New to home brewing and a little confused

[TonyF]

leave it till next weekend if you work mon-fri. it won't go away and you get into a routine. plus the brew will clear a bit, the fermentation will settle, and you can spend an extra week wondering what it must be like to be me, sitting here with a delicious wheat beer bottled 12june, and a nice cold doppelbock to follow, bottled 19june. patience. :beerbang:

if your brew paws are itching, you can always go and buy another fermenter and get a second brew going.

I work Mon-Fri.. The problem is I work from home hehehe... By the way, thanks for telling me about how fast your brewing life is

I actually did buy the second fermenter today, so I'm gonna try find some time to drop the next batch soon!

 

[TonyF]

Finally got around to bottling on Saturday (also dropped my second batch into the fermenter)!

This is what most of the stuff looks like (there's 2 bottles that are kind of cloudy, but they picked up some of the trub when my "assistant" swirled it a little when tipping the fermenter forward).



Looks pretty clear to me, probably from the extra week in the fermenter(??)! I'm not going to bother tasting any of it until it's been in the bottles for 2 weeks (unless temptation really gets the better of me and I crack a single bottle on the weekend )

Thanks for all your help everybody!

 

[Rocker1986]

I don't think I've ever had beer that clear at bottling time before, nice! I am sure you will enjoy that first bottle immensely, being your first brew and all.

 

[TonyF]

I don't think I've ever had beer that clear at bottling time before, nice! I am sure you will enjoy that first bottle immensely, being your first brew and all.

Hehehe.. thanks! I really can't wait to get a good taste of it! Here's hoping it's not that clear cause it's flavourless (Will have to post another pic when it's in a glass just to show it has some colour hahaha)

 

[Hop Thief]

Hehehe.. thanks! I really can't wait to get a good taste of it! Here's hoping it's not that clear cause it's flavourless (Will have to post another pic when it's in a glass just to show it has some colour hahaha)

Hey Tony, this thread was a great read mate. I'm in the process of getting everything together to do my first brew. So how did your first brew taste, hope it was good and where is the pic of it in a glass.

 

[TonyF]

Hey Tony, this thread was a great read mate. I'm in the process of getting everything together to do my first brew. So how did your first brew taste, hope it was good and where is the pic of it in a glass.

Hey there! Glad the thread was enjoyable for you. The guys on the AHB forum are awesome and have so much information to share!

It's a great fun process... I stress over too many things as you can probably see from the posts in this thread but it feels quite good getting it bottled and drinking something you've made yourself. Heaps to learn and so many different variables to play with just with kits alone and then you have all grain brewing on top of that where your imagination and taste buds are your only limit

I've just finished bottling my second batch, a Sierra Nevada IPA clone from the LHBS and will be looking at boiling up my third one this weekend (an Irish Stout kit from the LHBS).

So far I've only had 3 bottles and one of those was a scabby bit from the bottom of the fermenter... it had so much **** in there I was surprised at how it all settled at the bottom of the bottle, the next one was about two weeks after bottling and the other one was last Friday (approx 3 weeks after bottling and after sitting in the fridge for a week). I've just popped another bottle in the fridge today so will take some pictures after I let it sit in the fridge for a couple of days.

They did appear quite a bit more "hazy" than when they were sitting at room temp in the bottle (this might be the "chill haze" everyone talks about).

Here's the first glass from the bottle of "crud" (before refrigeration the bottle was as clear as the bottle i posted earlier):


This was from the first "proper" bottle:


I found the first proper bottle (2 weeks after bottling) was still a little "vegemite-y". The extra vegemite taste might be from the LDME we added to the "kit" giving it a more malty taste? It's still a little vegemite-y but I find it quite drinkable.

The last one was a little clearer and I shared it with a friend who seemed to like it. Said it was nice, not the best brew he's had but he wouldn't have pegged it for home brew. Will have to give some to my partner in crime (my brew partner... who's only contribution so far is to help buy the first kit and pouring the wort from the first kit into the fermenter! hahaha) and see what she thinks of it.

On top of the Irish Stout kit, I have another 2 kits (a Morgan's wheat beer kit and Mangrove Jacks Blond Lager) to get rid of, after which I'm thinking of maybe trying my hand at BIAB (I wonder if the kits for the Sierra Nevada and the Irish Stout count as partial-BIAB, even they use both LDME and LME, you steep some grains in a bag before adding these... it also comes with a little bag of hops! Woohoo!) or maybe even looking at trying my hand at all-grain.

Good luck with it and let us know how you go!

 

[Rocker1986]

Yeah mate, if they go more hazy when cold than what they appear at room temp then it's chill haze. I got tired of it in my beers after a while and now remove it with Polyclar post fermentation.

 

[TonyF]

Yeah mate, if they go more hazy when cold than what they appear at room temp then it's chill haze. I got tired of it in my beers after a while and now remove it with Polyclar post fermentation.

Thanks rocker!... I might need to look into that! Is it just an aesthetic thing or does it affect taste in some way?

 

[Rocker1986]

Purely aesthetic, although it supposedly prevents premature staling if the beer is aged for extended periods. Mine never get that long unless they're big dark ales, so it's pretty much only aesthetic for me. In saying that though, the appearance does slightly affect my perception of the flavour; I perceive hazy beers to have a more muddied flavour than clear beers for some reason. In reality though, the flavour is not changed.

I'm not 100% sure on this but I think the beer needs to be cold in order for the stuff to work properly. I always add it while the FV is cold crashing.

 

[TonyF]

Hey Tony, this thread was a great read mate. I'm in the process of getting everything together to do my first brew. So how did your first brew taste, hope it was good and where is the pic of it in a glass.

How'd ya first brew go Hop Thief?