Beer tastes sweet...again

[ryanbullen]

Right ok I've learned a few things there. Thank you beerthoven and liquid courage. I will try the additional boiled hops next time. I think my electric hob will manage to boil a gallon of water 👍
I'll leave this batch for a few more weeks then Liquidcourage and hopefully will see an improvement 😀

 

[ryanbullen]

Pdxal I will stick the brew belt back around the barrel and leave it alone for a few weeks 😀

 

[Malty_Dog]

Addition...
I didn't actually boil the wort, just added boiling water to the extract as the instructions said to

What? At what point then did you add hops?

*Edit - never mind - it sounds like you never boiled them!! Problem solved. You have to boil hops to extract bitterness.

 

[ryanbullen]

Yep I know that dude. From now on I am going to presume that the extract is not hopped and boil it myself

 

[Malty_Dog]

Yep I know that dude. From now on I am going to presume that the extract is not hopped and boil it myself

Cool, you got it straightened out then. It's an awesome hobby, you'll be hooked for good now. Good luck with the next batch!

 

[ryanbullen]

I'm thinking of starting another batch today while this one conditions 😀

 

[z-bob]

Pro-tip: don't get drunk while you're brewing. Have one beer; maybe two. You can have more during clean-up.

 

[invictusbrew]

Everything I am reading online about these kits say that:
1. The LME is in fact hopped.
2. The hops that come with these kits seem to always be for dryhopping.
3. There are two bags of dextrose in each kit - one for fermentation, the other to be used at bottling.

Everything OP says he did seems to be just about right for the instructions that come with the kits except switching out the dextrose for more (probably unhopped??) LME. This could certainly diminish some of the perceived bitterness and I would recommend you use the sugar as intended next time. That being said I have always found the pre-hopped malt extract kits to come out sweeter than I prefer my beers - this is certainly a personal preference issue, but you may be the same. Unfortunately, it sounds like you do not yet have the ability to do the required boil for an extract batch where you would add your own hops for bittering? Best I can say is try more of these kits and see if there is another that you would prefer over this one? Since you're not sure which one you had, maybe try the Razorback IPA next

 

[serum]

My dad and my brother both made this kit and it's pretty good when done as per the instructions.

The hops don't need boiling. It's got hopped extract and the hops provided are for a dry hop. If you do it all as per the instructions but leave it fermenting for a bit longer than it says on the box it should be fine.

Adding dark dme is a bad move. Either use extra light or just use the dextrose they give you as that will keep the body light.

 

[ryanbullen]

Thanks serum. I'll remember that for next time. Also I forgot to say I added finings a few days before I racked to the barrel. Will this have an effect on how well the secondary fermentation goes?

 

[ryanbullen]

Pro-tip: don't get drunk while you're brewing. Have one beer; maybe two. You can have more during clean-up.

Yes I'll remember that as well lol 😀

 

[brandonnys]

My dad and my brother both made this kit and it's pretty good when done as per the instructions.

The hops don't need boiling. It's got hopped extract and the hops provided are for a dry hop. If you do it all as per the instructions but leave it fermenting for a bit longer than it says on the box it should be fine.

Adding dark dme is a bad move. Either use extra light or just use the dextrose they give you as that will keep the body light.

I'm not going to say I disagree with this, but I'd caution anyone from making statments like "X is a bad move" because we just don't know their palette. They may like their IPA on the darker, maltier side (closer to a CDA/BIPA). Maybe adding dark DME is exactly what he wants to do, you just never know.

The lesson you should have learned from this is that kits require that you don't deviate from their instructions to produce the beer that the kit is supposed to make. Additionally, there is a definite possibility that deviating from the kit in one way will require you to compensate in another. In this case, adding more dark DME made the beer much too malty, which could have been mitigated by adding additional hops or using a hopped dark DME.

When you are either space or equipment-constrained, you can get creative. Someone on this thread suggested that you could boil some bittering hops in a gallon of water; Totally reasonable, but you'll want to do it in the right sequence. If you only have a 6 quart stock pot or something like that, you can do a full 60-minute boil with just the hops in a gallon-ish of water to get the bitterness profile you're looking for, pour the hot hop "wort" over the LME to dissolve it, cool to pitch temp and be pretty much ready to go.

NOTE: I would caution you that if you're using DME or LME from your LHBS, you should boil it for 15 minutes to sterilize it. LME in cans is usually sterilized in production prior to sealing the can.

That's the beauty of homebrewing. It's more of an art than people let on. One person's mistake is another's gold medal beer. RDWHAHB.