White House Honey Ale

[vesestilldrumming]

Been fermenting this beer for 9 days and it smells like wine/sour smell. Also when I take a big sniff in the fermentation bucket i get a burning sensation in my nose like it is still full of CO2. Is this normal and is this beer still good with that smell?

 

[bobot]

Yes, you should get a noseful of co2. Think of it a a protective layer of gas on top of your beer that keeps the o2 out.

 

[vesestilldrumming]

Ok thx

 

[pschatz12]

Im brewing the same but a 1 gallon starter kit...it was an xmas present...would you mind taking a pic of your carboy for me? Ill take one of mine too and post...im not getting any bubbles on top am i supposed to? I do have a ring around the top wherr bubbles might have formed...am i ok?

 

[PistolaPete]

Like Bobot said, the CO2 burnin the nostrils is normal. The wine/sour smell can be deceiving and is often normal, check the taste when you do a gravity test after about two weeks. It's most likely going to be a great batch!

 

[pschatz12]

Mine looks like this... First brew ever... Got some knowledge and learned where I messed up... Ready for 5 gallon brew!!!

 

[vesestilldrumming]

Mine looks like this... First brew ever... Got some knowledge and learned where I messed up... Ready for 5 gallon brew!!!

Here is mine at the 11 day mark

 

[pschatz12]

You think mine looks ok?

 

[vesestilldrumming]

You think mine looks ok?

It looks pretty damn close to mine. Id say it looks great. How long has it been in there?

 

[GeorgiaTiger]

Looks like beer to me. But stop opening it. Oxygen is not a fermenting beer's friend.

RDWHAHB!

 

[pschatz12]

January 3rd so a full week tomorrow... It says to leave it 2 weeks... Is that what your doing?

 

[cheesehed007]

I'm ordering this kit for my next brew day. Let us know how they turn out or you two. Cheers!

 

[vesestilldrumming]

January 3rd so a full week tomorrow... It says to leave it 2 weeks... Is that what your doing?

I was gonna leave three weeks and gravity test then. People at the brew shop said honey takes longer to ferment out. So im monitoring it between weeks two and three.

 

[pschatz12]

I was gonna leave three weeks and gravity test then. People at the brew shop said honey takes longer to ferment out. So im monitoring it between weeks two and three.

Let me know... I don't have a way to gravity test it

 

[pschatz12]

Can you leave it in the fermenter too long? Like if I just leave it 3 weeks can you over ferment lol forgive me for the noobish questiin

 

[profallout]

Can you leave it in the fermenter too long? Like if I just leave it 3 weeks can you over ferment lol forgive me for the noobish questiin

I leave mine in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks on purpose. Gives the yeast some time to clean up. Especially if you have some honey in there. You can leave it in for too long but how long is too long is argued a lot around here. If I'm making a big beer (> 9% alchy) I'll leave it in the fermenter for 5-6 weeks and transfer to a secondary or just bottle it if I'm feeling lazy.

Even if you don't have a hydrometer, you can still get one and tell if this batch is done. Take a reading and wait a few days. If there is no change, it's done. That being said, I break that rule. I just take a reading at the beginning and at the end. No problems. Good beer.

 

[vesestilldrumming]

Can you leave it in the fermenter too long? Like if I just leave it 3 weeks can you over ferment lol forgive me for the noobish questiin

Supposedly if beer is left around dead yeast too long it will impart bad/off flavors. Havent been brewing long enough to know and Im too impatient to leave beer in a fermenter for more than three weeks.
When fermentation is done, it's done. Thats why you need a hydrometer.

 

[chipsah]

Supposedly if beer is left around dead yeast too long it will impart bad/off flavors. Havent been brewing long enough to know and Im too impatient to leave beer in a fermenter for more than three weeks.
When fermentation is done, it's done. Thats why you need a hydrometer.

It will take quite a while before you get autolysis (3-4 weeks should be fine). This is especially true on a small scale.

Regarding the recipe, I brewed an AG batch using this as my inspiration but bumped up the gravity pretty significantly. During fermentation and while it was green I was worried. The alcohol flavor was pretty strong. It mellowed out in the keg and is pretty good now.

 

[PistolaPete]

I remember looking into my first brew and then noticing a crack in the fermenter lid and thinking if it looks that weird it has to be infected. Of course now I know it always looks weird and until you bottle it and realize you made a great beer.

 

[pschatz12]

Guys I know this is the wrong section but everyone seems so helpful! I'm brewing 5 gallon batch and ordered a 5 gallon better bottle carboy and do not want the airlock to explode! I have read that I should use a blow of tube and also read that a 5 gallon carboy is too small and doesn't allow enough head space inside and I should be using a 6 with an airlock? Can anyone recommend which size carboy and airlock/blowoff tube combo I should use? I don't know if I should call the place I ordered yesterday and change it to a 6 gallon bottle and not 5...thanks for all of the help!!!

 

[profallout]

If you ferment 5 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy, you're gonna have a bad time.

Get a 6.5 gallon carboy with a stopper and a 3 piece air lock which are usually pretty standard in size. Go to the hardware store and get some clear tubing that will fit the inside tube of your airlock. I can't recall the tubing size at the moment though.

 

[pschatz12]

If you ferment 5 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy, you're gonna have a bad time.

Get a 6.5 gallon carboy with a stopper and a 3 piece air lock which are usually pretty standard in size. Go to the hardware store and get some clear tubing that will fit the inside tube of your airlock. I can't recall the tubing size at the moment though.

Thanks

 

[bolus14]

While I am brewing this and it is only my second brew I will throw a little advise out there.

I am at day 20 and so far seems so good. Like someone else posted at day 14 when I did my hydro rydro reading the alcohol was strong. I also decided not to add the honey until flame out rather that at 5 min, I can taste the honey, thankfully. As I said I am at day 20 and my hydro has been 1.011 the last two days so I am planning to bottle tomorrow.

If you are doing this beer or are planning to I would recommend either a 6.5 gal carboy or bucket. At day 3 mine blew throught the airlock in a 6.5 gal carboy. Not really a blowover, I didn't really have to cleanup but did have to swap out the airlock since the fermentation filled my first with krauzen.

More to come and good luck to the others brewing this!!

 

[cheesehed007]

Just bottled this up. Mine turned out darker then I'd hoped even with late add of the extract. I may have scorched it a bit durning the add. Even though I took it off the heat. If i remember right I had a little bit stuck to bottom of the BK. this what it looks like right out of the bottling bucket, my leftovers, nothing goes to waste ( but does go to waist) cheers!

 

[bolus14]

I bottled my batch last weekend and I would say that mine looks very very close to yours. I added the honey at flame out as well, I did it with hopes of having more honey in the taste and I think it worked out. I may pop a bottle open today to check the carbonation and see if the alcohol has mellowed at all.

 

[BikerBrewer]

Bottled mine 2 weeks ago and mine looks just like yours also. Going to have to pop one soon here and check it out.

 

[cheesehed007]

Well then, maybe I was wrong in expecting a lighter color.... Don't know why I was thinking it would be. Does anybody know if any of the commercial breweries make a version of this?? I'd love to have something to compare it to.

 

[vesestilldrumming]

One bit of advice on this brew, let it bottle condition for about two months. The flavors just keep getting better. I have two bottles left and its been about 2.5 months since bottling. The alcohol taste is still there which stinks but it turned out to be a good brew. FG was 1.017 for notation and I added the honey at 5 min in the boil. Primary ferm was 18 days, no secondary. If I do it again I will def. do a secondary and add honey around 2 min of the boil. Cheers

 

[wyoast]

I brewed a 1 gallon kit of this I picked up at my hbs..just an experiment I guess, well I jacked up my numbers and ended up doubling the hop additions on accident so I am going to end up with white house honey IPA..lol. I'll let y'all know how it tastes.

 

[carguy13]

I just pieced this recipe together. i changed it up a bit. i'm not going to mix the DME w/ LME I'm just using 7.6lbs of LME to be lazy... can't wait to get this brewed.