First "bad" brew

[Ster]

I tried (stupidly) to make a beer for the swine drinkers (bud/miller/coors). I bought midwest's "This Buds for You". Ooops.. Its a lager, and I don't have temperature control. So I put the 3.3 lbs pilsen LME and the 2lbs rice extract, and I added 1lb gold DME, and I put all the hops in the full boil for some flavor. I pitched safale 05. The result is a cloudy yellow sour ale that reminds me of lemon zest. Its not very good. I may throw limes in it and tell them its corona.

 

[meltroha]

I'm sure it turned out better than Budweiser, certainly couldn't be worse!

 

[CyberErik]

why undertake a lager without temperature control? I've already written off ever making one until I get the equipment.

 

[amandabab]

3.3 lbs pilsen LME
2lbs rice extract
1lb gold DME,
safale 05

nothing there should be cloudy or sour. the recipe looks crystal clear, mildly tasteless for 5 gallons
is all the equipment clean? did you give it time to clear?

 

[Ster]

Well... I thought recipe kits were always ales since that's where we all started.

I did not give it time to clear. Only about 10 days in the bottles. However, I always taste test my brews when I check gravity. This one is fully carbed, but the lemon rhine taste is horrible. I don't see it ever being drinkable. Id take a steel reserve 211 any day over this.

May dump it.

 

[kombat]

Where is the lemon flavour coming from? And "sour" suggests an infection to me. "Cloudy" will go away over time. The yeast (US-05) is a very clean ale yeast, it shouldn't have produced any overly fruity flavours.

What temperature did you ferment at?

 

[Ster]

No temp control. I ferment at 78ish with great results. No visible signs of infection.

This was the first brew that I added the LME @ flame out. So the boil was just light 10L grains and rice solids. Is that an error on my part?

 

[TheCroc]

How quickly did you cool the wort after flame out. The lme likely had some bacteria in it and if you brought the temp down below 180ish to fast then you did not kill the bacteria and that is likely what caused the infection

 

[Ster]

I immediately go from the stove to an ice bath for 10 min then another ice bath for 10 min. The LME was probably near boiling temp for 1 minute before the ice bath. This usually gets the wort to 120 degrees. Top off with refridgerated water and usually around 80F at that point and pitch yeast.

 

[kombat]

No temp control. I ferment at 78ish with great results.

There's your problem. You're fermenting WAAAAAY too hot.

You're tasting excessive esters and fusel alcohols. Ferment ales at 65 - 68, max.

 

[kombat]

The lme likely had some bacteria in it and if you brought the temp down below 180ish to fast then you did not kill the bacteria and that is likely what caused the infection

LME is pasteurized. Otherwise it would ferment while sitting on the store shelf, and the cans/tubs would be exploding left and right.

 

[Ster]

Well... living in florida... not sure how to get to 68 degrees. I don't even think a refridgerator can be set that high.

 

[telemore]

You could set up a swamp cooler... A big plastic container with water up to the wort, changing ice packs or frozen bottles of water as needed, like twice a day, to maintain that temp.

And it's cheap!

 

[petey_c]

Well... living in florida... not sure how to get to 68 degrees. I don't even think a refridgerator can be set that high.

You could partially submerge your fermenter in one of those "party" tubs filled with ice and water. If you don't want to use tons of ice, you can freeze
some soda bottles that have been partially filled with water and rotate those into the tub. Keep an eye on the water temp and keep it as close to your desire temp as you can.
dang, telemore beat me to it...

 

[rklinck]

Well... living in florida... not sure how to get to 68 degrees. I don't even think a refridgerator can be set that high.

You make a swamp cooler, which is just a fancy word for a water bath. If that does not get the temps down enough, freeze a few water bottles and add them periodically to get the temp down.

 

[kombat]

+1 on the water bath, but it seems nobody yet has mentioned covering the carboy in a wet-t shirt to help keep it even cooler. Aim a fan at it for even more cooling power.

Or get a $20 STC-1000 temperature controller and a $100 chest freezer off Craigslist.

But you've gotta do *something*, as 78° F is way, way, way too hot to ferment beer. It's going to taste awful.

 

[Darwin18]

No temp control. I ferment at 78ish with great results. No visible signs of infection.

Not to pile on, but I severely doubt that. 78 is far too hot to be fermenting almost any yeast strain at and still result in clean beer with no significant off-flavors. Invest in temperature control - it is easily (IMO) the most important part in producing consistent and quality beer.

 

[negativereaction]

If 78F is your room temps, chances are the wort was above 80F. Bad for fermenting anything except a saison or something. I'm in FL too, and ambient temps will not work unless maybe for a couple weeks in December

Like the above poster said, a $20 temp controller + a cooling device = great beer. If you don't have the room for a freezer, pick up an old kegerator off craigslist. You can fit 2 buckets into most of them. I have a couple I use specifically for lagering.

 

[Ster]

Wow.. that's a great idea.

I have a HUGE, empty, industrial sized freezer in the garage. I could probably fit 4 six-Gallon buckets in it. Would a temp controller work? Note: I said "freezer", not "fridge".

 

[kombat]

Yes, a temp controller will work fine with a freezer. It's actually preferred (because temp control on a fridge renders the freezer all but useless, and freezers tend to better accomodate carboy height w/ airlocks).

Just be aware that you'll likely also want one of those small, rechargeable dehumidifiers inside the freezer to control moisture on the inside walls.