Your failed brews

JumpShivers

There's a thread here for planned brews but none (from what I can see) for failed ones.

I think a nice thread where people can post about failed brews of theirs and where they may (or may not) have gone wrong so other people can learn from their mistakes.

For Christmas, my boyfriend and I got a home fermenter and hops and yeast frok homebrew.ie and we put in the sugar with boiling water and hops (was like syrup stuff) and dissolved in 5 liters of boiling water then put in 20 liters more of boiling water and sprinkled in the yeast. We left for three weeks and bottled up. It was very flat at first but it carbonated in time and overall was a good batch.

However, next time, I ordered some "amber hops" from homebrew.ie and yeast and did the exact same, I left for the guts of four weeks and bottled it up, it's been close to three weeks now in the bottle in the fridge but alas, not fizzy.

Why does leaving it in the fermenter for so long result in mold like in the other thread, surely being in the bottle or the fermenter would be the same, assuming sterility.

BeerNut

JumpShivers wrote: »

dissolved in 5 liters of boiling water then put in 20 liters more of boiling water and sprinkled in the yeast.

20 litres of cold water, I assume. Adding yeast to boiling water will just kill it.

JumpShivers wrote: »

it's been close to three weeks now in the bottle in the fridge but alas, not fizzy.

Beer won't carbonate in the fridge. You need to leave your bottles at room temperature to carbonate.

Thundercats Ho

My first beer brew didn't go to plan (just now).
Carbonation after 1 week in the bottle was good and i was encouraged by that.
There was a slight tang to in though, but not knowing much about it, I expected this to lessen or disappear as the weeks passed.

One week later the beer had lost most carbonation (stored in my living room).
I agitated the bottles and left for another few weeks, but it was the same story.

I tried another couple on Saturday (5 weeks bottled) as this should be the right time to be cracking them open, but it was the same story (low carbonation and a slight tangy after taste).

It was a Coopers mangrove jack kit, and I followed the instructions to a tee.
Well except one I guess. I used 20 litres of tap water instead of bottled or filtered water.

I'm guessing using the tap (chlorinated at times) water, instead of filtered or bottled water would account for the tang, but can't think why the carbonation was so poor? especially as it seemed ok after week 1.

BeerNut

A leak in your bottles seems the most likely explanation there.

loyatemu

Thundercats Ho wrote: »

I'm guessing using the tap (chlorinated at times) water, instead of filtered or bottled water would account for the tang

probably not - if its ok to drink, it'll be fine for brewing.

Thundercats Ho

BeerNut wrote: »

A leak in your bottles seems the most likely explanation there.

They're new PET bottles, and I tightened them as much as humanly possible! so I doubt it's a leak.
Before I open them the bottles are quite firm when squeezed, but only give a small hiss when opened. A head does form for maybe 10 seconds or so, but then both the head and bubbles disappear, never to be seen again (well, the bubbles last maybe a minute or two).

loyatemu wrote: »

probably not - if its ok to drink, it'll be fine for brewing.

Ok,I wonder what it could be?

The only other thing I can think of is when I sanitised the bottles.
I sanitised as per instructions, but it required rinsing, and after i let the bottles dry off for an hour or two I just rinsed them in a large basin with cooled boiled water?

I didn't go with second fermentation and just left the beer alone for 4 weeks, but I don't think that's an issue, and from reading a few bits is actually preferred by some?

I've a wheat beer ready to go, and don't want a repeat of the first attempt.
fwiw, I made a cider batch with great results and followed the same principles, except there was no added water.

maybe i'll just chalk it down as one of those things.

_Brian

I went back and did a Canadian Blond kit as I'd done it in the past.. Didnt turn out as before, quite a yeast taste remaining and its probably 15/18 weeks bottled now.

The only change I made was to use malt extract rather than sugar.

Its drinkable, but not as nice.

macnug

Thundercats Ho wrote: »

They're new PET bottles, and I tightened them as much as humanly possible! so I doubt it's a leak.
Before I open them the bottles are quite firm when squeezed, but only give a small hiss when opened. A head does form for maybe 10 seconds or so, but then both the head and bubbles disappear, never to be seen again (well, the bubbles last maybe a minute or two).


Ok,I wonder what it could be?

The only other thing I can think of is when I sanitised the bottles.
I sanitised as per instructions, but it required rinsing, and after i let the bottles dry off for an hour or two I just rinsed them in a large basin with cooled boiled water?

I didn't go with second fermentation and just left the beer alone for 4 weeks, but I don't think that's an issue, and from reading a few bits is actually preferred by some?

I've a wheat beer ready to go, and don't want a repeat of the first attempt.
fwiw, I made a cider batch with great results and followed the same principles, except there was no added water.

maybe i'll just chalk it down as one of those things.

How much dextrose did you use to carbonate? I've always got a tang from kit beers so can't really help you there, could just be the kits.

RasTa

First kit beeer when I came back to Ireland. Some horrible looking packaging. I was using Mr Beer in Canada and those little things came with yeast. So I got the kit from HBC, no yeast. Ok then I'll just go to tesco and get some dry active yeast that was for bread.

Bye bye beer, hard to describe the taste bar undrinkable and bready.

Thundercats Ho

macnug wrote: »

How much dextrose did you use to carbonate? I've always got a tang from kit beers so can't really help you there, could just be the kits.

I used the carbonation drops.
1 per 500ml bottle which I thought should have been 1.5 ( as its 1 drop per 330ml bottle) but the instructions were for 1 drop per 500ml bottle.

masseyno9

Beer:Chili-Lime Pilsner
Lesson: Don't try to get too creative, especially when (in hindsight) it's kind of a ridiculous idea!

I was farting about with this one, trying to create something unique and summery. Some chopped chillies and lime zest and juice added in secondary. Left in secondary for far longer than usual (most likely a large part of the problem) because I just couldn't find time to bottle it. Bottled and the first few opened and poured ok, but tasted like just a bad recipe. Initial pleasant enough lime flavour, but followed up by chili heat and then an 'off' tang.

Left it a couple of weeks and opened another one - the cap and a good spray hit the ceiling and it wouldn't pour at all - just suds. Also tasted worse than before. Infected I'm assuming. I also think the acidity of the limes and oils in the chillies didn't help.

Not too upset about it. The way I see it is I was trying something that was a bit out there and it didn't come off. Since then successes include apricot ale, Lime pilsner and oatmeal stout. Not quite as outside the box, but still fun to make. Hoping to try something interesting in the next little while to have ready for July/August. I'm thinking something to do with berries.

macnug

Thundercats Ho wrote: »

I used the carbonation drops.
1 per 500ml bottle which I thought should have been 1.5 ( as its 1 drop per 330ml bottle) but the instructions were for 1 drop per 500ml bottle.

Yea should have been 1.5 drops per 500ml. If they are pet bottles throw some more in and give it another 2 weeks an see in some of them to see if its that.

Better off batch priming in future, its cheaper and you have way more control/consistency. I've always found that I could taste the dextrose in priming (cidery tang) so I used to batch prime with dme for best results.

Foydon

Guys I'm new to both home brewing and boards.ie by the way, and not sure if I have a situation or not with my second brew. It's a light ale.

Situation - made the brew as instructed and put it in the fermenter with the added water. Put on the cover with the Air lock but I never put water in the air lock. 24hrs later thought of the purpose of the air lock and immediately put water in the air lock. There is no movement from the wort. Temperature is a consistent 18deg.

Have I an issue and if I do is there something I should be doing ?

calnand

Did you rehydrate the yeast before adding it to the fermenter, or just pitch directly. Sometimes dry yeast when not rehydrated can be very slow to start.

macnug

Had my first failed brew this morning. Didn't take the cap off the thermometer so got lower readings than actual. After mashing the grains for an hour I realised my mistake, measured the wort to find out I had been mashing at 85c, enzymes gone at that stage. At least I caught it early though.

arayess

loyatemu wrote: »

probably not - if its ok to drink, it'll be fine for brewing.

My tap water can on occasion have a chemical taste. brewing with it only accentuates it . Even though the water tasted ok on brewing day 3 months later there was a slight chemical taste from the beer.

Filtered water for me from then on

macnug

Foydon wrote: »

Guys I'm new to both home brewing and boards.ie by the way, and not sure if I have a situation or not with my second brew. It's a light ale.

Situation - made the brew as instructed and put it in the fermenter with the added water. Put on the cover with the Air lock but I never put water in the air lock. 24hrs later thought of the purpose of the air lock and immediately put water in the air lock. There is no movement from the wort. Temperature is a consistent 18deg.

Have I an issue and if I do is there something I should be doing ?

Wouldn't have anything to do with the airlock anyway, that's just to let c02 out and stop oxygen from oxidizing the beer. What temp did you pitch the yeast at? 24 hours is still early though.

Foydon

calnand wrote: »

Did you rehydrate the yeast before adding it to the fermenter, or just pitch directly. Sometimes dry yeast when not rehydrated can be very slow to start.

I used a liquid yeast and did not rehydrate. If the best before date was March '15, would that be part of the issue ?

macnug

Foydon wrote: »

I used a liquid yeast and did not rehydrate. If the best before date was March '15, would that be part of the issue ?

Yea probably, did u do a starter?

calnand

Yeah that yeast is dead, you should pitch a yeast into it soon, the longer you wait the more chance it could pick up an infection.

Foydon

Thanks for the advise