So my first batch ever is in the bottles, for those that haven't seen my other thread it was a pumpkin spice porter that I made a couple mistakes on haha
It fermented in 3 days so I racked it to the secondary for 10 days and then bottled. This seemed like WAY too fast to me, but my hydrometer doesn't lie. I tasted the beer as I was filling bottles and it tasted like piss, so that wasn't very motivating. I cracked open the first bottle last night just to get an idea of where the beer was, plus, with it being my first beer, I wanted to "watch" it age.. It was actually pretty good. Not really carbonated fully, but the flavors have really started to balance out since I bottled it, and I imagine it will only get better..
So on to the reason I started this particular thread, after that Tarantino length introduction..
My second batch is a brewers best IPA that I decided to play with just a little bit to get my feet wet. In the primary fermenter, it actually shot my airlock off the bucket, and then proceeded to foam out of the hole and cover the top of the bucket. I caught it before it ran onto the ground, but wow did this ferment way more violently than the porter.. I still had bubbles every couple minutes on day 7. Is this common for IPAs? It was ready to rack on day 10, so I tasted what was in the hydrometer tube, a delicious (but warm) IPA. Here is where I played around a little bit. IPA's always seem to have that bitter punch to me, so I figured I would play on that flavor and rack it over some grapefruit zest, a fruit that has a similar punch in my mind. Flavor combo aside, did I do it correctly?
I zested 3 softball sized red grapefruits, which gave me about half a handful of zest. Mixed that with about 4 shots of vodka, let it sit for 20 minutes, and then put it in the carboy. I then racked the beer on top of it. Thoughts?
It fermented in 3 days so I racked it to the secondary for 10 days and then bottled. This seemed like WAY too fast to me, but my hydrometer doesn't lie. I tasted the beer as I was filling bottles and it tasted like piss, so that wasn't very motivating. I cracked open the first bottle last night just to get an idea of where the beer was, plus, with it being my first beer, I wanted to "watch" it age.. It was actually pretty good. Not really carbonated fully, but the flavors have really started to balance out since I bottled it, and I imagine it will only get better..
So on to the reason I started this particular thread, after that Tarantino length introduction..
My second batch is a brewers best IPA that I decided to play with just a little bit to get my feet wet. In the primary fermenter, it actually shot my airlock off the bucket, and then proceeded to foam out of the hole and cover the top of the bucket. I caught it before it ran onto the ground, but wow did this ferment way more violently than the porter.. I still had bubbles every couple minutes on day 7. Is this common for IPAs? It was ready to rack on day 10, so I tasted what was in the hydrometer tube, a delicious (but warm) IPA. Here is where I played around a little bit. IPA's always seem to have that bitter punch to me, so I figured I would play on that flavor and rack it over some grapefruit zest, a fruit that has a similar punch in my mind. Flavor combo aside, did I do it correctly?
I zested 3 softball sized red grapefruits, which gave me about half a handful of zest. Mixed that with about 4 shots of vodka, let it sit for 20 minutes, and then put it in the carboy. I then racked the beer on top of it. Thoughts?
-> Just opinion here, but let your beer sit for a while! 13 days on a stout then into the bottle, I bet it tasted like piss 
Even if your hydrometer says you're done fermenting, let it sit for a couple more weeks, let it clean out and settle. You think your beer is coming around now but just wait till the first time you have something come up and it ends up sitting in the primary bucket for 6-7 weeks before bottling. It's a habit changing experience when it happens, at least it was for me. Buy a couple more buckets, brew yourself a big batch of wheat beer which is great young so you have a stock to enjoy while waiting for the others to come around, then there you go; pipeline! 
