Hi, I am sampling my first try at home brewing. I made English Pale Ale from a "kit". I followed the directions right down the line. I did a primary fermentation for 7-8 days and a secondary for 14 days. I bottled and stored for 14 days. The beer tastes "weak" to me. Almost watered down. After cooling the wort, I added water to bring the wort to 5 gallons as the instructions stated. Did I add too much? Should I wait longer before refrigerating? Thanks for your help.
Adding water will always dilute the beer and will impact the malt and the hops. I would let the beer condition longer, probably another week at the earliest, before throwing them in the fridge. For your next batch, do not do a secondary unless you're specifically ageing on wood or fruit. The kit instructions are outdated.
FWIW, I never had good luck topping off with water. I think once you are doing a full boil you'll have better results.
If the recipe said to top off to 5 gallons, and you topped off to 5 gallons, you didn't add too much water. Did all the malt extract make it into the kettle? And the steeping grains (if applicable)? "Watered down" doesn't sound like an off-flavor that will be helped by further conditioning. If carbonation seems complete, you can go ahead and refrigerate. But by "watered down," do you by any chance mean flat, i.e. undercarbonated or uncarbonated?
Maybe the problem is that you used a "kit" and not a kit. Who knows what the "kit" included. But maybe there's no problem since it just tasted "weak?"
About how much water did you use to top-off, and how well did you mix that water before you bottled? If the beer was not mixed well with the water and conditioning sugar then you'll have some bottles that are watery and some that are stronger-flavored, some that are not carbonated, and some that are over-carbed. (Along with some bottles in the middle that are just right.) Mixing without aerating the beer is a key procedure to follow before bottling. P.S. - You never said whether your 'kit' was an extract batch or all-grain. Which way was it?
I'm guessing the OP topped up w/ water prior to primary fermentation. The yeasties would have done a fine job of mixing the solution on their own
it's your first batch, so I don't know what you expect from an English Pale Ale. Don't know either how you brewed it, what the grain bill consisted of or what other details there are involved in this kit. Don't worry. There will be plenty to think about how to do differently next time.
When I first started brewing, I used Kits and I think it's a good way to get a started. I would add a pound of base malt to every kit. If you enjoy the process...welcome...and better luck with your next brew. It is a learning curve and we are all learning every batch...
This could be your problem. Seriously, I have seen some messed up kit instructions. It could also be a weak kit, as @Brew_Betty suggests. If you share the recipe, we could better assess that.
Top Ten Mistakes 1) followed the directions right down the line 2) primary fermentation for 7-8 days 4) secondary for 14 days 5) bottled and stored for 14 days 6) added water to bring the wort to 5 gallons as the instructions stated 8) sampled too soon 9) recipe not posted 10) 'weak' descriptor undefined
This is most likely the issue. Not a enough fermentable sugars. What malts and grains did this kit come with and how much (pounds)?
Did you use liquid or dry yeast? It could be that the yeast strain was old. Yeasts immediately lose viability, to a noticeable degree after a month and to a hugely noticeable degree after 6 months. Did you measure the gravity of the beer prior to fermentation (OG) and after fermentation (FG)? Brewing beer is one complex endeavor, so don't feel afraid to ask what might seem like dumb questions. I still feel like a rookie and I'm on year 6.
Thanks for the comments. I used dry yeast, 2.5 oz. hop pellets, 8 oz. crushed caramel malt, 3.3 lb. liquid malt extract, 2 lb. dry malt extract and 3.5 oz. priming sugar. I tried another bottle and it tasted much better. I'm thinking the priming sugar could have been mixed better. Also, 5 oz. of priming sugar came in the kit, but the directions called for 3.5 oz. Maybe I should have used the entire 5 oz.
Sounds like you did mean undercarbonated when you said weak. 3.5 oz of corn sugar in a 5 gallon batch would have got you in the neighborhood of 2.1 volumes of CO2. Not really undercarbonated for an English pale ale. But if the priming sugar wasn't mixed well with the beer, that could explain your bottle to bottle variation.
And it's likely that less than 5 gallons made it to bottles, so the mixing piece is probably the bigger factor here
