Oops,
I decided that for my first brew I would do just half a Great Eastern kit, all went well, all looks good. Just finished its fermentation and realised I made it with 10litres, not 11.5litres, of water! Thought it looked a little dark!
Now the question... Should I top up to 11.5 litres with water then barrel or just accept its going to be a bit stronger/darker than it should be and barrel it anyway??
Thanks,
Stu
Made a mistake on my first kit!
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OldSpeckledBadger
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sib67
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
I would leave it as it is. Did you take a gravity reading before it started fermenting?
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mat69
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
why on earth do half a kit???why didnt ya jus brew it all then stick it all in ya barrel 
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Ditch
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Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
What Mat said! What on earth were ye thinking of?!Anyway, now that ye've messed with it? Just drink it.
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
Hi Stu
Quite a few people on here shorten the brew length down to about 20l. I just about always do myself. So the 10l half batch will be fine as is.
But I agree with everyone. Why go to all the bother and just make half a batch. Maybe you just didn’t have enough empty bottles yet. If so you can use 2l pet bottles. That’s empty coke type plastic bottles, the ones with a kind of star indentation on the bottom. They work fine, until you get up to scratch with your preferred containers. If thats not the reason. do tell us.
Quite a few people on here shorten the brew length down to about 20l. I just about always do myself. So the 10l half batch will be fine as is.
But I agree with everyone. Why go to all the bother and just make half a batch. Maybe you just didn’t have enough empty bottles yet. If so you can use 2l pet bottles. That’s empty coke type plastic bottles, the ones with a kind of star indentation on the bottom. They work fine, until you get up to scratch with your preferred containers. If thats not the reason. do tell us.
The Doghouse Brewery (UK)
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Stuo
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
Believe it or not the reason for my half batch was pure impatience!
I wanted to brew a half batch as a trial then get on to modifying the kit... I'm thinking of brewing the other half with some earl grey tea, think Badger England's Gold....
Kinda getting the brewing bug already... Batch of Turbo Cider to be started tomorrow!
I wanted to brew a half batch as a trial then get on to modifying the kit... I'm thinking of brewing the other half with some earl grey tea, think Badger England's Gold....
Kinda getting the brewing bug already... Batch of Turbo Cider to be started tomorrow!
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Ditch
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Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
Stuo; Why didn't ye just brew the lot and get another kit to mess with? I mean, ye talk about impatience? I'd sooner have a full five gallons of beer to ease my impatience, rather than take just as long, and equal the effort, to end up with half as much.
Not in any way knocking ye decisions there. Just trying to grasp the reasoning
Not in any way knocking ye decisions there. Just trying to grasp the reasoning
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Stuo
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
I can only put it down to seaming like a good idea at the time! Part of my thinking was ruin half a kit experimenting rather than ruin a full kit....
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
Theirs some sense in that. A tip tho. Make a kit as recommended but use spaymalt instead of sugar and dont go sticking any old sh*t in it or guess what'll happen. If you are tempted to add something to your brew, have a search on here, someone has probably already tried it. You'll have an idea of how it'll likely turn out. If it hasn't been done on here before, I'd leave it alone.Stuo wrote:I can only put it down to seaming like a good idea at the time! Part of my thinking was ruin half a kit experimenting rather than ruin a full kit....
The Doghouse Brewery (UK)
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BlackBag
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
Good advice there from Normski.
We've all been there when we first start on kits. The urge to experiment is really strong. But, and you won't want to hear this, you really have got to resist that urge. You must make a few kits exactly as the instructions state. Then, when you know exactly how they'll taste, and you've got yourself into a good routine with your kit making, then you can start playing around with them. Unfortunately with a kit there aint much you can do to change the taste that aint going to make it taste worse. Try different yeasts, not much taste difference. Try different malts and sugars. This can change the taste of a kit slightly without doing much damage. Change your brew lengths (like you've already done - make for example just 20 litres instead of the 23 to make it stronger, or make up 26 litres, weaker, but maybe a nice session beer). Try your own hop additions. Much else and you're just making drain cleaner. Don't get me wrong, I aint a killjoy, just a realist. Check some of my previous postings from this time last year when I was in the full flush of beer kit excitement. I had great ideas that people on here were very polite about. I did what people expected from me, I learnt from experience. My brown ale made with far too much demerara sugar, foul. My mild made with honey, almost undrinkable. I could go on. Sad reality is when you're working with kits you're already working with a finished product. At best you can mildly tinker when priming. To really experiment you need to make the next step up, extract brewing. When you've done with that, try real mans brewing, all grain. Something a lot of kit brewers would love to try if only they had the time (and patience!). Don't get me wrong, kits are good fun. They're easy to do, very quick, inexpensive, and, I think when done correctly, bloody tasty. They've moved on a bit over the years and some kits I think can hold their own with some of the commercial equivalents. Just ask Ditch about the infamous 'Coopers Stout'.
Anyhoo, I'm wasting your valuable brewing time. Get your bucket out, get the kettle on, and get brewing!
We've all been there when we first start on kits. The urge to experiment is really strong. But, and you won't want to hear this, you really have got to resist that urge. You must make a few kits exactly as the instructions state. Then, when you know exactly how they'll taste, and you've got yourself into a good routine with your kit making, then you can start playing around with them. Unfortunately with a kit there aint much you can do to change the taste that aint going to make it taste worse. Try different yeasts, not much taste difference. Try different malts and sugars. This can change the taste of a kit slightly without doing much damage. Change your brew lengths (like you've already done - make for example just 20 litres instead of the 23 to make it stronger, or make up 26 litres, weaker, but maybe a nice session beer). Try your own hop additions. Much else and you're just making drain cleaner. Don't get me wrong, I aint a killjoy, just a realist. Check some of my previous postings from this time last year when I was in the full flush of beer kit excitement. I had great ideas that people on here were very polite about. I did what people expected from me, I learnt from experience. My brown ale made with far too much demerara sugar, foul. My mild made with honey, almost undrinkable. I could go on. Sad reality is when you're working with kits you're already working with a finished product. At best you can mildly tinker when priming. To really experiment you need to make the next step up, extract brewing. When you've done with that, try real mans brewing, all grain. Something a lot of kit brewers would love to try if only they had the time (and patience!). Don't get me wrong, kits are good fun. They're easy to do, very quick, inexpensive, and, I think when done correctly, bloody tasty. They've moved on a bit over the years and some kits I think can hold their own with some of the commercial equivalents. Just ask Ditch about the infamous 'Coopers Stout'.
Anyhoo, I'm wasting your valuable brewing time. Get your bucket out, get the kettle on, and get brewing!
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Brupert
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
Black Bag I wish all newbie brewers like me would read & heed those wise words. I have read em before from other contributors too.
Call me dull and unadventurous, but I just don't get why anyone wants to bugger about with a kit. I thought that the whole point of kit brewing was exactly to provide an easy way in for the inexperienced brewer.
I hope & pray that Badger one day produce a Tanglefoot kit, Morlands OSH kit would be a top seller etc. etc, but until then I'm gonna stick to the tried & tested.
I'm just not experienced enough yet to do anything else................
Call me dull and unadventurous, but I just don't get why anyone wants to bugger about with a kit. I thought that the whole point of kit brewing was exactly to provide an easy way in for the inexperienced brewer.
I hope & pray that Badger one day produce a Tanglefoot kit, Morlands OSH kit would be a top seller etc. etc, but until then I'm gonna stick to the tried & tested.
I'm just not experienced enough yet to do anything else................
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Stuo
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
An Update!
Started making up the other half of my kit, with all the good intentions of taking everyone's advice and go by the book and make the beer as per instructions..... But then.... Out of the corner of my eye.... I saw the sediment from some ginger beer I had just bottled...... Think you can see what is coming here..... In it went.... What's the worst that could happen I thought to my self... Write off half a kit and learn an important lesson, I thought......
Well, it's a few weeks on and I took a few bottles to a barbecue.... Warmed everyone up with a bottle of Turbo Cider each, that went down very well with lots of requests for instructions.... Then came the moment of truth.... Serve the ginger beer beer..... I watched the faces, the sips, the sniffs, the sips..... The grins, the smiles, the suprise, the laughter...... A TRIUMPH!
It came out similar to Blandford fly, maybe slightly gingeryer (If only it was a word)... Slightly young still but unbelieavably drinkable!
Did a back to back test today, in the interest of science you understand and of the 3 testers all 3 prefered the ginger version of Great Eastern to the standard version..
In conclusion, the worst DID happen.... What to experiment with next?? And of course.... Can I repeat it??
Started making up the other half of my kit, with all the good intentions of taking everyone's advice and go by the book and make the beer as per instructions..... But then.... Out of the corner of my eye.... I saw the sediment from some ginger beer I had just bottled...... Think you can see what is coming here..... In it went.... What's the worst that could happen I thought to my self... Write off half a kit and learn an important lesson, I thought......
Well, it's a few weeks on and I took a few bottles to a barbecue.... Warmed everyone up with a bottle of Turbo Cider each, that went down very well with lots of requests for instructions.... Then came the moment of truth.... Serve the ginger beer beer..... I watched the faces, the sips, the sniffs, the sips..... The grins, the smiles, the suprise, the laughter...... A TRIUMPH!
It came out similar to Blandford fly, maybe slightly gingeryer (If only it was a word)... Slightly young still but unbelieavably drinkable!
Did a back to back test today, in the interest of science you understand and of the 3 testers all 3 prefered the ginger version of Great Eastern to the standard version..
In conclusion, the worst DID happen.... What to experiment with next?? And of course.... Can I repeat it??
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
My last kit was a Victorian Bitter, I bottled 10 pints and the rest I put into a keg with 12g of Amarillo hops. The hops have had a profound affect on brew imparting their hoppy citrusy flavours. I will be repeating this process with different kits and hops on future brews.
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Chase24
Re: Made a mistake on my first kit!
Stuo - interested to hear about your ginger beer experiment. Actually its not that crazy - proper ginger beers are fermented like beers so if you had a bottle with sediment then I'd suspect you had a good dose of beer yeast in there: bit like a mini starter. The difference in flavour probably due to the type of yeast rather than any lingering ginger.
Do you remember what type of ginger beer it was? I might try and hunt it out myself.
Do you remember what type of ginger beer it was? I might try and hunt it out myself.