Is my beer OK?

[OrionBrew]

Hi everyone, I am a first time brewer and first time poster. I guess you see this question a lot, esp. from a first timer, so I will give you some background.

I am crafting an American Brown and it is currently in the secondary. Its a mini-mash and I used White Labs Calif. V Ale . My OG read 1.080 with corrections; some testing revealed the hydrometer was off -.003 with H2O. Anyway, I broke it accidentally, and was never confident of its results.

I had what seemed to be a good fermentation. At peak, I was seeing 4 BPS on my airlock. And it slowly tapered down. It stayed in the primary, a better bottle 6gal, for 9 days. When I got back from a weekend out of town, it looked like it was ready for the secondary. I needed to move the primary to a different room for the transfer. So there was a bit of agitation to the beer. Also, I removed the airlock/stopper, and covered the hole with saran wrap. The BB warps and I was afraid of pulling the air lock water in.

The racking went well, although at first there was some air in the line. I dry siphoned it. Then took a sample for reading and it was 1.010 with my new hydrometer. Well it was right on the mark, and I figured my OG reading was flawed. I tasted a sample and it tasted like warm flat beer, even the off flavors weren’t bad. I added some cool boiled water to get the mix up to 2 inches of the top of the secondary, a 5gal better bottle. I think I made a mistake here as I just used a funnel and the water splashing surely added air to my beer. This bottle got carried back to the fermentation room with a saran rap top andthen the air lock was reapplied.

After a day in the secondary, I noticed the airlock has risen. I figured this was a good sign as I was now worried about oxidation, from my careless splashing. You are probably wondering what is wrong. OK, it has been in the secondary for 6 days now. I am still seeing small C02, I think, and a few bigger ones. Some of the bigger ones carry muck from the bottom. I am hoping this from a new yeast bed. The airlock has risen in activity from yesterday from once every 15min to once every 11min. Why is it increasing if my SG was right on the mark? I’m hoping that I did not aerate enough the first time and by adding some air I roused a stuck fermentation. However, I am doubtful due to that SG.

Anyway, I’m a total beginner and perhaps I should RDWHAHB.

BTW, I was very adamant about my sanitation.

[corkybstewart]

Anytime you agitate your beer, like moving it from the floor to a shelf or racking to a new container, you can rouse the yeast and they'll get busy again. Also you'll see CO2 come out of solution, thus it starts bubbling again. Take another hydrometer reading in a few days. If its still at 1.008-10 let it sit 2 weeks and bottle. Unless it starts foaming visibly its just the yeast finishing its job. If it does start foaming you may possibly have an infection. But I doubt that.

[markaberrant]

Don't top up your secondary carboy with water. Ever. Save that procedure for wine.

[danno]

Mark and Corky are spot-on with their advice...

I'd say the chance of it being an infection is remote at best, because fermented beer, with it's low pH and alcohol, is an extremely inhospitable environment to bacteria. so unless your dog brought you your funnel after digging up a dead rabbit in your yard, I'd say it's just roused yeast and co2 coming out of suspension from the move... second worst case is you did get some air into your beer, and you'll have some premature staling/oxidation. just drink the batch fast and it won't be a problem. (it's your first batch, of course it's gonna go fast...)

I appreciate that you did a partial mash your first time out, nothing like jumping in with both feet. go download the free trial copy of ProMash (http://www.promash.com/) and plug in your ingredients. it will give you a calculated OG, you can enter your FG and see you you did with fermentation and alcohol percentage.

and welcome!

[OrionBrew]

Originally posted by danno

I appreciate that you did a partial mash your first time out, nothing like jumping in with both feet.


I have a coworker who brews, competitively. He suggested I start with a partial/mini-mash. He is the AHA cidermaker of the year, and he is helping me out, mostly with questions. Unfortunately he is not available this weekend.

[OrionBrew]

Thanks for the support, I was a bit worried.

The activity looks like it peaked this morning at a bubble every six minutes. It is now showing signs of slowing.

I took a sample for reading and it is at 1.008-9. It tastes OK. No medicine or sour flavors, but after the sample sat out for a while, you could really pick up on the esters and alcohol. That OG may have been correct. Wooh! It’s not near as bitter as when I transferred to the secondary. I used N. Brewer/Halleratau cross for bittering, 1oz for 1 hour. I wanted this to be on the bitter side. Any ideas?

[danno]

leave it for a couple of weeks, then bottle. carbonation has an interesting way of bringing out flavors and aromas...

[Mill Rat]

It's been said many times before that you cannot expect your green beer to taste like the finished product. You can, however, calibrate your taste buds to what both fresh wort and green beer should taste like. I recommend tasting your hydrometer samples at every opportunity to train your taste buds. They, like no other instrument affordable to a homebrewer, can help you fine-tune you beer-in-process to become what you want it to be. I'm confident that this is how professional brewers judged their product through the entire process before QA labs became the norm. Even now, the final QA step at most, if not all, breweries is the tasting panel.

[OrionBrew]

Originally posted by Mill Rat
It's been said many times before that you cannot expect your green beer to taste like the finished product.

Thanks, I have never tasted a beer through its entire process before. Its been fascinating so far.

[OrionBrew]

Well, the activity did not really ever slow down during the entire last week in the secondary. I was still seeing a bubble every 6 or so minutes. I went ahead and bottled, because the SG only dropped .001 or less in the last week.

What ever the reason for the activity, I suspect the beer will be ok. I was fairly clear, appropriate color and did not have any overwhelming off flavors. The body and hops aroma were weak, but I suspect conditioning will help this. Every now and then, when I was handling the sample, I thought I smelled some medicinal flavors in it. However, they were very weak and, for me, impossible to purposely smell them. Hopefully the conditioning will not bring these out, if my nose was not fooling me.

I am planning on sampling a bottle at week one and week two. I will let you all know how it turns out. I will also have a few judges and brewers give me some feedback. Maybe they will uncover a flaw that tells why the activity was prolonged.

Lessons learned, so far
1. Patients - this should be easier as I will now have some experience and will be over the first time jitters.
2. Need consistent fermentation temperature - I am building a Son of a Fermentation Chiller, until wife gives ok for freezer
3. Need to cool the wort faster. Ice water in the tub was worthless. Will build copper coil wort chiller, and obtain a small tub for ice efficiency.
4. Siphoning is not my strong point. Although I learned a few tricks to make it easier, it was still too difficult and potentially an area for infection. Get an auto siphon.
5. Be more careful when adding liquid to the beer (splashing)
6. Try not to carry full carboys across the entire house. This will not be a problem once I have the Chiller.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by OrionBrew
4. Siphoning is not my strong point. Although I learned a few tricks to make it easier, it was still too difficult and potentially an area for infection. Get an auto siphon.


A sanitized turkey baster will save you the cost of an autosiphon, which contains more parts & surface area to sanitize. Just remember to squeeze the bulb beofre you connect the batser to the tubing on your racking cane.

[OrionBrew]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
A sanitized turkey baster will save you the cost of an autosiphon, which contains more parts & surface area to sanitize. Just remember to squeeze the bulb beofre you connect the batser to the tubing on your racking cane.

Great idea. I'll try some dry runs with water. I may need a bigger baster though. The one I have isn't even sufficient to fill my hydrometer tube in a single taking.

[Mad Scientist]

That 3/8" tubing does not hold much volume, a regualr sized turkey baster from Wally-world should be fine. I think mine was $1.50....

[OrionBrew]

I didn’t have much success with the baster. I’m afraid my bulb lacks sufficient pressure; it will only partially inflate, and the water would only make it to the top of the tube.

However, the base of the baster fits nicely into the hose. I can easily mouth that and fill the tube and hose.
:cool:

[OrionBrew]

I sampled a one week old bottle this weekend. It seems to be coming along nicely. I’m thinking of entering it in the Dixie Cup as a first time entrant.