Hi,
This is my first thread but I've been obsessively reading the forum for a few weeks now. I've had my first ever batch of beer in bottles for two weeks now, an extract IPA kit from True Brew, and I tried a few during the Super Bowl yesterday. I know many will say to leave it two more weeks to be fully mature, and I will, but let me ask a couple questions.
One, the kit came with wood chips to lend an oak flavor, which I guess is a British IPA thing as most American IPAs don't go for that. I put them in the primary fermenter and left it for 3 weeks at 70 degrees before bottling (a good week+ longer than the instructions called for). Well, now I think the oak flavor is overdone, there is a bitter oaky aftertaste, almost astringency that I don't associate with hops. I think it's the wood. Is it overdone because I left it in primary longer than instructions called for? Will that oak bitterness fade with some more time in the bottle, or is it likely there to stay? I'll definitely leave the chips out next time.
Two, I think I overcarbed it. I used the whole 5 oz. priming sugar on a batch that actually came out to about 4.5 gallons after gravity readings and trub loss. Next time I will use a priming calculator and less sugar. I bottled a lot of the batch in swing-top bottles, so if I uncapped and then recapped the bottles to release some CO2 pressure, would that help? Or just RDWAHAHB?
Regardless of these issues, the beer is drinkable and I will quaff all of it, but I've learned some good lessons and that's what it's all about. Thanks for your input.
David
This is my first thread but I've been obsessively reading the forum for a few weeks now. I've had my first ever batch of beer in bottles for two weeks now, an extract IPA kit from True Brew, and I tried a few during the Super Bowl yesterday. I know many will say to leave it two more weeks to be fully mature, and I will, but let me ask a couple questions.
One, the kit came with wood chips to lend an oak flavor, which I guess is a British IPA thing as most American IPAs don't go for that. I put them in the primary fermenter and left it for 3 weeks at 70 degrees before bottling (a good week+ longer than the instructions called for). Well, now I think the oak flavor is overdone, there is a bitter oaky aftertaste, almost astringency that I don't associate with hops. I think it's the wood. Is it overdone because I left it in primary longer than instructions called for? Will that oak bitterness fade with some more time in the bottle, or is it likely there to stay? I'll definitely leave the chips out next time.
Two, I think I overcarbed it. I used the whole 5 oz. priming sugar on a batch that actually came out to about 4.5 gallons after gravity readings and trub loss. Next time I will use a priming calculator and less sugar. I bottled a lot of the batch in swing-top bottles, so if I uncapped and then recapped the bottles to release some CO2 pressure, would that help? Or just RDWAHAHB?
Regardless of these issues, the beer is drinkable and I will quaff all of it, but I've learned some good lessons and that's what it's all about. Thanks for your input.
David