I'm trying my first batch of home brew, and am having a small problem.

I'm having to use an un-air conditioned area of my house, where the
temps got into the mid 70's a couple of days in a row during primary
fermentation.

1) What effect could this have on my beer?

My batch started out fermenting great guns, but has stopped at SG
1.014, which is a little higher than the predicted 1.009.

Should I be concerned?

I took it from the bucket to the carboy when fermentation was one
bubble every 81 seconds. Since then, I can't tell that it is doing
anything. From my calculations, my alcohol content is rather low.
(2.5%)

Which brings the last question...can I dump a fifth of PGA into the
bottling bucket before bottling to get my alcohol back up where it is
acceptable?

I have no intention of drinking Near Beer.

Thanks in advance to all that respond kindly.

Jeff.

--------
Jeff N. Cantwell
Contract Programmer
Downtown Little Rock, AR
ICQ #19444448

NRA Life, Member ARPA, Libertarian
[[url]www.ARPA-Online.org][/url]
NRA EVC - 2nd District

On Fri, 20 May 2005 14:26:28 GMT, Jeff Cantwell
<jeff-cantwell@swbell.net> wrote:
[color=blue]
>On Thu, 19 May 2005 14:24:46 -0000, Derric
><derric1961@removethis.yahoo.com> wrote:[color=green][color=darkred]
>>> 1.014, which is a little higher than the predicted 1.009.[/color][/color]
>
>OG 1.033, adjusted for temp. A little lower than the expected.
>[color=green][color=darkred]
>>> From my calculations, my alcohol content is rather low. (2.5%)[/color]
>>List your ingredients and amount of water and the
>>starting gravity can be calculated pretty well.[/color]
>
>It was an American Amber kit of unknown vintage that came with my
>setup. The dry malt was a solid brick by now, having absorbed water
>from the air. Since it was old, and I figured the first batch to be
>iffy anyway, I started with it. (I still have an Irish Red and
>Guiness clone)
>[/color]
I found the same thing with some light dried extract. It sat in my
"beer room" for a year and was a dark solid mass. The ale I made had
a very distinct red hue, but was otherwise OK.
[color=blue]
>My bucket wasn't graduated, so I ended up with about 1/2 to 2/3 of a
>gallon too much water. (Explains the low OG)
>
>I mixed the Yeast that came with the kit with half a cup of wort, and
>sealed overnight, while I waited for the rest of the wort to come up
>to temp. (70 degrees).[/color]

You want to chill the wort down <~100 F as quickly as possible. It is
less important in "partial boil," techniques. Failure to cool it,
results in cloudy beer, but doesn't otherwise affect taste. Getting a
lot of air into hot wort is not good - that will affect taste.
[color=blue]
>
>Next morning, the cup had no action, so I presumed the kit was old
>enough for the yeast to be dead. I pitched with yeast from the
>Cooper's Irish Red kit.[/color]

If by no action you mean no froth - it could have acted and settled in
that amount of time. The bubbles last about an hour. Starter wort
should be weaker than your batch - rehydrating yeast don't tolerate a
lot of sugar. I use about a tablespoon of DME in three cups of water.
(boiled separately and well in advance of pitching time so I can do it
over if need be)[color=blue]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
>>> Which brings the last question...can I dump a fifth of PGA into the
>>> bottling bucket before bottling to get my alcohol back up where it is
>>> acceptable?[/color]
>>
>>It's your beer, you can do what you want. <snip> To me, the
>>alcohol level is secondary (or terciary) to taste.[/color]
>
>agreed, but I'm trying to salvage what may be a mess. I'd hate to
>wait another 2-3 weeks and find I'd wasted my time.[/color]

Waiting depends on the price of carboys and how committed to the hobby
one is. A "Crate and Barrel" store had glass carboys for $5 several
years ago - now they cost ~$20 from a brew shop or maybe a little less
at flea markets. I've a nephew in Colorado who claims he paid $50 for
his carboy.[color=blue]
>
>On the plus side, I seem to have sterilized sufficiently, as I don't
>see any extra growth in the carboy.
>
>Then again, maybe I'm just over analysing and worrying too much.[/color]

definitely

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On Sat, 21 May 2005 16:48:28 +1000, heath <snookmz@tpg.com.au> wrote:
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>>I've been contemplating getting a still for a while now. To make the
>>>alcohol you simply add sugar, yeast and water in large quantities. Then
>>>simply distill to purify the alcohol to about 80%. Pleasant dreams :)[/color]
>>
>> The taste with plain sugar was rather like club soda missing some fizz
>> and a strong taste of yeast and bite of alcohol, adding some sugar or
>> crushed fruit to the finished product made it more palatable.. As a
>> semi frozen slurry it wasn't half bad, but it wasn't beer.[/color]
>[color=green]
>> [url]http://homedistiller.org/[/url] has info on homemade stills including a
>> fairly inexpensive "amazing" still. Lot of info on the site.[/color]
>
>Thanks, I checked out that site and it had some good info. I'll likely buy a
>reflux still. I wonder how lightly distilled beer will taste.. perhaps
>similar to young whiskey?[/color]

I don't know . . . seems to me the aim of distillation is to remove
most of the taste in favor of the alcohol. Moonshine or green alcohol
is some pretty rough stuff. You'd have something like green scotch.

Maybe you could try something like a brandy? Remove the alcohol, hold
it separately, then reduce the remaining beer (boil off water) then
recombine them.

Brandy was supposed to have originated with a Dutchman who wanted to
import French wine. In theory, the concentrated wine (brandy) was
supposed to get mixed with water at the destination. Trivia.

Sweet under hopped porter might be a good test subject - reducing
would lose the hops flavor and aroma and might increase the
bitterness.

If you try something along those lines, let us know how it turns out .
.. .

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<snip>
[color=blue]
> Maybe you could try something like a brandy? Remove the alcohol, hold
> it separately, then reduce the remaining beer (boil off water) then
> recombine them.[/color]

<snip>
[color=blue]
> If you try something along those lines, let us know how it turns out .[/color]

I will be sure to try your suggestions! Thanks for your input. I'll let you
know how they pan out :)

Regards
Heath

[color=blue]
> I will be sure to try your suggestions! Thanks for your input. I'll let
> you know how they pan out :)[/color]

Sipping on my first batch now. It's pleasantly smooth, suprisingly nice and
sweet. I'm very happy with it :)

Cheers!

On Sat, 28 May 2005 15:13:48 +1000, heath <snookmz@tpg.com.au> wrote:
[color=blue]
>[color=green]
>> I will be sure to try your suggestions! Thanks for your input. I'll let
>> you know how they pan out :)[/color]
>
>Sipping on my first batch now. It's pleasantly smooth, suprisingly nice and
>sweet. I'm very happy with it :)
>
>Cheers![/color]


Care to tell how you did it? What kind of feedstock to the still and
what (how) did you make?

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[color=blue]
> Care to tell how you did it? What kind of feedstock to the still and
> what (how) did you make?[/color]

Sure. I used 6 kgs of dextrose and 'Turbo 24 Yeast' plus about 21 litres of
water. I didn't make the Still i bought it from a homebrew store here
(Australia), link below:
[url]http://countrybrewer.com.au/prod13141.htm[/url]

A super reflux still, 25 litre. From 6 kgs of dextros I got roughly 3 litres
of 70% alcohol, which I then watered down to about 40% and got 8 litres.

I'm really happy with it all. I drank like a fish last night with a mate and
woke up this morning feeling perfectly fine, no hangover at all. The spirit
is smooth and has very little smell, very impressed.

Cheers!

agreed fast ferment is not the best in the world
got a basement concrete floor to sit it on.

"Jeff Cantwell" <jnc01@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:0lgn81dickq1gs1v1bqs1q6ras68ed00co@4ax.com...[color=blue]
> I'm trying my first batch of home brew, and am having a small problem.
>
> I'm having to use an un-air conditioned area of my house, where the
> temps got into the mid 70's a couple of days in a row during primary
> fermentation.
>
> 1) What effect could this have on my beer?
>
> My batch started out fermenting great guns, but has stopped at SG
> 1.014, which is a little higher than the predicted 1.009.
>
> Should I be concerned?
>
> I took it from the bucket to the carboy when fermentation was one
> bubble every 81 seconds. Since then, I can't tell that it is doing
> anything. From my calculations, my alcohol content is rather low.
> (2.5%)
>
> Which brings the last question...can I dump a fifth of PGA into the
> bottling bucket before bottling to get my alcohol back up where it is
> acceptable?
>
> I have no intention of drinking Near Beer.
>
> Thanks in advance to all that respond kindly.
>
> Jeff.
>
> --------
> Jeff N. Cantwell
> Contract Programmer
> Downtown Little Rock, AR
> ICQ #19444448
>
> NRA Life, Member ARPA, Libertarian
> [[url]www.ARPA-Online.org][/url]
> NRA EVC - 2nd District[/color]

"Jeff Cantwell" <jnc01@swbell.net> wrote in message
news:0lgn81dickq1gs1v1bqs1q6ras68ed00co@4ax.com...[color=blue]
> I'm trying my first batch of home brew, and am having a small problem.
>
> I'm having to use an un-air conditioned area of my house, where the
> temps got into the mid 70's a couple of days in a row during primary
> fermentation.
>
> 1) What effect could this have on my beer?
>
> My batch started out fermenting great guns, but has stopped at SG
> 1.014, which is a little higher than the predicted 1.009.
>
> Should I be concerned?[/color]

Don't worry. Bottle and get ready to drink it real soon!

On Fri, 20 May 2005 14:26:28 GMT, Jeff Cantwell
<jeff-cantwell@swbell.net> wrote:

I bottled Sunday, so I know its supposed to sit for a bit. 3 weeks
according to instructions, but I wanted to see how it was doing, even
if only after 3 days of carbonation.

UGGGh. Can it be watery and malty at the same time? It had a little
bit of fizz already, but not a lot. Even highly carbonated, I don't
think it will improve the flavor much.

I've drank plenty of flat Busch the morning after in my college days,
and it still beats this.

I know everyone will say I'm rushing it, but I'm starting my 2nd batch
this weekend, and I'm trying to clear up any errors other than those
already noted:

Too much water.
Old ingredients.
Fermented warmer than recommended.
These are extract kits, so how full a boil is required? I boiled
slowly for an hour and a half to prevent sticking/scorching. Could
that have contributed?


Jeff N. Cantwell
Downtown Little Rock

NRA, ARPA, Libertarian
'86, '91 300zx 2+2