Feeling defeated

Years ago when I first started brewing all grain. After 5 batches I questioned on this forum if I should keep trying. As the beer to me didn't taste on par to commercial beer quality. I'd post the responce but that was lost with BA migration to different servers I think. In short, a legend named Johnny(something, can't remember) replied something like 'after 5 batches you expect your beer to meet those standards? Your just starting. Write back after you do your 100th.' He was right. I didn't start brewing for 2 years after planting hops and taking my time putting together equipment for an all grain system and once I got started I expected too much. So I'll say this. Don't get discouraged. Mistakes happen, you learn. If you don't learn, that's a problem. I learned to brew from some great peoples advice on this forum that aren't around much anymore like HB42, etc. Relax, drink a brew.

 

Last night I tried to brew my first batch of beer that didn't come from a box.

Some of the box clones are really good and good deals. I got a few of the all-grain kits. If their good i know how to make and maybe enhance them next time. As for cooling, you can try putting the kettle in the refrigerator or freezer.

 

brewing is a series of mistakes in the beginning.

keep a journal, document everything, especially your mistakes, and be sure not to repeat them the next time.

and yeah, brewing at night doesn't work for me. has to be in the daytime. i always allow for a 3-4 hour space cushion in case you run into some problems.

an immersion wort chiller will save you a lot of time on brewday, and will make your beer taste better.

 

Have you ever seen/heard Joan Jett ask "Do you wanna touch me?" Just askin'

 

There are a lot of unrealistic, fairy tale comments in this thread.

Who thinks it's a good idea to pitch yeast at 85F? Anyone...anyone?

I rest my case.

 

[QUOTE="happyhoppyhobby, post: 4710292, member: 1135091"
3. Took me literally the hours to get the wort down to the temperature suitable for the pitch.

4. I must admit I gave up a little at the end. I pitched the yeast that had been in the fridge for an hour with the wort at 85 degrees. [/QUOTE]

You obviously know these are problems and you don't want to replicate them. Fixing them requires a wort chiller or patience. Let's talk about patience first. In this situation, waiting for the temp to drop, even waiting overnight or longer, would be better for your beer than rushing to pitch at so high a temp. Obviously, if you are waiting an extended time to pitch, you better have good sanitation during the process and the fermenter needs to be covered while the wort cools. If this is the case, you'd be fine. Look up the no-chill method.

You said you were tired and couldn't wait any more. Were you, by chance, drinking? Brewing beer can take a while -- you want to stay alert so you make good decisions and avoid accidents. Try not to brew when you are prone to being tired, and avoid imbibing things that make you tired or otherwise off your game when brewing.

If you are not comfortable waiting to pitch yeast, get yourself an immersion chiller, plate chiller or similar.

 

When I was first starting, I used an immersion cooler but unless it was wintertime I could only get it down to 80's or so depending on temp of groundwater. I thought pitching was ok then since the bucket was going in the basement at 56 or so degrees and so it wouldn't matter. I'd say I only got away with that using US-05. Other yeasts produced off flavors starting that high. So if I can't cool the wort to the 60's I take the bucket covered down in the basement and put it in a container filled with ice. I used to be worried about infection if yeast wasn't put in fast, but that hasn't happened. After a few hours the wort is chilled, yeast added and aeroated. Follow good sanitation and should be fine.

 

Re-reading this, I have no idea what it has to do with @mikehartigan's post. Apparently misplaced.

jk

 

And there's a lot of clairvoyance.

It seems you missed the point. So out of character.

 

Your point is you have no idea what will happen to this beer (great contribution, btw). My point is pitching at 85F is not a good practice.

 

You're right, I don't know what will happen to this beer. I believe I stated that explicitly. My point is that, despite your claims to the contrary, neither do you. There's no way to accurately predict that acetaldahyde will be increased by 20x or that it will necessarily have increased esters and fusels. It may or it may not. A lack of due diligence can introduce other potentially mitigating factors.

Pitching at 85F is, indeed, not a good practice. But that wasn't your point. Your point was that this will be a bad beer. We won't know if he made rocket fuel until he tastes it. Your input strongly suggests that he dump it now and cut his losses. I say he should see how it turns out and decide then. It may be fine or it may be a learning experience. Either way, it's worth hanging on to it.

 

Clearly, you missed my point and put false words in my mouth. I'll use bold text for the important words next time.

 

1. RDWHYAHB
2. Sounds like a bit of scalding and something sat there for too long. See 1, and learn from this.
3. meh. I don't really see the race in this as being one of majestic importance. But, if you don't feel the need in investing in a plate chiller. Stirring is a good idea because it gets movement in the kettle happening. Just keep things clean, and sanitary and you'll be fine.
4. Depends on the yeast. There are a only few strains I try and pitch that high.

 

Lots of predictions, all negative, followed by belittlement of those of us who were foolish enough to think he should wait before dumping this beer. Clearly, you've seen the future. There's really not much point continuing with this sub-thread. Thanks for playing.

 

Most of what I said is supported by science. It turns out, science is really good at making predictions. It has nothing to do with clairvoyance. I also never said he should dump it. I think it's totally possible a home brewer could drink 5 gallons of fusel bomb beer and even enjoy it.

Thanks for being played, I guess.

 

I noticed you used Omega Hot Head yeast recently. How did that work for you?

If the OP doesn't have a way to ferment in the 60s, this yeast is supposed to be good up to 98F.

 

Where's the BOLD TEXT?

 

I used it for an IPA and for that, and those sort of trendy hops. It worked great, and you can basically have a fully carbonated and ready to serve beer in less than two weeks.
I pitched it at about 95ºf, and they took off within a few hours of pitch. Our ambient temp was in the low to mid sixties and it took about four days to come down to that.
I've had samples fermented at both extremes of its range, and there's very little change across the spectrum. This is an excellent strain for free range fermentation and for those sort of hops because it will not surprise you.

 

I have to sort through a lot of old homebrew recipes and let me say that pitching yeast when temp hits 85F was somewhat common advice back in the day (10-15 years ago). Now there is a reason why we've evolved to pitching at or below ferm temp…but for years many folks did it that way, and they kept on home brewing. They probably weren't making the best beer…but they were making drinkable beer. As mentioned earlier, learn from the experience and wait to see how the beer turns out. Maybe a little fruitier & hotter than it should be, but hopefully still enjoyable.

 

I brew in my kitchen and cannot easily connect an immersion chiller so have learned to improvise to get my wort near pitching temperature 65-68 degrees. The first thing i do is let the wort cool on the stove from 210 down to 160. This takes a while 20-30 minutes so go do other stuff while this is happening. There is no concern from infection at these temps so the time it takes to cool is not a concern and the nasty bacteria's that create off flavors in beer cant exist above 150 degrees. Once at 160 degrees transfer the wort pot to a water bath (save your ice for later) just recirculating cold water around the pot and draining the sink or bath tub once during this will be enough to get your wort from 160 down to 90 degrees in about 10-15 minutes. To get it down the last 20ish degrees add your ice in the sink - I also put two frozen water bottles in the wort pot (dunk them in starsan solution first) and stir them around with a sanitized spoon. This will get your wort to pitching temp much quicker. The key is anything that touches the wort must be sanitized.