First batch failed!! Help appreciated.

Hi all,

Newbie to beer brewing here. i brewed a couple of all grain brews in South Korea (where I was living), but with the help of a friend who was an expert.

No, I've moved back to the UK and bought some equipment to start brewing down here. I've got most of the basic things i thought I needed. Four gallon kettle, fermenting bucket, Hydrometer, bubble air lock etc.

I tried brewing an IPA, and followed a recipe online. I was aiming to make 4 gallons. Here's the process I followed, and the issues I had listed below. I've also included what I think went wrong, but i'm unsure. help appreciated!
1) boiled 3kg of extra pale malt with as much water as would fit in my 4 gallon kettle, for 40 mins.
2) Sparged, (into bucket) added cold water to the wort, and sparged again, until i had 4 gallons of wort.
3) Added back to the (cleaned kettle) and added cascade hops (32g as I recall) and boiled for a further 45 mins.
4) Added citra hops (cant remember amount) at flameout
5) Cooled in a sink of cold water, and racked into fermentation bucket.
6) Added dry yeast packet (English ale) Heres where i think I went wrong, i think i added the yeast whilst it was still too hot. As I got some funky banana-y flavours i had read about.
7) Let ferment for 2 weeks. Not much seemed to be going on. Didn't see much going on in the airlock or the bucket.
8) Racked into a barrel, and added 2 tablespoons of sugar and dry hopped with 40g of Chinook hops in a muslin bag.
9) left for further two weeks.

The result was a pale, cloudy, extremely bitter mess. It also didn't have any carbonation at all. It smelled and tasted vaguely 'beer-y', and I'm pretty sure it was alcoholic, but it tasted terrible. I also couldn't work out my hydrometer. Whenever i put beer in the test cylinder, and dropped the hydrometer in, it just sank all the way to the bottom, or leaned against the side of the cylinder.

What do you think I'm doing wrong?? I think possibly I added the yeast to early and also didn't add enough sugar to the barrel? Any other ideas? I want to try another brew next week. so any help appreciated.

if anyone's got a foolproof recipe for these ingredients, I'd love to hear that as well! I have: extra pale male 3kg, Crystal malt 500g, chinook, cascade and citra hops.

TIA everyone, happy brewing!

Boiling the malt will not have helped!
Should have been mashed at a much lower temperature...

1) Heat water to mash temp (circa 67c) let grain steep for an hour.
2) Sparge with water at a temp close to mash temp or slightly higher.
8) Probably would need more priming sugar, i would also not dry hop in a pressure barrel that you are dispensing from, far better to do the dry hop 4-7 days before you rack to limit the amount of debris in the PB.

The hydrometer is sinking probably because you didn't mash, therefore no starch converted to fermentable sugars. Bin it and start again.

Heat your water to 67c, steep crushed grain in it for an hour, heat sparge water during this time, after the hour is up rinse the grains using the sparge water into the kettle. Boil it for an hour with bittering hops at 1 hour (30-50g), 20g citra at flameout with a further citra dry hop (30-50g) after 8 days for a duration of maybe 6 days. Rack into a clean FV and let it sit for a week or two to clear, rack again to PB or bottling bucket with priming sugar at a rate of 2-5g per 500ml depending how much fizz you like.

The quantities of hops will depend on how bitter or flavourful you like your beer, for a rough guide to ABV assume for every kilo of grain you steep you will get approx 1% alcohol with a good conversion efficiency. Yeast pitching temp will depend on the yeast itself, for an ale at or around 18-20c, lagers will be nearer 10-12c, check the correct temp with the makers website.

Also read/watch this simple guide from clibit http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=51779

1) As others have said, you shouldn't boil the grains.
2) Sparge water should be about 75c
3) Did you check the Aas of your hops against those used in the recipe you followed?
5) How long did it take to cool?
7) Did you check the temp?
8) You need to take gravity reading to be sure how fermentation is going.
8) Definitely not enough sugar.

Check your hydrometer in 20c water, it should read 1.000.

I did check the Aa's of the hops, and i used similar Aa's for each stage. however not exactly the same hops. I did check the temp, and i definitely think i added it too hot. Good tips about the sugar and the dry hopping before racking, thanks very much.

Ok fantastic I'll start these preparation steps tonight, and watch that video. hopefully I'll be good to try again by next week!

Cheers guys

123josephg said:

Hi all,
If anyone's got a foolproof recipe for these ingredients, I'd love to hear that as well! I have: extra pale male 3kg, Crystal malt 500g, chinook, cascade and citra hops.

TIA everyone, happy brewing!

Click to expand...

Here are some wise words from a popular HB guy (i.e. not me):

"The formula is simple. Pale ale malt as a base, with something caramelly for flavour, like crystal, plus a heap of Cascade. You may wish to be a bit of a devil and chuck in Chinook or such for aroma at the end of the boil.

Ferment with US 05 / WLP001 / Wyyeast 1056 - the so-called Chico yeast."

I would make the crystal ~ 10% of the base malt at most, maybe 5-6%?

I would get a brewing book. Most ones I have read outline a similar method, Greg Hughes home brew book is good. Outlines the method and a variety of recipes.

Follow the method and recipe and it shouldn't go wrong.