Introduction and first brew - piss beer!!?

[philology]

Hey all! Just joined the forum and thought I'd do a proper introduction.

I'm a bit lucky, I got into the game courtesy my father-in-law TheWeeb; he was in town, so I got the distinct advantage of getting all my supplies and doing my first brew with a real expert instead of with a book instruction! He had a few suggestions from the kit instructions, and it's fermenting away in my garage at a (fairly steady) 65 F.

I went with the Dead Guy kit from Rogue brewing.. after all the cooking, it had an OG of 1.060. Five days in and I've just measured the gravity, looks like 1.016, already! I'm surprised by how much it dropped so quickly - they yeast was pretty active and the airlock was bubbling with about an hour after aeration. Interestingly, I'm not seeing any bubbling now - I know the whole "airlock activity is not necessarily an indicator of yeast activity", but I wonder if it's essentially done fermenting already?

I did take a taste from the hydrometer sample I took, and it tastes just like warm piss beer. If I closed my eyes, I'd swear it was Keystone Light. I mean no offense to 'American Lager' fans, but I'm not one. I'm hoping the taste gets more sophisticated as it ages, especially in the bottle.

Am I being deluded? I'm glad I don't have any of the odd flavors mentioned in "How to Brew" (astringency, apple/cider, dicetyl, etc) and no hairy mass growing up top - brewing with an expert we were religious about sanitation!

I'm hoping for a stronger IPA taste.. the color looks right, but the flavor is almost nothing .. just "generic beer" flavor..

 

[KepowOb]

How much hops did you use, and when did you put them in your boil?

Edit: Better yet, what was the complete recipe?

 

[DSorenson]

Your observations do not really surprise me. Brewing is a very weird hobby in that time and patience are key ingredients. something that doesn't taste quite right 5 days after kick off can taste immensely different in 5 more weeks.

Fermentation for me wraps up around 1.010 usually. From that we can safely say your beer is wrapping up in the next few days. What is important to keep in mind is that the yeast will be providing another service after the sugars are consumed; which is generally referred to as "cleaning up". This involves the the yeast breaking down byproducts of various yeast activities that were going on in the first week of fermentation.

As for a stronger IPA flavor... I never really saw the Dead Guy as any sort of IPA. But it is a great beer! If the kit sets you up right, I believe you will have a good beer when it's all over.

Before I forget.... Welcome!

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

It will taste better once it is cold and carbonated. Warm flat beer is always worse than cold and carbed beer

 

[BigFloyd]

It's kind of hard to judge what the final flavor is going to be like at this stage. You ought to let it go in the primary for at least a couple weeks and then see if you've got a couple of steady hydro readings.

I just happened to install into my keezer a corny keg if Dead Guy clone (Yooper's recipe w/ WLP011) earlier today. It tastes great. Malty up front with a nice touch of hop spice at the finish. Nothing like the fizzy yellow horse wizz you can buy down at the corner gas station.

 

[homebrewdad]

Flat, warm, green beer in a fermenter often tastes very little like aged, carbed, cold beer. It's very common to hear people complain about their bland, watery, weird tasting beer.

Leave it alone for a couple of weeks. Bottle it, leave it alone for three more weeks. Chill a bottle for a day or so, and if it's not vastly improved, I'll eat my hat.

 

[BansheeRider]

Boggles my mind when I hear about people taking gravity readings within the first week. I know it's a newbie thing and patience is a skill one must acquire in home brewing. Patience is key.....give it 3 weeks in primary and take another gravity sample. I bet it'll taste better too.

 

[unionrdr]

At 5 days,only initial fermentation is done. It'll now slowly,uneventfully creep down to FG. then give it another 3-7 days to clean up fermentation by-products & settle out clear or slightly misty. Then prime & bottle. It'll taste way better when it's had a few weeks at room temp to carb & condition. Then a week in the fridge,maybe two. You'll be giving it a chance for any chill haze to form & settle. And get more co2 into solution for better carbonation & head. Patience will be rewarded!

 

[mbach72]

Like these guys have said, give it some time and don't expect flat, warm beer to taste like it will when it's cold and carbed. Also, as far a I know, Dead Guy is a Maibock so it isn't really ever going to taste like an IPA.

 

[BigFloyd]

Like these guys have said, give it some time and don't expect flat, warm beer to taste like it will when it's cold and carbed. Also, as far a I know, Dead Guy is a Maibock so it isn't really ever going to taste like an IPA.

They call Dead Guy a Maibock, but it's fermented using an ale yeast (Pacman). It's more like a malty amber using noble hops that doesn't fit exactly into any category. It is, however, a very nice tasting brew.

 

[philology]

Time to bottle! It looks like it's settled at 1.012 and tastes a HELL OF A LOT better than it did before - seems patience was key.

I managed to lose the instructions, and so I'm sitting here with (hopefully) enough bottles, the fermenting bucket, auto-siphon and hose, and a big bag of sugar. I can't seem to find online how much water to mix with the sugar to prep it (except "enough for the sugar to dissolve"). Shouldn't this be pretty precise? I don't want to water my beer down too much by using too much water.

Also - the homebrew store is pretty far out - is a bottling bucket absolutely essential? It seems I could mix the sugar mix into the fermenter and then siphon back out without huge issues? The "How to Brew" book recommends letting it sit for 30 minutes to resettle after putting the sugar in. Is this OK?

 

[unionrdr]

How to brew instructs the brewer to do that if they don't have a bottling bucket atm. I'd rather have a bottling bucket personally. It coast me 13 bucks to build one,which I show in one of my gadget videos on my youtube channel. I boil 2C of tap water in a small saucepan (mine's SS) for a few minutes to boil off the chlorine. Remove from heat & dissolve the weighed amount of dextrose into the water. Stir till the water goes clear again. Cover & cool down a bit before adding to the rising column of beer racking into the bottling bucket. This set up makes it easier to leave the majority of trub behind. you'll be bottling clearer beer right off the bat,giving less trub in the bottom of the bottles later.