Beginner Questions

[kbradford]

I've been reading the stickies and searched a bit, but couldn't find specific answers to my questions. I have learned a ton just by reading though, so thanks to all of you!

So I am about a week and a half into brewing my first beer, a traditional IPA kit. I had it in primary for 4 days, then transferred to secondary. Pretty sure it had finished fermentation, but I was naive and didn't measure gravity. In the future I will leave it in primary another few days and measure. The problem is that I just opened up the secondary to measure the gravity (the gravity was fine, a bit high, 1.019, but I think it's cause I transferred to early) and gave it a little sip. Tasted very alcoholy and astringent. There was some flavor and bitterness, but dominated by the alcohol. Is this just the beer being very young still?

My other concern is that since I opened the secondary, and fermentation is done, I let some oxygen into the top of the secondary. Will this sitting on top of my secondary oxidize my beer if I let it sit another week? Should I bottle it now just in case?

And last, this is a traditional IPA, not an Americanized one. It had 1oz of bittering, 1oz of aroma. No dry hopping in the recipe, so I added an oz of pellets to secondary to give it some aroma. In my sip test, it did not smell of hops at all. It has a strong alcohol smell still. Will this hop smell come out later?

Thanks all for any insight!

 

[Rezilynt]

Congratulations on your first batch!!!!

1. It is still young. Let it sit in the clearing vessel (secondary) for as long as you can. Since you probably (highly likely) transferred to the secondary too soon, it needs to sit. We've all done this, so don't worry, it's not ruined. I usually do not take a gravity reading from the primary until at least day 10. You may want to make sure you are still at the correct temp to ensure fermentation completes (I don't know what your final gravity was suppose to be). Anyway, the longer you wait, the better it's going to taste. You still bottle conditioning that will help the tate as well.

2. You have not ruined it with oxygen as it will build up CO2 again and create another protective layer.

3. Sorry, but I have no sense of smell and I'm not into hoppy beers so I cannot answer this.

 

[ifishsum]

You certainly don't want to judge the batch on a taste of a 10 day old beer. Most of my beers start tasting the way they should at 6 weeks or so from brew date so reserve judgment until then. Bigger beers can take even longer to mellow out. So there's really no reason to rush primary or secondary, it will just have to sit longer in the bottles to taste the way it should. For most recipes I do 10 days in primary, 10-14 in secondary and then 3 in the bottles.

Don't worry too much about your secondary, most of the time the beer will offgas enough CO2 to re-cover the surface. I don't think it gets that oxidized from surface exposure anyway, splashing is the much bigger risk. Don't bottle it now, you really need some aging time - especially since you went to secondary too early. I actually have never taken a hydro sample from secondary because I've already made sure it's at FG before moving out of primary - in your case I'd give it another week or more to see if it will drop further. 3 weeks from brew day is my minimum before bottling.

Much of your hops aroma could have been scrubbed out because the beer was probably still doing some fermenting when you racked it and added the pellets. I think that if your airlock is bubbling it's taking away some of the aroma you're trying to keep. When I rack to secondary I usually wait a few days for the beer to release as much CO2 as possible before adding dry hops, to preserve as much of the aroma and flavor as possible. Then I dry hop for the last 7 days or so, immediately prior to bottling. So if I'm going to secondary for two weeks, I put the dry hops in for the second week - it seems to make a difference.

In a nutshell, I think you're rushing everything. Don't worry, it's very common for the first brew or two and most of us made the same mistakes. Most of the kits directions encourage this problem as well. You will still have beer when you're finished and it will probably be good, just maybe not as good as it could have been. The best thing you can do is start another batch in your primary, it helps with the waiting.

Good luck and welcome to HBT!

 

[kbradford]

Thanks for the replies. Great info, and it has reassured me. I'll let it sit in the secondary for another 2 weeks, then bottle for 3-4 weeks. I also learned to not follow directions exactly as included in the kit. It was those directions that said to transfer from primary to secondary after 4 days.

My next kit is on the way, and will be a Chocolate Stout. I'll take all my newfound knowledge and make a better brew. Thanks again!

 

[Rezilynt]

You are welcome. Just remember that the only thing you can rely on to see when fermentation is finished is your hydrometer. You want three readings to be the same at least 3 days in a row. You can't tell by number of days or time between bubbles.

Good luck!