Hello all-
I recently made a Extract 115th Dream Hopbursted Imperial IPA from Northern Brewers. This is my second batch, and I was fairly confident in my budding skills since my first batch (Extract Breakfast Stout from Austin Homebrew) was delicious!
Unfortunately, it is a hot mess. It barely has any carbonation (my friend said it's very flat, like fruit juice), smells a bit weird (not much of a hop aroma), and tastes like crap. I am wondering what I did wrong could mess this beer up. I have several hypothesis but my main theory is not enough priming sugar:
Would appreciate your feedback on this!
I recently made a Extract 115th Dream Hopbursted Imperial IPA from Northern Brewers. This is my second batch, and I was fairly confident in my budding skills since my first batch (Extract Breakfast Stout from Austin Homebrew) was delicious!
Unfortunately, it is a hot mess. It barely has any carbonation (my friend said it's very flat, like fruit juice), smells a bit weird (not much of a hop aroma), and tastes like crap. I am wondering what I did wrong could mess this beer up. I have several hypothesis but my main theory is not enough priming sugar:
- Not enough priming sugar. I did not add the full 5 oz pouch that came with the kit because the instructions said to pour in 2/3 cup of priming sugar (which was less than the 5 oz pouch I had).
- Possible unstable fermentation temp? My first batch was fermented in my closet which is fairly dark and cool. This batch I tucked it away in the corner of my bedroom because my bedroom is usually colder than the rest of the apartment, so my fermentation temp was around 66-70 degrees. I do wonder if any exposure to sunlight in my bedroom altered the fermentation process? There was also a few times where we left the AC off (to open the windows and get fresh air) and the beer rose above 70 degrees, how would this impact fermentation?
- Accidental oxidation? While I was transferring from primary to the bottling bucket, somehow the end of the siphon hose rose above the beer, creating a mini foundation of beer and causing some splashing. This probably lasted like 10 seconds so I am wondering if this introduced enough oxygen to cause oxidation?
- This batch is also the first time I used a strainer for the pour to fermentation bucket. There was so much hop material that I had to empty the strainer three times. I did clean and sanitize the strainer with starsan, but would this somehow introduce infective elements to my beer prior to fermentation?
- I included a picture of the beer, and it does not even look like an IPA. Barely any head even with an agressive pour. Am wondering if I did anything wrong with the cooking process? I followed the instructions to a T, and added the hopburst blend of hops at 15 min, 10 min, 5 min, and flameout.
- All of the above?
Would appreciate your feedback on this!