made first homebrew and its a failure

[BigAnth]

Just tried the results from my first homebrew and i have to say im gutted as to be honest it tastes like *****.

me and my brewing partner followed a full mash recipie for lancaster bomber and after maturing in the barell for two weeks then another two weeks in the bottle im sad to say its rather nasty to drink, colour wise and clarity is excelent and the head of the ale is perfect but the taste rather horrid, like dirty dishwater follwed by river water followed by an explosion of hoppyness which is rather nice. how can i get rid of the watery taste in my next brew. i want to have a go at creating our own recipie but my brewing buddy wants to try known recipie before we experiment. any advice would be much appreciated.

regards

biganth

 

[Tony]

It happens to the best (and worst) of us unfortunately. Never mind, grit your teeth, gird your loins (I've never quite understood how you're supposed to do that, is it painful?) and go for it again.

Difficult to know what went wrong without more details... Watery? How is your efficiency?
Can you post the recipe (credit if necessary)?

I think you should choose a recipe from the section here and give it a go, you'll have loads of help too from people in here.

What's your set up?

 

[BigAnth]

water effiency is fine, we got recipie from book we bought which is suppose to have the exact recipies from the real commercial brews out on the market now.
nevermind tho im as keen as ever to begin my next brew. think il try a recipie off here. the lads on here seem to know what there on about so cant go wrong hopefully.
we spent £250 on our gear. 5gallon mash tun with hop stariner and built in sparge arm. 5 gallon boiler and 10 gallon boiler for boiling and hlt. then all the other stuff like thermometer and hydrometre.
we were wondering if the yeast we used was the problem cos it was just sum packet yeast. were going to do a yeast starter for the next brew to see if it improves anything.

got any recipes you have used with success tony?

 

[markp]

----------cos it was just sum packet yeast.

What exactly did you use Anth? It will have a big effect on the outcome.

Welcome to the forum btw

 

[timbowden]

shame to hear about your beer :cry:
This place will sort you out with great help and info! My favourite forum brew is Big Kenny by wez. Great flavour, clears quickly and i'm drinking my recent batch after only 2 weeks in the keg (although 4 is better!)!!

tim

 

[unclepumble]

Watery, did you mash at too low a temp?

Try a recipe with plenty of styrians in it and you wont go far wrong.
Welcome to the dark side
UP

 

[Moley]

Sorry to hear your first attempt didn't live up to expectations.

It would help if you could tell us your recipe and exactly what you did.
How much grain did you use?
What was your mash temperature?
Was it a full 90 minute mash?
Batch or fly sparge?
How much sweet wort did you extract?
What was the net SG of your runnings?
How long did you boil?
What hops did you use?
How much came out of the boiler?
What was your OG?

Also, what sort of beer are you hoping to brew next?

 

[evanvine]

Welcome to the Forum BA.
Sorry to hear about your failure.
As Tony says, we all have the odd brew that doesn't come out as expected.
Always keep detailed notes of what you do and you can refer back to see what went wrong.
If you can answer Moley's questions, there's a very good chance the Forum can tell you why it failed and how to correct it.

 

[Tony]

got any recipes you have used with success tony?

Difficult to suggest a recipe without knowing what you like, I'd have a look at the recipes here, there are some really fantastic ones and all are tried and tested. There's also some pretty knowledgable types in here who will be able to suggest tweaks and give guidance at every stage.

Getting a good yeast in sounds like the best plan ... if you're looking for a solid, dependable, easy-to-use one, you can't do much better than S-04.

Good luck! :