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Another bad beer


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#1 SchwanzBrewer

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Posted 18 May 2015 - 11:13 AM

Well, I know this is my fault and I think I know what happened. For war of the worts we used wort from coppertail brewing to make whatever beer we wanted. I participated, but I had to piece together a system. Also, I used my old ferm chamber. I think everything went well except for a few things.

 

1. I used a big mouth bubbler for the first time. The lid acts like an air lock. The only downside to this is that the air lock solution is exposed to the air and it evaporates quicker than normal. I didn't pay careful attention to the fermentation. I also used vodka as the air lock solution instead of starsan, which I'd never done before either.

2. I added water and belgian candied syrup. The first time I tried to do this I fell asleep and whole house was filled with smoke that smelled like burnt marshmallows. The second time I don't think I boiled the solution long enough. I was adding about a gallon of water. The problem could be that I don't remove enough of the O2 from the water.

3. I didn't pay attention to the fermentation. It say in the fermenter for over a month and the air lock dried up.

 

So the beer is fine, except for an acetaldehyde aroma. It's not in the flavor, just the aroma. It's really noticeable when I used a snifter glass.

 

I didn't make a starter for this beer. It was in the 1.058 range and I used 2 smack packs. Really should have been enough yeast. I also oxygenated the wort with pure O2. Somewhere I ended up getting acetaldehyde. I think it's from air/O2 intrusion during the fermentation. I think it's ethanol that was oxidized and reverted back to acetaldehyde. 

 

I think I'll rebrew this beer, because I really liked the hops I used, but the outcome was ####ed because I didn't pay attention. Had I brewed it on my system I think it would have turned out just fine. I've not had any acetaldehyde in any beers I've brewed on that system.

 

Anyway, at least it's only 5 gallons of beer. I am disappointed that I didn't get to impress the guys at coppertail and win the competition.

 

 

 



#2 Big Nake

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Posted 18 May 2015 - 02:13 PM

I didn't pay careful attention to the fermentation....I fell asleep...I didn't pay attention to the fermentation....It stayed in the fermenter for over a month and the air lock dried up....I didn't make a starter for this beer....

I'm not trying to be a wienie but you have made your own list of reasons why the beer didn't come out as you envisioned. I think if I were brewing where you live (with the warmer weather) I would be paranoid that things were fermenting too warm on a constant basis. There have been times when I have left beers in primary for 4-5 weeks (not on purpose but I didn't forget them either... I just didn't have the time to move them) and they came out fine because there were in the basement on the cool floor or the primary was in 10 gallons of cool water. So what kind of beer was it?

#3 BlKtRe

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Posted 18 May 2015 - 02:34 PM

From the time you received the wort until you pitched what was that time period?

#4 SchwanzBrewer

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Posted 18 May 2015 - 02:46 PM

I'm not trying to be a wienie but you have made your own list of reasons why the beer didn't come out as you envisioned. I think if I were brewing where you live (with the warmer weather) I would be paranoid that things were fermenting too warm on a constant basis. There have been times when I have left beers in primary for 4-5 weeks (not on purpose but I didn't forget them either... I just didn't have the time to move them) and they came out fine because there were in the basement on the cool floor or the primary was in 10 gallons of cool water. So what kind of beer was it?

 

Oh, I know. I made a good ferm chamber. The temps weren't a problem. It's temperature controlled. It was a belgian golden strong, so temps really shouldn't have been a problem.

 

From the time you received the wort until you pitched what was that time period?

 

Well, we did a brew on premise thing. We hauled our equipment to the brewery and had a day of it in the parking lot. That being said, I had to go old school with the chilling  (batch chilling in a bin full of ice) and it took a couple hours to chill to pitching temps. I don't think that was a problem though. I covered the wort immediately after the boil finished.

 

I think it's a lot more likely that some or all of the things above contributed to the beer sucking. Basically, I screwed up and didn't pay enough attention to what was going on. I'll be brewing this beer again (except with my own wort) on the 1 bbl. I'd shit a brick if it didn't turn out awesome.



#5 Big Nake

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Posted 18 May 2015 - 03:10 PM

Oh, I know. I made a good ferm chamber. The temps weren't a problem. It's temperature controlled. It was a belgian golden strong, so temps really shouldn't have been a problem.  Well, we did a brew on premise thing. We hauled our equipment to the brewery and had a day of it in the parking lot. That being said, I had to go old school with the chilling  (batch chilling in a bin full of ice) and it took a couple hours to chill to pitching temps. I don't think that was a problem though. I covered the wort immediately after the boil finished. I think it's a lot more likely that some or all of the things above contributed to the beer sucking. Basically, I screwed up and didn't pay enough attention to what was going on. I'll be brewing this beer again (except with my own wort) on the 1 bbl. I'd shit a brick if it didn't turn out awesome.

Agreed that temps on this beer should not have been an issue. I was mentioning your weather and all of that because I would probably be paying MORE attention to beers due to the conditions. I have to say that when I brew and I have beers fermenting and then life gets in the way, I feel terrible about having spent that time on brewing only to [possibly] allow them to start going downhill because I didn't have the time to pay attention to them. I'm sure you're right... make it again and it will be good. If we didn't make mistakes occasionally, we wouldn't learn! Cheers.

Edited by Village Taphouse, 18 May 2015 - 03:15 PM.



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