Bad brew? Bad bottling?

[MrG]

A few questions for all the people more knowledgeable than me...

Just got into the hobby. I started with a BBS Summer wheat. When I bottled it, I had about half a glass left over, which I tried. (it was in the fermenter for 3 weeks.) It wasn't great.. but I figured through the magic of time and bottling, it might get better.
I opened the first bottle just after the 3 week mark (& after being in the fridge for 2 days), it was overcarbed and about a 1/4 of the bottle came foaming out. (I'm using the grolsch swingtop bottles.)

Opened a second one a few days later, less came out, and the taste was slightly better. I can't really say it tasted like 'beer'... just something very carbonated.

1) I still have five left, should I give them more time, say try one a week to see if the taste gets better? or is it a potentially lost cause?
2) I think I sucked up a lot of trub. Is that the nature of homebrewed wheat beer? or just the bad skills of a first time bottler?

My second batch is the Bruxelles Blonde, which I'm gonna bottle tomorrow.

3) Should I put the fermenter in the fridge overnight, take it out in the afternoon, then bottle when it's at room temperature?
4) My first batch, I used honey as the primer. I presume I'm okay to do the same.. just less of it?

5) Any other advice or something I might have missed?

Sorry for the long post, hopefully I didn't ramble too much..

 

[freisste]

A few questions for all the people more knowledgeable than me...

Just got into the hobby. I started with a BBS Summer wheat. When I bottled it, I had about half a glass left over, which I tried. (it was in the fermenter for 3 weeks.) It wasn't great.. but I figured through the magic of time and bottling, it might get better.
I opened the first bottle just after the 3 week mark (& after being in the fridge for 2 days), it was overcarbed and about a 1/4 of the bottle came foaming out. (I'm using the grolsch swingtop bottles.)

Opened a second one a few days later, less came out, and the taste was slightly better. I can't really say it tasted like 'beer'... just something very carbonated.

1) I still have five left, should I give them more time, say try one a week to see if the taste gets better? or is it a potentially lost cause?
2) I think I sucked up a lot of trub. Is that the nature of homebrewed wheat beer? or just the bad skills of a first time bottler?

My second batch is the Bruxelles Blonde, which I'm gonna bottle tomorrow.

3) Should I put the fermenter in the fridge overnight, take it out in the afternoon, then bottle when it's at room temperature?
4) My first batch, I used honey as the primer. I presume I'm okay to do the same.. just less of it?

5) Any other advice or something I might have missed?

Sorry for the long post, hopefully I didn't ramble too much..

1 - your call. There are a couple threads around here talking about how time heals all issues. I can guarantee that there are SOME issues that will not be fixed, but time can help. If you don't need the bottles, leave them filled for a couple months before you try another.

2 - Kinda depends on exactly the issue you are having. If you actually sucked up trub, then no, that is not just the nature of homebrewing. Be more careful and you won't get any. It does take some practice, though. If it is just that your beer is hazy, that is to be expected with a wheat beer.

3 - I wouldn't do any temp changes if you don't want, but it doesn't hurt if you do. Dropping the temp significantly can help drop solids out of suspension and result in a clearer beer. For I wheat I wouldn't.

4 - Honey is fine. Use a priming sugar calculator. Google should yield a couple. I personally like the northern brewer calculator, but you should play with a couple and decide what works for you.

5 - Be careful about sanitation and measure out priming sugar (or honey, DME, etc.) carefully. Make sure that your beer has finished fermenting. After that and a couple days in the fridge, you should not lose any beer to gushing bottles.

 

[MrG]

Thanks for the response!
1) I expect I'll space them out long enough to finish in time for when I'm ready for my next bottling session.

2) Yeah, I was trying to do it alone; next I'll get a helper to make sure the cane doesn't bump into the trub at the bottom.

3) okay, I didn't bother then.

4) Yep, I found some links in other threads. Thanks for the reminder.

Hopefully batch number 2 comes out better!