Hey as the title says I brewed my first batch last night. I got a kit from midwest supplies This bud's for you. I thought that would be a good start. Anyways I had a couple of screwups I know about which is expected first brew. First I found out that my KM14 thermometer was broken after I started my brew. It went from 80 to 30 to -56 then to 140 then back to -13 so on so forth. I used another one which let me ballpark it but its not perfect I'm sure. Anyways next up I couldn't get the hop bags to sink not sure if thats a problem. After I finished brewing I threw it in my 6 gallon plastic carboy and threw on the blow off tube which I forgot to get a sample from. Next mistake is I couldn't get the temperature down from 72 so I blasted the ac and let it go for the night. When I woke up it was at 70 which still isnt good from what I read. So I did some research found that wine coolers work pretty good so I went out and bought one and going to get 2 stc-1000's for better temp control. Got it down to 68 and still going lower. Will that 12 hours ruin the batch? Also any pointers or tips would be great.
New to brewing some pointers and questions.
- Thread starter kimmeltk
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I'm not familiar with that kit, so can't be specific. But.....
Alot depends on what yeast you're using.
And unfortunately the 1st 24 hours or so are the most sensitive to high temps. It's when most of the fusels, phenols, diacetyl and aldehydes are produced. However your temps while not optimal, weren't horrible, depending on the yeast. Just make sure you keep your beer on the yeast cake for a good 2-3 weeks to cleanup their byproducts.
Alot depends on what yeast you're using.
And unfortunately the 1st 24 hours or so are the most sensitive to high temps. It's when most of the fusels, phenols, diacetyl and aldehydes are produced. However your temps while not optimal, weren't horrible, depending on the yeast. Just make sure you keep your beer on the yeast cake for a good 2-3 weeks to cleanup their byproducts.
Thank you for your quick reply. Like I said I knew there would be mistakes so I'm not worried if this comes out a little funky. I do have a question though you told me to make sure I keep my beer on the yeast cake for a good 2-3 weeks now exactly what does that mean lol. Like I said im new and have done some research. I thought yeast caking was when you re-used yeast for another brew? Oh and also just some more information I used dry yeast and on it the temps said 51-75 F but ideally 51-59 F
S-OK. "Keeping it on the yeast cake" is just a way of saying to keep it in your primary fermenter, rather than Racking(moving) it to a secondary or bottling it prematurely. I would guess your yeast was us-05. That one is pretty forgiving. I don't think you did any harm, probably not even any funky stuff. Now, the waiting .............
s4l
Well-Known Member
Don't rack it to secondary or the bottling bucket for at least 2-3 weeks.
Okay so I don't have a second fermentor so I'm good there. So another question my recipe says keep it in the fermentor for a week then move to bottling part and leave bottled for a couple of weeks. Now should I ferment for 2 weeks and also when I do bottle how long and what temp should that be?
Yep, just leave it alone for 2-3 weeks. Then when you do bottle it, keep it at 70-80 for another 2-3 weeks.
Okay so it looks like its working better now I have a nice foam ring around the top and I can see some bubbles in the blow off bucket. Is it normal for it to smell like rotten eggs? It smells pretty bad everytime I open the cooler door.
The sulfur smell usually comes from the yeast. If it doesn't go away by the time you bottle, it will after you condition your bottles for 2-3 weeks. At this point..just be patient. It's honestly hard to ruin a batch..unless you sanitize with water from the toilet, it will be fine.
