Uh Oh

Donadea Leo

Hi everyone,
After some advice, attempted my first homebrew on Saturday - think I broke the cardinal rule, giving in to my inpatience - I used a Coopers IPA kit, didn't have malt extract so used brewing sugar along with it - wasn't sure how much to use so threw in 1kg bag with Coopers kit, hopefully that's not too much. Anyway made a mess of the yeast as had read in book to use preboiled water to rehydrate yeast - well unfortunately I threw in very recently preboiled water so I reckon I killed the yeast.

left it alone until yesterday and nothing happening, no foamy head or bubbles. I decided to throw in some more yeast, unfortunately all I had was bread yeast and to be fair it now looks to be doing what it is supposed to, I just want to ensure I don't poison anyone when it is eventually ready - any ideas how this is going to turn out - if it does go down the drain, at least I have learned a couple of valuable lessons.

Mr Benevolent

You won't poison anyone. Bread yeast may change the flavour slightly, but I've used it for mead and ginger beer, they both came out fine, if a little lower ABV then expected.

oblivious

Confab wrote: »

You won't poison anyone. Bread yeast may change the flavour slightly, but I've used it for mead and ginger beer, they both came out fine, if a little lower ABV then expected.

Bread yeast won't hurt anyone and as the above poster stated many of us use it.for ginger.beer.

Donadea Leo

Ok dumped my first batch of homebrew down the drain - just didn't taste right. it was ok ish initially but had an awful after taste - granted it was done yet but wasn't seeing much of an improvement. I put on a second batch yesterday so hopefully will have more luck this time - no activity as of this morning before work but guess it can take a little time to get going.

One question I have is what should it taste like before it is ready - I tasted it before pitching in the yeast and measured the gravity - it didn't taste unlike the last batch without the horrible after taste. Just curious as to how you know if its off.
Also took gravity reading and it was 1.030 which is exactly as it was last time which may be a strange coincidence - though it was a little warm - 29-30 degrees so probably need to adjust the reading, last time it was 22 degrees - and 1.030 - hoping this time it works!

engrish?

Donadea Leo wrote: »

Ok dumped my first batch of homebrew down the drain - just didn't taste right. it was ok ish initially but had an awful after taste - granted it was done yet but wasn't seeing much of an improvement. I put on a second batch yesterday so hopefully will have more luck this time - no activity as of this morning before work but guess it can take a little time to get going.

One question I have is what should it taste like before it is ready - I tasted it before pitching in the yeast and measured the gravity - it didn't taste unlike the last batch without the horrible after taste. Just curious as to how you know if its off.
Also took gravity reading and it was 1.030 which is exactly as it was last time which may be a strange coincidence - though it was a little warm - 29-30 degrees so probably need to adjust the reading, last time it was 22 degrees - and 1.030 - hoping this time it works!

I'm on batch number 9 at the moment so I am not an expert, but, from my experience - don't throw anything away until its had time to condition.

My first batch was an IPA - I hated it the first time I tried it which was a month after bottling. It just tasted like bad beer flavoured water. What I learnt was that I had it conitioning in too cold an area. I gave it a shake and put it in a warmer area. What it resulted in was a fine beer, not my favourite but my neighbour thought it was Christmas when he got 20 bottles of it. This took about 3 months to turn right.

My second was a pilsner. I made a balls of priming this, I added the sugar on top of the hops which I had added at a later stage and it ended up not very fizzy. I also made the mistake of conditioning in a cold area. I shook it, left it in a warmer place and this weekend I shared a few with some siblings who thought it was lovely. That was made in May, it was only nice in September.

I made a Ginger beer recently and I added too many lemons. I had a feeling it would be bad when I bottled it but I let it condition for a while and tried it. It would have been great but unfortunately it was just lemon juice with a hint of ginger. I chucked it but I chucked it months after it had time to mature. I learnt my lesson and made batch number 2 a few weeks ago. It tastes nice now but I know the flavour will be even nicer in a month or so when its been bottled. I am going to give it another week in the primary, then bottle, then drink at the start of November.

Finally, I have a Coopers Sparkling Ale in my primary right now. It smells like soggy beermat right now but in about 2 months I'm sure I will have my feet up by the fire enjoying the beer and I will feel like slapping my chest in front of my wife and saying "MAN MAKE BEER".

tl:dr Don't throw out your beer till you've given it a good long time to make itself tasty. The taste changes over time. You will nearly always end up with something drinkable and in the end you will learn from your mistakes.

PS - I've started doing a quick dry run before making a batch. It helps, sometimes you realise that you've left out something really obvious.

Donadea Leo

Ok 2nd batch has been fermenting for around 2 weeks - did a reading on the hydrometer and it was down to 1.06 - good stuff, also had a taste and to my great surprise and delight, it tasted pretty good - and its still flat and only going to get better.

I need to do a few more readings to see if its leveled off or further to drop but I was planning to rack to secondary for another week or two. Just wondering if its actually worth my while doing this or should I just bottle considering the hydrometer reading - I guess it will continue to clear in the bottles? Any thoughts -

I am planning on putting on a stout at the weekend and also I bought a 1 gallon demijohn so going to do a small batch of cider (I'm not a big cider drinker but if I do a small few bottles now I might enjoy them in the summer on a nice sunny day (forever optimistic I am).

NewDirection

engrish? wrote: »

I'm on batch number 9 at the moment so I am not an expert, but, from my experience - don't throw anything away until its had time to condition.

.......

tl:dr Don't throw out your beer till you've given it a good long time to make itself tasty. The taste changes over time. You will nearly always end up with something drinkable and in the end you will learn from your mistakes.

PS - I've started doing a quick dry run before making a batch. It helps, sometimes you realise that you've left out something really obvious.

I would wholeheartedly agree with this. I've been disappointed with most of my brews with the initial tasting for different reasons, but every time conditioning seems to rectify everything. Its like magic! Unfortunately I've most of the brew drank before it gets to its peak of tastiness.

Never throw out a brew until you've given it a chance for a couple of months to settle!