Root Beer FAILED

[sumi]

When my friends would brew beer, they would put it in the closet where the water heater was. It would stay nice and warm and bubble away. Their dog would sit in front of the door and growl every time it burped, lol! They called it the monster in the closet.

 

[sumi]

Day 5 - more bubbles
View attachment 9999

Looks great!

 

[sumi]

It's looking good!

 

[CrealCritter]

Day 8 - its like the energizer bunny. It keep going and going...

 

[CrealCritter]

Well just like that it's slowed down to a crawl, a bubble about every minute through the airlock. It's interesting how that works, the yeast eats up what it can until it runs out of food (fermentables) or it kills itself with to much alcohol.

It's time to bottle with some more food / sugar (bottling primer) to carbonate the bottles. I washed 24 pint bottles so I can sterilize them when I bottle tomorrow. I finally get to give this root beer a taste test .

Significantly less activity now. But I want to make sure the yeast is still active when I bottle so the bottles will carbonate. Shooting for the mid 3% for alcohol content. since I now know this yeast is only good for a little over 4%.

Trub on the bottom of the carboy, it quite thick.

 

[CrealCritter]

This batch was a FAIL.

I syphoned the "good" stuff off the trub into my bottling bucket and poured myself about 1/2 in a glass. It was sour, not rotten or vinegar, but sour. I measured the alcohol content @ 4.4%. I added a little sugar to the glass and that made it taste worse. Drinking just that little bit in a glass on a empty stomach gave me a very faint buzz.

Anyways I poured it all down the drain because I wasn't after sour mash .

It tasted good going into the carboy. Maybe it was my ginger bug or maybe it fermented to warm or sat too long in the carboy or all three... IDK. I may try again with ale yeast and see what happens. Learn by your mistakes... next time try something a little different and see if it turns out any better.

 

[wyoDreamer]

I was so hoping that you got a good root beer out of this. I was hoping to try it for myself. Better luck next time.

I am trying to talk a brewing buddy of mine into making your Blueberry Ginger Beer for me. He is my DH's best friend, so I hope he will be willing. He has all the equipment, I don't.

 

[CrealCritter]

I was so hoping that you got a good root beer out of this. I was hoping to try it for myself. Better luck next time.

I am trying to talk a brewing buddy of mine into making your Blueberry Ginger Beer for me. He is my DH's best friend, so I hope he will be willing. He has all the equipment, I don't.

For 3 gallons of blueberry ginger cream ale with ginger bug. I used 1 lb or 16 oz of grated ginger root. My wife says its a little to spicy for her tastes. So I'm going to cut it down to 12 oz or 4 oz per gallon and see how she likes it then. It does mellow some in the bottle though but still a little to spicy for her tastes. I like it just how it is but I would also like it more, if she would enjoy drinking some also.

 

[CrealCritter]

I talked with my son who has brewed for years he said that he suspects lacto fermentation occurred. This generally happens when its fermented to warm. Which I had a problem getting this ferment started, so I ended up putting it on a heating pad. I tend to agree with him that that's what happened.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/beerandbrewing.com/dictionary/amp/ja4FY2UohM
"They (lactobacillus) grow best in environments with a pH value of 4.0 to 5.0 and a temperature of roughly 30°C (85°F)."

 

[wyoDreamer]

You are so considerate!
At our house the solution would be to make 2 batches - a his and a hers! lol