First Brew - Sanity Check

[attackandvine]

Hello,

I'm planning to bottle tomorrow (so long as SG remains stable), here's the full details of this brew.
All seems okay to me, from the little I know about HB.

Anything seems strange to you?

Style: Becks
Product: Coopers Pils
Date of brew: 14-Sep
Vol. water: 23L
Type of sugar: House Malt Mix (dex, malt & maltodex) from cellar plus.
Quatity of sugar: 1KG
Hop additions: Morgan's tettanager finishing hops. Steeped 10min, added (w/bag) before yeast
Temperature of wart before yeast: 22 degrees
Starting SG: 1.045 @ 22 degrees

Date Time Ambient Temp Ferm. Temp. SG Observations
14-Sep 6pm 17 22 1.045

15-Sep 7.30pm 17 19 no read airlock bubbling.

16-Sep

17-Sep 7.30pm 17 17 no read Still happily bubbling away, nothing unusual.

18-Sep 7.00pm 17 17 1.010 fizzy, has head, lignt in colour - similar to ginger beer. Slight egg smell. Tastes something like beer, little bit 'smokey' to taste. Can taste yeastiness. Dull bitterness.

19-Sep

20-Sep 5pm 17 17.5 1.010 Slightly less fizzy than 18-sep. little bit darker, looks more like a pale-ale now. Still slight eggy smell. Yeasty/smokey taste still there, but less pronounced. Bitterness is a bit fuller.

Have to say, it all seems a bit boring, brew-by-numbers.
Looking forward to moving on to some more freeform brewing once I know how various changes affect the brew.
I know 17 degrees is probably a bit warm for pilsner. I meant to kick it off a month or so ago, when it was much colder ambient temp. Also, I hear there's a big difference between proper lager & ale yeasts. Assuming pilsner should have a lager yeast. Will look into this further next time...

 

[mouapp12]

i understand that the lower temperature is purely for the benefit of the larger yeast and ale yeast will not be more larger ish at lower temperatures

and 17 degrees is pretty much what you want for an ale yeast (im assuming you used the yeast that came with the kit)

but sounds good

 

[attackandvine]

yep, I used the yeast that came with the packet.

I'm fortunate to have a really stable ambient temperature.
I live in a warehouse in Melbourne & monitored temperature variance between am/pm everyday for a few weeks.
At that point in time, ambient temp stayed at 13 degree all day through (24 hrs) plus/minus 1 degree.
Perfect for brewing!

 

[staggalee]

you live in a warehouse?
are you unfortunate enough to be homeless?
Personally, I feel we are a lot closer to a recession than many realise.
Hope things turn the corner for you anyway. :beerbang:

staggalee.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

The eggy smell leads me to think that perhaps your kit had a genuine lager yeast - they do often produce sulphury smells during fermentation.

If thats the case - your 17C will have been too hot to produce a really crisp and clean beer like Becks - but that in no way means its going to be bad. Let it finish out completely, if you are able, it might be worth racking it into another fermentor (away from the yeast and stuff) and cold conditioning it in a fridge for a few weeks before bottling. This will help to clean it up a bit and make it crisper and more lagerlike, as well as clearer.

If you cant do that, just let it finish out and bottle, then after they have carbonated, keep em all in the fridge if you can - the last ones you drink will be (probably) considerably cleaner and crisper than the first ones

K&K brewing IS brewing by numbers... thats almost a perfect description of it actually. Doesn't mean you cant make great beer - but individuality and creativity aren't the features of the method.

I wish I lived in warehouse... I've been slowly angling towards it for some years now. Probably not gonna happen, but I still have my dreams. You would have lots of space for brewinbg gear then..... sound like a perfect candidate for AG brewing to me

Hope your beer turns out to be great

Thirsty

 

[Brewtus]

First thing, which wart was 22 deg? The one on your finger or the one on your bum?
Second, always tell people what yeast you use, even if it is the one from the lid. On this forum none assumes anything about yeast. Lager yeast and Ale yeast are two two basic types but there is hundreds of varieties of each and they all have numbers or names. As thirsty said the sulfury smell is a give away for lager. Most lager likes 9 to 13 deg for most of the time with a 'rest' (read 'change of temperature to') at 17 deg for a day or so, then back to sub 13 to finish. Ale yeasts like 18 to 22 deg for the whole time.

Ambient 13 is not perfect for brewing but the stability is great as if you insulate ales with some foam or a blanket they will sit at 18 like a rock. It is too warm for lager.

If kits&bits (which is what you have started on) is dull, get another fermenter. After a few brews you have 2 fermenting, some conditioning, some in bottles. You are always ready to brew, rack, prime or bottle something.

Anyway, Welcome to brewing and enjoy the learning curve.