Help, trying to make my own brew. I ordered the good starter kit with the 2 glass Carboys, I chose the Red Irish as a first brew. I watched the video a half dozen times prior starting, read and re-read the recipe instructions, clean/sanitized everything to the best of my ability. recipe says stage 1 fermenter 1-2 weeks, after about 6 days, the big head of foam was gone and 2+ minutes between bubbling in the airlock thing.
So I transferred it to secondary fermenter with the smart siphon and using the technique shown in the video. no noticeable bubbling period after 3 days, but I waited a full 10 days before bottling. It has been resting in the bottle now for another 11 days but I was interested in seeing if there was the “layer of yeast/sugar/stuff” in the bottom of the bottle that I have seen in my friends home brew (2 kits from Northern).
Well there is a little sediment type stuff on the bottom but (hopefully) you can tell from the pictures there is some kind of floating stuff on so far every bottle I have looked at, it appears sort of like uneaten yeast or something?
So, is this ruined, like samonella or some other type of crap? should I just throw it out, not so sure about this…"if you can make cookies you can make beer stuff"I am seriously disappointed and not sure if I want to waste another $40-50 (actually already have ordered the Dead Ringer and some other items). I enjoy Craft beer but I know what I buy at the store isn’t gonna kill me.
I will have to try to find a way to resize the pictures, apparently my phones camera takes too big a picture
here hope they are viewable
nothing that can kill you can live in beer so don’t worry about that. Not sure what that is. What did you do for priming sugar? How did you clean/sanitize your bottles? Have you opened one and poured it in a glass to smell/taste?
+1 Not sure what it is but no known pathogens can survive in beer because of the alcohol and low pH.
Also when you hear “contaminated” it doesn’t mean anything more than an off-flavor in the beer
No pictures came through on your post.
But… DON"T DUMP HER!!!
First off- no pathogenic organisms that can make you sick will grow in fermenting beer, which is why beer consumption was such a big thing in Europe back in the middle ages when drinking water was suspect. Beer has an acid pH, has alcohol, and hops have inhibiting properties. So, NO WAY you’ll make yourself sick even if somehow you infected your beer. And if you followed the instructions concerning sanitation, it’s unlikely you introduced any off-flavor producing bacteria.
So, what might the 'floating stuff be? Probably yeast.
It’s been 11 days in the bottle, at presumably room temperature? Leave her alone for another 10 days or so, then put the bottles in the fridge for 2-3 days. The cold temp. will help settle any floaters. Then crack one open and enjoy.
There’s a famous acronym- RDWHAHB which stands for Relax, Don’t Worry, Have a Home Brew. In your case, Have a Craft Brew.
It’s really hard to totally screw up a batch. Your first batch may not be the best you can make, but it should be pretty good.
Do some more reading, watch a few more videos, spend some more time on this and other forums, and most importantly start another batch. It gets better, I promise. :cheers:
I used the One Step cleaner/sanitizer that came in the deluxe starter kit, All bottles were washed (dawn soap) and scrubbed with the bottle brush, then rinsed under painfully hot water. I had a kettle of the solution (1 Tbsp /gallon water) made up that I placed the bottles into for @ 2 minutes contact prior to bottling. the bottling cane, tubing etc were all soaked in a similar fashion. the caps were also in a solution for well over 2 minutes (altho that One Step does NOT say how long, I went with the recommendations from video etc).
I have since ordered ( a crap load more stuff) but the kit with the brewing book that tells you more about the temperature range to store at etc. I have a small apartment so to minimize drafts etc, I kept in in the closed bathroom at @ 72 degrees.
Priming sugar was the stuff that came in the kit, brought to a boil, cooled some to maybe …warmish? ( again NO temperature instructions or hints in the recipe) I did forget to make it up ahead of time so I had already siphoned the beer from 2nd fermentor into white bucket, so I stirred it in for a few minutes prior to bottling.
Haven’t opened one… too scared to try.
My friends 1st batch (Caribou Slobber) he said seemed a tad flat at 1st try so he read a bit about possibly warming it up slightly and had swirled the bottles arounf a little, raised the temp in his kitchen @ 3-4 degrees and let them sit a few more days,. After that, carbonation was great, I did NOT notice any of these floaties in his brews at all, so… should I try that? perhaps swirl them around a little? My bathroom with door closed is # 72-74 degrees so…that should be good temp right?
“It’s really hard to totally screw up a batch. Your first batch may not be the best you can make” um look in dictionary for could screw up a W## dream, the definition points to a picture of me 
Give the beers at least another week before you chill one more for tasting. Your floaters might be some of the trub from the bottom of the fermentor. Not a problem, they will settle in the bottle, if the bottles are not disturbed. Gently put the next bottle in the frig to keep everything at the bottom. When you pour into your glass, pour without glugs. This means the beer should come out smooth without sucking air back in. This will keep the bottom junk near the bottom. Pour in the light so you will be able to stop pouring when the junk reaches the bottles shoulder.
Not familiar with One Step. My preferred sanitizer is Starsan. Starsan is a no rinse sanitizer that has a taste that can’t be tasted in a beer.
You didn’t mention amount of time in the fermentor or hydrometer Specific Gravity readings.
I haven’t bothered to use a secondary for at least the last decade. Typically go three weeks in the primary, and then have clear beer to bottle. The last beer I brewed, Dead Ringer, was in the primary for four weeks, with dry hopping and an interruption for getting repair work done on a rotator cup.
I would be very willing, and others, to help out with the Dead Ringer, before you schedule the brew day.
Had a pepperoni pizza for supper tonight. The Dead Ringers were the perfect pairing for the pizza.
Primary fermentor for 7-8 days, the bubbling was spaced at more than 2 minutes , transferred to secondary, in for 8 days, basically no more bubbling after first 10-12 hours, bottled Monday the 8th. I am not sure the floaty stuff is from the secondary, I was very conservative when transferring from secondary to bottling bucket, never touched the bottom, and left perhaps a bottle os so of beer in secondary so I didn’t get any crap in the bucket. I don’t know… , extremely frustrated at this point and honestly not sure if I want to even try a beer, but I will leave it til after Christmas before trying. I thought this might be a fun hobby but it’s just stressing me out.
don’t get frustrated. When all is said and done, its still just beer. How did it go the first time you ever made spaghetti on your own? The short answer is these floaties could be bits of grain that made it through your mesh bag, proteins from the yeast you pitched, proteins from a wild yeast etc. etc. etc. You won’t know until you drink it, and as said above, the worst thing that can happen is that it will taste bad.
A couple of things I’m picking up on:
1.) Sanitized and Cleaned are two very different things: cleaners (like Oxyclean, PBW, etc.) are designed to dissolve visible surface particles (dirt/dust) and be done in combo with MECHANICAL cleaning (aka elbow grease). Sanitized means free of most (but not all, that would be STERILIZED, which is practically impossible without air filtering) surface bacteria. In the homebrewing (and commercial food) world, we do this with use of a chemical sanitizer, like starsan. This is basically diluted phosphoric acid that kills microscopic stuff. With beer you are creating an environment (the wort you boiled) for yeast to eat and reproduce. The problem is, there are millions of other things floating around in the air that also want to eat and reproduce in that same beer. As was said, none of the things that can survive in beer can make you sick. I have heard all the pluses for One Step (ie combining sanitizing and cleaning into one step), but I don’t trust it.
2.) 72* is a little warm to ferment beer. Once you pitch yeast into beer, the growth of the yeast will warm the beer above ambient room temperature. Yes, they create heat while they are making your beer. Next time, stick the fermenter in a tub of room temp water, trying to find a place in your apartment that is around 65* (maybe a closet?)
3.) Do you know of a more experienced brewer you can brew with? I am very much an experiential learner, and wish I had tried that earlier on.
4.) Its just beer. Try one. If its horrible, let us know why (flat, sour/tart, cardboard) and we can help diagnose what happened. You may be surprised that its not as bad as you thought.
If you really don’t dig the hobby, go sell the stuff you bought on Craigslist.
Good luck out there soldier.
I think i figured out the problem. I bought the deluxe kit with what is billed in the list as a cleaner/sanitizer, 1Step. However on another forum several people state 1Step is ONLY a cleaner. I re-read the label today it says cleaner… it does not mention sanitize anywhere on the small jar, nor does it list a minimum contact tome to sanitize i used the 2 minutes descibed in the video that came with the kit. So yes or no… dual purpose or cleaner only which to me means i am dumping this.
One Step is a cleaner and sanitizer. It is not labeled as a sanitizer because of the cost of getting it labeled according to government regulations.
What you have in the bottles is floating pieces of yeast. Give the beer some time for the yeast to settle to the bottom.
How much head space did you leave in the bottles. From your pictures the bottles look like they are filled to the rim.
One Step is a cleaner and sanitizer. It is not labeled as a sanitizer because of the cost of getting it labeled according to government regulations.
What you have in the bottles is floating pieces of yeast. Give the beer some time for the yeast to settle to the bottom.
How much head space did you leave in the bottles. From your pictures the bottles look like they are filled to the rim.
Moved the pictures some more. Now I can see your head space. For pics put them on your computer for resizing.
