Tasted my first home made beer, a Brewers best kit...a gift for Christmas....Not bad...like it with food....nice taste and just the right amount of carbonation....but i just opened my first bottle of IPA....from a kit...and am dissappointed by the flavor....seems muddled.....no real distinctive flavors.....like long trail IPA...am i being unfair comparing it to long trail? Question guys....while waiting for the carbonation...i had some pretty wide temperature swings....tried to keep it 64 to 72...but it was more like 58 to 75...did this affect my IPA's flavor? Thanks for you guys help!
dissappointed
- Thread starter rbrittne
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I assume it was a Brewer's Best IPA kit? It may just be the recipe you don't care for, but temperature fluctuations do play a huge part in the end result in the flavor of the beer.
Yeast also- some yeast strains do great at 60 degrees, while others do better at 68 degrees. Some yeast strains, like nottingham, start to taste foul if fermented above 72 degrees. Some do ok, but taste "fruity" like bananas or bubblegum if it gets that warm. Still, if those are the temperatures during carbonation it shouldn't matter, as the important part is controlling the temperatures better during fermentation.
What was the recipe? Maybe you just don't care for those particular hops or the grain bill.
I made some of those IPA kits when I first started brewing. Most of them turned out well. Could have been an old kit. The grains are pre crushed, the yeast and hops in them is sitting in the box on a shelf and normally not in the cooler. None of that is really good for the final results.
Irisndfan2
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find a nice extract recipe on here and try that. Personally I would never buy one of those kits. I did one kit before, from Northern brewer, their honey hefe, it was decent, but I felt like I wasn't really brewing my own beer, just for the fact that it was a kit.
Just go to the recipe section an get all the ingridents seperately, this way their all fresh
Just go to the recipe section an get all the ingridents seperately, this way their all fresh
My opinion, is to try an IPA kit from Northern Brewer. If I had to guess you won't be able to get ingredients fresher than their kits due to their insane amount of turnover. I have a hard time believing any of their kits sit on the shelves for any real length of time. Check out reviews for the kits and choose one based on what you want in an IPA. I've brewed 5 NB kits and all of them tasted great, and got even better when I kept fermentation temps in the mid 60's with a swamp cooler. Don't give up on this thing yet, you'll get there.
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Hey VT. If you need an IPA recipe, let me know. I am right down the street. Don't be afraid to do something other than a kit. Check out Lebanon Health food store for the materials. Their stuff is cheap, and Rad (the only one there that knows anything about brewing) is a good guy and resource. I only made one kit because I figured I could get better, fresher ingredients at the LHBS.
Your temps were pretty wild. Anything in the acceptable range would be good enough, but swings that wide should be avoided. Just using a swamp cooler can help prevent that, since you are adding so much more thermal mass, that temp swings take longer to affect it.
"Muddled" flavors might indicate a problem with the water, because the chloride/sulfate ration may not be good for hoppier beers.
Or the hops may have been old. They tend to taste flatter as they age.
Old extract can lend a stale flavor that could affect the way you perceive the whole beer.
When brewing with extract, I recommend using distilled or RO water, since the extract still contains minerals from the factory, and there is less chance of making a mess of the water chemistry.
Also, make sure your ingredients are fresh (any of the popular online Suppliers have enough turnover to ensure a fresh kit.).
And ferment an IPA in the mid 60s and no higher IMO. Based on the yeast strains that are generally called for for those beers.
"Muddled" flavors might indicate a problem with the water, because the chloride/sulfate ration may not be good for hoppier beers.
Or the hops may have been old. They tend to taste flatter as they age.
Old extract can lend a stale flavor that could affect the way you perceive the whole beer.
When brewing with extract, I recommend using distilled or RO water, since the extract still contains minerals from the factory, and there is less chance of making a mess of the water chemistry.
Also, make sure your ingredients are fresh (any of the popular online Suppliers have enough turnover to ensure a fresh kit.).
And ferment an IPA in the mid 60s and no higher IMO. Based on the yeast strains that are generally called for for those beers.
Thanks for the advice everyone! Ill definetely do better at keeping it at more stable temps ...its just that the weather has been screwy here. This this was a brewers best kit....and i got it at the lebanon health food store...i know it was fresh cus he had to order an IPA kit for me....After letting the second of 2 bottles sit in the fridge for a couple of days....this second one tastes better...different tastes from first drinking all the way down....and after....im thinking it needed to be cooled for a while.....when im ready to do another batch ill take you up on your offer of recipes for an extract brew Blue moose! thanks again everyone for the responses!
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