Brewing American (Ultimate) Pale Ale from Annapolis Home Brew Supply

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jaynik

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Trying my second brew today. It's a SN style IPA according to the guy at the shop. I tasted their result of the same recipe and it was pretty good.

This was my first with steeping grains and I already effed it up a bit, but I will recover. I added cold water to my pot and poured the steeping grains into the muslin bag while I was holding it over the water and spilled some of the grains in the water. I guess I'll have to filter that out later, but figured some of the grains might have found their way through the bag anyhow.

I'm excited about this brew though. There are 6 hop additions and I love hops. If this turns out nice, I will consider changing the hop profile a little next time to see what else I can do. I'm nervous and excited. I like the shop, my first time going there. I feel better about it with using fresh ingredients and all. I'll let you know how this goes.

BTW, talked to him about my initial brew, the red ale that was yeasty and his guess is that it was just the crappy dry yeast that came in the kit. He uses wyeast activator packs, so I'll see how that goes with this brew.
 
Good luck!

Try to get the grains out before the boil if you can but don't worry about it too much.
 
You could scoop them out with a colander if you wanted to be real particular but you could leave them there with no harm. Some always end up in the boil anyway.

Dry yeasts are fine - if you made one batch and were not happy about it, don't assume that it was because of the yeast. You don't have enough data to make any conclusions at this point. Concentrate on getting to a stable and repeatable process.
 
I like the shop, my first time going there.
I'm with you on that one! I live in Odenton, so I'm halfway between Maryland Homebrew in Columbia and Annapolis Homebrew. I have visited both, and pretty much exclusively go to AHB.

Very knowledgeable staff, friendly, custom GOOD recipe kits, patient... And a large inventory. Plus, I went to high school with the owner.

I brewed their Irish Pub Ale (because they said it was the closest kit they had to Boddington's), and it is fabulous!
 
Yeast is pitched (several hours ago) and things are resting nicely in the fermenter. I'll see how things look in a few days. I love the hoppy smell of this beer!
 
Still getting good airlock activity. I'll take a hydro reading on Friday.

Most of you don't bottle right when fermentation is complete from what I read. Should I leave this in primary (I dont' have a secondary) for longer, or bottle when the fermentation is complete?

Also, directions say dry hop after five days in primary, but it doesn't say for how long? ????
 
I bottled my brew today. Got 46 12 oz bottles out of this batch. Hop aroma is fantastic. Tasted the dirty part that was in the siphon tube when I stopped bottling. (poured in a glass) It's a little more bitter than I think it will be after conditioning for a while, but I like even that. I guess at least a week, but the longer the better. Not sure I'll be able to wait too long. My wife tasted it and she said she thinks it's going to be really good. Very hoppy and I think this will make me happy.

If this produces a good brew, I'll be chomping at the bit for the next brew. I didn't brew again today because my first batch (true brew red ale) was iffy, so don't want to get too far if something wrong with what I'm doing or with my equipment.
 
Still getting good airlock activity. I'll take a hydro reading on Friday.

Most of you don't bottle right when fermentation is complete from what I read. Should I leave this in primary (I dont' have a secondary) for longer, or bottle when the fermentation is complete?

Also, directions say dry hop after five days in primary, but it doesn't say for how long? ????

Yeah it doesn't hurt to leave it in the primary for a few (2-4) weeks. Some people leave it even longer. Dry hopping can be as long as you want. Till bottling day even.
 
Ok, I've cracked a bottle of this. It's not at the three week conditioning mark until the 10th, but I couldn't wait any longer.

It pours with a great head and seemed to be nicely carbonated. There was a nice hoppy aroma which I really enjoy. The hop flavor wasn't as intense as the smell, but the beer is great. I think at day 10, it may be even better. I would like to brew this one again, but maybe dry hop with more hops next time. There was more bitterness than hop flavor. I believe the dry hops were cascade pellets. I love the hop profile of this one, but just want more of it. I have a blond in primary and will either brew the Troegs hopback amber clone from BYO or maybe try this one again, but with a different hop combo.

My wife was really happy with this one. She said she thinks it's a really refreshing beer. I'm glad she was happy with it. I sure am!
 
Congrats!! I think I'm just one batch ahead of you. My second batch is about 17 days into bottle conditioning. It's a Newcastle clone. I cracked a bottle last weekend to see how it was coming along. It tasted like I had hoped at 2 weeks in. Nice flavor. Decent mouthfeel. Just a little sweet.

At this point, I'm hoping to get a pipeline going...
 
So, if this beer has great aroma and nice bitterness, but is missing the hop flavor, how do I change it next time to give me more hop flavor?
 
So, if this beer has great aroma and nice bitterness, but is missing the hop flavor, how do I change it next time to give me more hop flavor?

Try adding hops at the last 10-2 minutes of your boil..... this will give a nice hop flavor and aroma without adding bitterness.
 
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