What did(n't) I do wrong?

[markq]

Having tried two successful extract brews, I decided to go for an all-grain BIAB for my favourite beer type, dunkles Hefeweizen. In the process, I think I've done everything wrong that you can do.

As embarrassing as all these mistakes are, I'm going to flagellate myself before you all in the hopes that you'll tell me which of these steps killed my beer

• Heated the water up to 10 degrees over mash temp (76 degrees) so that it would cool. Temperature took a looong time to drop, so probably mashed a bit too warm.
• Only managed a few rinses as a sparge before I'd hit my pre-boil volume.
• Evaporated too much water. I'd calculated my grains to send 9.5l into the primary fermenter and only managed 7.5l.
• Took a good while to cool in the sink with ice (maybe 2 hours or more to get to 22 degrees, guess I'll buy the wort chiller).
• Did not aerate the wort before emptying what I guessed to be less than half of the dry yeast sachet (since it said it makes up to 23l). When I weighed it against another packet, I'd probably emptied a good bit more than half.
• The fermenter seemed full of grainy/hoppy by-product from the boil.
• Temperature of the kitchen when I'm fermenting is from 18-23 degrees, ideal temp for the brew seems to be around 17.

However, even with all those mess-ups...

• I had a fermenter full of something. I measured an OG of 1.062 before pitching my yeast so figured I had something fermentable.
• I was worried about lack of wort aeration but from what I've read since, dry yeast doesn't require it and some sources say it shouldn't be done at all.
• After 24 hours (perhaps up to 36) I did start to see activity. It looked fairly active for a time and produced a krausen about an 1/2 - 3/4 inch only, the next morning it had calmed right down but was still doing something occasionally.
• Within 24 hours of that, it looked almost dormant, so I measured the gravity the following day, day 4, and again today on day 6 and getting about 1.044, 1.0.42, about the same on both days.
• It does smell like the style which is more than can be said for when it went in, but that would only be in 2.3 - 2.6% ABV range if I'm measuring right. I don't think it's still moving but surely if it is, this would take well over 2 weeks to finish.

With all my mistakes, I'm not expecting this beer to taste great and have more or less written it off but any advice for how to salvage or what not to do next time would be hugely appreciated.

	Brew day
	OG on brew day
	2 days ago, remnants of a pathetic krausen and reading of approx 1.042 - 1.044
	Essentially the same reading 2 days later

 

[Sadfield]

You got two things massively right. 1) Made beer. 2) Learnt way more in one brew day than you would have done extract brewing.

 

[Deadhead]

I had a pretty similar experience making my first hefeweizen, right down to the low alcohol content.Sounds like you’ve found all your mistakes already! Some bits probably don’t matter and will still make good beer (aeration, chilling- 2 hours is long, but not so long where it’s gonna cause a major issue)
Sparging, though, that’s where you get some nice bits of sugary goodness. So, I’d try and figure out in your setup how you can slow it down. Maybe dunking, or steeping, or pouring tiny amounts over? Good luck! You made beer from grain! Congrats!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

There are no devastating mistakes there, just several things you could do better.

If the fermentation is stuck there are several posts on the forum that suggest ways to restart it. One might be to rehydrate some more yeast and put that in, another is to raise the temperature, another is to give the brew a gentle stir to disturb the yeast settled on the bottom.

Don’t despair yet, even if you don’t get the abv you expected, you may still get something nice to drink.

 

[markq]

Massive encouragement that I've not completely wasted my time, thanks all so far!

Agree that I've learned a lot already though not enough to know how to avoid it again.

In terms of the sparge, would it not be the case that if I didn't have enough sugars to ferment, my OG would have been much lower? If that assumption is right and I've plenty of sugars, what would stop it from fermenting given that the temp is in range, even if on the high end in terms of producing good flavour?

Would people recommend bottling or waiting and bottling, or rather try and restart a bit?

 

[Deadhead]

Oh yeah, sorry, missed your OG in my read. Sorry! I just read quick sparge and made assumptions!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Massive encouragement that I've not completely wasted my time, thanks all so far!

Agree that I've learned a lot already though not enough to know how to avoid it again.

In terms of the sparge, would it not be the case that if I didn't have enough sugars to ferment, my OG would have been much lower? If that assumption is right and I've plenty of sugars, what would stop it from fermenting given that the temp is in range, even if on the high end in terms of producing good flavour?

Would people recommend bottling or waiting and bottling, or rather try and restart a bit?

The mash temperature is important in terms of fermentable sugars. By mashing at a higher temperature more of the sugar you extract is non-fermentable and if that’s the cause for your fermentation stopping short you will end up with lower abv, sweeter beer.

You can try and restart but the mash temp you used is high and does mean a high proportion of unfermentable sugars - it’s actually a technique for adding sweetness and body but even then not normally as high as you started. The normal mash temperature is 60 (crisp dry beer) to 70 (sweet and more full bodied beer).

 

[Buffers brewery]

The mash temperature is important in terms of fermentable sugars. By mashing at a higher temperature more of the sugar you extract is non-fermentable and if that’s the cause for your fermentation stopping short you will end up with lower abv, sweeter beer.

You can try and restart but the mash temp you used is high and does mean a high proportion of unfermentable sugars - it’s actually a technique for adding sweetness and body but even then not normally as high as you started. The normal mash temperature is 60 (crisp dry beer) to 70 (sweet and more full bodied beer).

SNAP! I was just writing that as you posted! Great minds

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

SNAP! I was just writing that as you posted! Great minds

Don’t you hate it when that happens!

 

[markq]

That makes total sense. I didn't really consider that some of the sugars may have been unfermentable. As my idea of an unpleasant beer is pretty much low alcohol and sweet, I might give the restart a try just for the learning, bottle a few and then try again.

Huge thanks for the input guys. Would have hated trying again without any idea what to do differently. Prost!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

You might be able to do something about the low alcohol...

Take some sugar, ideally dextrose but even ordinary granulated sugar will do the trick and dissolve it in some boiled and cooled water (just enough to dissolve the sugar), add it to your fermenter. Around 800g will add 1% abv.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Around 800g will add 1% abv.

I should have mentioned that this is for a 23 litre batch. If your batch is half this you’ll need half as much sugar.

 

[markq]

Bottling update, and thanks again for your advice. And I'll complete the story on tasting day!

Rather than chuck it, I bottled a couple of bottles-worth, added some dextrose to the rest and then bottled that a few days later for learning purposes. I must admit, the beer itself smells fairly decent even if I can't say I'm looking forward to a low-alcohol, potentially slightly sweet beer (pretty much my idea of a terrible beer).

Before bottling the first round and adding dextrose, I noticed white clumps which I thought might be mould. Now I'm thinking they might be yeast since they didn't expand exponentially after adding dextrose and waiting.

Any ideas? When I search for pictures of mould, I never see anything which convinces me either way but I'm thinking if it didn't really grow after adding dextrose and waiting, it probably wasn't mould. Shocked at how many people just drink it anyway