businesstime
Well-Known Member
First, let me tell you all of the "rookie" mistakes I made and just how nervous and overly worried I was:
1. I did not cool the wort down as quickly as I could.
2. I did absolutely nothing to aerate the wort once it was cooled; I never even heard of the term "aerate" until after it had started fermenting.
3. I removed the hop bags after I had pitched the yeast, potentially removing yeast and/or keeping the hops in too long.
4. I had to reach my full arm into the cooled wort in order to retrieve the rubber gammet that fell into the fermenter!
5. I pitched one package of wyeast, with no starter and not enough time to rehydrate in the smack pack.
6. It took 48 hours to start showing fermentation signs.
7. It fermented for 2 days, at which time I racked it prematurely into secondary (after 4.5 days in primary); it proceeded to ferment again for another 2 days until reaching an acceptable FG of around 1.02 (from 1.074, which is suspect because the hydrometer broke at some point).
8. I tried hydrometer samples several times throughout the process, trying very hard to match the sour/bitter/astringent/alcoholic tastes to the "off-flavor" website in order to figure out what I did wrong.
9. Sanitation was rinsing a little bleach on each piece of equipment, letting them airdry, and allowing some pieces to come in contact with unsanitized items.
10. Saw strange small bubbles and oily looking parts floating on top of my wort in secondary, which lead me to google for pictures of infections.
11. I bottled it straight from the bottling bucket spiggot, without using a wand or tube.
12. I primed it with boiled cane sugar, but forgot to stir it around in the beer.
At several stages in this process, I tried to remember the motto (RDWHAHB), but was very close to dumping it. A very good friend of mine, reassured me that it was going to be an awesome double IPA and that I should stick with it. I even made a second batch to console the mistakes I had made during the first.
After bottling, that same friend told me to put one of my bottles in the fridge, after only 4 days, to taste it. He said I would be surprised.
Well, here I am, I've poured it out into a glass. It fizzes! It has a nice white head! It tastes wonderful!!
Admittedly, there are a couple of off flavors that linger as an aftertaste, but not overly noticable. If conditioning it for 3 more weeks in bottle can correct it, I'd call it the best beer I've ever sampled
So, there you go, there's my testimony!
1. I did not cool the wort down as quickly as I could.
2. I did absolutely nothing to aerate the wort once it was cooled; I never even heard of the term "aerate" until after it had started fermenting.
3. I removed the hop bags after I had pitched the yeast, potentially removing yeast and/or keeping the hops in too long.
4. I had to reach my full arm into the cooled wort in order to retrieve the rubber gammet that fell into the fermenter!
5. I pitched one package of wyeast, with no starter and not enough time to rehydrate in the smack pack.
6. It took 48 hours to start showing fermentation signs.
7. It fermented for 2 days, at which time I racked it prematurely into secondary (after 4.5 days in primary); it proceeded to ferment again for another 2 days until reaching an acceptable FG of around 1.02 (from 1.074, which is suspect because the hydrometer broke at some point).
8. I tried hydrometer samples several times throughout the process, trying very hard to match the sour/bitter/astringent/alcoholic tastes to the "off-flavor" website in order to figure out what I did wrong.
9. Sanitation was rinsing a little bleach on each piece of equipment, letting them airdry, and allowing some pieces to come in contact with unsanitized items.
10. Saw strange small bubbles and oily looking parts floating on top of my wort in secondary, which lead me to google for pictures of infections.
11. I bottled it straight from the bottling bucket spiggot, without using a wand or tube.
12. I primed it with boiled cane sugar, but forgot to stir it around in the beer.
At several stages in this process, I tried to remember the motto (RDWHAHB), but was very close to dumping it. A very good friend of mine, reassured me that it was going to be an awesome double IPA and that I should stick with it. I even made a second batch to console the mistakes I had made during the first.
After bottling, that same friend told me to put one of my bottles in the fridge, after only 4 days, to taste it. He said I would be surprised.
Well, here I am, I've poured it out into a glass. It fizzes! It has a nice white head! It tastes wonderful!!
Admittedly, there are a couple of off flavors that linger as an aftertaste, but not overly noticable. If conditioning it for 3 more weeks in bottle can correct it, I'd call it the best beer I've ever sampled
So, there you go, there's my testimony!
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
