Current Beer Quest Brews (Feb "09)

Question for you guys. How bad is it that my beer is still fermenting after 10 days? I am still having my airlock "blurp" about every 30 seconds. Is this an infection? The fermentation was never super vigerous, but it began 12 hours after I pitched the yeast. I was hoping to siphon my beer to the keg in the next day or so, any thoughts?

the fact that your airlock is still blurping doesn't mean a whole lot....you need to take a gravity reading. My guess is that it is done fermenting, and any leftover gaseous matter is still escaping

I kegged my Irish Red last night and I'm not very hopeful that it's gonna be any good. The color and clarity are very good (especially for the fact that I only had it in primary for 9 days) That S-04 yeast is about the most flocculant I have come across. The beer was crystal clear and a nice red --and the yeast cake was not at all disrupted by my auto siphon which is quite rare. Now for the flavor and aroma: a little diacetyl is present, and my idea to not use any flavor or aroma hops was not a good one. It is quite bland. We will see if carbonation does anything to help with this, but like I said, I'm not hopeful.

You and me both Porter!
I knew I couldn't fix this thing to my liking, oh well. It used to have a nice dark caramel (almost raisin) thing going... but once I added the carafa extract.. it darkened it up a bit.. and drowned out the subtleties of the beer. Now, I'm finding it quite bland. Oh well... it was free and fun, right?

We'll see after it carbonates!

p.s. Harker: What's your Krausen look like? Is there activity in the beer.. or just airlock. If it was a big guy--I would say it's degassing... but after 10 days .. with the OG being under .070, it should be done. NOW.. UK yeasts tend to be much more unpredictable than the good ole 1056/1272 guys. So... you should be fine. I tell you what... open it up.. and take a dump in it. If you can taste something else in addition to the beer and your own crap... then it might be infected.. If all you can taste is beer and your crap... then you should be fine!

Well, I racked my bq irish red into a keg last night. Remember I was worried about the fermentation taking too long. Well, I was shooting for 1.012 and ended at 1.010. So I guess it all worked out, irish reds are supposed to be dry right? Naturally, I took a little taste. Not too bad. The east kent goldings didn't hop it up too much to really take it out of style (1 oz last 8 min), but makes it a drinkable irish red. It's too early to tell, but I think it might just be an average run of the mill beer. The color however is copper and not red, oops not enough roast I guess.