Brooklyn Brew Shop Everyday IPA Kit Tips

Yeah I got it from a thread I started some one posted it and taught me works pretty good.

I haven't seen bubbles in the tube or airlock since Monday. Should I be worried?

Nah, looks good, yeast are probably in clean up/settling out mode by now. One piece of advice I would give from my experience with these kits is to move on from honey and use corn sugar. I had terrible trouble getting consistent results with honey and ended up with a lot of flat beers. Arguably it's just because my process for adding the honey was bad though.

Finally got around to making their IPA. Just cracked open my first one and it is pretty good.





Damn iTouch is taking some crappy pics

BlakeL said:

I haven't seen bubbles in the tube or airlock since Monday. Should I be worried?

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After the first two or three days, I didn't notice any activity in the sanitizer/water solution at the end of the blow off tube, and not a peep when I put on the airlock. Though, I am bottling tonight and intend to test the wort to see how it's coming along.

One difference that I noticed is that the neck of my carboy is crusted with nasty dried krausen. Interesting how it doesn't appear to have happened with your brew.

Calichusetts said:

Your schedule seems fine and depending on your method, you should see around a 5% ABV with these kits

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Well, you were right about that. Assuming that I made my measurements (somewhat) correctly, my IPA is weighing in around 4.8%. Here are the numbers:

OG: 1.048
Temperature: 82°
FG: 1.014
Temperature: 68°
ABV: 4.8%

I haven't seen bubbles in the tube or airlock since Monday. Should I be worried?


Don't worry bubbles only happen for a few days after that nothing. Wait at least two weeks to bottle.

SaintBenedict said:

After the first two or three days, I didn't notice any activity in the sanitizer/water solution at the end of the blow off tube, and not a peep when I put on the airlock. Though, I am bottling tonight and intend to test the wort to see how it's coming along.

One difference that I noticed is that the neck of my carboy is crusted with nasty dried krausen. Interesting how it doesn't appear to have happened with your brew.

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I haven't seen any kind of dried krausen in the jug since pitching.

I'm thinking about going to Whole Foods and picking up some cider in the 1g jugs so I can have multiple beers fermenting at one time. I will also need some more ingredients for a new recipe. Should I go with another Brooklyn kit? My only issue is it looks like the shipping to Orlando will be around $10.

Why not go to your LHBS and try a recipe kit from them?

govner1 said:

Why not go to your LHBS and try a recipe kit from them?

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From what I've read, my LHBS isn't the greatest as far as customer service and it's best to just order online and pickup.

Looks like Brewmasters Warehouse has good shipping prices. I might just go with them and build my own recipe. Any good resources for recipes and how to convert for 1g batches?

Beersmith, it can scale down recipes. Convert from all grain to extract to partial, it will help you understand bittering hop effects, colors of beer, ABV and much more. I am still a rookie after 3 years and when I picked up Beersmith it changed a lot of things for me, plus, if you buy it from Birdman brewing, it's a little over 20 bucks. Pretty cheap for what you get. Good luck brewing

divrguy said:

Beersmith, it can scale down recipes. Convert from all grain to extract to partial, it will help you understand bittering hop effects, colors of beer, ABV and much more. I am still a rookie after 3 years and when I picked up Beersmith it changed a lot of things for me, plus, if you buy it from Birdman brewing, it's a little over 20 bucks. Pretty cheap for what you get. Good luck brewing

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Thanks for the tip! I'll check it out.

Beersmith is great I have the trial version and really like it. Also you can just take any recipe and divide everything by how many gallons it is designed for. If you go on the recipe data base here and find a good recipe for a 5.5 gallons just divide everything by 5 or 5.5 has worked for me. The only problem is that most online shops only sell by the pound for grains so you may only need an ounce or two for a one gallon batch and have lots of left over grain. Just put them in a ziplock bag and hang on to the extra for another recipe. And if you use dry yeast you only need half a package put that rest in a labeled zip lock baggy and put it in the fridge for next time. Just pull it out at the start of your brew day and rehydrate in 70-80 degree water 15-20 min before pitching I do it all the time works great for me. I had a pound of crystal 60L that lasted for three different one gallon brews.

I cracked open my first bottle of this last night. It was pretty good, but not carbed enough. I'm bringing some to share with my family tomorrow. Pretty psyched. I printed out some bottle hangers that were mentioned in another thread.

Note: I was drinking this mid-evening and suddenly I feel asleep in my work clothes. It knocked me right out. Slept like a baby.

@Ply318ci Midwest Supplies sells a bunch of grains in half pound increments and their prices seem to be pretty good.

Nice i have a LHBS so it isn't a big deal for me but good to know of they run out of something.

Shared my Everyday IPA at a family gathering today. I was a bit nervous. One bottle was carbed perfectly and another was too carbed. It tasted pretty good. I brought home all the empties from the party for future use. All in all a good day! Brewed the Coffee & Donut Stout yesterday!

kc1123 said:

Shared my Everyday IPA at a family gathering today. I was a bit nervous. One bottle was carbed perfectly and another was too carbed. It tasted pretty good. I brought home all the empties from the party for future use. All in all a good day! Brewed the Coffee & Donut Stout yesterday!

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That's good to hear. I hope mine turns out good too. I was thinking of getting another kit from them but shipping is $10.

It is a good beer all of my friends and their wives loved it as long as you followed the directions and sanitized right it will be fine. As for making another batch I just converted everything to one gallon recipes for any beer recipe I found on this site and ordered from online or visited my LHBS you end up with more grains then you need but you have a surplus so that after a few orders you have a good stock pile going and you only have to order a few things here and there eventually saving more money. I also bought a white home depot paint bucket and can now do two gallon batches or you can get another one gallon jug of apple juice from whole foods and get two
batches going experimenting with different hops. Trust me after tasting your beer one gallon is not enough and two isn't all that much work or space.

Did you buy the two gallon white buckets from home depot? Are they food safe?

They are hdpe 2 on the bottom some people say they are not while others have been fermenting in them for years. I did one beer in them so for and have a summer wheat going in there right now and so far the only down side is you can't see what is going on inside them. Now after reading lots of threads about home depot buckets I came to my own personal conclusion that they are just fine but other people are extremely against them. So far no third arm or shrunken body parts so I will keep using them.

How do you attach the airlock? These would work great in my closet since they're not very tall. I have room for 2-3.

I ordered two more 1 gallon glass jugs so I will always have something going in primary. Jumping into two gallons at a time is tempting.

No airlock is needed the lids are not air tight as long as you leave a few inches for the Krausen you will be fine. Two gallons for me was a better move doesn't require much more equipment I use a 8qt pot and a 6qt pot for my boil and mash. And a 4qt for the Sparge.

kc1123 said:

I ordered two more 1 gallon glass jugs so I will always have something going in primary. Jumping into two gallons at a time is tempting.

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I have six right now...I often do a double brew day or two gallons, works out very nicely for a pipeline

I Like that idea because it allows you to experiment with different hops and yeast. I just did two 1 gallon Belgian wit with two different hops to see the difference.

Completed my first IPA kit last night.

Of course I found this thread after, what I hope is not my mistake -

1. Tested my yeast (per palmer) and everything is working. Pitched it last night and shaked my 1gal to get everything working. 6hours later, all sediment was on the bottom and no bubbling. After reading this thread….I now realize this is normal….BUT THEN I DID #2
2. Realized my water level was a good inch below the gallon sign, i boiled water and waited to get the temp down to 30-40deg and then added it back over the gallon line.
3. I then shaked it up again. Making sure to STAR SAN - the cap, my hands, and the tubing.

Sounds like you are doing the right thing. Congratulations on entering the hobby.

jnalpak said:

Completed my first IPA kit last night.

Of course I found this thread after, what I hope is not my mistake -

1. Tested my yeast (per palmer) and everything is working. Pitched it last night and shaked my 1gal to get everything working. 6hours later, all sediment was on the bottom and no bubbling. After reading this thread….I now realize this is normal….BUT THEN I DID #2
2. Realized my water level was a good inch below the gallon sign, i boiled water and waited to get the temp down to 30-40deg and then added it back over the gallon line.
3. I then shaked it up again. Making sure to STAR SAN - the cap, my hands, and the tubing.

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Makes me feel better that someone else is also not seeing any airlock action after the first day.

Calichusetts said:

I have six right now...I often do a double brew day or two gallons, works out very nicely for a pipeline

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I went to Whole foods yesterday and picked up a 1 gallon jug of apple juice. Once we finish drinking it i'll order some more supplies so I can get a second batch going. I also like the idea of using a 2 gallon bucket so I might order one of those as well to capitalize on the flat rate shipping.

How are your brews going?

I was very pleased with how the Everyday IPA (kit) turned out and I hope to brew it again, but I have a bunch of others lined up already. I have Coffee & Donut Stout (kit) fermenting now and I'm brewing Grapefruit Honey Ale (kit) today. My first recipe from the book will be the Jalapeno Saison Mild.

I'll be bottling my Everyday IPA next week. I am already planning a second batch using two 1g jugs.

Ingredients:
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
5 lbs 9.6 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 1 80.0 %
9.6 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2 8.6 %
6.4 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 3 5.7 %
6.4 oz Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4 5.7 %
0.30 oz Northern Brewer [8.50 %] - Boil 80.0 min Hop 5 16.6 IBUs
0.86 oz Amarillo Gold [8.50 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 45.2 IBUs
1.60 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 7 50.2 IBUs
0.6 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 ml] Yeast 8 -

Beer Profile:
Est Original Gravity: 1.083 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.046 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.015 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 9.0 %
Bitterness: 112.1 IBUs Calories: 151.6 kcal/12oz
Est Color: 15.7 SRM

I am planning on cold crashing in the fridge starting tomorrow and bottling on Saturday. I'm just going to remove the air lock and cover with sanitized tin foil. Anyone have any other tips for cold crashing or bottling? Should I bottle it cold or wait till it is at room temp?

I am going to buy the cheap red capper and a auto siphon to make things easier but i'm not sure yet what i'll be using as a bottling bucket. I might just rack into a pot with the amount of sugar from this calculator and then bottle from there.

Calichusetts said:

For what its worth...the IPA kit was my first ever brew and I could not get a siphon going, maybe got 8 oz in before it stopped. I literally ended up pouring the beer into the bottles, turned out fantastic! I find you can hide imperfections and mistakes like that if its IPA and you drink them relatively young.

Main point is....consider an auto-siphon. I got a gravity fed siphon going on my second kit but the anxiety wasn't worth it.

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++++1 COULD NOT AGREE MORE.

Further, this was also the first kit I bought. As others have said, ensure you let the primary sit long enough. I think I bottled according to the directions (after a week?) and all of my bottles would gush foam, leaving about 2/3 of a beer. Also, I would recommend getting priming sugar over honey, it costs like 40 cents.

My Brooklyn Everyday IPA was SUPER cloudy, but I think others suggestions about cold-crashing and such should help. My 1 week primary is also to blame for cloudy beer.

I love the 1 gallon fermenter they give you. I use it for yeast starters for 5 gallon batches, as well as "experiments." I'll make a 5 gallon batch, lets say a stout, then bottle 4 gallons, and rack 1 gallon to the 1 gallon carboy on top of coffee. Lets me know if I should try for a full batch!

BlakeL said:

I am planning on cold crashing in the fridge starting tomorrow and bottling on Saturday. I'm just going to remove the air lock and cover with sanitized tin foil. Anyone have any other tips for cold crashing or bottling? Should I bottle it cold or wait till it is at room temp?

I am going to buy the cheap red capper and a auto siphon to make things easier but i'm not sure yet what i'll be using as a bottling bucket. I might just rack into a pot with the amount of sugar from this calculator and then bottle from there.

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The pot with sugar method worked for me when I started. Its a small batch.

BlakeL said:

I am planning on cold crashing in the fridge starting tomorrow and bottling on Saturday. I'm just going to remove the air lock and cover with sanitized tin foil. Anyone have any other tips for cold crashing or bottling? Should I bottle it cold or wait till it is at room temp?

I am going to buy the cheap red capper and a auto siphon to make things easier but i'm not sure yet what i'll be using as a bottling bucket. I might just rack into a pot with the amount of sugar from this calculator and then bottle from there.

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Personally, I always move my carboy at least 24 hours before bottling if I have to, or else you can really stir up some sediment and trub. If you follow that, you will probably be taking it out Friday and placing it where you are going to rack from...just cover it with a towel.

I heat up my honey in a 10 quart skinny pot then rack my beer in, then bottle. I use swing tops so this takes like 20 minutes, good luck

Calichusetts said:

I heat up my honey in a 10 quart skinny pot then rack my beer in, then bottle. I use swing tops so this takes like 20 minutes, good luck

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Silly question but this IS beginner and we are talking BklynBrew...I have 12 grolsch style bottles ready for bottling this weekend (it will be 2 weeks). My question is how high do I fill bottles, to the top or right to the neck to leave room for carbonation?

Leave an inch...if you put the siphon tube all the way to the bottom of the bottom and fill it to the top, when you pull it out, it should lower to about an inch.

jnalpak said:

Silly question but this IS beginner and we are talking BklynBrew...I have 12 grolsch style bottles ready for bottling this weekend (it will be 2 weeks). My question is how high do I fill bottles, to the top or right to the neck to leave room for carbonation?

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Great question jnalpak since I would have probably asked this as well.

I have another question - After bottling should I store them in the same closet I used for fermenting?