Brew Rage

[Brados Brew]

Hello there,

Just as a warning I am a first time brewer as of this morning!!! What a learning curve. I learnt I need a bigger pot to boil my wort to start with and that everything that I spilled/boiled over is VERY sticky lol.

I have just put down the Coopers Lager that came with the kit. I used 500g of DME and 500g of brew enhancer 1. The second major thing I learnt is that I boiled too much wort and after adding the water to the fermenter it was sitting at 34*C so I added ice to bring it down to 28*C. My OG is 1035. I am wondering if this will result in more of a mid strength beer. Can I add a bit more BE1 to the mix now before fermentation starts or is it too late.

Does this sound OK to you guys. I had a taste and it is malty and I hope tastes nothing like what the end result will be. So the result I have now is a brew in my fermenter and a sticky mess to clean up in the kitchen before the ball and chain gets home.

I have learnt a great deal this morning. I have a lot to think about and improve before I put my second brew down. Once I settle down from my brew rage I'll start the planning processes and I'll be much better prepared!!!

Cheers

Brad

 

[beercus]

Ice should be used on the outside of the fermenter not inside the fermenter. Can be an infection risk. Put the pot or fermenter in the laundry sink with a ice slurry around it, will cool quickly, or just let it sit for a while, will not take much time to get to pitching temp from 35oC.

Boil overs suck! i find my self sitting and watching once it get to 90oC. Have the spoon ready to stir once it gets near boiling.... Bitch to clean up and make its spotless before the misses gets back!

You need to take a gravity reading. Post what the hydrometer is reading and this will tell if you need to add more fermentables.

Beercus

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Remain calm :lol: :angry: :angry2:

 

[TheWiggman]

Haha, welcome to brewing and congrats for giving it a go. There are so many different ways to skin a cat so I'll try and describe what I would have done differently.

1. No need to boil the wort. When I did kits lI would put 3 or so litres of water in a pot and heat it up to about 70°C. I'd then mix my sugars in as this allows them to stir in nicely and if done slowly and carefully, and avoids chunks.
Better still - why not put the hot water straight in the fermenter and mix it in there? That's what I'd do now, much easier and less to clean up.

2. You can add the tin straight to the fermenter. Don't forget to give it a rinse with hot water to get every last drop out.

3. Unless you're short on time you don't need to add ice. You can let the ~23l of wort sit there and cool for a while and there's very little chance of infection. Wait 'til it gets to the right temp, then add yeast. As long as it's only a few hours and not days.

You will certainly get a slightly lower %ABV now that it's been watered down a touch. Don't worry. There are far worse things you can do than water it down slightly. I know people who intentionally water their Coopers lagers down and have been happy with them for years. However, you can certainly add a bit more BE1 now if you want.
As far as the taste is concerned let it be a rough guide. It's full of sugar which will eventually get eaten by the yeast and converted to alcohol, so the end result will be very different.
There are many other things you can do to improve the beer overall but I'd start by trying to keep it close to the 20°C mark.

Don't rage just yet - you haven't even tried it. Just be patient.

 

[Brados Brew]

Thanks for your responses and tips, its greatly appreciated. I have the kitchen cleaned up phew. I have been thinking about how I went this morning and had a little chuckle over my noobyness lol. It was fun all the same and I am sure I'll always half a laugh over my first brew.

The specific gravity reading is currently 1035 and was thinking about adding some brew enhancer just to cover some of what a boiled over. Maybe 100g???

Thanks again

 

[Yob]

odds are its more like 1040 or there abouts based on your ingredients unless you spilled LOADS.. yes you can boil and cool more DME, I'd go about 200g and add the cooled resultant to the FV

 

[gsouth82]

Welcome!
For a straight kits and bits like you have just made I do the following:
1. put the dry ingredients straight into the fermenter.
2. add a kettle full of boiling water (around 2L).
3. pick up the fermenter and give it a good swirl for 30-60 seconds to dissolve everything.
4. add the tin and stir until dissolved.
5. top up to your desired volume with tap water (I keg so top up to 20L but 23L is pretty typical).
6. check temp, pitch yeast.
I've found using 2L of boiling water and 18L-ish of cold tap water gives me a temperature of around 20 which is spot on. Using 21L of cold water will get you a little colder but should still put you in good pitching territory.
Enjoy the hobby!

 

[Amup]

Congrats on starting to brew
I too am new to the game but have recently produced a decent brown ale
Which tasted quite bad initially but after 3 weeks in the bottle is totally different in flavour
I agree with the comments about mixing ingredients in the fermenter &
that starting with 2 litres of boiled water and then bringing up to 20 litres will give a temp of around 20 degrees
Also thought I'd mention that with my ale batch I added about 3 litres of boiled water because of some hops i I had boiled at. 20 litres it was still too hot so I added a heap of ice inside the fermenter to bring temp down before adding yeast
As long as everything is clean and airtight it's pretty simple
Relax have a beer but not too many whilst mixing the brew
You have done most of the hard work and the best is yet to come
At least you know how to read the hydrometer I didn't
Good luck and enjoy

 

[Spohaw]

Brew rage :lol:

I'd put in the rest of your B/enhancer to try and get the gravity up further ..... I seem to get bloated before I get a buzz going when I drink mid to low strength beers

I'm only new to brewing as well but ive had a case of the Brew Rage when I spilt a couple of liters around the kitchen when trying to transfer the wort from pot to fermenter ..... F-ing sticky mess every where

2 beers after that I was fine :chug:

That being said most of the time Ive found that its just as fun making it as it is drinking it

Take it easy mate
Spohaw

 

[manticle]

I presumed this thread was about anger at things going wrong - like when I hurled a shifter at the bottom of my mash tun recently in frustration at a leaky keg. Broke the tun floor, keg still leaks.

 

[Bridges]

But is the shifter OK?

 

[manticle]

Yeah mate. Except I left it out in the rain so the mechanism is a bit stiff.

 

[Yob]

Didn't know keg rage was transferable to mash tuns,

Noted

 

[RobboMC]

A brew is never wasted, no matter how bad, if you learn from it.

In my first years of brewing I would write down what I had learned from every single brew.
Bottle it, drink it and enjoy the fact that you made it yourself.

And set yourself the goal of doing better next time. My first brew I also had trouble getting it below 30 deg C.
I used the hot tea kettle as a jug to transfer water into the fermenter, and in doing so transferred all the embodied heat from the jug body
into my wort. Ouch!

Some brewers say never use ice in your beer - definitely never use purchased ice from the servo IN the wort.
I have used ice blocks I have made myself in sanitised and sealed containers, but made and stored in a beer fridge/freezer, not stored with food.
But a block of ice under the fermenter in a sink full of water cools very well also.

Welcome to the forum , you are in the right place to learn, but remember if you ask 3 brewers the same question you will probably get at least 4 different answers!

 

[Brados Brew]

Thanks for all of the advice. I was home today and checked on it. No feral smells so fingers crossed. Gravity is down to 1014 and still very cloudy. Back at work now and when I get home it will be 9 days so will check it all again.

 

[Grott]

All good advice above. As stated you learn and improve with each brew. One thing though, make notes on exactly what you did, hydro readings etc. Then after bottling, as you drink your beer add to your notes as to thoughts on the outcome and how the beer matures.( if you don't drink it all in quick time)
Cheers

 

[Brados Brew]

Well it is day 11 of fermentation. When I check the gravity the beer has a lot of bubbles, as in there is a good head on it. Is this normal? I have to leave it sit for a while to wait for the bubbles to disperse before I can take a reading. Two days ago it was at 1012.

Thanks for all your feed back gents. I plan on bottling this by Wednesday and putting another kit down if the beer gods are with me. If not bottling will be when I get back from work on the 2/10.

 

[Brados Brew]

A final update on this comical brew.

One thing I didn't mention but when I was agitating the wort I seen something black in the wort. Turns out it was a fly lmao. I thought this would go off for sure. Any way it got bottled with no foul smells and tried one last night after only being in the bottle for 8 days. It is drinkable but I hope I never do another brew like this again.

I am about to bottle my second brew. It went much smoother and learnt from my stuff ups. This one is Morgan's Blue Mountain Lager, 500g LDM, 200g Maltodextrin and and 500g of dextrose. So far this smells far superior and tastes good out of the hydrometer when I check it.

Thanks for all your input guys, I think I am well on the way to being hooked.

Third batch will be an alcoholic Ginger Beer.

Cheers.

 

[Pogierob]

That moment to realize your keg didn't run out, it froze. .