Brewing First Batch. Couple questions!

[Scanloni]

Being new here, I'd first like to thank everyone for the wealth of helpful information, experience, and insight found on this forum. As a beginner brewer it's a fantastic resource, and one I hope to contribute to in the future.

So, I'm brewing a True Brew Pale Ale kit. I was hoping to brew an IPA, but my local vendor didn't have the IPA kit, so I went with the Pale Ale kit and bought 2 extra packets (1 oz each)of Cascade hop pellets. Per the vendor's instructions, I followed the kit's recipe, with the additional step of adding 1 oz Cascade hops with 2 minutes left in the boil. I then finished the procedure per the recipe and my wort has been fermenting since about 6 pm Sunday. I'm doing a single stage fermentation (using a True Brew kit, with the 6.5 gal plastic buckets, etc) and am planning on dry hopping the additional 1 oz Cascade hops as soon as fermentation is complete, again per the vendor's instructions, and allowing the brew to sit for 5-7 days, then rack & bottle.

Does this sound correct? It seems as though many, if not most, here do a single stage fermentation, but let the brew sit for up to a month before bottling. If I use the vendor's instructions, my brew would only be in the primary bucket for fermentation plus 5-7 days, which would probably amount to a total of about 10-12 days depending on how long fermentation lasts, which I'm thinking should take no more than 5 days, right? Or should I expect fermentation to take longer than 5 days? I guess I'm not really sure how long fermentation lasts. But even if it fermented for 10 days, then I dry hopped and let it sit for 5-7 days as the vendor suggested, I'd still be bottling after a total of 17 days, which is still far less than the month many folks here recommend.

Which leads me to another question. I can't seem to find a solid answer as to how long the brew should remain bottled prior to drinking. I guess it depends on how long the brew sits prior to bottling, right? If I wait 2 weeks to bottle, it should remain bottled for longer than if I wait 4 weeks? What exactly is the total overall desired time period from initial brewing procedures until drinking? I mean, if the total desired time from brew to drink is say, 5 weeks, does it really matter if I let the brew ferment and sit for 2 weeks, then bottle for 3 before drinking, versus let the brew ferment and sit for 4 weeks, then bottle for 1 week before drinking? Sorry to ramble, but I'm struggling a bit with the correct timing of these steps. And when would be the optimal time to dry hop? (single stage)

Another question I have is regarding gravity. How important is this? If I follow a recipe, instructions and procedures correctly, the gravity should take care of itself, right? I mean, I'd like to check it and understand it, but it seems like more of a curiosity thing than anything else at this point. Again, if I follow the recipe and procedures correctly, and my final ending gravity is too high or too low, what does that really tell me? How would I use that number to adjust my next batch? Just seems like so many factors could affect the gravity that it's bound to fluctuate at least a little from batch to batch with no clear reason why, so why worry about it? If I do things the right way, gravity should be a non-issue. I understand that the best way to assure fermentation is complete is by ensuring the gravity remains constant over at least 2 days, but if I'm letting it sit for a month before bottling, fermentation would surely be complete so checking gravity for that reason would be unnecessary, right? I know gravity is important, I'm just not sure how to use/adjust it.

As of now, I'm planning on letting the brew sit for 1 week, then dry hopping it, then letting it sit for another week, then bottling and waiting 2 weeks to drink. Does this sound right? If not, why? And when/why should I check the gravity?

Thanks in advance for all and any help!

 

[beergolf]

Welcome. This place is great and there is a wealth of info on this forum.

The use of the extra hops sounds like a good way to use them.

Your schedule of one week ferment, one week dry hop and 2 weeks in the bottle is a little short of time. It can work but giving it more time will give you a better product. As your technique gets better, then it is fine for a lot of brews. but for a first brew give it more time.

As far as how long to ferment, there are a lot of opinions but in my experience 3 weeks is a good length of time. Your recipe should give you an OG and a FG. After two weeks check the gravity and see where you are. If you are at (or very close to the recipe) Then you can add the dry hops for another week.

Bottle them up and wait three weeks. I know this is your first brew and patience is difficult so you may want to taste one at 2 weeks. That is fine. It will give you an idea of how the brew will change with age.I find that the full 3 weeks is best and 4 weeks even better. When you are ready to drink them put a few in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours, but a few days is even better.

enjoy, and start thinking about your next brew.

 

[dienster]

Hi, I'm pretty new here but can pass on what I've learned so far...

So, I'm brewing a True Brew Pale Ale kit. I was hoping to brew an IPA, but my local vendor didn't have the IPA kit, so I went with the Pale Ale kit and bought 2 extra packets (1 oz each)of Cascade hop pellets. Per the vendor's instructions, I followed the kit's recipe, with the additional step of adding 1 oz Cascade hops with 2 minutes left in the boil. I then finished the procedure per the recipe and my wort has been fermenting since about 6 pm Sunday. I'm doing a single stage fermentation (using a True Brew kit, with the 6.5 gal plastic buckets, etc) and am planning on dry hopping the additional 1 oz Cascade hops as soon as fermentation is complete, again per the vendor's instructions, and allowing the brew to sit for 5-7 days, then pitch & bottle.

Do you mean rack and bottle? If you haven't pitched your yeast yet you will have a problem.

I would consider letting it sit 2 weeks before dry hopping then wait a week to bottle.

Does this sound correct? It seems as though many, if not most, here do a single stage fermentation, but let the brew sit for up to a month before bottling. If I use the vendor's instructions, my brew would only be in the primary bucket for fermentation plus 5-7 days, which would probably amount to a total of about 10-12 days depending on how long fermentation lasts, which I'm thinking should take no more than 5 days, right? Or should I expect fermentation to take longer than 5 days? I guess I'm not really sure how long fermentation lasts. But even if it fermented for 10 days, then I dry hopped and let it sit for 5-7 days as the vendor suggested, I'd still be bottling after a total of 17 days, which is still far less than the month many folks here recommend.

The extra week lets the yeast break down the off flavors that are often generated in the heavy reproducing and growing phase of primary fermentation.

Which leads me to another question. I can't seem to find a solid answer as to how long the brew should remain bottled prior to drinking. I guess it depends on how long the brew sits prior to bottling, right? If I wait 2 weeks to bottle, it should remain bottled for longer than if I wait 4 weeks? What exactly is the total overall desired time period from initial brewing procedures until drinking? I mean, if the total desired time from brew to drink is say, 5 weeks, does it really matter if I let the brew ferment and sit for 2 weeks, then bottle for 3 before drinking, versus let the brew ferment and sit for 4 weeks, then bottle for 1 week before drinking? Sorry to ramble, but I'm struggling a bit with the correct timing of these steps. And when would be the optimal time to dry hop? (single stage)

Bottle and wait three weeks @ 70 degrees F for best flavor. When you bottle you give the yeast more sugar with the priming sugar, they eat it, belch CO2 to carbonate your beer. You can get beer carbonated faster but it needs some time to condition and work out the green-ness. I made the mistake of drinking after 7 days my first batch and it wasn't anywhere as good as the bottles after 3 weeks.

Another question I have is regarding gravity. How important is this?

If you are using extract, get it all out of the bag and measure your water correctly, you shouldn't have any problems with gravity. If you test your gravity after a week or two, and it remains the same for 2-3 consecutive days then your fermentation is complete.

If I follow a recipe, instructions and procedures correctly, the gravity should take care of itself, right? I mean, I'd like to check it and understand it, but it seems like more of a curiosity thing than anything else at this point. Again, if I follow the recipe and procedures correctly, and my final ending gravity is too high or too low, what does that really tell me? How would I use that number to adjust my next batch? Just seems like so many factors could affect the gravity that it's bound to fluctuate at least a little from batch to batch with no clear reason why, so why worry about it? If I do things the right way, gravity should be a non-issue. I understand that the best way to assure fermentation is complete is by ensuring the gravity remains constant over at least 2 days, but if I'm letting it sit for a month before bottling, fermentation would surely be complete so checking gravity for that reason would be unnecessary, right? I know gravity is important, I'm just not sure how to use/adjust it.

The original gravity to final gravity comparison is really a batch to batch indicator of fermentation completeness and alcohol content. Unless you are doing all-grain then you only have to worry about testing before you put in your yeast and after 2 weeks of fermentation. There's a lot more here if you poke around about all the subjects.

Like I said I'm new but hope this helps and if I'm offbase I'm sure someone will correct me.

- Steve

 

[Scanloni]

Hi, I'm pretty new here but can pass on what I've learned so far...



Do you mean rack and bottle? If you haven't pitched your yeast yet you will have a problem.

- Steve

Yup, that's what I meant, edited, thanks.

 

[Scanloni]

Welcome. This place is great and there is a wealth of info on this forum.

The use of the extra hops sounds like a good way to use them.

Your schedule of one week ferment, one week dry hop and 2 weeks in the bottle is a little short of time. It can work but giving it more time will give you a better product. As your technique gets better, then it is fine for a lot of brews. but for a first brew give it more time.

As far as how long to ferment, there are a lot of opinions but in my experience 3 weeks is a good length of time. Your recipe should give you an OG and a FG. After two weeks check the gravity and see where you are. If you are at (or very close to the recipe) Then you can add the dry hops for another week.

Bottle them up and wait three weeks. I know this is your first brew and patience is difficult so you may want to taste one at 2 weeks. That is fine. It will give you an idea of how the brew will change with age.I find that the full 3 weeks is best and 4 weeks even better. When you are ready to drink them put a few in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours, but a few days is even better.

enjoy, and start thinking about your next brew.

So, let it ferment for two weeks, and if the gravity looks good go ahead and dry hop for an additional week, then bottle for three. Sounds good, thanks.

As for my next brew, was thinking maybe an IPA with a touch of honey? My neighbor is a beekeeper and I thought it would be cool to use some of his honey in my next brew. Thoughts?

 

[beergolf]

So, let it ferment for two weeks, and if the gravity looks good go ahead and dry hop for an additional week, then bottle for three. Sounds good, thanks.

As for my next brew, was thinking maybe an IPA with a touch of honey? My neighbor is a beekeeper and I thought it would be cool to use some of his honey in my next brew. Thoughts?

That sounds good.

Use the search function here (it is pretty good) and read up about using honey in your brew. Lots of good info out there.

 

[cehlo]

relax. the differences you're worrying about aren't nearly as important as cleaning and following basic instructions. different styles have different approximate times for fermentation and bottle conditioning and temperature plays a big role in that. pale ales have one of the shortest possible brew to drink timeframes @ 3-4 weeks or so but it's really up to you.

primary for a week (checking gravity the last few days)

dry hop for a week then bottle

bottle condition for 1-2 weeks

refrigerate for 2 days and then drink

Gravity is very important if you want to understand how successful your process is. The OG listed in the recipe is calculated based on the ingredients. The FG is theoretical and assumes you've been able to follow the basic instructions. You will need to measure both to be able to calculate the abv.

but it's much more important to check the gravity to know when fermentation is complete (stable gravity reading for 2-3 days)

 

[TopherM]

As for my next brew, was thinking maybe an IPA with a touch of honey? My neighbor is a beekeeper and I thought it would be cool to use some of his honey in my next brew. Thoughts?

Honey doesn't really add much "honey" flavor to beer. Honey will mostly dry out your beer and add alcohol from the extra fermentables. The amount of "honey" flavor honey actually adds to your beer is determined by the types of nectors the bees use to make the honey, which is very unpredictable even within the same batch from the same hive.

If you want to make a beer that actually has a consistent honey flavor, you should use HONEY MALT at a rate of about 5-10% of your overall grain bill. With the honey malt, you'll not only get a more pronounced honey flavor, but you also won't dry out your beer, leaving more body in the final product.

 

[J8D]

So, I'm brewing a True Brew Pale Ale kit. I was hoping to brew an IPA, but my local vendor didn't have the IPA kit, so I went with the Pale Ale kit and bought 2 extra packets (1 oz each)of Cascade hop pellets. Per the vendor's instructions, I followed the kit's recipe, with the additional step of adding 1 oz Cascade hops with 2 minutes left in the boil.

This really won't give you an IPA (if that was your intent) unless your recipe was already for an APA at the high end of the IBU range. The additional hops are going to increase your IBUs by around 2. IBU range for APA is around 30 to 45 whereis for and American IPA it is 40 to 70. I would recommend downloading "BrewTarget" here brewtarget.sourceforge.net/ which will allow you to adjust your recipe.
Take the time to enter the recipe into the software before you brew then you can tweak it to adjust for more hops or whatever changes you may be forced to make. Either way you have the begginings of a delicious pale ale.

In regards to the fermentation time and dry hopping. I don't bottle but keg. However, what I would do if I were still bottling is to leave it a month in primary transfer to secondary where you will dry hop for the required time then bottle. The only concern is having yeast present within the secondary to assist in the carbonation during bottling. Just suck a little bit into the secondary when transfering.

Carbonation time will depend on numerous factors. I would give it two weeks at fermentation temp (don't do as I did on my first batch and put them immediately in the fridge), then put one in the fridge and try it.

Dry hopping time varies. I have read 7 to 14. Some folks get a grassy taste with longer dry hopping. I learned this myself by leaving it in the keg for three weeks before I realized I was supposed to pull it out. I do 10 days unless the recipe says otherwise.

Gravity is important for different reasons and at different stages. Knowing your gravity post boil pre-fermentation (OG) lets you know a few things. First, there is range for an OG within a given style. If you are not within that range then your end product may not be what you want it to be. Next, knowing what your OG was is important if the beer you brewed was the cat’s meow and you want to brew it again: Among other things you would shoot for that number again. Making a good batch of beer is nice. Being able to make it, the same, over and over is the trick.

In regards to you doing a kit or extract and gravity: It is still relevant, it is. First are you getting all the ingredients you should be getting from the store? If your numbers are way low (on extract) then you may not be getting enough ingredients (or your water measurements are off). If you are low doing all grain, then you either didn’t get enough grain, or your efficiency was low. Next, you can adjust your numbers to a certain extent. If you are high on your numbers, you add water to hit your mark. The downside of this is you have now adjusted your hop profile. If you are low on numbers (if you took a sample prior to cooling) you could boil longer or, if you are using extract, you could add more extract. There are calculators out there which will give you gravity corrections. For any pre-fermentation readings, I recommend a spectrometer which allows you to take readings throughout the brewing process without having to wait for a large vial of wort to cool. Bobby sells them here brewhardware.com.

In regards to the numbers fluctuating from batch to batch (within the same recipe). This will happen. There are tolerable variances. Yet, it comes back to consistency. Your gravity feeds into the character, flavor, mouth feel, and taste of the beer. If you change it, you are changing what you are shooting for. Perhaps what you made was better than what you hoped for or better than your previous batch. Why? If you don’t know what numbers you hit or what your gravity was (which changed your hop profile as well) you can’t make it again. We all take recipes from the various experienced brewers here based on their end product. Yet we aren’t actually making the beer they designed if we don’t hit the numbers they did.

I don’t do a final hydrometer reading to tell me the beer is done (for ales I do for lagers) as I use the one month in primary method. I do the reading to find out where my beer finished up at. If the beer doesn’t taste right I can then adjust my process (different yeast, more yeast, different mash schedule, stop the fermentation at a higher gravity, different fermentation temp, etc&#8230 and work to perfect the recipe which may include shooting for a different final gravity.

Good questions and the same ones most of us have had. My brother has been brewing for 18 months and has been doing the swag method. I just now convinced him to start running the numbers and take it to the next level. I think an eight year old can make beer. It is not that difficult. The key is making good beer consistently and being able to replicate it. Yes, everyone needs to spend time getting their processes down. Yet eventually you will need to step it up to focusing on the numbers. What happens after that is an OCD life of water profiles, washing yeast, equipment improvements, hop growing, grain roasting, microbrew dreams, and identifying which relative is most likely to donate a portion of their liver to you. I Hope this helps.

 

[daksin]

Sounds like a great use of extra hops to punch up the aroma on a pale- won't be an IPA like you said, but it does sound extra-tasty.

Going by "weeks" isn't a great way to gauge your beer. A good rule of thumb is to ferment it until it's done. I know that sounds snarky, but hear me out.

You want to wait until fermentation is completely finished to dry-hop, so here's what I do.

Let the beer ferment until final gravity is reached (check with your hydrometer), and then give the beer about a week on the yeast for the yeast to clean up after themselves. After that, timing gets flexible, but with most ales, more time is better. Dry hop aroma fades fairly quickly though, so you only want to dry hop the last 7-10 days before you bottle; that way you can leave it as long as you like as long as fermentation is complete, and then just anticipate your bottling date by a week or two and dry hop.

Also: you don't need to go to secondary to dry hop (but you can if you really want to! it's especially helpful if you're doing a huge beer with tons of hops) but you do need to wait until all fermentation is done to add the hops, or else some of those lovely hop aromatics can get carried away in all the offgassing CO2.

Good luck!