How bad did I screw up?

This is my first attempt at this. I'm brewing from a kit, an IPA from True Brew. Here's what I've screwed up so far.

1. I covered the pot during the boil. I don't remember reading anything about that in The Joy of Home Brewing but I did read that it's bad at howtobrew.com(after the fact, of course).

2. I added the first hops BEFORE the hot break. The kit instructions just said to add the LME and the Chinook pellets at the same time.

Will my brew be ok?

Yeah, your beer will be fine.

Neither of those goofs are ideal, but IPA is a very forgiving style: the massive hops flavor and bitterness is good at masking small flaes that might be apparent in more subtle styles.

Welcome to the obsession!

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. One more question, is 1 oz. of Chinook pellets for 45 min. and 1 oz. of Cascade pellets for the last 2 min. enough to give "massive hops flavor"?

Don't worry, etc...It should come out ok. Don't cover the pot because you need to see if and when your boilover occurs, instead of that nasty surprise all over the cooker or worse yet, the kitchen stove. Plus, you can get a thermometer in there and better judge when the boil's gonna happen. If you're like all these other guys and gals, you want to be hand's on anyway.
Happy brewing!!

ultralord said:

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. One more question, is 1 oz. of Chinook pellets for 45 min. and 1 oz. of Cascade pellets for the last 2 min. enough to give "massive hops flavor"?

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Well, honestly, no.

What was the original gravity listed for your kit? IPAs are usually in the 1.050 to 1.070 range. Unless you're at the low extreme of that range, that doesn't seem like a lot of hops for an IPA.

Were those the only two hops additions?

You have the Joy of homebrewing, but missed out on the most important thing that he said. There is nothing more important actually. Relax and have a homebrew! In your case any brew will do. Two or three actually Remember, as long as your sanitation is good, this is not exactly an exact science carved in stone. It's a pretty forgiving hobby. You can do some pretty f*cked up things and still have GREAT beer!

cweston said:

Well, honestly, no.

What was the original gravity listed for your kit? IPAs are usually in the 1.050 to 1.070 range. Unless you're at the low extreme of that range, that doesn't seem like a lot of hops for an IPA.

Were those the only two hops additions?

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My BG was 1.051 and FG is supposed to end up at 1.012 - 1.014

I thought IPA's were supposed to be hoppy and higher alcohol content. This kit seems like neither.

P.S. Do you all get as thirsty as I do when you read or write about beer?

Read the section in HTB on Dry Hopping. Two oz. of Cascades in the settling tank can take care of almost anything!

People have gotten so used to Double IPA's, that they forget 5% is normal for a regular IPA.

[/QUOTE]P.S. Do you all get as thirsty as I do when you read or write about beer?[/QUOTE]



Not until you said that!

Adding hops before the hot break, as the kettle is starting to heat up the wort, is simular to First wort hopping, so you will be fine.

Now when you have a 50 liter keggle and it has .5 liters of space left, first wort hopping is not a good idea. doh. Trying to avoid boil overs was pretty hard for the first 30 minutes of the boil and the first BO I had spit oout a bunch of the bittering hops. I retrosect I should have just added them once a liter or two of water had boiled off.

Covering can cause an harsh unpleasant bitternes as it prevents certain undesirable components of the hops from being boiled off. I've had to ditch a batch because of this .