how ever i am a newbie maybe i miss read the hydrometer? I do make sure everything is thoroughly cleaned just with the first brew going bad i made sure i was very thorougher with the second, which was still bad.
Havnt given up yet! although if it keeps going this way i wont last too long, ive poured away alot of beer!!!

 

[Tomweeds]

Welcome @Tomweeds hope we can get you headed in the right direction. I read the Mangrove Jacks instructions and see this is probably a no boil kit. Put boiling water into your fermenter, stir in some liquid extract and either dry extract or corn sugar. Top up with cool water, chill to below 75F, and then pitch your yeast. Keep the fermenter at the appropriate temperature range for the yeast and come back in a couple weeks, check gravity with hydrometer and bottle if ready.

Please confirm you followed these steps or any you might of overlooked.

For example if you pitched the yeast into beer that was too warm you may have killed most of your yeast and fermentation from the few survivors could take much longer than expected.

The behavior in bottles sounds like a gusher. You might be bottling too early but twice in a row seems unlikely and easy to confirm with the hydrometer testing. If possible let us know how many days you fermented these beers and what the hydrometer said before you bottled. Really it would be surprising if the yeast you pitched wasn't done fermenting after two weeks. Also what did the beer look like when you bottled? During fermentation beer gets cloudy with the yeast, once fermentation is done the yeast falls to the bottom and the beer clears up. Not brilliantly clear but transition might be something like coffee with milk turns into iced tea.

So think about your process and consider if it still seems likely that you bottled too soon.

If really does sound more like you may be dealing with contamination. That first batch where you were relaxed with sanitation may have left some contamination on some of your equipment that you didn't think to clean and sanitize on your second batch. Maybe a bottling wand or the tap on your fermentor. Racking cane if you have one of those and any plastic tubing. Your spoon for mixing in the extracts. Anything you touched the beer with to sample it for your hydrometer (you aren't returning the hydrometer samples back to the beer right? samples are intended to be tasted for QC purposes and discarded after measuring gravity). Remember every part that touches the beer needs to be cleaned and sanitized. Any plastic parts such as fermentor taps need to be disassembled so you can make sure every surface is visually clean before you sanitize. After cleaning give them a soak in sanitizer solution (Mangrove's Total San sounds like a good product probably same as the Star San we use here).

You may also have issue with chlorine in your water but this would not cause the gushing. Even a small amount of chlorine, below what most people can taste or smell, can interact with the yeast to make some off flavors that everyone will be able to taste.

Yep what you said is how i did it. Seems so simple! How could someone stuff that up.... I can!!
So i bottled when the SG was 1.014A And fermentation was between 2-3 weeks.
The beer was quite cloudy, the instructions do say to add the dry hops once the SG is 1.025 or lower. Is this how it is normally done or hops added right from the start?
Nope hydrometer reading are poured down the sink.
So the chlorine in the water could be causing the metallic taste??

 

[brewbama]

Try the spring water and see if it solves your problem.