Brewing Dead Ringer IPA

[leemorgan]

The instructions say:

2. Collect and heat 2.5 gallons of water.
3. For mail-order customers grains for extract kits come
crushed by default, but if you requested uncrushed
grains, crush them now. Pour crushed grain into
supplied mesh bag and tie the open end in a knot. Steep
for 20 minutes or until water reaches 170°F. Remove
bag and discard.

My question is, should I start with the grains in cold water and steep for 20min or until 170, or should I heat the water 1st?

6. Cool the wort. When the 60-minute boil is finished,
cool the wort to approximately 100° F as rapidly as
possible. Use a wort chiller, or put the kettle in an ice
bath in your sink

I have a wort chiller, shouldn't it be cooler than 100?

 

[solbes]

Heat the water first. Once your water reaches 155-160, start the steep. Try to hold around 160 and keep the grains in the water for 25-30 minutes.

To your 2nd question, yes chill the wort down to the bottom end of your yeast's range (low 60's for most ale yeast strains). Then you aerate the wort, then pitch and re-aerate for a minute or so. If you allow your yeast to warm 2-3 degrees from pitching temp, that can sometimes reduce the lag time. You will have minimal off flavors and fusel alcohols by pitching at the bottom end of the range. Keep an eye on the fermentation temps.

 

[redwing_al]

Questions:
1.did you get the crushed grain or did you request the other?
2.How would your preparation differ on the different grains?
3. Why aerate?

I am going to brew this batch next, so I'm interested to hear how it goes for you!

The instructions say:



2. Collect and heat 2.5 gallons of water.
3. For mail-order customers grains for extract kits come
crushed by default, but if you requested uncrushed
grains, crush them now. Pour crushed grain into
supplied mesh bag and tie the open end in a knot. Steep
for 20 minutes or until water reaches 170°F. Remove
bag and discard.

My question is, should I start with the grains in cold water and steep for 20min or until 170, or should I heat the water 1st?

6. Cool the wort. When the 60-minute boil is finished,
cool the wort to approximately 100° F as rapidly as
possible. Use a wort chiller, or put the kettle in an ice
bath in your sink

I have a wort chiller, shouldn't it be cooler than 100?

 

[LuNchBoX1371]

The instructions say:
My question is, should I start with the grains in cold water and steep for 20min or until 170, or should I heat the water 1st?

I have a wort chiller, shouldn't it be cooler than 100?

From what i have read u can actually put the steeping grains in before the water is ready but it make the wort darker than you would want it from the maillard reactions goin on in the grain,this is from what i remember reading (but not 100% on that one). Its just better to do it at temp.

Definitley cool the wort down to fermentation temp. before pitching yeast. If you handle the hot wort- such as aerating it while its still hot, above 85 degrees farenheit- you will cause hot-side aeration; which will lead to oxidation in the beer and long term stability problems. Now some people on here dont agree because they have done their own tests and said it didnt but thats what im reading from john j. palmer's book "how to brew", so i am goin to go with that and say dont handle the beer untill u got it below 85 degrees farenheit.

 

[leemorgan]

Solbes, do I aerate in the carboy? How do I warm the yeast? When you say the bottom end of fermentation temp, what temp are we talking about, 60? Should I be monitoring the temp inside the carboy? Thank you for all of your assistance.

Redwing, grains are already crushed. I will let you know how this turns out.

 

[solbes]

Solbes, do I aerate in the carboy? How do I warm the yeast? When you say the bottom end of fermentation temp, what temp are we talking about, 60? Should I be monitoring the temp inside the carboy? Thank you for all of your assistance.

If you are using a carboy as your primary, yes shake the crap out of your wort for a minute or so after you chilled and transferred it. Then pitch your yeast into the carboy, either liquid yeast starter or rehydrated dry yeast. Then shake the crap out of it again for a minute or so to distribute yeast. Attach airlock.

Usually I just let it warm a couple of degrees slowly by putting it in a room that is a few degrees warmer. As for the pitching and fermenting temp, you need to find the temp range for the specific yeast strain. Pitch at the bottom of this, and try to keep the fermentation temps between bottom temp and maybe 5 degrees warmer. If you want esters in your beer, slowly raise the temps towards the higher end of the temp range after 2 days. If you want a cleaner ferment, keep it lower until fermentation ends.

I have a digital weather thermometer that has a wired temp probe button. I sticj this to the outside wall of my fermentor, and then place a layer of folded up paper towel over it with some packing tape to secure it. That insulates the probe so the effects of air temp are reduced. Alternatively, you can use the stick on brew thermometers that indicate temp by color.

 

[leemorgan]

Also, it says to bring to a boil after steeping. I would assume this means maintaining at least 215 degrees, am I correct?
The directions also say to add 2 gallons of cold water to the carboy before combining it with the wort. Is this why they only want you to cool to 100, since the cold water will then bring the temp down more.

Regarding storage, should I store in the house or the garage? the garage is not temp controlled and probably gets cold at night.

 

[solbes]

You'll never reach 215. Water boils at sea level at 212F. Boiling point is lower as you head up in elevation. I think in Minnesota here we are at ~ 1000 ft, so it boils at 209.

No need to measure this, just keep a moderate to rolling boil going.

 

[cobrem]

Adding the two gallons to the fermenter is meant to chill the wort down (from the 100 degree wort), as you surmised. I'd chill those two gallons in the fridge to make it cool enough. If I recall correctly, the dry yeast used is S05. If you pitch it while the combined wort is in the low 60s, you should be in good shape.

For storage temp, you want to keep it in the low to mid 60s, and if possible, stable. Swinging between 60 and 75 is not ideal. You may want to put the fermenter in a larger tub that has some water in it (maybe up to half of the liquid level in the fermenter). If it gets too warm (over 70) put in a frozen water bottle (2L or gallon). I'd try to maintain the temps at low to mid 60s for at least a week.

You don't want to ferment too warm - nasty stuff...

 

[leemorgan]

Cobrem, do you think I should try and add 60 degree water to the carboy, chill my wort and then add it to that water? As for storage, I am thinking about my garage, what are your thoughts? Nice and cool in winter now.

 

[cobrem]

Top off water at 60 may not be cool enough. I've chilled the top off water to the low to mid 40s and when I pour in 80 degree wort, it landed in the low 60s. There has to be a more scientific way to figure out a good temperature, but this should get you in range.

If your garage's ambient temps stay in the low 60s - I think that would work. I use my basement which is in that range in the winter. If it is colder, you run the risk of outing the yeast to sleep.

 

[solbes]

Wait a sec. The Northern Brewer instructions are setup for new brewers that do not have two things: a) a large enough kettle to boil all of the wort and b) a wort chiller.

You already have the wort chiller. If you have a 7+ gallon kettle, you should do a full volume boil. You will get better results and less wort darkening than if you do a partial boil and then add 2 gallons at the end. If you have a 3-5 gallon kettle, then you will be doing a partial boil as the instructions say. If you have a 6 or 6.5 gallon kettle, you may need some Fermcap-S to prevent boilovers.

 

[leemorgan]

I have an 8 gallon stock pot with a wort chiller. I will be doing a full boil. Where does everyone ferment during the summer?

 

[schiersteinbrewing]

Where does everyone ferment during the summer?

Converted side by side fridge/freezer in my garage. Summers here reach 110+ deg constantly. The freezer side I can ferment two 5gal lagers at 50 deg, the fridge side I can fit two 5 gal ales and it stays 65-70deg. The temp controller controls the freezer side, and the fridge side I control with the dial and a digital thermometer. It is a great combo.

 

[solbes]

In my mini fridge with a Johnson A419 digital temp controller. And I ferment in my upstairs or basement the rest of the year depending on room temps.

 

[BansheeRider]

Wait a sec. The Northern Brewer instructions are setup for new brewers that do not have two things: a) a large enough kettle to boil all of the wort and b) a wort chiller.

You already have the wort chiller. If you have a 7+ gallon kettle, you should do a full volume boil. You will get better results and less wort darkening than if you do a partial boil and then add 2 gallons at the end. If you have a 3-5 gallon kettle, then you will be doing a partial boil as the instructions say. If you have a 6 or 6.5 gallon kettle, you may need some Fermcap-S to prevent boilovers.

If you do a full boil following a partial boil recipe the hop additions may need to be adjusted. The amount of specialty grains may need to be adjusted as well.

Also some people on here suggested cooling the wort with the chiller to the low end yeast specifications. If the OP cools to 63-65 degrees, then adds 2.5 gallons of ice cold water, the wort will be around 50-55 degrees which is too cold for pitching IMO. When I did partial boil extract I would cool to 70 degrees, the ice cold top off water would bring it down to around 65 degrees which is perfect for pitching.

 

[TheBlindBeastBrewery]

I just brewed Dead Ringer IPA 5 gal. Extract kit yesterday. This was my first 5 gallon batch after completing 5 different Northern Brewer 1 gallon kits. I used the Megapot 1.2 (8 gal.) and wort chiller. I chilled down to 80° and poured it on top of approximately 50° water. I pitched a decanted yeast starter (my first ever). About 12 hours later I had some pretty good looking fermentation beginning. Hope it comes out alright!

 

[redwing_al]

I just brewed Dead Ringer IPA 5 gal. Extract kit yesterday. This was my first 5 gallon batch after completing 5 different Northern Brewer 1 gallon kits. I used the Megapot 1.2 (8 gal.) and wort chiller. I chilled down to 80° and poured it on top of approximately 50° water. I pitched a decanted yeast starter (my first ever). About 12 hours later I had some pretty good looking fermentation beginning. Hope it comes out alright!

please post your results on that dead ringer-hearted ipa!

 

[solbes]

I just brewed Dead Ringer IPA 5 gal. Extract kit yesterday. This was my first 5 gallon batch after completing 5 different Northern Brewer 1 gallon kits. I used the Megapot 1.2 (8 gal.) and wort chiller. I chilled down to 80° and poured it on top of approximately 50° water. I pitched a decanted yeast starter (my first ever). About 12 hours later I had some pretty good looking fermentation beginning. Hope it comes out alright!

Welcome to the fourm! I bet it turns out really good; this is one of NB's best kits IMO.

And now for my two cents of advice. If you have a wort chiller and a large enough kettle (and you have both), it would be better to do a full volume boil and not follow their directions in that area. This means you start out with approximately 6.5-6.75 gallons of wort at the start of the boil so that by the end after evaporation you have 5.5 or so. Zero or very little top up water is added at the end. You then chill it down with your wort chiller into the yeast pitching range (usually 60-64F for most ale strains), aerate, and pitch your yeast.

The main benefit is that your wort will be more true to color since you are not boiling 2 or 3 gallons, but rather the full 6.5 gallons. Boiling the same amount of sugar in only 2 gallons can lead to a darker color as the sugars are more concentrated and can carmelize. I believe full volume boil gives a slightly better taste as well, though this is pretty minor. Cheers!

 

[bbohanon]

Good advice on this kit..I have done this one a few times and its a very good beer!
Make sure you ferment this one in the lower temp ranges as previously mentioned by a few posters on this thread. This beer is a tough one to keep around when its fermented cool and left in the keg/bottle for about a month on the conditioning phase.
Thinking about it now, I need to another batch of this one brewed up soon!

 

[TheBlindBeastBrewery]

I would definitely like to try a full volume boil, how would I change the hop schedule? Also, one mistake I made while brewing this batch was dumping in the both bottles of LME at the same time - it took forever for the thick syrup to pour out of the jugs and I had no hands to stir. I didn't think the extract would burn on the bottom of the pot but it did. I had a small path of burnt malt extract on the bottom. Think this will affect the flavor?

 

[solbes]

The burnt LME might be noticeable, not really sure on that one. A tip for that is to let the bottle of LME sit in your sink with hot water for 15 minutes or so. It helps thin it out so you can pour it out easier. I am usually stirring with one hand as I'm pouring with the other. Another trick with extract is "late extract addition", you can search for it here if you haven't read about it before.

Others have adjusted their hop schedule for full volume boils, but I never did. The theory is that you would end up with beers that were too bitter, as the hop utilization goes up with more diluted sugars. I never had a batch that turned out too bitter. I suppose you could find opposite opinions out there on this one.

 

[TheBlindBeastBrewery]

So I am slightly concerned about transferring to my secondary fermenter. It sounds like I can easily introduce oxygen which is unwanted at that stage in the fermentation. Is this a real concern? It appears many people are now dismissing the idea that a secondary fermentation is necessary. Any thoughts?

 

[cobrem]

Re: hop addition adjustments for full boil - I read on here somewhere that a quick way to figure that out is to go to NB's website, and pull up the all-grain version of the recipe. Obviously, this works for NB recipes only...

 

[TheBlindBeastBrewery]

Thanks for the tip. I just checked the NB Black IPA All grain recipe vs. the extract recipe - turns out the hop schedule is identical. Seems to lend some credence to what you said, solbes.

 

[solbes]

Sometimes the science just doesn't translate into noticeable effects, as in the hop utliziation for full volume boils.

As to transferring to secondary. I don't have a problem racking to secodnary and I don't think it introduces oxygen as long as you rack it properly. The benefit is clearing. Take a gander about an hour after racking and you will be amazed at how much yeast has dropped to the bottom of the carboy. A day later and more of it will be there.

Alternatively I'd say you can get 50-90% of that effect (depending on yeast strain), by chilling your beer down in primary to 35F or so for 3-4 days. The cold helps drop out much of the yeast in primary and racking to secondary is not needed. This makes for about 3 minutes of work vs 15-20 to rack a batch.

I use one or the other still. Some yeast strains do not drop out well with cold crashing, so I rack to secondary. Or some big beers I liked to bulk condition, where a carboy has a lot of advantages. With a lot of my ale yeast strains, I often just cold crash in primary as it's easier.

 

[TheBlindBeastBrewery]

Alright thanks. I am supposed to dry hop in the secondary, so I will try my hand at racking it.

 

[mgr_stl]

Brewing the extract kit from northern brewer tomorrow. When I type everything into Beersmith with my equipment setup (full boil), it says it is 93 IBUs. That seems a bit high for a two hearted clone, no? I'm thinking about moving some of the 60 minute hops per the recipe to later additions.

Was also planning on using 1.2 oz homegrown dried Centennial hops in addition to the one ounce of pellets included in the kit for the dry hop.

Also, I'm adding one pound of extra pale dry malt extract and upping the recipe to 5.5 gallons.

Eager to see how it turns out.

 

[Singletrack]

My Tinseth calc for a batch of DR about 2 years ago was 61 IBU.

 

[toxdoc49]

Wait a sec. The Northern Brewer instructions are setup for new brewers that do not have two things: a) a large enough kettle to boil all of the wort and b) a wort chiller.

You already have the wort chiller. If you have a 7+ gallon kettle, you should do a full volume boil. You will get better results and less wort darkening than if you do a partial boil and then add 2 gallons at the end. If you have a 3-5 gallon kettle, then you will be doing a partial boil as the instructions say. If you have a 6 or 6.5 gallon kettle, you may need some Fermcap-S to prevent boilovers.

So since I have a 10 gallon kettle and a wort chiller, I can do a full volume (5 gallon) boil on this recipe and get same results?