Let me know what I've done?

[jonny24]

Hey everyone! Total newbie here, I've brewed just one extract brew so far thats actually not bad, a little bitter. I have everything for my next brew on Sunday. I came home tonight and got my pot out, and inside was a spare bag of Pilsen light DME and a package of yeast.

So, I threw together a 1 gallon batch with the Pilsen, .3 oz of Cascade pellets and half a pack of US-05 yeast. Its sitting in a 5 gallon bucket right now, hopefully fermenting away.

Does this seem like it should turn into anything good? In my head it seems like a simple, light ale that isn't especially hoppy. Or at least something drinkable.

I will admit, I may have had a few of my first batch

 

[Brulosopher]

I bet it'll be fine!

 

[kev211]

Sounds like it'll be good. The only thing I'd sorry about is the enormous headspace in that 5 gallon bucket. You basically have 4/5 of the bucket empty which is begging for an infection. You should be fine if you do the exact opposite of what every newbie (and even experienced brewers) wants to do... You need to keep that lod closed. If you do that you should be good. But it should taste good! Welcome to the hobby!

 

[jonny24]

Sounds like it'll be good. The only thing I'd sorry about is the enormous headspace in that 5 gallon bucket. You basically have 4/5 of the bucket empty which is begging for an infection. You should be fine if you do the exact opposite of what every newbie (and even experienced brewers) wants to do... You need to keep that lod closed. If you do that you should be good. But it should taste good! Welcome to the hobby!

That is something I'm a little worried about. I was going to split it into a bunch of mason jars, but a quick google found some results that said it should be ok. I guess we'll see Should I put my solid lid with no holes instead of the one with the airlock on it?

 

[GaBrewZoo]

NO!!! Don't do that. Unless you want your lid hitting the ceiling. Leave the airlock on, you're fine.

 

[kev211]

That is something I'm a little worried about. I was going to split it into a bunch of mason jars, but a quick google found some results that said it should be ok. I guess we'll see Should I put my solid lid with no holes instead of the one with the airlock on it?

Nope. Two reasons.
A. The pressure (assuming there are no leaks) would blow the lid off.
B. If it didn't blow off the lid there could be a massive amount of pressure which is not good for yeast health. They don't like pressure so they probably wouldn't attenuate as well. (But you did use half a pack of us-05 so you would prob be fine with attenuation).

Either way, air locks are one way valves so keep that thang in there

With the Mason jars you would need to vent them so don't use those.

 

[jonny24]

It's stopped bubbling for a few days, so I took a hydrometer reading and a taste. 1.020... and a strong alcohol smell and flavour. I'll leave it for a while and hope it turns into something drinkable.

 

[Mexibilly]

Should be good dude. I put 1 or 2 gallons of ~1.045 pale ale off my DIPA recipe grains in a 5 gallon carboy and it comes out fine.

 

[charliethebum]

Sounds pretty good to me what was your og? At any rate, you can be 100% sure you'll end up with BEER!

 

[andy6026]

Strong alcohol smell and flavor, you say?

It could be that your fermentation temperatures are too warm. Off the top of my head (you can look up the exact stats), US-05 likes to ferment at around 65-68 ferenheit. And that's the actual temperature of the beer, rather than the ambient room temperature. Fermentation can raise the temperature of the beer as much as about 10 degrees.

Sometimes allowing it to ferment too warm will give it a strong alcohol smell and flavor that can be unpleasant. Nor is it a flavor that ages out very well. I've gotten it a few times with US-05 and I didn't go far beyond it's range. The first few days of fermentation are the most important for temperature control - that's when the bulk of fermentation happens.

Let it ride out, and see what happens… you may well have made excellent beer. Or you may have learned a lesson. Either way, it's an excellent hobby and usually the more you do it, the better you get at it.

 

[jonny24]

Strong alcohol smell and flavor, you say?

It could be that your fermentation temperatures are too warm. Off the top of my head (you can look up the exact stats), US-05 likes to ferment at around 65-68 ferenheit. And that's the actual temperature of the beer, rather than the ambient room temperature. Fermentation can raise the temperature of the beer as much as about 10 degrees.

Sometimes allowing it to ferment too warm will give it a strong alcohol smell and flavor that can be unpleasant. Nor is it a flavor that ages out very well. I've gotten it a few times with US-05 and I didn't go far beyond it's range. The first few days of fermentation are the most important for temperature control - that's when the bulk of fermentation happens.

Let it ride out, and see what happens… you may well have made excellent beer. Or you may have learned a lesson. Either way, it's an excellent hobby and usually the more you do it, the better you get at it.

Yup, as soon as I started filling my tube I could smell it. Combo of hops and booze. The few sips I took the booze taste was stronger than the hop taste.

You might be right on it being too warm. I put it in my laundry room closet, where I put it for my first brew. My thoughts were that it was on an interior wall in a room where there isn't usually people so it should stay a stable temp. I'm not sure on temp though because my thermometer is with a 5 gallon batch in the basement. I seem to remember a mix of 60s and 70s from my first batch, I'll have to check my notes at home.

My first batch turned out fine, but maybe the furnace has been on more raising the ambient temp in the room.

Is it better to aim for the low end of the yeast's range, given that it will be higher in the centre of the bucket? I'm using Wyeast 1084 in my third batch (an Irish red) that's in my basement at 15-16 degrees (range for the yeast is 16-22). I though about moving it somewhere warmer last night but decided I'd rather avoid moving it.

 

[andy6026]

I'd leave the 3rd batch (with Wyeast) exactly where it is... the low end of the yeast's range is exactly what you want. 1 degree lower won't make a noticeable difference - usually when slightly lower it will just take a little longer to ferment. Usually at the lower end of a yeasts range you typically get a cleaner taste. But not always - each yeast has it's own characteristics. In the future if you ask on here about particular yeasts, some of the very experienced brewers can tell you how the variations in temperature typically affect it.

If you do find that temps are creeping warmer than you want them to (and it's the first 3-4 days that's crucial), search for the term 'swamp cooler' in these forums. It has a terrible name, but is a simple and effective method of keeping ferm terms down when you can't otherwise reasonably control the room temperature to suit the beer's preference.

Edit: Once initial fermentation is done (best determined by a gravity reading), if you're hoping to drink it sooner rather than later you can move it to a warmer location and the warmth with help the yeast to 'clean up' the esters in the beer a bit faster. Otherwise you can just leave it where it is. Most people recommend being anal and checking the gravity 2-3 days in a row to tell if its done, but if I'm familiar with the yeast I'm using I usually just give it 2-3 weeks in the fermenter and then go ahead and bottle it.

 

[jonny24]

Took another reading today. Still at 1.02 so it seems to be done fermenting. The stong smell/taste is still there, although now I'd say its getting into vinegar territory. Not a lot of hope for it now but I don't need the bucket for a while, so I'll let it sit.

An online calculator tells me that 1.05 to 1.02 should give me about 3.94% abv. So maybe I was confusing the vinegar with alcohol?

 

[andy6026]

strong alcohol smell/taste... and now vinegar?

These are not desirable smells/tastes. And a gravity of 1.020 is higher than normal too, although I haven't plugged numbers into an actual calculator. Your large head space is also far from ideal.

Seems like there's a lot of this not quite right with this brew.

May I ask why you decided to do a 1 gallon batch in a 5 gallon (6.5?) bucket? In the future you should either do 5 gallon batches or use a much smaller bucket.

 

[jonny24]

strong alcohol smell/taste... and now vinegar?

These are not desirable smells/tastes. And a gravity of 1.020 is higher than normal too, although I haven't plugged numbers into an actual calculator. Your large head space is also far from ideal.

Seems like there's a lot of this not quite right with this brew.

May I ask why you decided to do a 1 gallon batch in a 5 gallon (6.5?) bucket? In the future you should either do 5 gallon batches or use a much smaller bucket.

I looked at my hydrometer again and it was actually 1.002. D'oh!

I threw together a 1 gallon batch because I had 1 bag of DME, 1oz of hops, an extra pack of yeast and nothing to do one Friday. My first batch was a 5 gallon that turned out okay, and my next one is 5 gallons that's almost done fermenting and tastes quite good.

If I decide I want to do more 1 gal batches in the future I'll look into getting some appropriately sized vessels. As it stands, this was just using some leftovers so I'm totally okay with it being a loss. Maybe I'll see if I can distill the alcohol out of it or something.

 

[andy6026]

Ha! it's good you're not married to this batch. But who knows - it may give you an idea of that type of hop in isolation.

1.002 is really far the other way, but given that you don't have any specialty grains in the mix, perhaps it's reasonable. Ride it out and see what happens.

 

[signpost]

That huge headspace is no indication of risking an infection. It really only is an indication of a good chance of oxidizing your beer.

Opening the fermenter numerous times IS a big indication of a risk of infection. Don't do it. Especially for a small batch. Just let it sit.

If you did a 1-gallon batch, how are you taking the gravity readings? Are you taking huge samples into a hydrometer tube? Are you then tasting/dumping those samples? Or are you dumping them back in.

Tasting mostly booze/alcohol and not much hops could be a sign of a hot fermentation. But it could also be a sign that you didn't use a lot of hops. Unless you are used to tasting beer at various points in the brewing process, try not to make assumptions about what it is supposed to taste like. Assuming it will simply taste like 'beer' at all points in the process can easily color your perceptions of what you are tasting, so that your descriptions aren't even actually helpful for more experienced brewers. Maybe you tasted something that is perfectly normal, but then described it in a way that off-flavors or fermentation problems are often described. That would be a one-way ticket to freaking out about a screwed up batch of beer.

Also, mason jars for fermenting? No. Don't do it. Ever. High pressure can cause problems for yeast. But it can cause even bigger problems for glass. Like explosive problems. Unless you want to come home some day and find shards of glass and partially fermented beer all over the place, don't try to ferment in mason jars.

Your laundry room might not have people in it on a regular basis, but I guarantee that if you did laundry at any point the temperature in there is going to be higher than you want for fermenting beer. Unless you do a cold water wash and no-heat drying.

The basement temp is a much better option.

Anyway, it's good this potentially ruined/potentially still fine batch of beer was just a small batch with ingredients you didn't even realize you had before deciding to brew it. That's is a great opportunity to learn without the upset of dumping a ruined 5-gallon batch, or suffering through drinking a 5-gallon batch of not very good beer.

Well done. You got drunk and decided to do something that can potentially keep you from making big mistakes.

That is better than a lot of drunk people do.

 

[jonny24]

That huge headspace is no indication of risking an infection. It really only is an indication of a good chance of oxidizing your beer.

Opening the fermenter numerous times IS a big indication of a risk of infection. Don't do it. Especially for a small batch. Just let it sit.

If you did a 1-gallon batch, how are you taking the gravity readings? Are you taking huge samples into a hydrometer tube? Are you then tasting/dumping those samples? Or are you dumping them back in.

I've been taking them out through the tap at the bottom of the bucket into my hydrometer tube, and pouring a bit from the tube into a glass to taste. The rest from the tube I poured back into the bucket. I did the same thing for my red ale the other day, except it was delicious so I drank the whole sample instead of putting it back .

Don't worry, I wasn't about to make yeast powered glass bombs! I had been thinking tin foil with a few holes on top, but figured that fruit flies would for sure get in and went with the bucket.

I'm thinking I'll bottle it up on the weekend and forget about it for a while. I'll my red ale to keep me occupied.

 

[jonny24]

So I bottled up some of it this weekend. It smelled a little less vinegar-y and a bit more... bready? Who knows. We'll find out in a month or so.