Help please!!

Discuss making up beer kits - the simplest way to brew.
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monkhouse

Help please!!

Post by monkhouse » Thu Jul 13, 2017 11:26 pm

Hi, 2 weeks ago I set off 3 kits of Kilner bitter all in their own fv's up to 20l. I used the kit yeast even though it was a month out of date I figured it couldn't hurt. I tried all 3 beers a couple of days ago and the tasted nice but abv was only 2.5% so I decided to buy some youngs ale yeast off eBay (red sachets).
Before I added the yeast though I gave each fv a swirl around to wake old yeast up to give it another chance- this did nothing so a day later I added the new yeast. Now 2 days on I tasted each beer and it tastes nasty, sour and un- beer like.
Is there any point in hoping this beer will sort itself out or is all 120 pints Only fit for the drain?
What the hell have I done wrong?

AnthonyUK

Re: Help please!!

Post by AnthonyUK » Fri Jul 14, 2017 7:02 am

It sounds like it has spoiled. Brewing is effectively farming at a microscopic level where you are encouraging yeast to grow over any other organism. If that yeast doesn't get going then others things will and this is made worse by the lack of alcohol present which keeps most other unwanted bugs at bay.

Depending on the infection it may be ok to drink. Sour beers are getting more popular I hear ;)

monkhouse

Re: Help please!!

Post by monkhouse » Fri Jul 14, 2017 12:48 pm

I was thinking it may have oxidised due to me swirling the fv figorously to wake old yeast up? It's really nasty tbh I think at least 2 of the fv's are going down the drain tonight. I'm totally gutted by this!

Fil
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Joined: Sun Oct 16, 2011 1:49 pm
Location: Cowley, Oxford

Re: Help please!!

Post by Fil » Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:57 pm

fwiw best before dates on yeast packs are only there as a side effect of it being classified as a foodstuff, if in a sealed pack dried yeast will be fine a year or two after any BB dates stamped on it.

when you say only 2.5% abv you must have taken gravity readings, just as a general rule we tend to go buy the gravity of a brew till its finished and packaged in bottles or kegs for conditioning. So what was the gravity it had 'stuck?' at??

I would have expected 2 weeks to be sufficient to ferment but sometimes the yeast can just take their time about it too, next time i would give it at least another week before considering a rouse( mix) or anything more drastic ;)

having said that , sour isnt a good omen.. if its a foul sour then bin it imho, but if its a hint of sour or not offensive its got to be worth seeing through to Final gravity at least and give it another taste test once cleared.. the malt flavour of a brew will mature and the more complex the malt bill the more maturing may be necessary to achieve optimum flavour tho that is subjective,,

might be worth a quick review of your cold side procedures, tho it is a numbers game and sometimes a million to one shot comes in..
ist update for months n months..
Fermnting: not a lot..
Conditioning: nowt
Maturing: Challenger smash, and a kit lager
Drinking: dry one minikeg left in the store
Coming Soon Lots planned for the near future nowt for the immediate :(

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Jim
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Joined: Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:00 pm
Location: Washington, UK

Re: Help please!!

Post by Jim » Sat Jul 15, 2017 8:23 am

I think the key question is how did you measure the 2.5% ABV that you gave.

There are 3 possibilities for the low ABV: -

1. there was insufficient extract right at the start (unlikely with a kit but not impossible if you either didn't get all the extract out of the tin, or over-diluted it)

2. the fermenation was incomplete. In this case, you should have noticed excessive sweetness in the beer and the specific gravity reading would be high.

3. You measured it wrong :wink:
NURSE!! He's out of bed again!

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