Fermentation Steps Wrong

[agorganic]

I started doing my second ever brew yesterday and skipped a step, just wanted to check whether it would matter that I added the dextrose after all 23L of water were added and even stirred well several times, though there is sediment sitting on the base.

I added the yeast yesterday, only just measuring the specific gravity today, which is 1.032.

Not willing to throw out this brew, so what should I do?

 

[super_simian]

Nothing. Do nothing, treat it as usual.

 

[agorganic]

Nothing. Do nothing, treat it as usual.

Cheers man. Will let you know how it goes.

 

[agorganic]

Ok so its a week and 1 day on from when I started the brew

Here is pic of sediment that settled on the bottom of fermenter on the first day

Then pic showing rise of sediment a day later...

I was going to bottle yesterday, took a reading and it was 1.010. The sediment level in the fermenter looked a little lower today, though still higher than in the first pic, so I held the fermenter and twisted it back and forth to mix the sediment into the liqud. I know you said don't do anything, but I don't have a heat pad just this wooly jacket constantly wrapped around the fermenter and as I've been on holidays, I've had the gas heater cranking during the days i'm home.

The temperature has ranged from as low as 16 to 22 degrees celcius, lower at night and early morns of course.

The Aus. bitter label says to bottle at 1.005, so should I still follow this advice?

 

[loikar]

Ok so its a week and 1 day on from when I started the brew

Here is pic of sediment that settled on the bottom of fermenter on the first day

Then pic showing rise of sediment a day later...

I was going to bottle yesterday, took a reading and it was 1.010. The sediment level in the fermenter looked a little lower today, though still higher than in the first pic, so I held the fermenter and twisted it back and forth to mix the sediment into the liqud. I know you said don't do anything, but I don't have a heat pad just this wooly jacket constantly wrapped around the fermenter and as I've been on holidays, I've had the gas heater cranking during the days i'm home.

The temperature has ranged from as low as 16 to 22 degrees celcius, lower at night and early morns of course.

The Aus. bitter label says to bottle at 1.005, so should I still follow this advice?

Mate, seriously, it's just beer, stop freaking out, relax, take a deep breath and count to 10.
ok, with me?, lets move on.

Your beer is fine, the yeast will eat the dex that settled at the bottom and it'll make no difference, so forget about the whole sediment thing.
16-22c is fine for an ale yeast. If you don't have temp control, then you cant control the temp of your beer. The End.

Good on you for stirring it up, it's not going to hurt to rouse your yeast, but you might want to leave it an extra couple of days to let it settle out. Use your hydrometer, you want 3 days of the same gravity and nearly no foam (krausen) on top of your brew.

So if it's been 1 week and 1 day (8 days), take your first reading on day 11, and you should be bottling on day 14.
Give it 2 weeks in the bottle in your pantry or kitchen cupboard or wherever, then crack them open and have a drink.

most of all relax mate, it's just beer, it's not heart surgery on a rocket scientist.

Edit: And your Fermenter looks lovely in it's wooly jacket

 

[agorganic]

Mate, seriously, it's just beer, stop freaking out, relax, take a deep breath and count to 10.
ok, with me?, lets move on.

Your beer is fine, the yeast will eat the dex that settled at the bottom and it'll make no difference, so forget about the whole sediment thing.
16-22c is fine for an ale yeast. If you don't have temp control, then you cant control the temp of your beer. The End.

Good on you for stirring it up, it's not going to hurt to rouse your yeast, but you might want to leave it an extra couple of days to let it settle out. Use your hydrometer, you want 3 days of the same gravity and nearly no foam (krausen) on top of your brew.

So if it's been 1 week and 1 day (8 days), take your first reading on day 11, and you should be bottling on day 14.
Give it 2 weeks in the bottle in your pantry or kitchen cupboard or wherever, then crack them open and have a drink.

most of all relax mate, it's just beer, it's not heart surgery on a rocket scientist.

Edit: And your Fermenter looks lovely in it's wooly jacket

Mate oneday you and me are going to catch up for a beer! Your a cracker...lol

 

[loikar]

Mate oneday you and me are going to catch up for a beer! Your a cracker...lol

No worries mate, always keen for a beer. Just leave your extracts at home, I won't touch them :icon_vomit: , but you're more than welcome to drink my AG's. :icon_cheers:

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

No worries mate, always keen for a beer. Just leave your extracts at home, I won't touch them :icon_vomit: , but you're more than welcome to drink my AG's. :icon_cheers:

Now you've cracked me up.

Dry July, but I'm going to hammer my Bairds Perle Malt based Lager in August.

Goomba

 

[loikar]

Now you've cracked me up.

Dry July, but I'm going to hammer my Bairds Perle Malt based Lager in August.

Goomba

Oh I don't want to say that his extract beer will taste like shit, but the odds are it will.
The main thing to do is keep going.

@Agorganic,
keep going mate, brewing the beer is 80% of the fun, no matter if it's a tin of goop and a kilo of sugaz, or a full AG beer. (the other 20% is pressing your dunken and staggering bare arse against the full length glass at the local Chineese Restaurant and falling into their rock garden....dont forget to turn around and smear a smile with a 'digit' on your one eyed big nosed glass imprint before pulling up your pants and stumbling into the rock garden :icon_cheers: )

Once you get sick of trying to bury that terrible 'twang' by smashing the shit out of it with hops and crystal malt, you'll move to AG.
Then you'll be looking back at all your "My Kit beers are Awesome" posts and saying to yourself, "I was so full of my ow shit"

Cheers,

BeerFingers.

 

[agorganic]

Oh I don't want to say that his extract beer will taste like shit, but the odds are it will.
The main thing to do is keep going.

@Agorganic,
keep going mate, brewing the beer is 80% of the fun, no matter if it's a tin of goop and a kilo of sugaz, or a full AG beer. (the other 20% is pressing your dunken and staggering bare arse against the full length glass at the local Chineese Restaurant and falling into their rock garden....dont forget to turn around and smear a smile with a 'digit' on your one eyed big nosed glass imprint before pulling up your pants and stumbling into the rock garden :icon_cheers: )

Once you get sick of trying to bury that terrible 'twang' by smashing the shit out of it with hops and crystal malt, you'll move to AG.
Then you'll be looking back at all your "My Kit beers are Awesome" posts and saying to yourself, "I was so full of my ow shit"

Cheers,

BeerFingers.

My latest (mid mature) rocket beer science results are in..... just 5 days on from bottling.


So far, your right... my second only brew, first with hops tastes like sheeeet! lol...but I'm taking on your beer wisdom advice and I'll hold out the full two weeks to mature me bottled beers, being winter and all, then I'll trail taste again. The temp gauge sticker on one of the bottled beers reading 18 degrees C (dC)...

Got the gas heater cranked up to the max for tonight in the hope to speed things up a little bit, at least by a day, cause I'm dying to taste the completed brew.


Hypothetically, lets say for the next 9 days the bottled beers temp continues to only reach a max of 18 dC (keeping in mind the label suggests 22-30 dC), would the beer need to mature for longer than two weeks from bottling?

@Beer Fingers what do you think of Grolsch prem lager? and whats an AG?

 

[scooter_59]

My latest (mid mature) rocket beer science results are in..... just 5 days on from bottling.


So far, your right... my second only brew, first with hops tastes like sheeeet! lol...but I'm taking on your beer wisdom advice and I'll hold out the full two weeks to mature me bottled beers, being winter and all, then I'll trail taste again. The temp gauge sticker on one of the bottled beers reading 18 degrees C (dC)...

Got the gas heater cranked up to the max for tonight in the hope to speed things up a little bit, at least by a day, cause I'm dying to taste the completed brew.


Hypothetically, lets say for the next 9 days the bottled beers temp continues to only reach a max of 18 dC (keeping in mind the label suggests 22-30 dC), would the beer need to mature for longer than two weeks from bottling?

@Beer Fingers what do you think of Grolsch prem lager? and whats an AG?

You only need to keep your bottled beer around 15* C mark don't stress too much you can have a taste to see how its going but it does improve over the weeks .

 

[agorganic]

<br />You only need to keep your bottled beer around 15* C mark don't stress too much you can have a taste to see how its going but it does improve over the weeks .<br />

<br /><br /><br />

How long after bottling should it start to develop its fizz? Cause when I tasted it earlier, one was practically flat and another bottle was only barely fizzy.

 

[Siborg]

and whats an AG?

What's an AG? All-grain, buddy. Basically that can of goo you're adding to your brew is condensed wort. Wort is made by mixing hot water with cracked malt barley. Most of us start off doing exactly what you're doing now and would have had similar experiences. My first brew had a big lump of coopers LDME (light dry malt extract) floating in it. Was good enough to keep me interested in pursuing the hobby.

It's not difficult to get into AG brewing (although from what I remember it was daunting). Do some reading. I, and I'm sure others will too, recommend John Palmer's how to brew. Grab a copy from amazon or book depository. There's a wealth of knowledge.

Take a look at BIAB (brew in a bag). It's a really easy way to get started in AG brewing. NickJD posted a really great tutorial (with pictures here. This isn't the only way to do it, but it's a great starting point.

 

[Anofre]

<br /><br /><br />

How long after bottling should it start to develop its fizz? Cause when I tasted it earlier, one was practically flat and another bottle was only barely fizzy.

1 week in the bottle at ferment temp (16-22 pref) & she'll fizz. If it's cold it won't.
From then on cellar temp is fine & winter is the best!
U can drink it at any time along the process & it will do the job, but it gets better with age.
1 month till it's respectable & 6 is best.

Age + Temperature control in the ferment is the key to getting rid of 'homebrew' taste with cans & probably your first major step when starting out.

The hard part is aging when u wanna drink em.
U gotta keep brewing so the stock can have some time to age!

Re; AG
Beer knobs talk in acronyms & can be real pushy salesmen sometimes, but when you are ready to spend as much time on your beer as a Christian does church, you can make it out of real grain instead of cans & it's friggen awesome.
All the information is on this forum. It's a holy place....

 

[agorganic]

The scientific results are in....it worked.

I bought some heat pads, 1 for fermenter and another for bottled brew to speed the 2nd fermentation process up, which seems the hops flavour gets less overpowering as it carbonates. Actually doesn't taste too bad, though I have no AG to compare with and struggling to let them 'mature' longer than a few weeks :icon_drunk: .

 

[BobtheBrewer]

struggling to let them 'mature' longer than a few weeks :icon_drunk: .
[/quote]


Yeah, that's one of the downsides? of home brewing.

 

[agorganic]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have only 1 or 2 bottles left from this brew after last night...I might need to stash them in a hard to reach place so I let them mature awhile, to benefit from the matured flavours.

 

[phoenixdigital]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have only 1 or 2 bottles left from this brew after last night...I might need to stash them in a hard to reach place so I let them mature awhile, to benefit from the matured flavours.

Do what we do and store 6-8 bottles from each batch at a mates house who doesn't drink much or doesn't have people drinking at his house much. That way there is no temptation and you can try em out 6-12 months later to see what the difference is.