Brewed Yesterday (IPA?)

Hello all. Just finished brewing my IPA yesterday. (at least I think it will turn out as an IPA) I did it using partial boil with one of those Coopers "kits".

Ingredients used (5 gallon yield):

4# Coopers IPA Extract ("pre-hopped")
4# Alexanders Pale Ale Extract
1oz. Hop Pellets
1 packet Windsor brewing yeast


Here's a rough breakdown of what I did:

1. Started off by filling up carboy and bottling bucket in bathtub with hot water and bleach (to sanitize)

2. Placed necessary equipment into bottling bucket to sanitize. (stirring spoon, funnel, strainer, thermometer)

3. Cleaned out 12 quart kettle and filled with ~2 gallons water to begin boil.

4. Once water reached boil, extracts were added, stirred, and wort returned to boil. (for 60 minutes)

5. After sixty minute period all 1oz of hops were added, boiled for additional 15 minutes. This is the part that got me....maybe I should have added hops at the beginning? Or maybe split it up. 1/2oz hops for flavor, 1/2oz for aroma (at end of boil).

6. Once boil period was completed, brew pot removed from burner and placed in ice bath to cool. (I also placed a frozen 2-liter in the wort for turbo cooling...sanitized of course)

7. Once wort reached ~75 F, I strained it into the 6 gallon carboy (which was rinsed prior)

8. 1/2 gallon water was then boiled to pour over strained hops, into carboy. (this part I wish I did differently, it put the wort temp over 80 F!)

9. Waited until wort was cool and pitched the yeast.

10. Airlock put into place, water filled, and into the closet it goes!


Next day:


Crappy celly pics, sorry

Like I said, this was supposed to be a five gallon batch in a six gallon carboy. It looks a little less. Probably because what was boiled away.

Now I'm worried this thing will over flow! There seems to be a lot of room, so I hope it doesn't.

Questions, comments, criticisms?

Looks pretty good. The boiling was off a little bit though. Once you add your extract, get it up to boiling and then add your bittering hops. Once the hops are in, boil for 60 minutes. That may be why there was quite a bit of evaporation loss with your batch.

There's quite a bit of headspace in that carboy right now. I don't think you'll need to worry about blowoffs in that case. I would recommend that you make sure to top off to 5 gallons after the boil next time. This will ensure that you have the intended volume for the recipe so you can hit your target OG. Your best best is to premeasure out 5 gallons of water and mark that on the carboy for reference when topping off.

Great job... now wasn't that fun? Just wait, in about a month you'll be drinking your very own beer!

rsmith179 said:

Looks pretty good. The boiling was off a little bit though. Once you add your extract, get it up to boiling and then add your bittering hops. Once the hops are in, boil for 60 minutes. That may be why there was quite a bit of evaporation loss with your batch.

There's quite a bit of headspace in that carboy right now. I don't think you'll need to worry about blowoffs in that case. I would recommend that you make sure to top off to 5 gallons after the boil next time. This will ensure that you have the intended volume for the recipe so you can hit your target OG. Your best best is to premeasure out 5 gallons of water and mark that on the carboy for reference when topping off.

Great job... now wasn't that fun? Just wait, in about a month you'll be drinking your very own beer!

Click to expand...

That's what I thought. I'm hoping the "pre-hopped" extract I used will be enough for bitterness.

I think you might be right on topping off. I put more extract than the recipe called for...and less water. I really hope this doesn't ruin everything....

UPDATE
So I got home from work tonight, and the fermentation foam in the carboy is on the brink of over flowing! Holy crap! Had to think fast, so I rigged up this blow-off tube...



Jammed the bottle-filler with some 3/8" hose into a (sanitized) milk jug with some sanitizer. hah! Ghetto rigged!...but I wasn't expecting this to happen. Still bubbling away just fine.

After all this, I realized I FORGOT TO READ THE GRAVITY! How could I forget?

Once again, I really hope this turns out okay...

It'll turn out just fine. Go through this list of stuff you did today and make a checklist for next brew day. I still keep a small checklist to ensure that I don't forget to take the gravity, aerate the wort, etc. You learn something new everytime. Have fun!