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withak posted:Were the bottles clean? Heat from the dishwasher won't help if there is crud inside there. Neither will Starsan for that matter but at least there is a chance that some rinsing might occur. On the plus side, I know at least a good half of 'em are okay since I soaked all of the 22 oz. bottles in star san. I'll check out the bottles in a week or so when they're ready to drink and see if I come across that flavor anymore.
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Mar 17, 2012 09:15
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| # ? May 21, 2024 17:34 |
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How easy is it for beer to get infected anyway, what with the preservative qualities of hops and alcohol? I ask because my friend and I just bottled our first batch and forgot to sanitize the caps...
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Mar 17, 2012 16:01
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People bottle without sanitizing caps all the time, chances are good that things will be fine. It's obviously still a good idea to sanitize them, who knows what the homebrew shop employees were doing with their hands when they repackaged them.
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Mar 17, 2012 16:25
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You also can't sanitize the O2 absorbing caps without starting the O2 absorption early, since they are activated by water. If you happen to have those.
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Mar 17, 2012 17:26
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Butt Soup Barnes posted:How easy is it for beer to get infected anyway, what with the preservative qualities of hops and alcohol? I ask because my friend and I just bottled our first batch and forgot to sanitize the caps... Relatively hard, compared to how much attention gets paid to it. Your beer is probably fine, but don't skip that step next time.
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Mar 17, 2012 17:40
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Is there any reason I should replace my blowoff tubing after fermentation is finished? The tube is submerged in water with sanitizer
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Mar 17, 2012 18:21
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withak posted:Relatively hard, compared to how much attention gets paid to it. Your beer is probably fine, but don't skip that step next time. Yeast is better now, so less likely to get overwhelmed. Ingredients are fresher. Sanitizing agents are way better. Also it should be noted that there is very little that can infect beer that doesn't make it taste like the back end of a skunk or bad milk or whatever, so as long as you don't get super-gushers, and it doesn't smell awful, it's almost assuredly fine.
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Mar 17, 2012 18:29
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Ugh. I apparently suck at all grain brewing. I always seem to have trouble getting anywhere near my target gravity. Just finished sparging my wheat beer after a 3hr mash and got something like 47% efficiency. I had 16lbs of grain; my target OG was 1.059 and I only got 1.040. I guess I'll just add like 3lbs of light DME to make it up. I just wish I knew WTF I was doing wrong. My mash tun has a false bottom with space for about 1-2 gal underneath it so I can heat with direct fire. Could that have something to do with my problem?
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Mar 17, 2012 19:56
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withak posted:Relatively hard, compared to how much attention gets paid to it. Your beer is probably fine, but don't skip that step next time. The first 10 batches that I made, I didn't actually use sanitizer. I only had cleaner and my beers all turned out fine.
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Mar 17, 2012 21:26
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Acceptableloss posted:Ugh. I apparently suck at all grain brewing. I always seem to have trouble getting anywhere near my target gravity. Just finished sparging my wheat beer after a 3hr mash and got something like 47% efficiency. I had 16lbs of grain; my target OG was 1.059 and I only got 1.040. I guess I'll just add like 3lbs of light DME to make it up. I just wish I knew WTF I was doing wrong. Do you mash out? That helped my efficiency by a good 10 points.
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Mar 17, 2012 21:40
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Oops. I was supposed to be brewing this APA tomorrow. I ordered the recipe kit from the providers, Brew UK, and received it, what, a few weeks ago. It just hit me that the dried hops were provided in a plastic bag. Sealed, sure, but plastic nonetheless. Should I have bunged these straight into the freezer? Am I going to get really crappy beer, and is it because of my stupidity or them likely storing the hops in a warehouse in such packaging? Or does it simply not matter? Note that I'm not trying to brew a championship beer here. I'm just trying to get a handle on extract brewing and hop schedules and things and that pack had good reviews all around. For what it's worth, what I have looks identical to the product description picture.
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Mar 18, 2012 00:57
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Spergio Leone posted:Oops. That is a pretty similar recipe to the one I made, which is nice, but it's a mellow recipe in any case.
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Mar 18, 2012 02:15
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Just finished bottling my very first home brew! Bottling took a lot more time than we thought, but we're pretty sure everything is good and our bottles won't explode. Pretty sure. NOW I'M HOOKED.
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Mar 18, 2012 03:09
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Darth Goku Jr posted:Do you mash out? That helped my efficiency by a good 10 points. You mean step up to higher temperature like 170-180 and hold it before sparging? In this case I didn't hold it for very long before I started sparging, but usually I do do that.
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Mar 18, 2012 03:38
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I have to say, I'm really pleased at this point with how well the Two-Hearted Clone from Northern Brewer ("Dead Ringer") came out. Almost all of the weird flavors have kind of fallen off and it's getting better and better. Plus, the gelatin I used has done a great job of clearing the beers I've used it on, although there's still a lot of chill haze, but I don't really know how I'd get that out without being able to chill the fermenter before I added the gelatin to it. All in all, I'd say both of my recent beers are successes, weird possible-infection in the APA batch notwithstanding.
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Mar 18, 2012 08:05
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Angry Grimace posted:Generally speaking you always want your hops kept cold. It's not going to be ruined, but it might not be as bitter or flavorful as you like. Most hops I've bought locally have come in plastic baggies that were fully airtight-sealed; some people go out of their way to suck all of the air out of the bag, but I'm not entirely sure that is necessary. we'll see what happens. I don't mind mellow, I'm looking for something nice to drink with the warmer days and sunshine we'll hopefully get. I'm assuming I can use the same recipe but replace the hops to different kinds to get various flavour profiles. I'd like that.
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Mar 18, 2012 12:41
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Acceptableloss posted:My mash tun has a false bottom with space for about 1-2 gal underneath it so I can heat with direct fire. Could that have something to do with my problem? This is almost certainly a factor, you are leaving a loooot of sugars behind in 2 gallons of mash liquor. It sounds like you currently fly sparge? Maybe try doing a batch with batch sparging and compare the gravities just to make sure you aren't getting problems with channeling*. Also check the crush on your malt, every grain should be getting crushed open with the husk mostly intact. If a lot of it looks totally uncrushed, run it through the mill again or get your LHBS to adjust it to a finer setting. Bad crush is probably the single biggest factor in efficiency problems. Edit: Also, is your pre-boil and post-boil volume coming out correctly? Obviously if you are like 2 gallons over that will dilute your gravity down. If you do all that and still get crap efficiency, I'd say it's probably all the mash tun deadspace. Either find a way to reduce it, or just accept that you need to add like 3lbs of base malt to every recipe and deal with it. It could also be a mash pH/water chemistry problem but I'm not qualified to get into that. There's a super in-depth article on Troubleshooting Mash Efficiency you should check out. * Channeling is when the mash drains unevenly, leaving big sections completely unrinsed so all the sugar stays behind. Docjowles fucked around with this message at 19:17 on Mar 18, 2012 |
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Mar 18, 2012 19:11
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Docjowles posted:This is almost certainly a factor, you are leaving a loooot of sugars behind in 2 gallons of mash liquor. It sounds like you currently fly sparge? Maybe try doing a batch with batch sparging and compare the gravities just to make sure you aren't getting problems with channeling*. Also check the crush on your malt, every grain should be getting crushed open with the husk mostly intact. If a lot of it looks totally uncrushed, run it through the mill again or get your LHBS to adjust it to a finer setting. Bad crush is probably the single biggest factor in efficiency problems. Edit: Also, is your pre-boil and post-boil volume coming out correctly? Obviously if you are like 2 gallons over that will dilute your gravity down. I think that's probably a good I idea. I'll try doing a nice hot mashout followed by batch sparging next time to see if that rinses the sugars out of the grain better. I'm pretty sure my crush is good, because when I'm feeling lazy and want to go for the nuclear option, I just mix in a few Beano tabs into my hot water before adding to the grain. Whenever I do that, my efficiency is great, I just don't have any flavor control that way because the enzymes in the Beano just convert everything.
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Mar 19, 2012 01:43
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So as I posted earlier I just bottled my first batch the other day (saturday). I just found one of my bottles with a large hole in it and beer everywhere. It's been one day since bottling...would this classify as a bottle bomb? Or is it more likely a flaw in the glass bottle that led to this chunk of glass just being popped out the side of the bottle? I didn't even think one day could build up that much pressure!
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Mar 19, 2012 05:26
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Probably the bottle was cracked already or something. The cap/crown would blow off of an overstressed bottle long before a random piece would blow out of the side.
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Mar 19, 2012 05:31
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I have a batch sitting in a carboy in the spare room in my basement right now that's about ready to bottle. I've had it wrapped in a blanket for a little over two weeks. I just noticed a few minutes ago that I left the light on in that room for several hours with about a third of the carboy exposed. Knowing how quickly beer skunks when in contact with light through clear glass, what are the odds my beer might taste a bit skunky? I'm resisting the urge to do the whole "relax, don't worry, have a homebrew thing" since this is the first batch I've done that's been my own creation rather than a kit, and I want it to turn out as well as it possibly can since I haven't hosed anything up at this point until now. So yeah. Is it gonna taste a little off?
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Mar 19, 2012 06:20
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Whodat Smith-Jones posted:I have a batch sitting in a carboy in the spare room in my basement right now that's about ready to bottle. I've had it wrapped in a blanket for a little over two weeks. I just noticed a few minutes ago that I left the light on in that room for several hours with about a third of the carboy exposed. Knowing how quickly beer skunks when in contact with light through clear glass, what are the odds my beer might taste a bit skunky? I'm resisting the urge to do the whole "relax, don't worry, have a homebrew thing" since this is the first batch I've done that's been my own creation rather than a kit, and I want it to turn out as well as it possibly can since I haven't hosed anything up at this point until now. So yeah. Is it gonna taste a little off?
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Mar 19, 2012 07:01
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Claes Oldenburger posted:So as I posted earlier I just bottled my first batch the other day (saturday). I just found one of my bottles with a large hole in it and beer everywhere. It's been one day since bottling...would this classify as a bottle bomb? Or is it more likely a flaw in the glass bottle that led to this chunk of glass just being popped out the side of the bottle? I didn't even think one day could build up that much pressure! It's most likely just a flaw in the bottle, because as you said one day isn't really much time to build up that much pressure. Just to be on the safe side I'd open a random bottle just to test the carbonation level.
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Mar 19, 2012 07:10
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Brewed the extract pale ale that I posted about earlier. Got a really nice hot break going, barely contained in my 15L pot. Which was great since I only started out with 6 liters of liquid and added 3kg of malt extract.  I pitched the yeast (Safale US-05) at 20 degrees centigrade (68F). The room I placed the fermenter in had the heating on overnight so stayed at about 20C. During the day when I'm out it'll drop to about 16C (60F or so). I have read that this is more than adequate for US-05 so am happy to try to keep the room at that. There isn't a problem with pitching at a certain temp and having it slowly come to rest at what I hope is the final temperature, right? I'm pretty excited for this brew. It made the whole house smell like a brewery. The cat was super keen on the spent hops I threw out, too. That was weird.
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Mar 19, 2012 12:18
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withak posted:Probably the bottle was cracked already or something. The cap/crown would blow off of an overstressed bottle long before a random piece would blow out of the side. Josh Wow posted:It's most likely just a flaw in the bottle, because as you said one day isn't really much time to build up that much pressure. Just to be on the safe side I'd open a random bottle just to test the carbonation level. Yea thanks guys! That's what it seems like, I also figured that if for some reason the top didn't pop off, the entire bottle would have broken not just that area.
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Mar 19, 2012 13:12
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How do I know how much priming sugar I should be using when I bottle? My first two batches I used whatever amount my homebrew store gave me, and that seemed to work great. Then my third kit I got from Northern Brewer came with 5oz of priming sugar, and after a month in bottles its disappointingly flat (among other issues). I just bought two more NB kits that also came with 5oz of priming sugar, how can I calculate whether this is enough?
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Mar 19, 2012 13:54
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Sirotan posted:How do I know how much priming sugar I should be using when I bottle? My first two batches I used whatever amount my homebrew store gave me, and that seemed to work great. Then my third kit I got from Northern Brewer came with 5oz of priming sugar, and after a month in bottles its disappointingly flat (among other issues). I just bought two more NB kits that also came with 5oz of priming sugar, how can I calculate whether this is enough? 5oz is enough to get good carbonation on batches up to 5 gallons. I actually severely overcarbed my first batch because I used all 5oz even though I only had around 4 gallons at bottling. What temperature are you storing the bottles at?
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Mar 19, 2012 13:56
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internet celebrity posted:5oz is enough to get good carbonation on batches up to 5 gallons. I actually severely overcarbed my first batch because I used all 5oz even though I only had around 4 gallons at bottling. What temperature are you storing the bottles at? Up until about a week ago I had my heat on, set for 65-70F. And they've been in bottles for 4, maybe 5 weeks at this point.
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Mar 19, 2012 13:59
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Sirotan posted:Up until about a week ago I had my heat on, set for 65-70F. And they've been in bottles for 4, maybe 5 weeks at this point. The only other thing I can think of is that maybe the priming sugar was not evenly mixed in the bottling bucket. Then again I'm still pretty new to brewing so take my advice with a grain of salt.
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Mar 19, 2012 14:29
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Angry Grimace posted:Skunkiness comes from UV light - regular incandescant bulbs don't produce appreciable levels UV light. Florescent lights do, but it's not nearly the level of say, sunlight. I wouldn't worry about it at all. If you say it's ready to bottle, you can figure out whether it tastes off or not by putting some in your mouth. I tend to worry about things a bit more than I should at times. I won't be bottling til maybe tomorrow, so I was just wondering whether I'd have to sit around for 2 days wondering whether or not my beer was gonna suck. Thanks for talking me down from the ledge!
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Mar 19, 2012 14:57
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Sirotan posted:How do I know how much priming sugar I should be using when I bottle? My first two batches I used whatever amount my homebrew store gave me, and that seemed to work great. Then my third kit I got from Northern Brewer came with 5oz of priming sugar, and after a month in bottles its disappointingly flat (among other issues). I just bought two more NB kits that also came with 5oz of priming sugar, how can I calculate whether this is enough? Some people will even say 5oz is 'too much' priming sugar. Assuming you're using corn sugar, it certainly should have been plenty. If it's bad enough you _could_ use those carb tabs to boost up the carbonation (Open all bottles, plop in half a tab per or whatever the directions say, then cap them all again), but that would be a ton of work (And may end up overcarbing the batch) What sort of bottles / capper are you using? Could it be there's not a great seal? Do you get that 'psst' when you open the bottle?
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Mar 19, 2012 16:43
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TenjouUtena posted:What sort of bottles / capper are you using? Could it be there's not a great seal? Do you get that 'psst' when you open the bottle? I just used the standard 12oz longnecks that I either bought or cleaned the labels off, with your run of the mill caps and a standard kit capper. I don't think it's my equipment since my first two batches using all of the above turned out great as far as carb level goes. There is definitely some pressure in there, I can hear it release when I open the bottles. But when I go to pour there is very minimal/zero head, and just nothing in the way of bubbling going on and it really affects the taste/feel of the beer. I'm not sure how I hosed it up, its got a really great banana nose to it, but its a bit sweeter than I'd like it to be and, of course, is also flat. I had it in primary for a bit longer than I intended, about 3 weeks, and I know I had issues during fermentation with keeping my temps constant, but I don't know enough to be able to say if any of the above contributed to the lack of carbonation. I might get some of the carb tabs and try it on a few bottles and see if it helps. Sirotan fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Mar 19, 2012 |
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Mar 19, 2012 17:20
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What did you clean them with? Could a little cleaner residue in the bottle have killed most of your yeast?
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Mar 19, 2012 17:26
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Splizwarf posted:What did you clean them with? Could a little cleaner residue in the bottle have killed most of your yeast? I actually just ran them through my dishwasher without any kind of cleaner (twice, actually, since the first night I got too tired to do it so I repeated the process the next day).
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Mar 19, 2012 17:27
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The trap often works as a sump, though; there's usually going to be a little liquid or at least residue from previous batches. Also, that won't clean the inside of a bottle very well (learned that one the hard way  ).
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Mar 19, 2012 17:32
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Splizwarf posted:The trap often works as a sump, though; there's usually going to be a little liquid or at least residue from previous batches. Also, that won't clean the inside of a bottle very well (learned that one the hard way I clean the bottles right after I use them so when I go to bottle, the dishwasher is just sanitizing them with the heat more than anything. I mean, if the problem had been the bottles, wouldn't I have inconsistent levels of carbonation? Since hypothetically they probably wouldn't all have contamination.
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Mar 19, 2012 17:34
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I agree that it'd be bottle-specific, so I'd be more inclined to guess a contaminant in the dishwasher. We've been sanitizing the bottles with a tool, the style where the bottle goes on upside down and pushing on it pumps sanitizer into it, right before the bottles are used (they dry on a bottle tree). Personally, I wouldn't trust a dishwasher for final sterilization. v v
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Mar 19, 2012 17:59
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I used an Oxiclean bath for my bottles. Cleaned out all the crud AND removed all the labels too! Then I did a hot water wash to get rid of any excess Oxiclean residue and they were go to be sanitized in star san when I needed them.
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Mar 19, 2012 18:16
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Splizwarf posted:I agree that it'd be bottle-specific, so I'd be more inclined to guess a contaminant in the dishwasher. We've been sanitizing the bottles with a tool, the style where the bottle goes on upside down and pushing on it pumps sanitizer into it, right before the bottles are used (they dry on a bottle tree). Personally, I wouldn't trust a dishwasher for final sterilization. v I've done dishwasher sanitation (Heated dry-style) for all my batches, and my carb problems have always been to do with the flip-top bottles not sealing correctly.
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Mar 19, 2012 19:03
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| # ? May 21, 2024 17:34 |
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FWIW I used to do dishwasher sanitizing on pre-cleaned bottles with no problems.
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Mar 19, 2012 19:34
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