First brew fail...Muntons American IPA

[edenbrew]

Hi All, newbie here. Had been toying with the idea of giving home brewing a try for a little while and recently got an extract kit – one of BrewUK’s bucket + pressure barrel sets with the Muntons American IPA beer kit. Spoiler alert: somethings not quite right with the beer! So was hoping if I give a bit of a timeline someone might be able to advise if I’m able to rescue it, or if I need to chuck 5 gallons down the toilet!

So first off, got everything nice and sterilised, warmed the tins in a pot of hot water and got them poured into the fermenting bucket along with a couple of kettles of boiling water. Topped up with cold to the 5 gallon mark giving it a good mix, took a gravity reading (1.030, but in retrospect I think I might have misread this) then added the yeast and popped the lid on the bucket, pushing in the airlock. So all done according to the instructions and the helpful video on the BrewUK site, and the bucket was set to rest under my kitchen worktop where the temperature tends to stay within the 18-21 degrees range.

Couple of days pass, not much activity in the airlock so I’m getting a bit concerned the fermentation isn’t going well but sure enough on day 5 when it’s time to dry hop as per the instructions, there is a nice head of krausen on the beer so I take another gravity reading (1.015) before sprinkling in the hop pellets. Four days later the airlock activity has completely stopped so I take another gravity reading, now it’s 1.005. The krausen was almost all gone by this point, just a tiny head of bubbles remain and I opt to transfer to the pressure barrel even though I’m a day earlier than the instructions suggested. Added 85 grams of sugar mixed with a little hot water to the barrel, then siphoned the beer in and capped the keg.

The instructions for the IPA said after transferring to the barrel, place somewhere warm for two days to let the fermentation kick in then somewhere cool for two weeks. This is where the first major screwup happens…I place somewhere warm, sitting in a bin liner just in case of any incidents and lo and behold when I check on it 24hrs later there’s a pint of beer in the bottom of the bin liner! Turns out the tap had leaked so fixed the issue but then though as I’d lost that much I should probably reprime, unscrewed the cap and it had a bit of fizz still but went ahead and added another 40 grams of sugar. So after this no more leaks, and another 24 hours later moved to a cool/cold place. The instructions said this cool place should be 10-14 degrees, but my conservatory was getting down to more like 7 or 8 most nights and we’ve just had this real cold snap so for the last few days I brought the keg inside so as not to get too cold. Anyway the two weeks have passed and I tasted the beer, pretty horrible. It doesn’t seem rotten or anything, but is very dark, very cloudy and doesn’t look a whole lot different to when it came out the primary fermenter. There is an unbalanced sweetness to it, and if you got served it in a pub you’d definitely be going back to the bar with it.

Sorry for the looong post, any advice appreciated on where I went wrong and if this can be salvaged!

Cheers, Mike

 

[chrisb8]

If I understand what you are saying correctly then you effectively double primed the beer in the pressure barrel and then only gave it a maximum of 48hrs to secondary ferment at possibly not that warm a temperature. I would suggest that the priming sugar has not been fully fermented which has left a sweet flat beer. I think it needs more time in a warm place.

 

[Clint]

Right....you're doing fine so don't panic! After priming the keg needs to go somewhere warm for at least a week,two is better,to get it properly carbonated. It then needs to go somewhere cool to condition. This can be anything from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. It will clear and the flavours will balance.

 

[chillipickle]

Muntons American style ipa was the first kit I done last year, 2 weeks in the fermenter, 2 weeks in the bottle with 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in each bottle at 20c. Then 1 week in the fridge and it came out good.Hooked on home brewing again.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Agree with Chris, it needs at least 10 days in the warm then 2 weeks min to condition and all above

 

[Pablosaurus]

Also sounds like you're moving the barrel a lot, which will stir up sediment and inhibit clearing too. Bring it in the warm, leave it alone for a couple of weeks, then move it once to somewhere cool and let it sit. This is the hardest part! Reward yourself by buying some commercial beer to keep you going in the meantime. Or get the next brew on!

 

[Clint]

You've probably also realized that we're all way off the kit instructions...

 

[edenbrew]

Thanks for the replies all. The barrel has now been moved to a warm place and it will stay there for two weeks before I move back to the cold conservatory, then will give it a couple of weeks there before sampling again. :)

 

[edenbrew]

UPDATE: Spent a couple of weeks in the warm, then took an initial sample and it was looking a bit lighter in colour, slightly more like a pale ale, but still very cloudy and was extremely frothy. Placed in the garage where it stayed for another week before I started drinking it.

Seems like the cold has calmed it down a lot, as it came out not very frothy at all. Tastes OK...the sort of pint if you bought in a pub you'd be reasonably satisfied with but would probably not get another. :) As well as being a lot flatter than it was, once I've filled a pint glass about halfway the tap starts glugging - seems to be letting air in? Not sure best way to remedy this as I'm worried it's only a matter of time before it goes stale if there's oxygen in there - would attaching the co2 canister help at all? Also, there is a bit of sludge coming out into the glass - spooned a bit out in the photo below - should this be cause for concern? I suppose it hasn't made me sick, so that's something

:)

 

[jof]

You said it was fizzy when you moved it to the garage.
Now it's flat & the tap gluggs.
That sounds to me like a slow leak in one of the seals on the top of the barrel. Either the main one, or the pressure relief valve.
I say a slow leak, because your description says it held pressure while fermentation was still going.

Pressure barrels can be a bit hit & miss.
That's why a lot of people here use expensive corny kegs, or time consuming bottles. (I'm in the bottle camp)

Search for threads on pressure barrels on here to see what I mean. Some people use them successfully, they will be able to give hints & tips on how to get the best seal for next time.

If it was me, I would think about saving what you have by transferring to sterilised bottles & re priming.
But give it t a few hours to see if anyone has any better ideas

 

[Rodcx500z]

'

 

[buddsy]

I used to use a pressure barrel for Woodfordes Wherry. Always the first few pints were fizzy after that was always flat. That said I quite enjoyed it like that.

At this point I used to crack the top when filling to let air into the top to allow the beer to flow out the bottom.

buddsy

 

[edenbrew]

You said it was fizzy when you moved it to the garage.
Now it's flat & the tap gluggs.
That sounds to me like a slow leak in one of the seals on the top of the barrel. Either the main one, or the pressure relief valve.
I say a slow leak, because your description says it held pressure while fermentation was still going.

Pressure barrels can be a bit hit & miss.
That's why a lot of people here use expensive corny kegs, or time consuming bottles. (I'm in the bottle camp)

Search for threads on pressure barrels on here to see what I mean. Some people use them successfully, they will be able to give hints & tips on how to get the best seal for next time.

If it was me, I would think about saving what you have by transferring to sterilised bottles & re priming.
But give it t a few hours to see if anyone has any better ideas

Yes it's really odd. Before I moved it out into the cold it was too frothy coming out the tap. Even now, after having had a good few pints from it, for the first half of the pint I only have to open up the tap halfway as there seems to have been a bit of a pressure build up but then the flow stops and I have to open the tap all the way and it's at this point the glugging starts. I actually had a half pint yesterday without opening the tap fully, was actually much clearer beer and with no sludge at the bottom.

Appreciate your advice, yeah I'm looking at going down the bottling route so could make a start with what I've got left - assuming there's now some oxygen in the keg any idea how long I've got til the beer starts tasting stale? Just currently building up my empties collection which isn't the worst task in the world. Also need to buy a capper - any recommendations?

 

[Tommo 2]

Definitely a bench capper , worth the money all day long, don’t buy cheap and tacky spend a few quid on a decent one and you will never have to worry about capping again