blech

[b3s]

well, my latest beer to be bottled is just awful. i thought by adding more hops and using an ale yeast and dryhopping i could make a coors that didn't taste bad...

boy, was i wrong. this is awful! no off flavors, just doesn't taste good...at least i've got two cases of it :rolleyes:

otoh, my gravity got to 1.000!

[b3s]

aha!

upon reflection i know the problem. it's still a little green. guess it needs more bottle time.

[paul84043]

When I trnsferred my Arrogant Clone, I was not very happy with it, It was overpoweringly sweet and tasted nothing like Arrogant, but a few weeks later at bottlig time, it's some dang good stuff!

Time will mellow it out.

So, is this like a homemade Pale ale?

[b3s]

yeah. i used an american pale ale yeast, 10# of 6-row, and 1# of 20L. 1 oz. centennial for 60 minutes, 1 oz. fuggles for 15 minutes and dry-hopped 1 oz. of fuggles in the secondary.

definitely a good color, but it tastes WAY green.

today i racked my california common that i have extreme doubts about. someone knocked the airlock off and it was like that for about 10 hours before i checked it again.

[fuji6100]

I feel your pain. I just bottled a "crowd pleaser" light ale last week... more for my friends to turn them to the "homebrew side of the force" than for myself. I guess I got a little careless and forgot to check my bottling tubing carfully enough.

Today, 1 week after bottling, there is a white film floating on the surface of every bottle. Can we say MOLD! I had no signs of infection in the secondary, and it sat there for a good 12 days. My bottling bucket always gets a good strong soak before using, as well as the bottling cane and tubing. I guess I just had nasty residue in the tubing that couldn't be sanitized by soaking.

It was 7 months old anyway, so I tossed it. I guess that's a sign for me to not brew any extra light beers this summer :P

[b3s]

oh, i didn't make this as a crowd pleaser. i was going for an actual pale ale with a hoppy nose, but a very light color.

the beer has a weird film in primary, but i assume this to be hops that didn't get filtered out from brewing.

in my previous "what's wrong with my mashes" thread i'm strongly suspecting the grains...

[toneyc]

B3s, how does green beer taste? I think I may be having a similar problem with a Full Sail Ale clone that I kegged Sunday before last. I had a glass last night and ug, it tastes like dish soap. Yuck. I figured I would let it sit another week or two and see if it improves. I kegged a batch of Altbier at the same time and it turned out GREAT! I think it's the best beer I've brewed yet. I'm starting to sweat it now, though, I might run outta beer!

:eek:
Toney.

[YamahaXS]

What kind of yeast did you use? Was it a 2nd or 3rd generation yeast that might of mutated?

I ask b/c 1) your FG is 1.000 2) you say it tastes like crap

I wonder if you didn't get some wild yeast in there or something...

maybe what you are tasting are Tannins?

I dun know, just trying to be helpful. I hope it mellows for you. let us know.

[Fast_Eddy]

Originally posted by b3s
....
today i racked my california common that i have extreme doubts about. someone knocked the airlock off and it was like that for about 10 hours before i checked it again.

I bet this one will be fine as far as infection goes.

You have to remember that people do open fermentations with no problem. Also if it was in the secondary then the alcohol content was pretty high. Thirdly, the CO2 that bubbles the airlock also creates a bit of a current of CO2 moving away from the beer.

[ray m]

b3s...I do hope that, to whoever knocked the airlock off your calif. common, you imposed SEVERE physical penalties...:D

[fretlessman71]

OK, now you guys are scaring me. Stop it.

I'm still trying to get up the gumption (and the extra fund$; a little on the downtrodden side over here) to go get brewing stuff and get my feet wet, but I hear of all of these potential disasters and I get COLD feet instead. Not to mention that we have three meddling kitties who love to cause problems. Is there an easy way to make very small batches so when I inevitably screw something up the loss won't be so great?

[Fast_Eddy]

Don't let this scare you fretless - making beer is really,really easy and there is very little you can do to really screw it up.

Maybe apply a little duct tape to the bung on the airlock to prevent the kitties from knocking it off.

[Daren]

You can just put the box that the carboy came in over it when you ferment. It will keep out light and kitties.

[fretlessman71]

Originally posted by Fast_Eddy
Don't let this scare you fretless - making beer is really,really easy and there is very little you can do to really screw it up.

You haven't seen me try to make ramen soup yet, have you?:rolleyes:

Any of you do this in a small apartment? Is this really possible here?

[YamahaXS]

i started in a small apartment. Granted i had some basement storage closet space that was great for fermenting, but my first few batches stayed upstairs where i could watch them day and night.


You really should try it... look around in your area for a brewing club, you might find some cheap equipment that way. plus the face to face support that might ease your mind a bit.

[b3s]

Originally posted by YamahaXS
What kind of yeast did you use? Was it a 2nd or 3rd generation yeast that might of mutated?

I ask b/c 1) your FG is 1.000 2) you say it tastes like crap
[quote]

first generation yeast right from the tube.

it definitely tastes not done.

[quote]
maybe what you are tasting are Tannins?


that, too, is a possibility.

[b3s]

Originally posted by ray m
b3s...I do hope that, to whoever knocked the airlock off your calif. common, you imposed SEVERE physical penalties...:D

lol...i don't know who did it. currently my daughter, my fianceé's daughter, my fianceé, and i occupy this 1BR apartment...the only thing i know is that I did not do it!

[b3s]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
OK, now you guys are scaring me. Stop it.

I'm still trying to get up the gumption (and the extra fund$; a little on the downtrodden side over here) to go get brewing stuff and get my feet wet, but I hear of all of these potential disasters and I get COLD feet instead. Not to mention that we have three meddling kitties who love to cause problems. Is there an easy way to make very small batches so when I inevitably screw something up the loss won't be so great?

ok, to put you at ease...it takes a lot to ruin a beer!

to make small batches you could go with a 5-gallon primary and a 3-gallon secondary. do 3-gallon batches. just multiply all recipes by according ratio.

the nice thing about glass carboys...ok, yeah, the airlock fell off, but since CO2 is heavier than air and the neck of the carboy is narrow, not too many worries.

[b3s]

Originally posted by YamahaXS
i started in a small apartment. Granted i had some basement storage closet space that was great for fermenting, but my first few batches stayed upstairs where i could watch them day and night.

same here. but i put the stuff in a small utility closet in the bathroom (which is just about dead-center of the building) which has the hot water heater in it. temperature does not flucuate much, no light, etc.

the only issue is that the suspected short-people drop a roll of toilet paper from the shelving, retrieve said TP, but don't bother to make sure they didn't knock the airlock off.

i think i will install another shelf specifically to block such mishaps.

[yonkersbrewer]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
You haven't seen me try to make ramen soup yet, have you?:rolleyes:

Any of you do this in a small apartment? Is this really possible here?

You have two valid excuses not to brew and two excuses that I will explain away for you.

No money - cannot argue with someone that doesn't have the cash right now. Good reasoning - take on this hobby when you have the dough. On the other hand cut back on beer for a couple of weeks and see if you don't have the $50 - 75 needed to start.

Can't cook or are a total klutz in the kitchen - stay away from homebrewing! A certain facility in the kitchen is a good thing to have as a base skill if you are going to work with gallons of hot liquids and complex recipes.

Cats? I brew with one cat. I put bags or aluminum foil on things that I don't want it to investigate. I sternly remind it that cats are the "other other white meat" (pork being the "other white meat") and that it is dinner if it messes with the brewing. Besides I sterilize everything anyway so we have a cleaner kitchen for beer than for any other meal!

Space in an apartment? I brew with a mini-brew set up from Austin Home Brew (if memory serves) that I like because it makes half recipes. The brewing/bottling bucket fits into the kitchen sink perfectly I use the same stock pot, well washed, that I use for my other cooking. The fermentation is in a corner of the dining room. Storage is a bit funky with some stuff in boxes in the bedroom and cases of beer bottles in the hallway corner outside of the kitchen but not a big deal.

If you want to and can pull togehter a couple of bucks you have no excuses (except for that inability to make pre-cooked noodle soup - and you could work on that one bucko!).

Have a blast.

[b3s]

i guess i would like to comment on the cash thing as well.

so far i have brewed 35 gallons of beer. that comes to just about 70 cases.

i have purchased just under $300 of equipment and just about $300 of ingredients.

600/70 = $8.57 per case.

i think you can get a case of natural light for that price, but i also happen to think my beer tastes better.

[YamahaXS]

hate to do this, b3s, BUT 35 gallons of beer is only about 14 cases.

[Fast_Eddy]

1 Case = 2.25 gallons - (24*12)/128


35 gallons = 15.56 cases

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by Fast_Eddy
1 Case = 2.25 gallons - (24*12)/128


35 gallons = 15.56 cases - lost beer in trub = about 14 cases :D

[Fast_Eddy]

Good point :)

So you figure about .5 gallons lost per 5 gallon batch? That's probably a pretty good avg number.

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by Fast_Eddy
Good point :)

So you figure about .5 gallons lost per 5 gallon batch? That's probably a pretty good avg number.

yep. For me, .5 gallon is on the high side, but if I have a lot of fallout due to not straining out hops or something then 1/2 gallon is about right. Some people lose beer through the blowoff tube in primary too.

[b3s]

all i can say is DOH!

guess that's what i get for trying to do math while drinking homebrew and cooking and having 3 other people yap at me at the same time!

yeah, 2 cases per batch not per gallon.. my total dollars were way off (i.e. over actual expenditure) as well.

what i was trying to get at is that i'm making good beer for less than i can buy bad beer for...and that remains true no matter how messed up my post was ;)

[Fast_Eddy]

I agree with everything you said (including trying to post and do math with people yapping at you) ;)

-Eddy

[toneyc]

Money thing: agreed. I used to drink a lot of Guinness at about $8-9 per six-pack. Now I'm stretching my yeast and have my recipe prices down to around $17-18 each, roughly a quarter of what it would cost me for 2 cases of Guinness.

On the complex cooking thing: yeah, I'm a pretty simple person and sometimes I forget the Irish Moss/Whirlfloc but I haven't ruined a batch through bad cooking, yet!

:)
Toney.