First brew made on Sunday! Awesome hobby!

[ICWiener]

Just a heads-up for next time. Let the beer age out for as long as you need, just wait to do the dry-hopping until you're about 5-12 days out from bottling. I think you'll find you get better results that way. Although...to each his own...you might find that a month of dry-hopping works for you.

The 70-72 temp is just fine, not too warm. Glad the beer tastes good so far.

 

[HopHead_32]

Just a heads-up for next time. Let the beer age out for as long as you need, just wait to do the dry-hopping until you're about 5-12 days out from bottling. I think you'll find you get better results that way. Although...to each his own...you might find that a month of dry-hopping works for you. The 70-72 temp is just fine, not too warm. Glad the beer tastes good so far.

Just wondering what would be the reason for waiting in the dry hopping? Taste? Aroma?? Lol sorry man still reading up on this... Noob I know

 

[ICWiener]

Just wondering what would be the reason for waiting in the dry hopping? Taste? Aroma?? Lol sorry man still reading up on this... Noob I know

No sweat man. We were all noobs at one point. Hell I've been brewing for almost a decade and I still learn new stuff all the time.

The thing with dry hopping is that the flavor and aroma changes, and more importantly, fades over time. Ideally, you want to add your dry hops then start sampling the beer every few days until it's got exactly what you're looking for. A lot of people will tell you that a dry hop addition that sits for too long will leave vegetal aromas or flavors, or worse yet, will start to fade out.

Then again, someone will probably post here to tell you that a month of dry hopping is fine and won't hurt a thing. I'm not saying there's a right or wrong way to do it. Lord knows that how it goes with all aspects of homebrewing. All I'm saying is that you want to maximize your flavor and aroma. Lock it in when it's at its peak.

 

[HopHead_32]

No sweat man. We were all noobs at one point. Hell I've been brewing for almost a decade and I still learn new stuff all the time. The thing with dry hopping is that the flavor and aroma changes, and more importantly, fades over time. Ideally, you want to add your dry hops then start sampling the beer every few days until it's got exactly what you're looking for. A lot of people will tell you that a dry hop addition that sits for too long will leave vegetal aromas or flavors, or worse yet, will start to fade out. Then again, someone will probably post here to tell you that a month of dry hopping is fine and won't hurt a thing. I'm not saying there's a right or wrong way to do it. Lord knows that how it goes with all aspects of homebrewing. All I'm saying is that you want to maximize your flavor and aroma. Lock it in when it's at its peak.

Ahhhhhhh I hear ya... Well damn lol makes more sense now. Just going by Beersmith.... I know what to try for the next batch for sure. Going to run this info by my buddy. Thanks man. Once again great help lol

I will keep ya update for sure on how everything goes.

Do you have any tips for bottling for a new brewer? I just bought all of out bottling equipment besides what came with the brewing kit... The Ferrari bottle cleaner (pretty badass setup I think) and bottle tree. Also my buddy said something about using caps lined with a CO2 agent to start the process... I hope it's a smooth process for the first time

 

[ICWiener]

Do you have any tips for bottling for a new brewer?

Start here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

You'll tweak things and develop your own process, but that thread goes into far more detail than I can in a single post.

 

[HopHead_32]

Start here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/ You'll tweak things and develop your own process, but that thread goes into far more detail than I can in a single post.

Duh.... Should have looked lol... Thanks man for all the info. Have a good one

 

[Cider123]

A lot of guys never use a secondary fermenter, including myself. I just leave it set in the primary fermenter for 3 weeks, then test the FG. If your FG remains the same for 3 days or so then you should be set for bottling. As far as many are concerned, transferring to a secondary increases your chances for infection and adding oxygen to your beer.

Some beer caps have a substance to remove the small amount of oxygen in the bottle headspace. I used to bottle the beer, then set a plain cap on top of the beer for a few minutes before capping. That time allows the small amount of fermentation from the priming sugar to replace the oxygen with CO2.

Enjoy your beer!

 

[HopHead_32]

A lot of guys never use a secondary fermenter, including myself. I just leave it set in the primary fermenter for 3 weeks, then test the FG. If your FG remains the same for 3 days or so then you should be set for bottling. As far as many are concerned, transferring to a secondary increases your chances for infection and adding oxygen to your beer. Some beer caps have a substance to remove the small amount of oxygen in the bottle headspace. I used to bottle the beer, then set a plain cap on top of the beer for a few minutes before capping. That time allows the small amount of fermentation from the priming sugar to replace the oxygen with CO2. Enjoy your beer!

Yeah my buddies brother just started using a 2nd fermenter this year after not using one for two years. A guy a work pumps CO2 into the bottling bucket and has been doing that for 20 years.... WAY to much stuff for me to try now lol... He tried explaining it and my head started hurt.... Thanks man just want to start drinking it

 

[HopHead_32]

Here is the pic I promised the other day of my 2nd fermentation... Gravity reading taking last night after letting the brew settle to get a better reading... Measured at 60F and got a reading of 1.013

 

[HopHead_32]

Hey guys, still waiting on my brew to finish up....

Quick question..... I've been watching the temp and its stays around 72 degrees and I want to keep it around 65 for my next batch. Does anyone have or tired the cool brewing fermentation cooler?? Just wondering how it is because my buddy is thinking about picking one up. The place I keep the carboy isn't the best for a swap cooler set up and I was thinking of giving the cooler bag a try...


Just wanted to see what you guys think (Oh yeah don't have the money for a freezer or space at this time)

Thanks guys

 

[HopHead_32]

Well after a month waiting for the second fermentation to be over, we finally bottled our first batch! (Thanks to our sucky weekend schedules we had to wait but I think it helped out in the long run.) Finished up with around 4 gallons of brew

24-12OZ
8-22OZ

Final gravity of 1.013

With the taste of our first home brew (all grain) it was a lot better than we expected! No off flavors at all. Pretty dang strong I will have to say but hey it's a Imperial IPA so we knew/wanted that to begin with! Well gotta wait 3 weeks for carbonation and we really get to see what we have! Can't wait!

 

[MindenMan]

At three weeks, a beer that big may not be ready to drink. I mean you can drink it, but if you wait another month, the results will be positively amazing. I recognize your wanting to start drinking it as soon as possible... Here's an idea: brew a small beer, and you won't have to wait months to drink it. If space/funds are available, starting a new beer every two weeks or so will eventually leave something to drink while the next one is conditioning.

 

[HopHead_32]

At three weeks, a beer that big may not be ready to drink. I mean you can drink it, but if you wait another month, the results will be positively amazing. I recognize your wanting to start drinking it as soon as possible... Here's an idea: brew a small beer, and you won't have to wait months to drink it. If space/funds are available, starting a new beer every two weeks or so will eventually leave something to drink while the next one is conditioning.

I was going off what I read in "How to brew" but I didn't think about it when it came to our beer being so big... We can wait another 4 weeks..

We are doing a ESB next week so yes we won't have to wait to long....

Thanks for the heads up I didn't think about that... Anyone else think we should wait? If so it's not a big deal

 

[MindenMan]

From experience I can speak of a Taddy Porter clone I brewed back in June of this year. At one month, it was nice. At two months, it was a lot better. I stashed 4 or 5 bottles and forgot them. Move forward a week ago; I found the stashed bottles and O M Gawd, I was absolutely floored. My wife was just as amazed as I was, partly because how good it was, and partly due to the fact I made it. In 1-1/2 years of brewing at that particular time, I really hadn't felt I had hit any home runs in my home brewing. I now have another batch of the same recipe Taddy Porter Clone bottled. I hope I did at least the same.

 

[HopHead_32]

From experience I can speak of a Taddy Porter clone I brewed back in June of this year. At one month, it was nice. At two months, it was a lot better. I stashed 4 or 5 bottles and forgot them. Move forward a week ago; I found the stashed bottles and O M Gawd, I was absolutely floored. My wife was just as amazed as I was, partly because how good it was, and partly due to the fact I made it. In 1-1/2 years of brewing at that particular time, I really hadn't felt I had hit any home runs in my home brewing. I now have another batch of the same recipe Taddy Porter Clone bottled. I hope I did at least the same.

Ok thanks man. I will most likely wait until this time next month.... It's going to be a long wait but worth it!

 

[Cider123]

Good on you! Welcome to this addictive hobby! Once you get a pipeline of brewing going you'll always be able to grab and enjoy one of your brews.

 

[ICWiener]

Anyone else think we should wait? If so it's not a big deal

mark me down in the "do not wait" column. Drink your first one at 2 weeks, if it's clearly not ready, drink your next one at 3 weeks. If it's still not ready drink another one at week 4. You don't want to let that hoppiness fade. When it's ready, drink the hell out of it. It's a DIPA, so it's not going to get any better, hop-wise.

 

[ICWiener]

Besides, you want to see for yourself how the beer changes over time, right? Don't take our word for it. You gotta experience it on your own.

 

[HopHead_32]

mark me down in the "do not wait" column. Drink your first one at 2 weeks, if it's clearly not ready, drink your next one at 3 weeks. If it's still not ready drink another one at week 4. You don't want to let that hoppiness fade. When it's ready, drink the hell out of it. It's a DIPA, so it's not going to get any better, hop-wise.

Yeah we broke it down last night while we were looking over the ESB.... Drink one at 2 weeks and so on... Like you said in the last post, only way we are going to tell that it's changing taste. Plus I want to be able to tell the taste of our changing beer. Thanks again!

 

[HopHead_32]

After 3 weeks my first taste.... Smells like a Imperial IPA... No off flavors from the high fermentation temps.... Not as hoppy as we wanted.... But for our first brew it's a damn good drinkable beer!!!! I'm a fan!