Craft A Beer - West Coast IPA Kit

[fury413rb]

Craft - A - Brew IPA kit.

I posted this already in the intro forum but I figured I should do it here as well!

My first kit of any kind. My girlfriend bought it for me for my birthday.

I have a couple friends who do all grain brewing and they came up to supervise and to empty some Great Lakes bottles as well.

It was fermenting by the next morning and the anticipation is already killing me. In two weeks I have more hops to add and then one more week before bottling.

my ugly mug

 

[fury413rb]

I didn't add water lost from the boil. The kits instructions said you could but my friend recommended not to do so.

Obviously the one gallon jug isn't too full.

 

[fury413rb]

The aforementioned friend now convinced me to add water. I boiled a half gallon of water, cooled it with a lid to prevent contamination and then soaked the stopper, airlock and funnel all in sanitizer. I added the cooled till the jug was about to the curve up. I went through a lot of the 1-Gallon brewers unite thread to that seemed to be a common level. Was this the right thing to do? I know i'm a new guy...

I am also supposed to add more hops after two weeks of fermenting. I of course have a business trip where I will be out of town right when I want to add hops. Is there any adding them early and letting them stay in two weeks versus one week?

The kit said to leave in the fermenter for three weeks total but due to this trip more like 3.5 weeks. I dont have anything to measure the SG yet.

Thanks for the help.

 

[freisste]

Ignore the instructions.

Leave the beer alone for 2-3 weeks and test gravity. If it is the same over a 3 day period, it is done fermenting. At that point, dry hop and bottle 3-7 days later.

This lines up with your timeline pretty well. Go on your business trip, come home, get a hydrometer, check gravity over a 3 day period and proceed with dry hopping and bottling.

 

[fury413rb]

Ignore the instructions.

Leave the beer alone for 2-3 weeks and test gravity. If it is the same over a 3 day period, it is done fermenting. At that point, dry hop and bottle 3-7 days later.

This lines up with your timeline pretty well. Go on your business trip, come home, get a hydrometer, check gravity over a 3 day period and proceed with dry hopping and bottling.

Thanks for the reply. I really appreciate the response! Thats what I will do.

This weekend I am going to run up to the lhbs