What will this beer end up tasting like (and other First Time Brewing Questions)

I've made a couple of meads and ciders and I am about to attempt my first beer today. I've studied books on home brewing and have looked at the sticky's at the top of this forum, but still have a couple of questions.

I wanted to make an Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA clone for my first beer but my local home brew shop (www.brew-wine.com for people in CT, awesome store/friendly employees) is temporarily out of Simcoe hops, so an employee recommended that I customize a kit for my first brew. I ended up buying a True Brew beer kit that's designed to make a 5 gallon batch of a California Common. The employee then switched a couple of ingredients (hops, yeast) out of the kit so that the beer would end up resembling an IPA.

Here is what I'd like to know:

ONE: Based off of the following ingredients what should I expect the final beer to taste like? The home brew store employee said that it will taste like if anchor steam and stone got into a fight, which sounds great. Here is the full list of ingredients; how do you imagine this will taste (very hoppy, more bitter, etc.) and what style/brewery/beer would it be most comparable to? Also, what would the HBU rating be?

1. Unhopped Light Malt Extract - 6.6 Pounds
2. Dark Crystal Grains - 8 oz.
3. UK Pilgrim Hop Pellets (Alpha 11%) - 2 oz.
4. Columbus Hop Pellets (Alpha 14%)- 1 oz.
5. Wyeast 1272 Am. Ale II - Activator Pouch

TWO: I don't have a large brewing kettle. All I have is a pot that I would estimate can safely hold one gallon without risking spillover from boiling. The instructions that came with the kit say that I can make the wort with just 1-1.5 gallons of water, and then the rest of the liquid will be cold water to cool the wort down.

Obviously it would be best if I had a pot large enough to boil 5 gallons of water for the wort, but how big of a difference will this end making with the final product? Will the beer end up tasting watered down if i only can only boil 1 gallon? Or will the effect be more negligible?

THREE:
I saw the sticky in this forum about kit instructions and how they suck. The instructions that came with my kit are no exception.

I have read that once you add the hops, you let the wort boil for 60-90 minutes. My instructions say add the hops, keep taking the pot on/off the burner until the foaming stops and then let it go for 20-30 minutes. Does that sound correct?

I know I start timing as soon as i drop the hops, so should I start the clock, play with the wort until it stops foaming, and then from there just let it boil until I reach the 60 minute mark? Considering the ingredients I have and that I want something like an IPA, should I boil for 60 or 90 minutes?

FOUR: The instructions that I have say to add the Columbus Hops into the wort one minute before I end the boil. Does that sound accurate?

FIVE: Since it looks like I can only boil one gallon for the wort, how much should I cool it before adding the remaining four gallons of water? I'm assuming four gallons of chilled water will cool that one gallon down pretty quick, and I don't want to get the wort mixture so cold that the yeast isn't efficient or dies off.


Thanks for all the help in advance!

I can't answer #1.

#2: I would suggest you head to Walmart and get an inexpensive 30qt pot. Your beer will not turn out how you want it to with 1 gallon pot; The wort is way too concentrated. This is especially true because you want to make a hoppy beer. The more concentrated the wort is the lower the hop utilization. The wort won't be watered down, on the contrary when you concentrate the wort that much the more you're likely to caramelize the sugars and you don't want that.

#3: That sounds right, but I've never had hops cause a boil over so I don't take the pot off the heat when I add them.

#4: That is right, the later you add hops the more aroma and flavor are added and less bitter qualities come through. This is why they have you add hops at the beginning (bittering hops) and hops at the end (aroma/flavor hops).

#5: See #2

NorCalAngler: Thanks for the quick response. It looks like between Walmart and Target the best they have is a 12 qt stock pot. Not very large but at least with that I can potentially boil up to 3 gallons. Will I notice the diff between boiling 3 gallons vs. 1 gallon? Also, does it matter if the stock pot is one of those black steel ones covered in a layer of porceline?


Anyone else?

This is what I bought to make my extract batches. Since I doubt this will be your last batch I suggest you wait until you have a pot large enough to do a proper boil.

A one gallon boil will be tough- you don't want to boil the extract in one gallon. It'd be very thick and carmelized, and screw up the hops utilization. I'll run your recipe through my software and see if I can come up with a plan in a few minutes.

NorCalAngler: Sweet pot, reasonably priced too, thanks for the heads up on that one. Definitely something I need to invest in.

YooperBrew - Thanks for the response, I was thinking that it's a lot of ingredients for one gallon of water, and I really don't want to waste these ingredients if the final product will end up crappy. Thanks for running my recipe through your software, hopefully it comes up with a good solution. I've been waiting to brew my first beer for so long and really wanted to start it tonight, it'll be hard to hold off when I have all the ingredients and supplies right here (minus a proper brewing kettle)

Keep the replies coming! Great forum here

Ok, you're a bit low on malt extract for an IPA, but that's alright. You'll just have a bit lower ABV.

Here's my instructions:

Steep grain (in a grain bag) in one gallon of water at 150-155 degrees for 20 minutes. Remove grain, and bring to a boil. When it's boiling, take it off of the heat and stir in 1/2 of the malt extract. When it's dissolved, place it back on the burner and bring to a boil. When it's boiling, add the pilgrim hops. Set the timer for 45 minutes and continue boiling. If the wort starts to lose water (evaporate), you can add more water to keep it at the maximum you can boil. That will help keep it from darkening and thickening too much. With 5 minutes left in the boil, add 1/2 the columbus hops. When there is one minute left, add the rest of the hops. At 0 minutes, turn off the heat, and add the rest of the malt extract. Stir well. (It's easiest to use the liquid malt extract if you've set the container in hot water first, to make it easier to pour). Then, put the pot in an ice bath in the sink and cool to 80 degrees. Pour into the fermenter, and top up to 5 gallons with cool water. You can either use bottled spring water, or your own water if it doesn't have chlorine. Check the temperature with a sanitized thermometer, and if it's 60-70 degrees, add the yeast.

So, the recipe looks like this:

3.3 pounds LME
3.3 pounds LME (0 minutes)

2 ounces pilgrim hops (45 minutes)
.5 ounce columbus hops (5 minutes)
.5 ounce columbus hops (1 minute)

YooperBrew: Wow, those instructions are excellent! I'm assuming that by doing this, I will both avoid the problem of thick carmelized wort that doesn't mix well with the cool water in the fermenter? Will there still be a noticable lack in quality because I didn't boil more than gallon?

Also, what would you suspect the ABV will be based on the amount of extract I have? I can't make it to the home brew store so there's no way I can get more malt extract today. I realize that ABV is boosted by the sugars in the malt extract, so conceivably I could just add more sugar to the wort...but that seems like a really bad idea.

I'd like to end up with an ABV around 6-7%, the higher the better. How much more light malt extract would I need in order to achieve that goal?

Also, although I want a higher ABV, I dont want the beer to turn out sweeter as a result of using additional hop. Not the biggest fan of malty beer. I'd rather get a hoppy beer that doesnt have a whole lot of malt characteristics, but I want the ABV to at least be 5%, 6 or 7 ideally.

brewinginct said:

I've made a couple of meads and ciders and I am about to attempt my first beer today. I've studied books on home brewing and have looked at the sticky's at the top of this forum, but still have a couple of questions.

I wanted to make an Avery Maharaja Imperial IPA clone for my first beer but my local home brew shop (www.brew-wine.com for people in CT, awesome store/friendly employees) is temporarily out of Simcoe hops, so an employee recommended that I customize a kit for my first brew. I ended up buying a True Brew beer kit that's designed to make a 5 gallon batch of a California Common. The employee then switched a couple of ingredients (hops, yeast) out of the kit so that the beer would end up resembling an IPA.

Here is what I'd like to know:

ONE: Based off of the following ingredients what should I expect the final beer to taste like? The home brew store employee said that it will taste like if anchor steam and stone got into a fight, which sounds great. Here is the full list of ingredients; how do you imagine this will taste (very hoppy, more bitter, etc.) and what style/brewery/beer would it be most comparable to? Also, what would the HBU rating be?

1. Unhopped Light Male Extract - 6.6 Pounds
2. Dark Crystal Grains - 8 oz.
3. UK Pilgrim Hop Pellets (Alpha 11%) - 2 oz.
4. Columbus Hop Pellets (Alpha 14%)- 1 oz.
5. Wyeast 1272 Am. Ale II - Activator Pouch

TWO: I don't have a large brewing kettle. All I have is a pot that I would estimate can safely hold one gallon without risking spillover from boiling. The instructions that came with the kit say that I can make the wort with just 1-1.5 gallons of water, and then the rest of the liquid will be cold water to cool the wort down.

Obviously it would be best if I had a pot large enough to boil 5 gallons of water for the wort, but how big of a difference will this end making with the final product? Will the beer end up tasting watered down if i only can only boil 1 gallon? Or will the effect be more negligible?

THREE:
I saw the sticky in this forum about kit instructions and how they suck. The instructions that came with my kit are no exception.

I have read that once you add the hops, you let the wort boil for 60-90 minutes. My instructions say add the hops, keep taking the pot on/off the burner until the foaming stops and then let it go for 20-30 minutes. Does that sound correct?

I know I start timing as soon as i drop the hops, so should I start the clock, play with the wort until it stops foaming, and then from there just let it boil until I reach the 60 minute mark? Considering the ingredients I have and that I want something like an IPA, should I boil for 60 or 90 minutes?

FOUR: The instructions that I have say to add the Columbus Hops into the wort one minute before I end the boil. Does that sound accurate?

FIVE: Since it looks like I can only boil one gallon for the wort, how much should I cool it before adding the remaining four gallons of water? I'm assuming four gallons of chilled water will cool that one gallon down pretty quick, and I don't want to get the wort mixture so cold that the yeast isn't efficient or dies off.


Thanks for all the help in advance!

Click to expand...

"Unhopped Light Male Extract - 6.6 Pounds"

Personally I would avoid putting Male Extract in my IPA’s but to each his own….

Sorry, but with 6.6 pounds of LME in a 5 gallon batch, the ABV will be no higher than about 4.6-4.9% ABV.

The recipe I posted for you would give you an OG of 1.048, with an IBU (hops bittering) of 39. It'd be a pretty good beer, but a bit darker than many commercial IPAs due to the dark crystal and the malt extract.

If you wanted to adjust the ABV, I wouldn't add sugar! That would boost the ABV, but then you'd have a thinner bodied beer. You could make just 4 gallons of beer- and then you'd have an OG of 1.060ish with an IBU of 48. A bit more bitter, but still in the range for an IPA. That would give you about 6-6.5% ABV, depending on where it finished.

King of Cascade - In an ideal world I'd also like to avoid putting malt extract in my IPA but as it says in the title of this thread, this is my first attempt at brewing beer. I'd rather get the absolute basics down now and use extract rather than try all grain for my first brew and end up wasting all that time/money. Do you have any responses to the questions that you quoted from my original post?

YooperBrew - Interesting idea, just going with 4 gallons of beer. I'd assume that would also help with the issue of only being able to brew one gallon for the wort. My carboy is 5 gallons, so would that extra space in the carboy left from only brewing 4 gallons pose any increased risk for an infection with my beer. And is there a specific beer you can think of that also has an IBU of 48, as a means of comparison?

Keep the replies coming in, thanks.

brewinginct said:

King of Cascade - In an ideal world I'd also like to avoid putting malt extract in my IPA but as it says in the title of this thread, this is my first attempt at brewing beer. I'd rather get the absolute basics down now and use extract rather than try all grain for my first brew and end up wasting all that time/money.

Do you have any responses to the questions that you quoted from my original post?

Anyone else?

Click to expand...

He was teasing you about the typo.

YooperBrew said:

He was teasing you about the typo.

Click to expand...

Haha whoops, I totally missed that. Thanks for pointing out that typo KingofCascade of YooperBrew

brewinginct said:

Haha whoops, I totally missed that. Thanks for pointing out that typo KingofCascade of YooperBrew

Click to expand...

I personally would be a big fan of male extract, I'm sure. King of Cascade, though, likes girls, I believe.

brewinginct said:

King of Cascade - In an ideal world I'd also like to avoid putting malt extract in my IPA but as it says in the title of this thread, this is my first attempt at brewing beer. I'd rather get the absolute basics down now and use extract rather than try all grain for my first brew and end up wasting all that time/money. Do you have any responses to the questions that you quoted from my original post?

YooperBrew - Interesting idea, just going with 4 gallons of beer. I'd assume that would also help with the issue of only being able to brew one gallon for the wort. My carboy is 5 gallons, so would that extra space in the carboy left from only brewing 4 gallons pose any increased risk for an infection with my beer. And is there a specific beer you can think of that also has an IBU of 48, as a means of comparison?

Keep the replies coming in, thanks.

Click to expand...

Nah, you'd be fine with 4 gallons. The headspace isn't a concern in primary, and it won't be in there long enough to worry about oxidation even if you leave it in there for 3-4 weeks.

Well, it's not just the IBUs that make the beer taste a certain way. It's the balance of the amount of hops and the malt. So, you'd need to think of a 1.060 beer with 48 IBUs to get an idea of the bittering. If I had to make a wild ass guess, I'd say Stone IPA may be in that ballpark. Sierra Nevada says their pale ale is 1.051 with 37 IBUs.

Keep in mind that there are several different IBU scales- I use Tinseth but there are many who use Rager. The differences may be fairly large, but use the one you're comfortable with. I know how MY 48 IBU beers taste, so I can make my recipes that way. In Designing Great Beers, Ray Daniels introduced me to a ratio, the IBU/SG ratio that talks about balance. That is just as important as the actual IBU number. In this case, the recipe I made for you (the 4 gallon version) gives you an IBU/SG ratio of .8. The beer won't be too bitter, but if you're concerned about that you could do the 5 gallon version and accept a lower ABV.

YooperBrew - I love learning about everything that goes into shaping a beer, I'll definitely check out that book by Ray Daniels. If head space won't effect the beer then maybe I will just do 4 gallons and see how that goes, I enjoy a bitter beer so maybe it will be for the best.

If I somehow find a bigger stock pot and can brew 3 gallons as opposed to 1 then should I adjust the recipe you posted at all? Would I still add the malt extract in at the end of the boiling process?

brewinginct said:

YooperBrew - I love learning about everything that goes into shaping a beer, I'll definitely check out that book by Ray Daniels. If head space won't effect the beer then maybe I will just do 4 gallons and see how that goes, I enjoy a bitter beer so maybe it will be for the best.

If I somehow find a bigger stock pot and can brew 3 gallons as opposed to 1 then should I adjust the recipe you posted at all? Would I still add the malt extract in at the end of the boiling process?

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Yes, you'd still add 1/2 in the beginning and 1/2 in the end. A bigger boil would make the beer much more bitter, though! We'd need to recalculate the bittering.

YooperBrew said:

Yes, you'd still add 1/2 in the beginning and 1/2 in the end. A bigger boil would make the beer much more bitter, though! We'd need to recalculate the bittering.

Click to expand...

Hmm well hopefully I can find out what size pot I am using while you are still online so that we can figure this out. If only I had a nice big kettle, it would make things a lot less complicated.

Assuming I could boil 2-3 gallons instead of 1 gallon, would the bitterness increase proportionately? And just to be clear, when you say bitter do you mean a stronger hoppy bite

Alright, a few updates. So it turns out that I can borrow a large pot than can boil 3 gallons, which solves a lot of the initial problems I was running into.

Then as I was sterilizing my equipment my freaking hydrometer broke. I want to get an accurate reading on the alcohol content of this beer, so no brewing tonight. That may work towards my advantage.

Yooperbrew, you said earlier that brewing in a large kettle will make the wort more bitter overall. How much more bitter would you say this is going to get, what would you compare it to?

Also, now that I have to go to the home brew store before I brew this, I have the opportunity to pick up more extract to increase the ABV of this beer. How many more pounds of light malt extract should I buy to accomplish a beer with an ABV of 6.5-7%?

The other thing about adding more malt is I really want a nice hoppy IPA in the end, and I dont want to end with a sweet or malty IPA. Should I buy more hops so that it stays on the hoppy side of the spectrum, or is it already going to be bitter enough with the ingredients that I'm using?

Yooperbrew, considering everything I've mentioned above, how would you adjust those awesome instructions that you created for me earlier?

Thank you for all your help guys, this place is a life/beer saver

Well, if you can do a 3 gallon boil, that would change the hops utilization drastically!

To start with 2.5 gallons of water, and add another 3 pounds of extract to boost the ABV, you could do this:

8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L
3 lbs Light Dry Extract
6 lbs 9.6 oz Pale Liquid Extract [Boil for 1 min]

1.00 oz Pilgrim (60 min)
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) (5 min)
0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) (1 min)

Same basic directions- steep the crystal in 2.5 gallons of water for 20 minutes, then remove and bring the liquid up to a boil. Add the 3 pounds of light dry extract. When it's boiling, add ONE ounce of pilgrim hops and set the timer for 60 minutes. When 5 minutes are left on the timer, add 1/2 the columbus hops. When there is one minute left, add the second 1/2 of the columbus hops. When the time is up, turn off the flame and add the liquid malt extract. Cool, and combine with enough cool water to make 5 gallons.

This should give you an OG of 1.074 in a 5 gallon batch, with 62 IBUs.

You'll have an extra ounce of pilgrim hops, since you won't need them for bittering in this case.

Another thought- since the beer will be over 1.050, you really should either use a starter or two packages of yeast. One package if liquid yeast, even in an activator package, generally isn't enough yeast for a beer of 1.060 let alone 1.074. I'd grab another package of yeast, too.

YooperBrew at this point I should name this beer after you haha.

It's really surprising that I would actually take out an ounce of pilgrim hops if I'm adding more malt AND I want a nice hoppy IPA. Are Pilgrim hops just so bitter that you only need one ounce to get an IPA (in addition with the columbus hops)?

The kit was supposed to make 5 gallons of a california common, which isn't necessarily a crazy bitter beer. How is it that I would use less hops than a california common calls for in order to make a hoppy IPA. If anything, I thought I would have to add MORE hops in order to modify the california common recipe to turn out more like an IPA.

Also, although I like the hoppy bitterness of an IPA, i really enjoy the clean crisp taste of hops. Is there anything I should add/change to achieve a crispy/hoppy finish, or should I already expect to get that from this recipe?

Lastly, do I literally just get another packet of the exact same activator yeast and add them into the primary fermeneter separately without mixing them first?

Thanks!

brewinginct said:

YooperBrew at this point I should name this beer after you haha.

It's really surprising that I would actually take out an ounce of pilgrim hops if I'm adding more malt AND I want a nice hoppy IPA. Are Pilgrim hops just so bitter that you only need one ounce to get an IPA (in addition with the columbus hops)?

The kit was supposed to make 5 gallons of a california common, which isn't necessarily a crazy bitter beer. How is it that I would use less hops than a california common calls for in order to make a hoppy IPA. If anything, I thought I would have to add MORE hops in order to modify the california common recipe to turn out more like an IPA.

Also, although I like the hoppy bitterness of an IPA, i really enjoy the clean crisp taste of hops. Is there anything I should add/change to achieve a crispy/hoppy finish, or should I already expect to get that from this recipe?

Lastly, do I literally just get another packet of the exact same activator yeast and add them into the primary fermeneter separately without mixing them first?

Thanks!

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Changing the boil size changes hops utilization- that's the reason the 3 gallon boil with only 1 pound of malt extract in the beginning uses only one ounce of hops. Beersmith has a free trial, if you want to look at how to adjust hopping based on boil size. In the original, you're talking about a very small, one gallon, boil. That means the hops utilization will be very poor. Increasing the boil size threefold will increase the hops utilization as well. That's why recipe forumulation depends on boil size and the amount of extract in the boil.

You don't have to mix the yeast. Just cut open, pour. You can do that for both packages.

To be honest, I don't really like that recipe for an IPA. I don't like columbus hops as aroma/finishing hops much, as I prefer a citrusy hoppiness in my IPAs. It's not a bad recipe, by any means, but Pilgrim hops are English hops, I believe, and I've never used them. They'll be fine for bittering, though. I just gave you the instructions for the ingredients you had, not starting from scratch with the IPA I'd make.

brewinginct said:

It looks like between Walmart and Target the best they have is a 12 qt stock pot.

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Walmart had a 40qt aluminum steamer pot for $19.99 last week. It's flimsy but it works.

Well last night was brew night, thought I'd give an update.

Yooperbrew I more or less used the recipe you posted, with a few modifcations:

This was a 2.5 gallon boil, I used the following ingredients:
-6 lbs. 9 oz. of Light/Pale Malt Extract Syrup
-3 lbs. Light Dry Malt Extract
-8 oz. Caramel/American Crystal 80L
-1 oz. Pilgrim hops
-1 oz. Columbus Hops
-2 oz. Cascade Hops

Based on advice I was given, I steeped the Caramel/Crystal in 2.5 gallons of water and brought that up to a boil...I didn't think to cover the pot to help bring it a boil, so this took about 40 minutes.

As it got closer to the boil I added in the 3 pounds of dry malt extract and and stirred that up.

Then once it got to the boil I took out the bag of caramel/american crystal that was steeping and added the ingredients in this order

1. 1 oz. Pilgrim Hops - 60 minutes
2. .5 ounce Columbus hops - 20 minutes
3. 6.9 lbs of LME - 15 minutes
4. 1 tablet of Irish Moss - 15 minutes
5. 1 oz. of Cascade Hops - 10 minutes
6. .5 oz. of Columbus hops - 5 minutes
7. 1 oz. of Cascade hops - 0 minutes

I filled my sink up with bagged ice and water, covered the ice in salt (it makes it melt slower) and got it down to about 70-80 degrees. Poured 1.5 gallons of water into my primary bucket, then poured the wort in, then the rest of the water.

At this point my thermometer was reading around 70 degrees...a little cool but oh well. I pitched an activator pouch of Wyeast that was ready to go and then through in another packet of dry ale yeast. Covered the bucket, ran a hose from the plug to a glass container half filled with water and a splash of bleach.

If I read my hydrometer correctly I have an initial gravity of 1.085, with 11.5% potential alcohol content. And now I'm waiting for signs of fermentation.

There are a couple places where I think I screwed up:

-First off, I should've covered the brew pot initially so that the water boiled quicker, and so that the caramel/crystal crap didnt steep so long

-When I poured the wort into the bucket I didn't hold the bucket at an angle and everything got really frothy in the bucket

My biggest concern by far is what I say on the bottom of the brew pot after pouring out the wort...burnt LME. I'd say 3/4 of the bottom of the pan was black. I kept the pot on a really low boil and stirred it around but apparently that wasn't enough.

I've been told that next time I should take the pot off the boil when I add the extract, let it dissolve, and then put it back on. But if I'm doing that during the 60 minute boil for the hops then wouldn't that throw everything else off?

And is there anything I can do to hide the potential caramel flavors that will be in my beer as a result of the burnt lme? Considering out of 6.9 pounds only a thin layer on 3/4 of the bottom burnt I'd say it could be worse, but I was going for a really hoppy beer and would be bummed out if there's a malty/caramel taste present. Would dry hopping with a nice citrus/floral hop help?

Overall it was a good first experience and I learned a lot from trial/error that will definitely help out with the next beer, which will begin in the very near future.

Any comments or suggestions about anything that I should change in the future? How about dealing with that burnt LME, anything to mask the potential caramel taste?

Thanks!

If the wort tastes scorched, the beer will have a scorched taste. If not, then it'll be fine.

Next time, take the grains out of the liquid before you raise the temperature for the boil. You want to steep grains at 150-160, for about 20 minutes, then remove them. You don't want to get the grains over 170. If you steep for longer, it doesn't matter- it's the hotter than can cause some flavor problems.

70 degrees is definitely not too cool to pitch the yeast! You want to pitch the yeast when you're at fermentation temperature. I ferment most of my ales in the low 60s, and it works great. Any higher than 70 degrees would have been too warm, so it looks like you did it perfectly.

Yooperbrew- I hope I was confusing what I tasted the other night when I tried the wort in the hydrometer! There wasn't that much scorched LME on the bottom of the pan, but I definitely tasted something a little funky in the wort. Who knows though, I put so much hops/malt into this beer that it could've had a bad bitter taste because nothing had fermented/conditioned yet?

What can I do to mask that scorched taste (if it is present)? Would dry hopping hops that have a more citrusy smell/taste help? Will the burnt taste dissapate much during the fermentation/conditioning?

It's a good idea to remove the pot from the heat source while adding malt extract. I have only used LME up to this point. I turn off the gas burner, start to swirl my wort in the kettle and then slowly add the LME. The swirling in the kettle helps prevent the LME from falling straight to the bottom of the kettle and helps dissolve it quickly. I've heard DME can clump up and fall to the bottom and burn if you don't stir it up enough.

I think you're stuck with the scorched taste without any hope of masking it. Have you ever had scrambled eggs that burned a little bit? There is no avoiding that unpleasant flavor. Only time will tell if you're tasting an off flavor that will stick. Wort should taste a bit syrupy and grainy, not burnt at all.

NorCalAngler - It makes total sense to add extract the way that you describe. But I'm wondering, I'm adding the LME during the hop boil, do I pause my timer when I took the boiling wort off the burner? It the wort still so hot that you just consider it part of the 60 minute boil time when you take the wort off the burner?

brewinginct said:

NorCalAngler - It makes total sense to add extract the way that you describe. But I'm wondering, I'm adding the LME during the hop boil, do I pause my timer when I took the boiling wort off the burner? It the wort still so hot that you just consider it part of the 60 minute boil time when you take the wort off the burner?

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My process is to add half the extract in the beginning, get it to a boil then add bittering hops and start the timer. Then I do a late addition of the other half of the extract around 15 minutes remaining. This does kill the boil for a few minutes, but I don't stop the timer. There is probably a fractional impact on my IBU, but I'm not too concerned about it.

You can limit the impact of extract decreasing the wort temperature by keeping it in a bowl of hot water. This also makes it easier to pour.

NorCalAngler - That sounds like a pretty good method, I'll give that a try for the next beer I brew.

I'm still curious, is there anything I can do to mask the taste of charred extract? Anything I can do like dry hopping?

the scorched wort probably wont be a problem that you will notice. its your first beer so you are just learning the process and overall its seams that you had a pretty smooth brewday. the wort probably wasnt mixed the best with the water so your hydrometer reading was probably a little of, the OG would have been at roughly 1.075 as yooper said because you can only get so much out of your extract. the potential alcohol scale on you hydrometer isnt the best for beer because most beers wont finish at 1.000.... overall you will have a very decent beer for your first one!

CDBrews - Thanks for the words of encouragement, it definitely could've gone a lot worse on my first brew day, I could have had a boil over or dropped the pot of hot wort while I was pouring it into the fermentation bucket. And if the ABV isn't as high as my readings show I should still end up with something strong enough, hopefully over 6%. I hope it turns out as decent as you expect it will!

Two things I'm wondering:
1.) If I taste the beer when I check the gravity in about a week will I be able to get a better idea of how much of a scorched taste I MIGHT have in the beer?
2.) If it has a weird scorched/bitter taste is there anything I can do to hide it?

brewinginct said:

CDBrews - Thanks for the words of encouragement, it definitely could've gone a lot worse on my first brew day, I could have had a boil over or dropped the pot of hot wort while I was pouring it into the fermentation bucket. And if the ABV isn't as high as my readings show I should still end up with something strong enough, hopefully over 6%. I hope it turns out as decent as you expect it will!

Two things I'm wondering:
1.) If I taste the beer when I check the gravity in about a week will I be able to get a better idea of how much of a scorched taste I MIGHT have in the beer?
2.) If it has a weird scorched/bitter taste is there anything I can do to hide it?

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1. Yes. In a week or two, it'll start to resemble the finished product.
2. No.

Yooperbrew - Can't wait until next week to try this out in a week or two and see what's happening. The yeast is going crazy right now, I can literally hear it bubbling every 5 seconds. Even if this isn't the perfect IPA I was imagining the process of making beer is great and hey, my beer can only get better from here.

I'm probably going to make another thread about this in a few days but just out of curiosity, when should I rack to secondary? I'm assuming that since this is a higher ABV IPA with a lot of hops that it will benefit from racking to secondary, plus I've racked to secondary for mead/cider several times so I know what I'm doing as far as the actual process. It's more the timing that gets me.

Do I wait until the rate of bubbling slows down to once every minute or so, or should I measure the gravity and wait until it remains the same for two readings in a row, and THEN transfer?

There are a couple of schools of thought on secondary. One is a "real" secondary, just like with wine where you rack when activity slows but isn't finished, so that the co2 produced protects the beer and it finishes up in the secondary. The problem with that approach is that sometimes it can stall a fermentation if the fermentation is going slower than it appears.

The second approach is wait until the beer is done, then wait a couple more days, to make sure the yeast have a chance to clean up any off-flavors they produced like diacetyl. Then rack.

When I make an IPA, I usually wait until the beer is finished and then rack onto the dryhops. I dry hop for 7-10 days, then package the beer. If you're not dryhopping, you can secondary for longer if you'd like.