American IPA All Amarillo IPA

Thanks for the input. I was dreaming of this beer last night after I got it in the fermentor. I It was bubbling this morning my the time I woke up!

I'm trying to figure out if this would qualify as more of an American IPA, or an English IPA. If you ask me, it comes close to meeting the standards for both, but I get an American feel from it? What do you guys thing?

American hops, clean fermenting yeast, so American IPA.

So I brewed this up on Monday. The whole process went smooth, just a couple questions to make sure the beer is on track.

I used a strainer the try to get out all of the hops that I could, but it was too course and lots got through. So now I have about 1/2-3/4" of hops floating on top of the beer in my carboy....is this ok? There is still a lot of activity throughout the actual beer just not on top.

And second, the air lock is maybe bubbling 4-5 times a minute, is this ok? I am fermenting a stout right now and within 14 hours, I had to but on a blow off. I'm just wondering if the hops are keeping it from foaming up and fermenting properly.

Thanks to everybody who has answered some of my many questions along the way, it is really appreciated.

Yes, that's all okay.

I dry hopped mine in the secondary and I had bits floating all over the place. Should you get one in a bottle at bottling time, its good luck. Like a bay leaf.

Just tapped another batch of my AG Amarillo IPA tonight. This stuff's like crack. I can't stop drinking it. Makes me wonder why commercial brewers haven't picked up more on Amarillo...

Yep, it's a beautiful thing. I'm gonna have to brew a third batch here pretty soon.

Your stupid beer is screwing up my damned pipeline. I usually can count on a 5 gallon batch lasting me 3 weeks while my other brews condition. I'm pounding through this last batch so quickly, I'm going to have to start paying for commercial brews soon while I wait for my next Wit to finish.

Where's TheJadedDog... it's his stupid beer.

I had the same issue with my first batch. It was gone in no time.

So it has been in the primary for a week now and I am probably going to rack it to the secondary tonight. It is still bubbling away so I am not sure if I should rack or not? Will racking it make the fermentation stop? I plan on keeping it in the secondary for 3 weeks.

Thanks for the advice

Unless you're planning on washing the yeast, I'd just leave it in primary for the whole time.

Rick500 said:

Unless you're planning on washing the yeast, I'd just leave it in primary for the whole time.

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ok, the only reason I was going to rack it to a secondary is because there is a thick layer of hops floating on top. Do you still think its a good idea to just leave it for the full 4 weeks?

Yeah, it's fine to leave it where it is. If you think there's a lot of hops floating around now, just wait until you dry hop it.

If you want to rack it to secondary, though, it's not going to hurt anything.

Rick500 said:

Yeah, it's fine to leave it where it is. If you think there's a lot of hops floating around now, just wait until you dry hop it.

If you want to rack it to secondary, though, it's not going to hurt anything.

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Ok, so you don't think the hops will give it an off flavour if I let them sit in there for 4 weeks?

The hops will give it hops flavor (aroma, really). That can only be a good thing.

So this brew has me a little worried. Mine is currently stuck at 1.026. I have repitched 3 days ago with no results and I just repitched again tonight. I really don't want to loose this batch.

What yeast did you use? What fermentation temp?

Initially I used Munton's Gold. It took off very quickly, as I pitched it at 63 degrees. My basement is 68 for the most part all year around. I put the fermentor into large 18 gallon pale of water to maintain temps with a fan blowing on it. Fermentation lasted about 2 days until activity in the air lock stopped. Took a gravity reading on day 4, 1.026. Three days later still at 1.026. I sprinkled on a packet of Nottingham (not part of the recall and not rehydrated) on Friday. Saturday there were a few bubbles. Saturday night, no more bubbles. Checked gravity today, thinking that it may have taken off and finished up while I slept. Nope, still 1.026. Rehydrated yet another packet of Nottingham and pitched it tonight.

Could it be done? 1.026 seems really high.

I'd give it a good swirl once or twice a day for a few days, and see if it comes down a little more.

Oh, I've been doing that since the fermentation slowed. I'm done with adding yeast at this point. So, it will have to do something from here.

Oh it smells great, and the samples I have pulled taste amazing. I really want this to turn out.

Okay an update: I shook the fermentor up last night before I went to bed and this morning there were bubbles comming through the airlock. We will see if there is something going on tonight when I get home. :cross fingers:

So it's been 9 days since I put it in the carboy and I decided to take a gravity test because of the very low amount of activity. I was unpleasantly surprised to find that it was at 1.035.

It is still bubbling very slowly but after 9 days shouldn't it be lower than 1.035? BTW I pitched at 70 degrees and has been kept at a steady 65 since. I just stired up all the yeast at the bottom to hope that kicks it into gear but any other suggestions or thoughts would be good.

Thanks

Edit: I used a pack of non hydrated notti instead of the safale... Should I hydrate another pack and put it in?

Give it a couple of swirls in the bucket and re-test in a few days. It may be doing it's work slowly, especially since you didn't rehydrate the notty.

After repitching mine it has been slowly bubbling away. I haven't tested the gravity since then, but I figure I will wait until Sunday to give it a full week.

I made the mistake of dry hopping before checking the gravity the first time. I was going to just dry hop in the primary for 14 days at the end of fermentation. So, I had hops ontop of a stuck fermentation. oops! So I think I will still add another oz of hops when I transfer in 2 weeks to a secondary. (yeah, I'm really messing this batch up ) This will bring my total hop usage for this batch up to 7 oz! At least I'm keeping good notes so I can reproduce it if this turns out good.

Question:
This has been in the primary for 21 days and has been at 1.020 down from 1.064 for at least a week. Should I try swirling and what not to get it down a few more points or should I just bottle?

Yeah, I'd give it a swirl and see if it comes down any more.

My first batch ended at 1.018, and it was great. So not a huge deal if it doesn't ferment out much more than it has, it'll still be good. That's still 69% attenuation.

Thanks! Will do.

Well after all of that fretting, I'm now down to 1.018 and still bubbling away ever few seconds. We are past the two week mark on this brew too. Still tastes amazing too. At this rate I might get to drink it by Christmas.

So on Friday I took a gravity test, and it was at 1.035, so I stirred it up 2 times that day and re-checked today(Sunday night), and it is still at 1.035. The only thing that I could figure was that I did not re-hydrate the notti before pitching. So I just re-hydrated a pack and re-pitched and stirred it up. I am going to wait until Wednesday and check the gravity again, hopefully it isn't permanently stuck and it will finish out fermentation. Any suggestions on further things to do to help are appreciated...right now the temp is at 65 but I could move it to 70 if that would maybe help.

Thanks for any suggestions

my suggestion would be to give it some time. Mine is still bubbling. We'll see what she settles out at.. whenever that may be.

Gonna bottle my batch this weekend. FG 1.020. After a bit of swirling the gravity reading stayed the same a few days later, so no biggie. I'm just excited to get this in bottles and drinking in three weeks. Hopefully, my dad will enjoy it, too.

rwagner23 said:

Gonna bottle my batch this weekend. FG 1.020. After a bit of swirling the gravity reading stayed the same a few days later, so no biggie. I'm just excited to get this in bottles and drinking in three weeks. Hopefully, my dad will enjoy it, too.

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Sounds good.

Mine is now at 1.013 and has been for a few days. However, it is still not very clear (actually there is still a layer of hops floating on top). I might transfer over to secondary for a week or so with some geletan to help it settle out.
I can't wait!

here is mine...cell phone pic tho. 1 week primary. 2 week secondary. 2 week bottle.

its great, light and citrusy hop aroma. the amarillo really come through!
this was extract. defiantly going to do this again, but AG

Batch #3 is now in the fermenter.

i brought 12 of these to a party this weekend. lets just say they went fast and were a big hit!

Finally got mine into bottles last night after 6 weeks in primary (stuck fermentation and a hectic fall schedule). It tasted great even being flat and warm. Lot of grapefruit and citrus flavors. I can't wait for this to be carbed up and chilled down.

Just brewed a tweaked version of this on Thursday. I'm at work now and don't have my notes, but it was something like this...

7.75# Extra Light DME - Late Addition @15 mins
.5# Crystal 40 - 158* @ 30 mins

I used whole Amarillo hops and they were 9.5% AA
1oz @ 60
1oz @ 45
1oz @ 30
1oz @ 15
1oz @ 10
1oz @ 5

I have 2oz of Amarillo pellets (8.6%AA) that I'm going to dry hop with. It took the S-05 about 18 hours to really show any activity. The ambient temp was around 65 so I warmed the room up to 69 and within 8 hours it was fermenting vigorously. I ran the numbers through Q-Brew and it should be around 7%ABV and 113IBU. I had originally planned on doing 2oz for 60 and no 10min addiditon, but once I got to the LHBS and saw that there Amarillo was 9.5% I decided to scale it back a bit. My original hop schedule would have put it around 140IBU.

Really enjoying this right now three weeks in the bottle.

Just had my first (actually 2) from this batch. WOW! if you haven't brewed this yet, defiantly put it into your rotation!

Sampled about 2oz out of my secondary last night, it's been in there for 3 days, when a friend stopped by and it was amazing. I posted the recipe I used up a few posts. I ended up leaving it in the primary for 2 weeks because it was still actively fermenting after 7 days. OG is unknown because I broke my hydrometer, but it was at 1.013 for several days before I racked it to secondary. I can't wait to keg this and start drinking. It's going to be the best Christmas present ever