Trap For Young Players

[The Giant]

So i got a home brew kit for my birthday, haven't known anyone to make home brew so it was a complete new experience/fly by the seat of my pants.

Anyway, I think I've ruined my first batch. I was aiming for a kind of amber ale.

Ingredients were:
- Morgans Blue Mountain Lager
- 1.5kg Morgans Caramalt
- Lloyds lager booster 100g

In my naivity I started following the Lager recipie that also required to add 1kg of sugar. I now realise that the caramalat was to be a substitue for the sugar. Long story short my lager now also includes 1kg of sugar as well as the above.

It has brewed perfectly at the recommend temp of 25 degrees for 4 days now. I used the hydrometer this afternoon and got a reading of 1.015, not to far off the approx reading from the recipes of 1.012.

I did have a quick taste of it and it wasnt bad but I dare say I have quite an alcoholic and sweet tasting beer now.

Questions:
1. Is there any point in bottling this?
2. Is it even safe to do so with that alcohol content?
3. Is it normal for the hydrometer to rise after it sitting in the sample brew for a while? I took several readings to get the 1.015 ensuring that i swirled it around to remove the air bubbles, however i noticed when i let it sit in there (say a few mins) it rises quite high (over 1.02).
4. Any other traps for young players I need to be aware of?

Thanks people

 

[DU99]

i would bottle it..

 

[drtomc]

Unless it's got aliens crawling around in it, it's almost always worth bottling.

A couple of tips:

Leave it in the fermenter for an extra week to make sure it has fermented out. Way back when I did my first brew, I was too enthusiastic and my bottles gushed (and I was lucky - none exploded. That time, anyway).

Next time, brew cooler. With a small number of weird exceptions, you'll get much nicer beer by fermenting more like 18C, but even more importantly, try and keep the temperature stable. If you do some searches in the forum you'll see lots of suggestions for how to control fermentation temperature.

cheers,
T.

Oh, and welcome!

 

[kalbarluke]

I would bottle it too. The only reason to throw away a batch of home brew from the fermenter is if you know it has an infection (believe me, you'll know).

The beers will be strong in alcohol content but I would leave them for a few months and see how they turn out.
The worst thing that could happen is you have some beer that's not to your taste and you've wasted a few minutes and dollars. The best thing is that you'll learn from your mistake. You could also feed them to unwanted guests.

BTW, what sort of sugar did you use?

 

[The Giant]

Unless it's got aliens crawling around in it, it's almost always worth bottling.

A couple of tips:

Leave it in the fermenter for an extra week to make sure it has fermented out. Way back when I did my first brew, I was too enthusiastic and my bottles gushed (and I was lucky - none exploded. That time, anyway).

Next time, brew cooler. With a small number of weird exceptions, you'll get much nicer beer by fermenting more like 18C, but even more importantly, try and keep the temperature stable. If you do some searches in the forum you'll see lots of suggestions for how to control fermentation temperature.

cheers,
T.

Oh, and welcome!

Temp was very stable always at 25 from start to finish, that was recommended from the pack. I would have thought 18 was to low? been doing some reading and found 22 was the magic temp? I did have a wet towel soaked in cold water over the top but I think the temp needs to start low to remain low, well that is what I think I have learnt haha

I would bottle it too. The only reason to throw away a batch of home brew from the fermenter is if you know it has an infection (believe me, you'll know).

The beers will be strong in alcohol content but I would leave them for a few months and see how they turn out.
The worst thing that could happen is you have some beer that's not to your taste and you've wasted a few minutes and dollars. The best thing is that you'll learn from your mistake. You could also feed them to unwanted guests.

BTW, what sort of sugar did you use?

Stupidly I used the sugar that was for my ginger beer, so looked like a standard table sugar, although i did buy it from the home brew barn. I now know dextrose would have been a better choice or even a mix of malt and dextrose

If bottling would I use the same level of carbonation drops? ie 1 per 375ml bottle, 2 per 750ml?

 

[pk.sax]

As long as it's definitely finished fermenting, yes.

 

[DU99]

Drops Your are correct..and we all have a mistake..

 

[michael_aussie]

Unless it's got aliens crawling around in it, it's almost always worth bottling.

A couple of tips:

Leave it in the fermenter for an extra week to make sure it has fermented out. Way back when I did my first brew, I was too enthusiastic and my bottles gushed (and I was lucky - none exploded. That time, anyway).

Next time, brew cooler. With a small number of weird exceptions, you'll get much nicer beer by fermenting more like 18C, but even more importantly, try and keep the temperature stable. If you do some searches in the forum you'll see lots of suggestions for how to control fermentation temperature.

cheers,
T.

Oh, and welcome!

+1
definitely let it sit in the fermenter for at least another week after you think it is finished
frement around 18-20 next time

If bottling would I use the same level of carbonation drops? ie 1 per 375ml bottle, 2 per 750ml?

yes carbonate the same as normal.

welcome to this forum.
read lots
use the search function so that at least you ask questions in a relevant old thread rather than starting a new thread that has already been covered extensively.
if in doubt, ask ... there are lots of great people here, keen to help noobs.

EDIT
Drink your first one about 2 weeks after bottling, but be patient.
Your beer will improve in the bottle over the next few weeks after that.
An average brew 2 weeks after bottling, can mature into a very drinkable brew in the following months.
Don't tip it all out if the first one is below par on your first taste.

 

[kelbygreen]

bottle it. might be more alcohol but there are beers out there 7-13% so its not bad considering. but with the high alcohol beers they are usually dark beers with heap malt and roast flavour or very hoppy beers. If you keep hops and malt in balance a 13% beer will go down as good as a 5% one but brew to your tastes I dont recommend trying to brew for high alcohol content more for a good refreshing beer.

 

[enuun]

+1 on not wasting the beer
You can start tasting 1 every week or 2
this will allow you to understand how your beers develop over time
I still have 6 bottles of my very first homebrew bottled 8 months ago and after cracking open 1 yesterday to share with my dad
I dare say it tasted so much better than before =)

And welcome to AHB

 

[rotten]

+1
definitely let it sit in the fermenter for at least another week after you think it is finished
frement around 18-20 next time



yes carbonate the same as normal.

welcome to this forum.
read lots
use the search function so that at least you ask questions in a relevant old thread rather than starting a new thread that has already been covered extensively.
if in doubt, ask ... there are lots of great people here, keen to help noobs.

That's confusing I reckon, and may lead to thrustration with the 'search function'. Ask away old friend, that is what a forum is about. I recommend the first comments also.
Cheers

 

[Hatchy]

Bottle it unless it tastes completely crook. It won't be the best beer you ever brew but it'll always be the 1st.

1015 may be yr FG, leave it & check it in a couple of days. Did you get an OG reading? If it stays at 1015 then bottle it. As other blokes have said it won't hurt to leave it a bit longer & will almost certainly make it better. Mine are in the fermenter for a fortnight as a general rule but they were bottled ASAP when I didn't have the beer stockpile that I have now.

Holding a constant temp will help massively, the 1st beer I brewed that my mates preferred over coopers was fermented at 26. I'm not recommending fermenting at 26 but it'll make beer, that was the 1st time I added hops to a beer & I thought I had to use all 100g. Doubling every hop addition definitely hid the hot ferment a bit.

I assume you used the kit yeast. Avoid that wherever possible. I've got a mate who's been brewing way longer than me & puts stacks of effort into his beers but uses kit yeast. All of his beers taste like kit yeast, my beers taste like beer (if I do say so myself).

Was it brewed to 23L? With those fermentables I wouldn't be driving, operating heavy machinery or speaking to my Mum after drinking it. It'll knock you around a bit.

Put yr location on here, you'll have AG brewers inviting you round to help empty kegs on brewdays within minutes, it'll be me if yr in Adelaide.

Most importantly, enjoy brewing & enjoy the beer you brew.

 

[stux]

The first rule of homebrew is "ignore what it says on the can"

18-20C is probably a good temperature for most ale yeasts...

I would bottle it, might not be the best beer in the world, but you know what, it won't be the worst either

Temperature control us the best thing you can do to improve your beer. You can find a fridge for free... and even without turning it on, it will make a great place to ferment, and then you can store the bottles there too!

 

[Hatchy]

The first rule of homebrew is "ignore what it says on the can"

18-20C is probably a good temperature for most ale yeasts...

I knew there was something I forgot in my attempt to pass on all the extract brewing knowledge I have. Recycle the instructions in the hope that in their next life they may be used for something useful. Have a read of the kit/extract section of how to brew instead

Edit: I just saw yr other thread with the question about sod met & I'd heartily recommend getting some no-rinse sanitiser. I use starsan & have 1 infection with it, I never worked out where that infection came from but I haven't brewed a wheat beer since.

 

[Thunderlips]

Temp was very stable always at 25 from start to finish, that was recommended from the pack. I would have thought 18 was to low?

Morgans Blue Mountain Lager is one of the few kits that actually comes with a real lager yeast.

So it can brew right down towards 13c or so and definitely tastes much better if you do so.
Of course not everyone can do that so it's good to know it can be brewed at ale temps.

As far as kits go it's one of the best and comes up nicely with just 500gms dextrose and 500gms dry malt.

 

[Bubba]

Agree as above.
*Wait another week before bottling.
*Bottle it.
*Use normal carbonation quantaties.
*Next time lower the temps and keep stady at between 18 and 20.
*Use good yeasts from LHBS, not packet yeasts.
*Might not be a great beer, but you never know. It wont be a bad beer and after a couple of months in the bottle might be a surprising brew!

 

[drtomc]

And as Papizan says "It will be great because you made it!"

It's worth keeping in mind that with the high quality ingredients we have, the understanding and chemicals for good sanitation, and so on, your home brew will probably be better than most beer for most of history.

T.

 

[The Giant]

Thanks heaps guys, much appreciated! :beer:

To answer some of the questions, yes kit yeast was used, will speak the shop about getting my hands on some non kit yeast.

Hatchy what is an OG reading? Is this the reading at the very start of your brew? WHen exactly should that be taken? After u've pitched the yeast and closed the lid? or just before? I didnt do one but will be doing so in future. I will take another reading today to see if it has remained stable at 1.015. I'm assuming I should only bottle if the FG rating in constant over a few days?

Was brewed to 23 litres as well, so yes no driving or mowing the lawn with this one

Regarding temp, do people find that starting at a lower temp really helps to keep that temp down, ie if i'm aiming for 18 degrees fermenting should I pitch the yeast at 16 degrees knowing that it might go up a bit? Or is it better for the yeast to be pitched at 18 degrees and then do everything i can to maintain that 18? I've seen some people recommend strapping ice bricks to the fermenter and keeping a cold wet towel wrapped around? I'm brewing in the shower of the spare bathroom downstairs so the room is relatively cool, i have the fan on to extract hot air and the shower door closed. Thinking of also sticking some alfoil outside the window to block some sun and heat.

I would love to keep it in the fermenter but we're having xmas at out place and I promised some ginger beer and some cider for the ladies, so unfortunately i need to get those cranking out to have them ready from xmas. I think i will def bottle it, hide it in a dark corner and sample them over time to really see how the beer develops. I think i will def try this recipe again WITHOUT the sugar haha just to see the diff

 

[[email protected]]

I just chucked this into Brew Pal. It says with those ingredients you should expect a 23 l batch to have OG of 1.056 and final gravity of 1.016 giving you a beer of 5.3% alcohol. Certainly not too much. With the table sugar you would expect that kind of final gravity so its probably done fermenting but give it an extra week if you want to be certain. I wouldn't worry too much if its been stable for 3-4 days. Your result will be full bodied, certainly not undrinkable.

And if it all goes pear shaped the cost of bottling is not much so no harm in doing it. And good practice in doing so, if you haven't bottled before there's so many little tricks you will pick up. There is a lot you can screw up with homebrew but you will rarely ever make an undrinkable beer.

 

[The Giant]

Paxxy what would the alcohol content been without the sugar then?