First Beer

[tomtom]

Well I finally tasted my first brew last night. It has only been bottled for 9 days but I couldnt help myself and had to have a taste.
It was a bit ordinary, I suppose thats what you blokes call "green" and there was no head but I drank the whole PET bottle anyway.
It was a Morgans Australian Draught with body brew and I used carbonation lollies instead of sugar to bottle.

The only mistakes I think I made were:

For a couple of days my temperature went pretty high, around 28 - 30 due to weather
I opened the lid a couple of times to look at it....is this wrong?

Im storing the bottles at about 20 degrees and hope it will get better with more time....2nd one due to bottle in a couple of days.

 

[Yob]

MATE!!Have abit of a read up on this site relating to AIRLOCK, I wouldnt reccomend you take the lid off until you have bottled and are ready to WASH it!! During the ferment a layer of CO2 is built up on the top of the wort and this is what bbbles out of the AIRLOCK, If you want to take taster samples I would suggest that you use the tap and "slowly" release enough for your taster so as not to draw water or air back through the AIRLOCK. What you are hoping to do throughout the ferment is to totally controll the environment and allowing fresh air or bugs or anything into your brew will greatly increase the risk of infection.. however if as you say its been bottled and it still doesnt make your face screw up an d make you want to run to the front yard then you have probanly been lucky... let us know how it goes mate and good luck

Cheers

 

[Nick JD]

Quick! Close the fermenter you crazy Belgian!

 

[Yob]

Holy S@#T!! whats cleaning day like for you? How many Liters is that pool? How do yuo controll ya bugs from getting into that BAD BOY? How many tons of yeast you have to use with this?

 

[tomtom]

What about when I have to put the finings in???

 

[Yob]

I guess it depends on how clear you want your final to be, Ive never worried about it myself and the beer has come out clear enough for me, I may be overly paranoid about infection as I lost one that way.. As long as you are careful everything should be OK, are you racking to a secondary then? Ive never worried about doing this either, all just extra chances to lose ya brew as far as I can tell, In saying that Ive mainly only tried to do CPA and the Draught which is a fairly clear sort of a brew as is out of the box, So not sure about the Morgans.... did you add anyhing else inthe brew?

 

[tomtom]

I didnt add anything special, just the can and the body brew, (the mix of dextrose, malt and corn stuff.)

What is the point of racking into another container if you are going to bottle it straight away? Aren't the carbonation lollies or a sugar measure enough to do it accurately?

Also, do finings make much of a difference, Ive heard yes and no...

 

[Yob]

The 2 Main reasons for Racking to Secondary are

A: Make a better clearer Beer, by removing beer off the dead yeast from Primary slurry into a secondary container it naturally is cleares the beer, Finings do much the same - Helps to drop the yeast out of the beer again amking it clearer, this can be done after primary has finished fermentation or in the secondary to drop out yet more yeast.

B: Bulk priming prior to botteling or kegging.

This is all done when fermentation is finished. it's all generally speaking to drop all the yeast out of the beer and "clear the beer".. There is a wealth of info on this site if you run a search on the topic in the main forum directory.

The one thing that sticks in my mind is the risk of infection every time you move it from one container to the next or open it up. Some beers require more "fining" than others so much depends on both your tastes, what your brewing and how good your sterilisation skills are.

I think Ive got this right... good luck

:beer:

 

[BOG]

TomTom,

No problem opening the fermenter so long as you are careful (don't loose too much CO2 layer) and it's still producing CO2. It will have covered the beer with more CO2 quick enough.

So long as it tastes like beer and dosn't make you puke at the first taste you haven't got an infection and everything is fine.

9 days is very early for a bottle beer. You'll need about 4 weeks to get it to taste as it should. If it's good enough to drink at nine days it will great in a month.



BOG

 

[eddy401]

i added finings to mine, was a coopers mexican cerveza. its the second time ive done this brew - first time i hadnt even heard of finings but this time i added a packet (about 1 teaspoon i think) and it came out much clearer than last time, but i also left this one in the fermenter for about a week longer than the first one so that no doubt also made it clearer, but i do think finings help - for the price why not try it, as long as you are quick about it and dont shove your face in the fermenter it shouldnt get infected from taking the lid off.

 

[stm]

If you're keen to look at your fermenting beer, ditch the lid and just use cling wrap secured down by the rubber seal from the lid. Then you don't need to open it up all the time.

 

[tomtom]

OK three weeks now in the bottle and taste is pretty good considering its my first go. No head at all and only a few small bubbles rising to the surface but........cold, refreshing and it tastes like one of those fancy beers you get at the shops that tastes a bit strange but you convince yourself its good cause it costs more. If only I could get a head????

 

[thesunsettree]

OK three weeks now in the bottle and taste is pretty good considering its my first go. No head at all and only a few small bubbles rising to the surface but........cold, refreshing and it tastes like one of those fancy beers you get at the shops that tastes a bit strange but you convince yourself its good cause it costs more. If only I could get a head????

for extraxt, try some dried/liquid wheat malt for extra head (or a thoughtful female friend )

cheers
matt

 

[Hatchy]

If you've got/can get a second fermenter then bulk prime. If not then the lollies are ok. If it's been in the bottle 3 weeks & it's pouring flat then something went wrong. Opening yr fermenter to have a look isn't the best idea but it won't cause flat beer (unless it's infected in which case you'll taste the infection & tip the beer out). Having said that, I had an infected brew which poured with a head but tasted like something unbeerish. I assume you screwed the caps on tight on the PET bottles, I don't use them but half screwed caps would cause flat beer. Were the PET bottles the coopers ones with 2 lollies per bottle? My 1st batch of Dr Smurto's golden ale tasted that good out of the fermenter that I was drinking it after 4 days in the bottle & it poured with a decent head. Certainly not best practice & I don't encourage drinking beer that's only been in bottles for 4 days but if yours has been bottled for 3 weeks & it isn't carbed then something has gone wrong.

 

[tomtom]

I used 1.125 litre PET bottles with 3 carbonation drops per bottle.
I used the old caps but screwed them on very tight.
When I crack the bottles I still get that hissing sound but just a tiny amount of bubbles.