First batch: IPA

[Keeblerelf]

ok so i saved up some cash and finally got a good little setup on a brewing kit. first to be made will be an ipa, as this was recommended to me

cooper's canned ipa
light malt extract(i think it was 1.5 pounds?)
1 oz cascade hops
danstar nottingham yeast
30 minute boil
.5 oz hop at 30 minutes
.5 oz hop at end
bru-vigor yeast food

OG: 1.044
racked to secondary 4 days later
SG: 1.009

it's clarifying nicely so far and still has a few bubbles here and there
pulled a taste test at time of racking and it tasted fairly good
will bottle with priming sugar once clarified

also have about .75 gallon of mead fermenting away, this has been going for about 2 months now, i've racked it once and it's just now really settled and clear. i can still see bubbles rising in the mead and in the airlock but the last couple days it's been very very slow, when it finishes fermenting, i'll pull it off the sediment and set it up to age a bit. tasted this as well, it is excellent for a simple recipe. i didn't have a hydrometer when i made it so i have no idea what the og is, but it seems around 11-13ish based on other wines i know the content of

keeblerelf

 

[KevinW]

Sounds OK, I would double the hops and instead of the 30 min addition I would do 1oz @ 15min and 1oz @ 5min with a 60 min boil to get more bitterness out of the hops!

What about steeping some grains for a little more complexity of flavor?

This should get you a nice hoppy IPA, but you don't have to take my word for it!

Good luck and keep on brewing!

BTW, try to primary for at least 3 weeks then bottle, you can add any hops to the primary fermentor at 2 weeks if you want to dry hop! Just an idea!

 

[TTB-J]

racked to secondary 4 days later

Why?

 

[slipkid]

Why?

Lots of LHBS recipes seem to include this step. I have two from my LHBS - one an English IPA, which I'm making now, and another for an Irish red I'm planning to try next, and both recommend secondary fermentation. I only discovered from talking to other homebrewers online that this is not usually necessary for these kinds of beers. I mean to ask the guys next time I go for supplies why they still include secondary in their recipes. Maybe it's so they can sell you an extra bucket.

 

[Keeblerelf]

honestly dont know why, it was the recommendation of the lhbs guy... my wife and i both learn by doing. i can read how to brew beer 400 different ways 1000 times each, but until i actually did it, it didn't make sense to us, now it makes more sense and there will be changes in the next batches, longer boil for example more hops at different times, etc
sticking with written out recipes for now until i can learn more about formulation of brews

keeblerelf

 

[Keeblerelf]

Ok, so beer has been bottle carbing for 7 days, i thought i'd test one just to see how far along it is and get a general idea of flavors and such...the hoppyness is overwhelming, i definitely messed a few things up in this batch that i can correct next time. for one, i can safely say i dont like cascade hops...i definitely got a strong grapefruit flavor, which i dont like very much. I'll be choosing a different hop variety on the next round. boiling longer to get more bitter out of it, and using a hop bag so as not to have hops stuck in the fermentor(didn't filter them out this time)

oh well. brew and learn

keeblerelf

 

[KevinW]

You got an "overwhelming" hoppiness from 1oz of hops of which only .5oz at 5 min? Hmmm, interesting!

Was the extract hopped, did you weigh your hops correctly?

I cannot imagine deriving such a strong hop flavor from just 1oz of hops. After just a week in the bottle the beer will be green so in time some of the hoppiness should soften. Give it a few more weeks and see!

Good luck

 

[BryceL]

Ok, so beer has been bottle carbing for 7 days, i thought i'd test one just to see how far along it is and get a general idea of flavors and such...the hoppyness is overwhelming, i definitely messed a few things up in this batch that i can correct next time. for one, i can safely say i dont like cascade hops...i definitely got a strong grapefruit flavor, which i dont like very much. I'll be choosing a different hop variety on the next round. boiling longer to get more bitter out of it, and using a hop bag so as not to have hops stuck in the fermentor(didn't filter them out this time)

oh well. brew and learn

keeblerelf

That does seem odd that it would be overwhelming with only 1 oz. of hops. Do you usually drink IPA's? Maybe that is just not a style for you. But, if you try it again, I would definitely do a 60 min boil for bitterness. Maybe try some Chinook, that is more of a "spicy" flavor rather than the citrus. I'd do that for 60 mins and then maybe some Centennial or Columbus near the end of the boil. Those varieties usually pair pretty well together.

 

[TTB-J]

I'm confused, you say that the "hoppyness is overwhelming," but that you're wanting to be "boiling longer to get more bitter out of it"? It sounds to me like you used pre-hopped extract, as a .5 oz addition at 30 and knockout would not likely be overwhelming even to the most hop-sensitive drinker. But from your statements I gather its not the bitterness that you find overwhelming but the flavor of the hops? I'm not sure that after 7 days in the bottle you would be able to judge flavor very well - you're basically tasting something that's in the middle of fermentation, and that's never going to taste very good. I would wait a couple of weeks before trying another - you'll get a better idea of what the hops were supposed to taste like.

 

[unionrdr]

Did they give you any dextrose or brewing sugar with the cooper's can? The cans are pre-hopped & about 1,7kg. I'd have to look at the cooper's site again to see what hops are used,but it's at least 2 kinds. Many down there in AU like it the way it is. But,there are others who like more hops,so it's up to you what's good or a bit much.
So,being pre-hopped means you never boil them. You risk loosing some of the hop/flavor profile in doing so. But,you could use a little DME in a boil to get more hop oil utilization. Then,take it off the heat & mix as usual.

 

[Docjowles]

How big was the batch? I think we're all assuming 5 gallons, but there's no way 1.5lbs of extract got you 5 gallons of 1.044 wort. That might explain the confusion with the hop bitterness.