Bull dog hammer of Thor NIGHTMARE RESULT

[RLGMIlson]

well took a two litres fizzy pop bottle of the Thor of hammer
Put in fridge
Been bottled since 5th November
Chilled it
Tonnes of gas , had to unscrew very slowly but by bit
Cap off
Yeast and sediment bouncing all round bottle
It gonna be crap at this point I already know
Anyway take a taste of the cloudy mess
Disgustingly sweet
I’m so disappointed

Thoughts ?

Thanks

 

[Big_Stu]

I done Hammer of Thor as my second ever brew. It worked out really nice. Sat for about 6 weeks from bottling to tasting n got better as it aged.

Didnt last that long tho lol

 

[RLGMIlson]

Loads in 500ml bottles
Maybe they’ll come out better in spring
I’ll let them sit in shed n see wat Alppens

It’s the sweetness that bothers me

Too much priming sugar ??

 

[JapanBrew]

Would need a lot more details. Is it a extract kit? What yeast did you use?
How long was it in the fermenter?
What was the OG and then the final gravity?

 

[ExpatBrewer]

Loads in 500ml bottles
Maybe they’ll come out better in spring
I’ll let them sit in shed n see wat Alppens

It’s the sweetness that bothers me

Too much priming sugar ??

Over carb'd and sweet...? That's gotta be either way too much priming sugar OR it never actually fermented out fully in the first place.

- What was the FG of the brew?
- How much priming sugar did you use (and into what volume of beer?):hmm:


I've heard of people in the past experiencing the same issue actually ended up tipping all the bottles back into their fermenter allowing the beer to ferment out thoroughly,
and once FG is confirmed, it's again bottled.

 

[GerritT]

well took a two litres fizzy pop bottle of the Thor of hammer
Put in fridge
Been bottled since 5th November
Chilled it
Tonnes of gas , had to unscrew very slowly but by bit
Cap off
Yeast and sediment bouncing all round bottle
It gonna be crap at this point I already know
Anyway take a taste of the cloudy mess
Disgustingly sweet
I’m so disappointed

Thoughts ?

Thanks

A bit of recipe might clear some things up?

 

[RLGMIlson]

Straight from kit lads

 

[terrym]

How long in the FV, and finishing SG?
How much priming sugar?
The clues to gushers are in these questions

 

[OlsBean]

Going to start this kit next week, so following with interest. :thumb:

 

[terrym]

Going to start this kit next week, so following with interest. :thumb:

Depending on where you are in your brewing 'career' this might be useful and you can avoid most potential disasters if you have a read through.
Oops forgot the link
Basic beginners guide to brewing your own beer from a kit - The HomeBrew Forum

 

[OlsBean]

Depending on where you are in your brewing 'career' this might be useful and you can avoid most potential disasters if you have a read through.
Oops forgot the link
Basic beginners guide to brewing your own beer from a kit - The HomeBrew Forum

I'm very new, started in October, this will be my 5th Kit, but it will be the first where I am going to attempt to "Mix things up" a little, I am swapping the Ale Yeast it ships with for a Lager Yeast (Mangrove Jack M84) and I intend to add some Hopped Light Spray Malt at the start.

 

[terrym]

I'm very new, started in October, this will be my 5th Kit, but it will be the first where I am going to attempt to "Mix things up" a little, I am swapping the Ale Yeast it ships with for a Lager Yeast (Mangrove Jack M84) and I intend to add some Hopped Light Spray Malt at the start.

In my opinion the problem with using hopped DME is that you don't know how 'hoppy' it is (and that might include bitterness) or indeed the type of hops that have been used. That may upset the balance of how the beer will turn out. Personally I wouldn't use hopped DME, but unhopped DME is fine. However this kit already comes with 4kg fermentables and so extra fermentables should not really be necessary.
Also the addition of extra hops for flavour and/or aroma is commonly used to boost kits by a hop tea or a dry hop, but you usually select a hop type that suits the style of the beer you are brewing. So if this kit comes without any additional hops to do a dry hop like some premium kits, you could consider adding extra hops for flavour and aroma say Saaz or Hallertau to suit the style.
And if you have gone to the additional expense of buying a premium lager yeast you should consider brewing at a lower temperature than you would for an ale yeast (like you get in most kits) to get the best out of it.

 

[sdt7618]

Something sounds wrong here, the kit you bought is a premium kit, everything included. If your adding dame your making rocket fuel, more than likely the yeast couldn't cope, gave up and now you have sweet beer.

 

[RLGMIlson]

Two litre bottle put 4 teaspoons sugar in
Fermented in kitchen for a good two weeks

 

[terrym]

Two litre bottle put 4 teaspoons sugar in
Fermented in kitchen for a good two weeks

Too much priming sugar. I sometimes use 2 litre bottles, and never put more than 3 tsp sugar, usually its only 2 tsp.
My suggestion for you is to crack the screw caps, let some gas out quickly reseal before you lose beer, and leave it until it settles down again and then try again. And you may need to repeat

 

[MickDundee]

Two litre bottle put 4 teaspoons sugar in
Fermented in kitchen for a good two weeks

When I had bottle bombs on my 2nd ever kit, I made the mistakes of firstly assuming a teaspoon per 500ml bottle was a good rule of thumb and secondly that all “teaspoons” were a “standard” teaspoon size (i.e 5g).

I then discovered that not only is 5g per 500ml too much all styles except wheat beers, but the “teaspoon” I was using actually held 8g of sugar. I had given a beer that should have had about 2.5 volumes of CO2 5 volumes!

I now use the Brewers Friend priming sugar calculator.

 

[OlsBean]

In my opinion the problem with using hopped DME is that you don't know how 'hoppy' it is (and that might include bitterness) or indeed the type of hops that have been used. That may upset the balance of how the beer will turn out. Personally I wouldn't use hopped DME, but unhopped DME is fine. However this kit already comes with 4kg fermentables and so extra fermentables should not really be necessary.
Also the addition of extra hops for flavour and/or aroma is commonly used to boost kits by a hop tea or a dry hop, but you usually select a hop type that suits the style of the beer you are brewing. So if this kit comes without any additional hops to do a dry hop like some premium kits, you could consider adding extra hops for flavour and aroma say Saaz or Hallertau to suit the style.
And if you have gone to the additional expense of buying a premium lager yeast you should consider brewing at a lower temperature than you would for an ale yeast (like you get in most kits) to get the best out of it.

Thank you, the suggestion about the DME makes sense, looking at the kit this morning in my shed I can see it's reasonably strong @ 6% - I think I will though try brewing a little short. I intend to ferment @ 12ºc , which hopefully I will be able to maintain with the current weather, my granite shed, heating belt, fan and Inkbird. Maybe give it a diacetyl break @ 18ºc for a couple of days once the primary has finished. Then not decided on whether to cold condition for an extended period (?) before priming/bottling.

Apologies for hijacking the thread.

 

[Pavros]

Two litre bottle put 4 teaspoons sugar in
Fermented in kitchen for a good two weeks

2 weeks may not be long enough for it to ferment out especially if you don't have any temperature control at this time of year. I leave my premium kits (Bulldog and Festival) for 3 weeks in the fv and the Youngs American kits can sometimes take 4 weeks.

The only sure way to know is constant hydrometer readings over 3 consecutive days. This will tell you if it has finished or if you have a 'stuck' fermentation.

I suspect your brew hadn't quite finished when you bottled it and then possibly overprimed resulting in a sweet beer which is overly carbonated.

Also you don't really need to add any additions to the premium kits as they should be balanced with all the ingredients included. If you need/want to add anything like additional dme (as someone said above) or hops then you may affect the outcome of the beer (bitterness/sweetness/hoppiness/dryness etc) or end up brewing rocket fuel.

 

[Pavros]

Thank you, the suggestion about the DME makes sense, looking at the kit this morning in my shed I can see it's reasonably strong @ 6% - I think I will though try brewing a little short.

I usually brew my kits short to just over 20 litres instead of 23l so that I end up with about 40 bottles.