supermetroid
New Member
My buddy and I finally got around to brewing, and we spent friday afternoon leafing through what seemed like ten sets of instructions and making our way through an IPA recipe.
We got through it intact, and after high-fiving and putting the carboy into the closet, we began cleaning up. To our dismay, we found a whole oz of magnum bittering hops amidst our bottling supplies.
My question: is our negligence going to make our beer bad by default? We ended up boiling .5 oz's of Magnum when the recipe called for 1.5 ozs. We boiled 2oz of Cascade at the end for 10mins, and another 2oz (of cascade) for the final minute. Will our beer be too sweet? Has anyone else had any success with a recipe similar to our foul-up? Should we dry hop with the remaining oz of magnum?
Also: I'm confused as to how I'm supposed to get samples for hydrometer readings when the airlock is on. I'm assuming I should take both it and the stopper off--but I'm afraid of exposing it to oxygen. Similarly: when we bottle and rack from the carboy to the bottling pail, is it okay for the beer to be exposed to the air?
All in all it was a great experience and I can't wait to bottle and drink the fruits of our labor. I'm buying another carboy tomorrow so that my buddy and I can have another go. http://i.imgur.com/rynS8.jpg here's a mock-up label I made today. I'm not excited or anything. Thanks everyone.
We got through it intact, and after high-fiving and putting the carboy into the closet, we began cleaning up. To our dismay, we found a whole oz of magnum bittering hops amidst our bottling supplies.
My question: is our negligence going to make our beer bad by default? We ended up boiling .5 oz's of Magnum when the recipe called for 1.5 ozs. We boiled 2oz of Cascade at the end for 10mins, and another 2oz (of cascade) for the final minute. Will our beer be too sweet? Has anyone else had any success with a recipe similar to our foul-up? Should we dry hop with the remaining oz of magnum?
Also: I'm confused as to how I'm supposed to get samples for hydrometer readings when the airlock is on. I'm assuming I should take both it and the stopper off--but I'm afraid of exposing it to oxygen. Similarly: when we bottle and rack from the carboy to the bottling pail, is it okay for the beer to be exposed to the air?
All in all it was a great experience and I can't wait to bottle and drink the fruits of our labor. I'm buying another carboy tomorrow so that my buddy and I can have another go. http://i.imgur.com/rynS8.jpg here's a mock-up label I made today. I'm not excited or anything. Thanks everyone.