First off, what a helpful website, I have gained a ton of knowledge and put it into practice with my first home-brew.
My brewday was 7/22/18. I brewed a Listermanns American IPA. It was an LME recipe with 3oz of cascade hops 1.5oz nugget (bittering hops) with a US 5 Ale yeast. There was a 1/2lbs of crystal malt. During brewday I used 2oz of the hops.
Pretty sure I made a mistake in the beginning, the recipe indicated to not let the temp go over 160F before letting the crystal malt simmer for 30 minutes. Well, it slipped my mind and the temp reached to about 185F before I could get back to it. I let crystal malt simmer for 30 minutes before I started the boil. I removed the crystal malt before the boil. I boiled for 30 minutes when adding the LME and the bittering hops. Then added a round of cascade hops for 30 minutes. A total of 60 minute boil time.
I added the second 1 oz bag of hops 10 minutes after boil. I used a wort chiller, which did not work as I was hoping for. I think I was impatient, I pitched the yeast when the wort was 77F. OG before pitching yeast was at 1.060 - recipe called for 1.065. Placed it in plastic fermenter in the basement with the temp between 70-73F.
On 8/3, I sanitized the last bag of hops and threw it in the fermenter (dry hopping stage). On 8/10, I checked FG at 1.011. On 8/12, I checked FG again and it was the same. Bottling day occurred on 8/12. I tried a small glass of the fermented beer, it was quite flat, had the hop aroma, and tasted malty.
Unfortunately, I yielded 4 gallons of beer, the other 1 gallon was split between the fermenter and bottling vessel of trub (wow, that stuff is absolutely gross). I used the 5oz packet of priming sugar, I should have adjusted the sugar level to the output of 4gal of fermented beer. Realized this was an issue afterwards...
Another mistake I made was when I cleaned the bottles, I ran it in the dishwasher under the sanitizing setting with a soluble detergent dishpack. I realized this was a mistake after I bottled the beer... (ugh).
Since this is my first brew, I have been quite impatient, I placed a 6 pack in the fridge on 8/21. On 8/24, I tried the first bottle - it was quite sour and very hazy, the nasty part was going into the glass from the bottle. I was under the impression something during the bottling was infected. I tired it the next day and it was less sour. When I tried it on Monday 8/26, I was quite surprised, the sourness was very minor and the beer poured clear. It almost seemed like the sourness turned into hops. Not sure if that description is accurate. The beer was finally fitting the flavor profile I was going for and there was more head space in the glass. Cool to actually taste the science behind carbonation.
In conclusion, what an interesting experiment. I think the bottles need to be conditioned for another week or two. Each beer has tasted better than the one before. Looking forward to trying it in the next following weeks. I am assuming it needs a longer time carbonating because of the excessive priming sugar and lack of time given to condition.
Thank you to this forum for persuading me not to add the beer into a secondary cause auto-siphoning the beer from the fermenter to the bottling vessel was quite a pain and I know I aerated the hell out of it. Can't imagine what it would have done if I decided to take on secondary fermentation.
Cheers,
Raz
My brewday was 7/22/18. I brewed a Listermanns American IPA. It was an LME recipe with 3oz of cascade hops 1.5oz nugget (bittering hops) with a US 5 Ale yeast. There was a 1/2lbs of crystal malt. During brewday I used 2oz of the hops.
Pretty sure I made a mistake in the beginning, the recipe indicated to not let the temp go over 160F before letting the crystal malt simmer for 30 minutes. Well, it slipped my mind and the temp reached to about 185F before I could get back to it. I let crystal malt simmer for 30 minutes before I started the boil. I removed the crystal malt before the boil. I boiled for 30 minutes when adding the LME and the bittering hops. Then added a round of cascade hops for 30 minutes. A total of 60 minute boil time.
I added the second 1 oz bag of hops 10 minutes after boil. I used a wort chiller, which did not work as I was hoping for. I think I was impatient, I pitched the yeast when the wort was 77F. OG before pitching yeast was at 1.060 - recipe called for 1.065. Placed it in plastic fermenter in the basement with the temp between 70-73F.
On 8/3, I sanitized the last bag of hops and threw it in the fermenter (dry hopping stage). On 8/10, I checked FG at 1.011. On 8/12, I checked FG again and it was the same. Bottling day occurred on 8/12. I tried a small glass of the fermented beer, it was quite flat, had the hop aroma, and tasted malty.
Unfortunately, I yielded 4 gallons of beer, the other 1 gallon was split between the fermenter and bottling vessel of trub (wow, that stuff is absolutely gross). I used the 5oz packet of priming sugar, I should have adjusted the sugar level to the output of 4gal of fermented beer. Realized this was an issue afterwards...
Another mistake I made was when I cleaned the bottles, I ran it in the dishwasher under the sanitizing setting with a soluble detergent dishpack. I realized this was a mistake after I bottled the beer... (ugh).
Since this is my first brew, I have been quite impatient, I placed a 6 pack in the fridge on 8/21. On 8/24, I tried the first bottle - it was quite sour and very hazy, the nasty part was going into the glass from the bottle. I was under the impression something during the bottling was infected. I tired it the next day and it was less sour. When I tried it on Monday 8/26, I was quite surprised, the sourness was very minor and the beer poured clear. It almost seemed like the sourness turned into hops. Not sure if that description is accurate. The beer was finally fitting the flavor profile I was going for and there was more head space in the glass. Cool to actually taste the science behind carbonation.
In conclusion, what an interesting experiment. I think the bottles need to be conditioned for another week or two. Each beer has tasted better than the one before. Looking forward to trying it in the next following weeks. I am assuming it needs a longer time carbonating because of the excessive priming sugar and lack of time given to condition.
Thank you to this forum for persuading me not to add the beer into a secondary cause auto-siphoning the beer from the fermenter to the bottling vessel was quite a pain and I know I aerated the hell out of it. Can't imagine what it would have done if I decided to take on secondary fermentation.
Cheers,
Raz