Made a few mistakes, help?

[barkingtreefrog]

I've brewed wine in the past but haven't yet brewed any beer. The kit I bought had directions but they were difficult to follow. Long story short I put the priming sugar in my wart, will this mess up my beer? It's a hefeweizen btw.

Also, the guy at the homebrew shop told me I should move in to the secondary after 2-3 days or when the airlock is only bubbling once every 30 minutes or so. I followed these instructions but now I'm left wondering how long I need to keep the beer in the carboy before bottling.

Thanks for the help!!

 

[d3track]

The priming sugar won't hurt, don't worry about it at all.

You're going to get the string of "your beer is done when you get two consecutive hydrometer readings that are the same" (this is totally correct).

I'm a little surprised he told you to secondary a hefe, a traditionally cloudy beer

 

[grem135]

I'm even more surprised he told you to secondary after 2-3 days. I leave my wheats for 14-21 days then bottle. No secondary.

 

[BigFloyd]

I'm even more surprised he told you to secondary after 2-3 days. I leave my wheats for 14-21 days then bottle. No secondary.

+1. No way I'd want to move a beer to secondary after just 2-3 days. You deprive a large percentage of the yeast the opportunity to finish eating the fermentable sugars and then clean up the beer by eating the normal by-products of fermentation.

Next time you see him, ask him to explain to you why you'd even want to secondary a hefe in the first place. To clarify it? LOL. If he starts pontificating about the risk of autolysis if you leave it on the cake, you can pretty much disregard his advice from now on.

Once you begin to gain an understanding of the process (being here is a good first step in the right direction, btw), you will likely abandon the secondary for all but a very few types of beer. I typically primary 2-3 weeks, cold crash (in the primary) 5-7 days at 35-36*F, then keg or bottle.

 

[barkingtreefrog]

Thanks for the help everyone!!! I guess the next question is, is this batch ruined?

 

[freisste]

I doubt it's ruined. Worst case is a stuck fermentation or under attenuation.

 

[bbohanon]

Dd you take any original gravity readings and any follow up gravity readings to see if you hit anywhere close to your recipes suggested final gravity?
This is your indicator if the batch did not ferment out enough before you moved it to secondary.
Were it me, I would take a gravity reading. If its high, you can always pitch more yeast in the secondary and let it finish fermenting out there. It's pretty dang hard to get to the point of no return with a batch of beer. To me, it's much more resilient than wine making mistakes.
Take a reading and see where your batch is sitting gravity wise first before you pitch any more yeast or pitch the batch in the trash.

 

[k_mcarthur]

Never ruined, just not optimal perhaps. In the big biz they call "bright tanks" what we call "secondary". The only real reason for a "secondary" is to make the beer more clear, or in some instances adding fruit or other flavorings. I make wheat beers all the time and never "secondary", now my lagers on the other hand go into a "bright tank" for duration of lagering. Remember, never pour out a batch until you have tasted the final product over a few weeks. Even then I can always find a friend or neighbor who will take 5 gallons of free beer!

 

[bbohanon]

Another tip, head over to northern brewer and watch a few of their extract beer/all grain kit how-to videos as well. I used to watch them all the time when I first started brewing to make sure I was not forgetting a step. A lot of the recipes out there don't have very good instructions for first timers to beer making.

 

[barkingtreefrog]

The recipe (kit) I bought had no mention of SG as the guy who gave me the advise was uber proud that it was his and just said move it over to the carboy after 2-3 days. He could have been just trying to get me to buy more equipment since I said I didn't have a 5 gal, just the 6 for my wine.

I may just go ahead and put some more yeast in there. Should I cover it to protect from light since it's in my glass carboy?

A little off topic here, but k_mcarthur brought up flavorings in the secondary. My next batch I wanted to make a coffee porter. Would I want to do this in the secondary or add it to my grain bag when steeping before the boil?

Thank you so much everybody for being patient with me!

 

[barkingtreefrog]

Never ruined, just not optimal perhaps. In the big biz they call "bright tanks" what we call "secondary". The only real reason for a "secondary" is to make the beer more clear, or in some instances adding fruit or other flavorings. I make wheat beers all the time and never "secondary", now my lagers on the other hand go into a "bright tank" for duration of lagering. Remember, never pour out a batch until you have tasted the final product over a few weeks. Even then I can always find a friend or neighbor who will take 5 gallons of free beer!

Ha, well my worst case scenario is my father-in-law. His favorite beer is natty light, so if I even have a "bad batch" I'm sure it'll still taste better than his stuff. So I already have my "bad batch" plan covered.

 

[BigFloyd]

The recipe (kit) I bought had no mention of SG as the guy who gave me the advise was uber proud that it was his and just said move it over to the carboy after 2-3 days. He could have been just trying to get me to buy more equipment since I said I didn't have a 5 gal, just the 6 for my wine.

I may just go ahead and put some more yeast in there. Should I cover it to protect from light since it's in my glass carboy?

A little off topic here, but k_mcarthur brought up flavorings in the secondary. My next batch I wanted to make a coffee porter. Would I want to do this in the secondary or add it to my grain bag when steeping before the boil?

Thank you so much everybody for being patient with me!

Coffee should be added after ferment is done. Either as cold brewed liquid or whole beans.

I would refrain from adding more yeast at this point. Just let it sit another 3 weeks in the secondary.

Just about anything you brew, even your worst mistakes, will be better than what your father-in-law buys.

 

[barkingtreefrog]

I started to worry that this batch had become infected because I started to see large "things" rise to the top. It's still bubbling but after closer inspection the "things" look like yeast? So I think everything is going well. I could smell it through the airlock for the first few days, then nothing, now it's starting to smell again, a sweet fruit smell almost, so I think my hefe is doing well.

 

[barkingtreefrog]

Here's what has me a little worried:

And for fun, on the left is my hefe, middle is my coffee porter, and the right is a peach apricot wine that was racked off the crap on the bottom that has been bulk aging for about 3 weeks, I tried it the other day and it's much better than I anticipated.