First batch failed. Any advice?

Relax, don't worry about it, have a homebrew.

Your two biggest mistakes, by far, were letting the wort cool in open air and then fermenting super-cold (if this was an ale; if this was a lager, that's actually perfect). You're going to want to ferment an ale in the high 60s all the way up to high 70s. Don't worry overly much about pitching yeast when you're too warm. Most yeast is hardy enough to deal with it being a little too hot (even up to, like 90), but they'll go to sleep or die immediately if it's too cold. They won't ferment until they're in prime time, but it's often safe to cheat hot rather than cold. By cooling in open air, any microbes in the air had the feast of their lifetimes before the yeast ever showed up, then it was too cold for the yeast to do their job properly afterward.

Uncertainty around temperature is a good reason to use a bucket rather than a carboy for primary -- no guesswork, and you can put a contact thermometer on the bucket itself. Plus, it'll have a spigot, so your first re-rack won't require a conventional siphon. Star san and the like is always better than bleach or other traditional cleaners. Even if they kill the bacteria, they can do nasty, nasty things to the taste -- chemical. You can also sanitize bottles by just throwing them in the oven. It's a good idea to strip the labels off if you go this route. You won't necessarily burn the house down, but it isn't out of the question. You don't need to be anal, just use star san on everything before you get rolling and you'll be fine.

As for a bad first batch story, I don't have one. I do, however, have a hilarious bad second batch story (I've made about 10 at this point). I used someone else's Black IPA recipe after a very successful starter American Pale. And I did everything wrong. It probably needed a colander-style partial mash, I did the wrong water treatment, I forgot to buy yeast (thankfully a buddy ran out to pick it up for me), and then I couldn't get my sink to plug up for an ice bath. Worse, the lid kept coming off of the brew bottle while in the sink, so it was gradually getting cold but then getting repeatedly exposed to the fresh air. Then I compounded all of this by trying to dry hop without anyone teaching me how -- so I put the next round of hops in without a bag or cheesecloth around them, so they basically suspended themselves in the beer. When it came time to bottle, the hops clogged the autosiphon (nearly broke it), and I had to more or less pour from carboy into a funnel into each bottle, spilling black beer everywhere. It's kind of miraculous my wife didn't leave me.

And that's without mentioning that every time you open one, it explodes. Not a gusher like you might have heard about, but literally being able to shoot beer 20 feet or more. I'm not sure what infection it had, but everything was beyond super-carbonated. The pressure was just ridiculous and there was no way to prevent. You wouldn't believe what happened when we popped a growler of it I opened. It coated the entire ceiling of the apartment and then dripped all of it back down.

Bad batches happen to all of us. You need to get back on the horse, try again, and learn.

 

can't help much on the first two, other than saying - thermometer is critical, hydro is not too far behind (especially at 5 bucks or whatever) but not a deal-breaker. if you were 75 degrees+, yeah, all kinds of potential for funkiness and off-flavors. equally important, make sure your yeast is as close to the same temp as the wort when you pitch.

trub/sediment in the bottom of the fermenter at 12 hours was little (if any) yeast; especially since you said there was little if any initial fermentation. it's the normal hop debris, proteins, etc. presumably came from your brew kettle. some folks are hyper-cautious about not letting any of the trub get into their fermenter (either filtering or their valve is set up ~1" off the bottom of the brew kettle, so when they drain it, the trub largely stay behind. me, i don't sweat it. presuming i've used at least some whole-leaf hops during the boil, i just transfer/dump the whole friggin' kettle through a strainer. purists will say this might impart off-flavors in the final product, but my group of friends is always more than satisified with my final product.

as for sanitation, i think it's somewhat over-rated, but you can't be reckless. i always cool my beer outside, with no lid on the kettle. i've only had 1 skunked batch out of 50+ batches in 3+ years, and i seriously doubt the lid was a factor. i guess it's certainly possible to have 'something' floating by in the air land it kettle, but... the rest of your processes sound fine. yeah, the hose bumps the sink for me too. not to say i'd let the dog lick it. any off-aromas at transfer were certainly NOT due to sanitation. an 'infection' would take days to get to the point of noticeable smell.

biggest single rec - use a yeast starter if you didn't.
good luck!
-RB

 

I'll try and give it a shot. I've never really had a "failed" batch just some I liked better than others.

1. Hydrometer. You don't say what you used ( kit, extract, all grain etc). You could use Brewsmith or another calculator to get you in the ballpark for OG. Also temp correcting hydrometer readings is necessary to be accurate

2. Chilling wort. A plain old 25' garden variety wort chiller is one of the best tool you can have. Shortens your brew day and gets your wort yeast ready as fast as you can to prevent infection. When I got mine, I wondered how I brewed without it.

3. Temp control. You didn't specify what yeast you used, but 54 to 58 seems a little cool. I am still particular to dry yeast as it seems I have better, quicker and more complete fermentations with it. I usually use a blanket or towel around the carboy to help keep it warm. Remember that the temp inside the bucket or carboy is a couple of degrees warmer than the temp on the bucket.

4. Sanitation. I've never used anything other than the oxygen based Easy Clean, type no rinse powders. I like to sanitize, rinse and then lay everything out on a clean towel and cover it.

I've always learned the most from batches I've had trouble with. Hope this helps. E.

 

Just thinking off of the top of my head, here are some of the most important things that I feel are important in making a good homebrew:

1. Relax, don't worry... I fully agree with Charlie Papazian that worrying will ruin a homebrew (or at least the homebrewing experience) faster than anything.

2.. That said, sanitation is the most important technical thing. Use starsan or iodophor. I used bleach for years; wish I had switched sooner. Measure accurately and both starsan and iodophor are no rinse.

3. Brewers make wort; yeast make beer. Keep the yeast happy and they will keep you happy. Learn how to make a starter; at least 750 mL for each batch (assuming you are using Wyeast or White Labs, which you should be doing). And aerate your wort. If you ferment in a bucket this can be achieved by pouring your wort back and forth between two buckets several times. If you use a carboy, plug the carboy and rock back and forth for 5 minutes, periodically opening the carboy to let more air in as oxygen is taken up by the wort. And then ferment at the temperature that makes the yeast most happy; for ales this is usually in the 60's someplace.

4. Don't go crazy making up your own recipes until you have a good understanding of the basic styles. It is easy to make a beer that is totally out of balance if you are not careful. There are plenty of recipes out there to base your initial beers on. A good place to look is the Northern Brewer site: they have the ingredients for all of their kits there.

5. If you really want to get good at it, read, read, read. John Palmer, Charlie Papazian, Michael Jackson, Ray Daniels, Randy Mosher, Zmurgy, and Brew Your Own are places to get started.

Lastly, if I were starting now, I'd probably stick with one style and make it several times until I was happy with it; probably a pale ale as it is fairly simple but not too forgiving.

 

I'm new like you, so I read all these threads about new brewing experiences (on several forums). My comments would be as follows...

Definitely try the dry hops. I put two ounces of cascade into my English IPA, against the recipe, and it turned out great. I assume the recipe wouldn't have been hoppy enough for me had I not dry hopped it.

I've been using dry yeast and having good results. I'm not doing high gravity beers yet though. I'd work on the process a bit more before you start doing yeast starters.

Don't over-stress on sanitation. Just make sure everything is wet with sanitizer before it touches beer. I keep a pitcher full of sanitizer and a kitchen pot full of sanitizer and pour over my utensils before they touch the beer. Just let them drip a few seconds and go for it. Use starsan. Suds are good. They won't hurt the beer. You can pump sanitizer through your auto-siphon before it touches the beer too. Just start the bottling or racking process and let the sanitizer drain into a bucket before the beer goes into the next container.

Read a lot, post a lot, use multiple forums to find info that helps you.

Find an experienced brewer to brew a batch with if you can. My first batch was with an experienced brewer. It helped a lot.

Don't give up, try again.

Don't get too drunk while brewing, but definitely relax and have a few beers!

Good luck man!

 

One more thing: don't use a bottling bucket! Siphon direct from secondary to bottles. Really cuts down on infection opportunity.

 

Are you priming each bottle?

 

Nah. Prime the entire batch in secondary, then siphon like crazy.

Never fails, except for that one time it failed spectacularly. But I think that was more about bottling taking three hours owing to a busted auto siphon.

 

How do you avoid stirring trub back up into suspension when adding the priming sugar?

 

I've been using a bottling bucket (actually a carboy) but not doing secondary fermentations. Only doing 5.5 gallons at a time. Anyone care to comment?

 

Nothing wrong with that, but a bottling bucket (with a spigot) would make your life easier.

 

Yeah I need to get another bucket with a spigot on it. I wish I had paid more attention at first because I would have just gone with two 6.5 gallon buckets, one with a spigot.

The carboy is only 5 (or 5.5 maybe?) gallons so it's not very useful as a primary fermentation vessel. The blowoff would be catastrophic if I got any kind of major high krausen. I've already had one minor overflow with a 6.5 gallon bucket. Made a bit of a mess but no big deal, just had to clean and replace the airlock and clean up a small mess.

The carboy would be good for secondary fermentations but I'm not doing those at the moment.

 

Yeah, why I asked. I don't understand why you'd prime into secondary because I'd think you'd have to stir the sugar in. I'm ready to be enlightened.

 

So long as you make a simple syrup on the stove with your priming sugar before adding it, you need to stir a lot less than you might think. I typically pour it in without stirring, which actually gives a more even distribution of sugar than vigorous stirring will. Put the airlock back on, wait 30 minutes, put in the auto-siphon, do a really light stir so as not to pull up the trub, and away we go.

 

Really, so not stirring gives a more even distribution than vigorously stirring, is that so?

As far as "don't use a bottling bucket! ... Really cuts down on infection opportunity." How about this, don't use a secondary, as this increases the risk of infection just as much as using a bottling bucket does. Personally I'd far prefer to go from primary to bottling bucket to bottles than from primary to secondary to bottles.

 

"I typically pour it in without stirring, which actually gives a more even distribution of sugar than vigorous stirring will."

Um. Okay.

 

When I bottle, this is how I do. I prime in whole thing in the bottling bucket. During the transfer from primary to the bucket, I keep my racking cane elevated about an inch or so from the bottom to avoid transfer lots of trub. What does transfer settles out a little bit in the bucket and a little bit in the bottle, and is not a major problem. As Vikeman says, the spigot makes your life easier. Although drgarage says skip the bucket, I never mastered the technique for bottling as he describes - I'd spill a lot of beer, lose the siphon vacuum, and have to restart it frequently. To each his own. The transfer to the bucket should not contribute any more significantly to infection risk than drgarage's transfer to secondary. Cleaning and sanitizing buckets is easy.

 

You want to get anal about sanitizing. My first 4 or 5 batches were infected messes. Getting careful about sanitizing helped me make good beers. For the last 90 or so batches, nothing touched the cold side wort or beer without treatment by iodophor, star san, or boiling water. For me, in my early brews, I suspect the biggest source of infection was bottle contamination, because the degree of infection seemed variable from bottle to bottle. If you are going to bottle beer, you really must take the sanitization of the bottles very seriously. I reuse my bottles. After pouring off a beer, I rinse out the bottle with hot tap water, making sure that all yeast and sediments are gone. Before bottling, I soak in oxyclean and scrub with a brush, rinse with 3 full volumes of hot tap water, then soak in sanitizer, empty, drain on bottle tree rack, then bottle.

I also recommend skipping the bleach as a sanitizer in favor of star san or iodophor. I have used all three and bleach is the most problematic. Bleach requires rinsing, which is an extra step and actually increases risk of infection (if the rinse water is not sterile) or off flavors (if the bleach does not get well rinsed). Plus, when I used bleach as a sanitizer, I'd inevitably spill some on my clothes.