What’s up guys
So I just poured my first homebrew gotta say the 4 weeks waiting checking on it everyday was worth it. Prying off the first cap knowing I brewed this.
Although I can’t help but to sense something’s off. I’ve read it can be an #extract tang" or the temps while fermentation weren’t low enough. Is there any way to know for sure?
*Caribou Slobber - Northern Brewer kit
It’s hard to say without more of a description and even then descriptions sometimes don’t match from person to person. I noticed your beer doesn’t have any head in the picture, is it carbonated yet?
This link shows 5 common off flavors with descriptions and has a link at the top to part II, to see 5 more.
http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/5-common-homebrew-flavors-fix/
Edit: congrats on your first beer!
If you didn’t control fermentation temps, aerate properly of have a proper pitch of yeast you most likely will have some off flavors. The good news is you made your first batch of beer! Brewing is a craft, every batch you make for the rest of your brewing career will now be in pursuit of making the next batch better than the last one.
After reading the link. It sounds like mostly can be described as “skunk”. Would make the most sense in my situation that it may have been “light struck” while fermentation.
As far as the carbonation. I wondered that as well. When bottling I did add the fizz drop and stored in a cabinet in my garage.
So far Ive learned that I need to keep a better eye on the ferm temp. And making sure it’s out of the light.
But what can I do about the carbonation?
Just give it more time and room temp after bottling. Is there foam that disappears quickly? What temp are the bottles being stored at?
Once bottles I stored them in my garage at room temp.
There was little foam that did disapear quickly.
When you say give it more time do you mean give it it longer than 2 weeks for bottle conditioning. ?
You’re right now after the first batch I feel now I’m on that path to make sure take every precaution more carefully. Not that I didn’t the first time but next time I will take my time go through the steps and figure out what happend.
What do you mean by aerate properly?
Yes, exactly. If after you open the first bottle, it seems flat, wait another week before refrigerating the second bottle and so on.
Aeration:
http://byo.com/malt/item/1894-aerating-wort-techniques
Also did you check out part II of off flavors?
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/5-common-homebrew-flavors-fix-pt-ii/
What can I do if I put all 8 in the fridge at once. Being anxious I saw that the 2 weeks recommended was up so put them in asap. Now I know to try one to make sure its done conditioning and go off that.
But for now with 7 left what can I do about those?
After siphoning wort into the fermenter I did rock it back and fourth a lot but I should be more rigorous next time to really get some splashing going on.
Well… you can drink them! I suppose you could try taking them out again in hopes that if there is sugar left in the bottles that the yeast may wake up and begin eating again. But I’d probably just take the note and drink em.
Thanks for the help.
I’ll take your advice and just take it in stride.appreciate all the help.
No problem, stick with it Jay! And enjoy those beers!
I found that 14 days is generally the point where you reach a drinkable level of carbonation, but it takes 3-4 weeks at room temperature to really reach full carbonation.
14 days at what temp?
I carb at the temp I plan to serve at. Do you use a pressure/temp chart? This is a good one:
I use the same chart for kegging but he’s bottling. Jay you want to keep them around 70° while bottle conditioning. Chilling them will drop the yeast, so don’t chill em all until you know they’re ready.
Got it… Had me a little confused for a second.
You said you had them in the garage. Were they on the concrete floor? Concrete will suck the heat right out of the bottles, causing the yeast to be sluggish or even dormant. This is a very common newbie mistake, so don’t feel bad. LOTS of guys do this.
Put them on TOP of your fridge for a week or so. The heat goes up off the coils in back and comes out on top across whatever is there. The yeast will love it up there.
HTH-