Thanks for the input guys,

This was actually my first time pre-boiling the water. In my first two brews, I just added water directly from my Pur filter. I didn't have any problems with contamination but I figured it would be a good thing to start doing.

Hopefully this batch will turn out ok. If not oh well, I learned something in the process. At least now I have a game plan for the next brew.

so your first time you just mixed the "beer stuff" in tap water and then fermented it? maybe it is too early in the morning here, but I am having a hard time following your process and the "pre-boiling" etc. in the future, for a MB + DME and hops simply:

* in like 8-12 cups of water, start mixing in your DME as you bring the mixture to a boil.
* once boiling, add your 1st hop addition and begin your countdown...adding your other hops as you go
* at the end of the boiling time (let's say it was 20 minutes), turn off your flame and then mix your MB can into the wort at this point
* a tip to speed chill: put a layer of ice cubes and water (about 3 inches high) in your LBK...pour your wort on top of this mixture, and the temperature will undoubtedly drop to about 70 degrees immediately!
* top off your fermenter with the remaining needed water (try to have it be about the same temperature as your wort, so not cold at this point!)
* whisk your wort, pitch your yeast, let it rehydrate for a few minutes, then whisk again!

this whole process will take you about 35 minutes or so, start to finish

natural320:

Sorry about the confusion. When I said 'pre-boil' I was referring to the cold water that you add to the LBK directly, not the water (8-12 cups) used for mixing the booster and HME. That I always boiled (except when adding the HME).

I figured it would be a good idea to boil all of the water, not just the 8-12 cups used for reconstituting the HME+booster(+DME+hops).

NOW I gotcha! haha

try the ice cube and water trick next time...wish I had thought of it sooner in my brewing "career" because it works like a charm

Since today is a week since I brewed, I decided to have a little taste to see whats happening in the keg.

Luckily there was no contamination. I was a little worried about that since I didn't cool the wort properly, but it seems I got lucky (so far).

As far as the taste, it was.....well..... not that bad. I'm no beer connoisseur, but it seemed almost like a pale ale, with a little bit of a citrus note. It almost reminded me of Bass pale ale.

It still needs more fermenting so I'm going to let it go to next Sunday and take another taste. I'm still debating if I want to try a secondary fermentation or not. I would like to clear up the beer but I don't want to over ferment it (if there is such a thing).

So today was bottling day.

After three weeks of fermentation, I gave it a taste. I'm not quite sure how to describe it. Pretty smooth yet it has a little bite to it (if that makes any sense). Smells great and has a great color (like a deep amber). I can't really think of anything to compare it to.

I pretty excited to try this one after carbing and conditioning.

A hop bite? Or... An alcohol (like the burn from vodka) bite?

Congrats on the beer!

Yay, beer!

I tried a couple bottles of this over the weekend. The results were mixed.

The good: It tastes good.

The bad: Its not fully carbonated.

Its been in the bottles for three weeks so I'm assuming that it should be fully carbonated

The only thing I can think of is that maybe I should have used more than 1/3 cup booster when I batch primed. Funny thing is that I used the same amount of booster for priming on my last batch and it carbonated fine. Anyone have any ideas?

Weeeeeeell, some beers take longer than others to carb. Sure, most will be fully carbed in 3 weeks...but not all. Some may even take months, if you're pushing the alcohol tolerance of the yeast, or there's not a lot of yeast in suspension when you bottle, or if your temps are a little too cool.

If 1/3 of a cup carbed your last batch fine, that's probably not the issue.

As I mentioned above, there can be lots of reasons for a beer to not carb fully, other than using insufficient priming sugar. I doubt you're anywhere close to the yeast's alcohol tolerance, so it could be a combination of temps and not a lot of yeast cells in the beer when you bottled it.

I'd suggest moving the bottles somewhere warm, and gently swirling them to re-suspend any yeast. Leave them there for two more weeks, and put one bottle in the fridge. After two days in the fridge, check the carb of that bottle. If it's good, fridge the rest of the batch. If it's not, wait another month and repeat. If it still hasn't worked then, report back and we'll give you some more suggestions.