First homebrew, SG OK after 1 week but sample tastes 'homebrewey'

[Nial]

After tasting a friend's Youngs IPA kit results I'm brewing my first homebrew with a Youngs American Pale Ale kit.

I started with 25 litres instead of 23 to reduce the eventual strength a bit, OG
was about 1.042

I started this last Saturday, it seemed to ferment well until Wednesday then quite quickly stopped bubbling.

I've checked the SG tonight, it's down to the 1.008 that the instructions say
means it's 'done' but when I tasted the sample I'd taken to test it was a bit odd,
a bit 'homebrewey'/

Do I keg/bottle it now or leave it for longer?

Thanks for any advice,

Nial

 

[Niman]

IMO leave it at least a week longer....for yeast to clear up....

 

[Niman]

oh and home brew "twang" i dont know how to solve.....(id be rich if i did ) kit instructions are optomistic to say the least

 

[wheazy_joe]

It's bound to taste pretty crap after one week brewing, even all grain beer ain't gonna taste great at that age. Give it another week in the FV, bottle it and leave it a good four weeks before trying and it will taste a whole lot better. And from there on it will improve with every week. While that one is maturing, get another brew going.

 

[Nial]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll add the hops this Wednesday then bottle/ keg
next weekend.

One further question, the temperature's dropped to ~18 DegC, should I stick it in
a water bath to warm it back up a bit or is it OK at 18 (and possibly cooler
during the week, it's not in a very warm room)?

Thanks again,

Nial

 

[dad_of_jon]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll add the hops this Wednesday then bottle/ keg
next weekend.

One further question, the temperature's dropped to ~18 DegC, should I stick it in
a water bath to warm it back up a bit or is it OK at 18 (and possibly cooler
during the week, it's not in a very warm room)?

Thanks again,

Nial

18degC is at the cooler end for ale yeasts so will just take a bit longer to ferment as mentioned elsewhere in the forum. I've always fermented at been 19-22 and the bottles I carb at 21-24.

 

[mike-os]

I would suggest leaving at least 2 weeks before dry hopping then time it so you can rack off and bottle after the hops have been in 4 to 5 days... If this means a few extra days in the fv it's not a problem, but don't leave the hops in longer as I am told you can get odd flavour development

 

[GlentoranMark]

I think the twang is cause by the cheap generic yeasts supplied by the kits. The cheaper kits especially I've done have had this twang. Freshness of ingredients matters a lot in Home Brew.

My first AG was a revelation so if you can, follow clibits simple AG guide and try that to compare. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Covrich]

Didnt this kit come with hops for dry hopping ??? if so you might want to dump them in in a few days.. about 5 days before you bottle/ keg..

Youngs kits are pretty good kits but like a lot of kits they rely on that fresh hop aroma to give them a boost.

 

[Simonh82]

I would suggest leaving at least 2 weeks before dry hopping then time it so you can rack off and bottle after the hops have been in 4 to 5 days... If this means a few extra days in the fv it's not a problem, but don't leave the hops in longer as I am told you can get odd flavour development

My last brew was dry hopped for 10 days. I took a gravity sample after they had been in for 3 days and thought the hop aroma was quite weak. When I bottles it the hop aroma was great. No odd flavours that I could detect.

 

[terrym]

Fear ye not!
As far as I am concerned this kit is one of the best I have done, and I think marginally better than the Youngs AIPA, which I have also done.
I suggest you leave it for at least two or three more days, and then add all of the hops and leave it for five days, and then bottle or keg, on the assumption that the SG has stabilised by then. I find that using a muslin bag for dry hopping avoids the problems of hops clogging things up.
As far as the 18*C is concerned I wouldn't have thought it will make much difference wherever it goes from now on since the primary is probably pretty much finished, and still has several more days in the FV to finish it off.
I brewed short to 21 litres so the finished product will have concentrated the flavours more than your brew, but after carbing and a week or two conditioning you should be able to start drinking it. And it's one to drink early since the dry hopping effect diminishes with time.

 

[keat64]

I gave up brewing kit beer years ago, bcause of the homebrew twang.
Considering kits have evolved over the last 10 years, i decided to come back to them last year.
They still have a twang.
So I bit the bullet, spent a few quid (not a lot mind) and adapted to All Grain.
My first all grain was far superior to any kit i'd ever done before, my second one is shaping up to be better still, and I can't wait until i can sample number 3.

I posted a thread a few weeks back "I'm done with kits"

 

[Steved53]

After tasting a friend's Youngs IPA kit results I'm brewing my first homebrew with a Youngs American Pale Ale kit.

I started with 25 litres instead of 23 to reduce the eventual strength a bit, OG
was about 1.042

I started this last Saturday, it seemed to ferment well until Wednesday then quite quickly stopped bubbling.

I've checked the SG tonight, it's down to the 1.008 that the instructions say
means it's 'done' but when I tasted the sample I'd taken to test it was a bit odd,
a bit 'homebrewey'/

Do I keg/bottle it now or leave it for longer?

Thanks for any advice,

Nial

What temperature did you ferment at?

At the height of fermentation the temperature of the fermenting wort can rise above ambient - possibly taking you above the recommended maximum temperature for that yeast. Maybe this could add to a "Homebrewey twang".

Apart from that and possibly inadequate sanitation, I would agree that it is very early days and another week or two should improve things enormously.

 

[Nial]

What temperature did you ferment at?

I'm not sure, I think I pitched the yeast at ~24 Deg C, but that was
measured by the stick on thermometer on the outside of the bucket so I'm
not sure what the highest temperature might have been.

I've been back to Belfast for the last week 'cos my dad's been in intensive
care (he's slowly getting better), so the beer's been sitting since I
last posted, hopefully for the better.

I won't be back home until next Thursday so I'll see what it's like and
dry hop then.

Thanks all for the input.

Nial

 

[Steved53]

I'm not sure, I think I pitched the yeast at ~24 Deg C, but that was
measured by the stick on thermometer on the outside of the bucket so I'm
not sure what the highest temperature might have been.

I've been back to Belfast for the last week 'cos my dad's been in intensive
care (he's slowly getting better), so the beer's been sitting since I
last posted, hopefully for the better.

I won't be back home until next Thursday so I'll see what it's like and
dry hop then.

Thanks all for the input.

Nial

Sorry to hear about your dad Nial. I hope he gets better soon.

 

[spook123_uk]

In the kits I did before turning to AG. the young APA by far had the most home-brew twang to it... Once that I found didn't seem to have much of one at all were the Wilko Cerveza (using DME and Sugar) and the festival world steam beer kit. I did 2 of each of those and found very little twang.
That said.. Now I'm AG I get none of that but I would gladly bash out the cerveza and steam as a quick brew if i need it.

 

[Spoon]

My tuppence on the 'homebrew tang'.

My last few kits have been almost devoid of it.

1) Temp control, built a brew fridge, ferment for 2 weeks 1st week at 18C, 2nd week at 22C, then bottle condition at the same (18C then 22+ for a week each).
2) Following on from 1, ignore the kit instructions, ignore the hydrometer, give it 2 weeks at least.
3) Drink it quickly, my last batch went downhill after about 2 months. The first ~20 pints were brilliant, the last few the tang was back. Maybe it's a very slow infection, or maybe the ingredients are a little oxidised (a bit like hot side aeration).

Not sure if it's the yeasts or the ingredients, but giving the yeast a good go at it seems to be the solution.

Only downside is my latest brew is so devoid of 'tang', it's very much just hoppy, malty pale drink, very little 'ale'/yeast character to it.

 

[Steved53]

My tuppence on the 'homebrew tang'.


Only downside is my latest brew is so devoid of 'tang', it's very much just hoppy, malty pale drink, very little 'ale'/yeast character to it.

Sounds a bit like those people that miss their cars that had 'loads of character' - code for 'it broke down with amazing regularity!:smile:

 

[Nial]

Thanks everyone for your input.

I'm back home today, it would have been 3 weeks this Saturday that I kicked it off.

I've just added the hops, before which I took a sample. This was much better than the first sample but I'm not sure I would have wanted to drink a pint of it.
The kit instructions say to bottle two or three days after adding the hop pellets so I'll bottle on Sunday.

I'm interested to see how it turns out rather than dying to try it at the minute, that might change when the hops have done their thing.

In the interim I'm going to get the bits for a simple full grain brew.

Thanks again,

Nial.

 

[Fil]

The only cure for that home brew twang is to mature the beer.. in the days of boots kits it was a real problem that took months in the bottle to mellow out. i dont think the kits of today suffer quite as badly but once conditioned (bottled and sat for a couple of weeks in the warm) consider maturing the beer at least a week per 10 gravity points above 1.000 you had for an original or starting gravity..

BY all means sample a beer whenever you like but dont judge it too harshly before you have given it a chance to mature..