Couple things - You are not doing a full wort boil, so you don't really need to boil it longer (you said you did the boil for 75 minutes, and not 60). Full wort boil is the best way to do it, but if you're doing it on a stove, sometimes it's hard to get 5+ gals to boil, my stove takes ~40min.
The AAU's do seem kinda low, especially for a partial wort boil and an IPA. Another way if you can't get 5gals to boil all at once (especially with extract) is to split the ingrediants into 2 pots and boil both at the same time, then mix them into your fermenter. It will affect the color (makes it darker IIRC), but it's closer to a full wort boil then ~3gal and topping off in the fermenter, and you'll get better utilization of your hops.
Another quick thought is it's just young - I've had IPA's "hold out" on me before and not give up the hop flavor for closer to 2 months.
Another thing I have noticed with extract brewing is dry hopping helps alot.
It's been said and I'll say it again. Watch out for your hop utilization components. If the recipe assumes a partial boil to acheive bitterness/sweet balance, you need to do the partial boil to hit target IBU. If it assumes full boil, a partial boil will come out low IBU. The bottom line is, you'll get more IBU from a give hops the longer it is boiled (to a point) as well as the LOWER the gravity is.
To get more IBU:
1. Use hops with higher AA%
2. Use more hops
3. Full boil to create lower gravity for a given extract addition. -OR-
4. Late extract addition (boil hops in water, add extract 15min prior to flameout)
So, you can see why it's important to know what the recipe/direction author had in mind when doing the calculations for IBU. If it doesn't say how much water to boil, you're just guessing. That's where brewing software really comes in handy.
If this is in a keg, may I suggest some hop tea? Get an oz. of a high AA pellets (columbus would fit in well) and boil it in 1 quarts of water for 30 minutes. Since the gravity is 1.0 the AA will extract efficiently and you'll retain some of the flavor. Strain & add half of it into the keg and put the other half in the fridge. Taste it, give it a week & taste again. If it is still too sweet, add the rest of the tea.
__________________
Remember one unassailable statistic, as explained by the late, great George Carlin: "Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!"
Being that you mentioned it tasted good before you kegged it, how cold is your fridge? If your temp in the fridge is too cold you will lose a lot of the hop flavor leaving a sweeter (extract) flavor. I make sure that mine is around 50 degrees and it tastes much better. I did the Octane recipe and did not feel it fit an IPA. It was a tasty PA, but the hops were not pronounced (and I dry hopped with 1 oz EKG). Now 8 or 9 batches later I feel it was the temperature of my ale.
That could be part of your problem. Use WLP001 California Ale Yeast next time and see if that helps. British and Irish ale yeasts tend to have lower attenuation rates, leaving you with residual sugar.
Also you might want to make a starter. There are those on both sides of the fence to whether or not you need one, but it certainly NEVER hurts. Since this could be an area that's hitting you, you want to be absolutly sure you have enough.
Wow...a lot of really good ideas. I think a full wort boil is a good idea but I will need to get a bigger pot. I am going to read more about hops and learn the formula to figure out IBU. I just figured if I read the reciepe I couldn't go wrong. It could be that the beer just is young. I will leave it in my fridge (at 48-50deg F) for a couple of weeks and see if it mellows out. Thanks again for all the great ideas. Hopefully other people will read this post cause there is a bunch of great ideas here. Brew on.
My final gravity was around 1.022 and as far as temp stability goes..it was fairly stable but fluctuated between 65 and maybe 72-73. I have a frige now so I can be much more exacting in the future. I hate it when I mess things up. I try and be as careful as possible but without a spare frige, it is tough to keep ferementer at a steady temp, especially here in San Diego where the nights can be around 40-45 and the days 70-78. Mix that with an old house that can't retain heat in the winter and cool in the summer and it is doubly hard.
A f.g. of 1.022 is terribly high- no wonder it tastes sweet. You kegged it, right? Otherwise, I'm thinking bottle bombs. Depending on the attenuation (I'm not doing the math!!!- I'm the math idiot), the beer is possibly/probably not done.
My recommendation: find a smaller beer you'd like to make. 1.074 is a big beer, and more likely to get a stuck fermentation. Make something in the 1.050 range, primary it with a large starter for a week. Then put it in secondary for 2 weeks. Then keg/tap it. I think you'll find out that you CAN make really good beer. Do NOT attempt a lager yet- a simple ale (IPA, Nut Brown Ale, American Pale Ale) would be great.
Temperature stability is more important than the actual temperature. Temperature fluctuations will wreck havoc with your yeast and fermentation. A closet, basement, etc, that maybe has less than ideal temperatures is better than temps that fluctuate.
Lorena
__________________ Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006
You call me a dog well that's fair enough 'Cause it ain't no use to pretend You're wrong
But when it's my time to throw The next stone I'll call you beautiful if I call at all
Linear Mode
