Help - I want to know if my beer has gone bad - Also how to increase Final Grav

[Ellminio]

Hi All

I was wondering if someone could advise me on if my beer has gone bad or not - I cracked open the bucket to take a look after 16 days and this is what I saw.

Also the final grav is 1.010 - OG 1.066 - I was wondering if its time to bottle / how to increase Final Grav to 1.014 - 16 for a 6.3% APV

And I was wondering if my 2 day old was looking ok - Which is the darker brown image

Thank in advance

 

[day_trippr]

If that is a floating hop bag I don't see anything worrisome.
For upping abv you could add corn sugar...

Cheers!

 

[bruce_the_loon]

As day_trippr said, if that is a hop bag, then it looks fine. That is happy yeast floating around.

If I understand correctly, you want an %ABV of 6.3%. Now with the original and final gravities you have, you have 7.35% ABV, so in order to reduce the % alcohol, you'll have to dilute the beer since you can't easily unmake alcohol. You could use pure water to dilute the beer down, but it will likely make the body of the beer thin and watery, others use lower %ABV beer to dilute down without damaging the body, but that might affect hop flavours if the beers aren't a close match. You'd have to experiment a bit with different low/no alcohol dilutants to find what works best.

There is a dilution calculator at Alcohol Dilution Calculator | Wine, Beer, Tincture that will give you the dilution volumes needed based on the %ABV of the two liquids being mixed.

 

[Ellminio]

Thank you both - Yes that is the hop bag - I was being super carful and sanitized everything thoroughly as much as I could. I didn't have anything to weigh it down - Think ill use shot glasses or buy some glass marbles.

Well I suppose keeping it strong wont be so bad haha - I would rather keep it as is than mess with it too much and loose the flavour.

I was wondering what could of been the main causes for the higher ABV - It was a Brew Monk - Hoptimus Maximus kit - I think at certain points I heated too much as I didn't have a good thermometer and it may have been 5-10'c over the recommended - Other than that I was keeping track of morning / afternoon temps on the outside of the bucket - Recommended Temp for Yeast was 23'c - It hit that on Day 2 but after that - The last 14 days its been on average around 20'c.

Thank you again and have a nice Christmas.

 

[bruce_the_loon]

if you didn't hit the mash temps exactly, then you could have made it more fermentable than predicted. Too low on the 72°C stop or too long at the 62°C stop, would lead to the wort being more fermentable than the indicated ABV. Also how fast you are capable of heating the mash from one stop to the other will affect it as well.

Is it stable over a couple of days at the 1.010? You don't want to bottle if it isn't stable.

Have a read of the following article to see how temperature in mashing affects your beer. The Brewer’s Window: What Temperature Should I Mash at?

 

[Ellminio]

I bought - Klarstien Kettle which goes up to 2600w - And a the cooling coil. I didn't really trust the temp gauge I was seeing so put it up a few 'c to compensate - I have now bought a new Thermometer which will go along with the kettles reading to be double sure of what readings I get.

I measured it 3 days ago and it was 1.010 - I am going to wait until Sat/Sun which is 3 weeks in the bucket and take another reading and then bottle? I have all sugar / bottles prepared.

Thanks for the link

 

[bruce_the_loon]

The rule of thumb for being ready to bottle is the same reading two days apart, e.g. Monday and Wednesday. If it doesn't shift in that time, then fermentation has stopped. In my experience, ale yeasts tend to finish within 10 days, but leaving it a longer helps to mature the flavour of the beer and allow most of the yeast to settle out.

I applaud you waiting sixteen days before peeking inside, a lot of novice brewers peek in constantly which can lead to either oxygen causing loss of flavour or infections which can either make the beer sour or ruin it completely.

How are you planning on bottling the beer? Straight from the fermenter bucket or transferred into a separate bottling bucket? If the former, then I'd suggest putting the sugar directly into the bottles before filling them as stirring the sugars into the beer will stir up all the settled yeast and hops and your beers will be full of it which will affect the taste.

 

[Ellminio]

I think it was Day 3 I sprayed the lid with cleaning solution cracked it open and threw the dry hop bag in then closed it for the remainder until today.

I was planning on trying to filter it out into another bucket with a filter bag / or something that has a high micron filter to clear it all out as much as I can - Then Siphon that then direct into bottles which will already have pre-weighed sugar inside - which took me a while yesterday - weighed 2.4g sugar baggys ready to pour into bottles after I clean them again and rack dry them.

Truly appreciate the help - I want to make a decent IPA by end of next year

 

[bruce_the_loon]

Sounds pretty good, you seem to have the concepts down, the rest is just practice and care. If you have a no-rinse sanitizer like Starsan, then use it in the bottles a few minutes before you bottle, just drain it out as you start. If it isn't a no-rinse product, follow the instructions, but still sanitize the bottles after cleaning.

When you siphon, keep the outlet of the pipe at the bottom of the bucket you're siphoning into, once it is under the beer in the bucket, the amount of oxygen taken into the beer is minimized. You can't eliminate it, but letting it splash and bubble is not a good idea.

In the future, look at beer finings. These are additives that help the suspended material settle out and clump together. I use gelatin, you can get pre-packaged sachets like you get yeast or buy a box of unflavoured gelatin from the grocery store (normally in the baking section). About 5g into a 20-25 litre batch two days before bottling will do the job. There are others if you don't want animal-derived products.

Good luck and hopefully you'll have great beer.

 

[D.B.Moody]

I would rather keep it as is than mess with it too much and loose the flavour.

I think you should leave it alone, but maybe you could you add maltodextrin and some water to raise the gravity and not thin the beer.