Has my first attempt gone seriously wrong??

[Bobo]

Hi Bobo, i've brewed many, both kit and all grain that have been cloudy and also have many other home brewers. If you like the taste just buy a tankard. Don't be too upset, the next one will be great.

jb.

Cheers Jonny,

It was my first attempt. Its tastes good so i'll bottle it, chill it and drink it. Just trying to decide what to brew next. Anyone got any good suggestions, A nice slow brewing one would be helpful as I'm about to go away for 2 months.

 

[Wez]

Ah, right so does the fermentation take place in the same place that you're serving from? If thats the case I'd recomend getting a separate 25L fermenting vessel (FV) with a tap.

 

[Bobo]

Nope, I bought another 25l barrel to serve from.

 

[Wez]

I'd try one of the 3kg kits ~£20 look for Muntons, Woodfordes or Brupaks.

As for time, it's generally deemed best not to let a beer sit in a FV on yeast for more than 2 weeks (because of yeast bite) certainly 2 months would be too long IMO, however a beer will benefit if you get it fermented out and kegged before you go and leave it 2 months

I can't recommend a lager kit as lager isn't something I drink much of but for nice light pale ales there are a few great kits around, I mentioned Great Eastern (Woodfordes) and Fixby Gold (Brupaks) some of the other guys may be able to suggest others :grin:

 

[A T]

Wez is yeast bite= autolysis

 

[Wez]

Not sure if thats the name for it, but as I understand it it's where the cells run out of sugars and the stronger cells start eating the weaker ones and the produce from that is an off flavour. Someone else may be able to confirm.

 

[A T]

That's the one, i just thought there was something i was missing

 

[A T]

Here's a page on the interweb that could be useful to new brewers

Beer Dictionary

 

[Bobo]

just been looking around the internet, would it hurt to put in some fining liquid/powder?

 

[Wez]

Wouldn't hurt at all, just be careful what you add, some of the stuff you may see such as whirlfloc/protofloc/irish moss are what you add during the boil of an All Grain (AG) brew - the sort of thing that you want to add to a keg is Issinglass (sp) or Gelatine.

 

[Bobo]

ok, update,

Went into town and got some finings today. Put them in and according to the packet it should take between 24 and 48 hrs.

Will update tomorrow.

 

[Wez]

Fingers crossed :pray:

 

[jonnybeer]

Bobo, bottling will almost certainly have an effect on the clarity. The pressure produced in the bottle aids the clearing process. Put a few bottles to one side and moniter them, you will notice a difference after a relatively short while.

jb.

 

[Bobo]

Cheers for the info JB, going to drink this batch then brew and bottle the next.

 

[Bobo]

well afte 24 hrs its still cloudy, come on please please please please :pray:

 

[Wez]

:cry: not good, I actually think that as you get through the keg it'll get get clearer I bet the upper level of beer is clearer than the bottom.

It may be that kit :wha: will be interested to see how you get on with another one, have you chosen a 'next kit' yet Bobo?

 

[Bobo]

I may be wrong, I kept the sample from the other day and have put it next to the sample i've just take.

the one on the left is the fresh sample, Its not a very good picture but the one on the left definatley looks brighter to me.

The next kit i'm thinking of either Muntons Gold Continental Pilsner or the Woodfordes Great Eastern Ale ( heard good thing about this from someone )

I've also got some still spirits base spirit on the go too, that looks to be going quite nice. Should be finished in a day or 2.

 

[Wez]

At the bottom of the glass on the right, do I see a thin yeast layer thats dropped out?

 

[Bobo]

you certainly do, as its been in the fridge since the start of this thread i carefully poured it away and there was some yeast sediment in the bottom.

 

[Wez]

OK then some good news the cloudy problem you have is something that needs to drop out of the beer. Now that could be yeast, normally cured by adding isinglass finings (or similar - i believe you did this) or the gelatin method, or it's a protein haze (unlikely i've found the sediment from this is grey in colour yeast is normally cream/white). I'd take a stab at you still have yeast in suspension, time is a great healer for this as is getting the keg as cold as you can, trick at this time of year unless you have spare a fridge you can use

I think that this may be a fault with that kit (sticking neck out) I base that on the fact that I've treated kits like Great Eastern pretty badly and ended up with a cracking crystal clear beer. It's good though that I think we've found out what the problem is :pray: :thumb:

It sounds to me that you like a nice cold pint of lager, if I have that right i'd consider bottling your next batch to get more carbonation than you can in a keg, if thats the route you want to go post a question about priming sugar quantities.