First brew need advice

[Costantino]

I bought the brewcraft deluxe starter kit. Includes a 8 gallon plastic fermentor/bottle bucket with spiggot, and a 6 gallon glass carboy. I am brewing the brewers best extract double IPA kit and have it fermenting in the plastic bucket now. 1.080 SG... 24 hours and its pretty active so far @ 62 degrees.

Questions:

1. I want to dry hop it. What hops and how much and when/how long?

2. Id like to Secondary fermentation in 6 gallon glass carboy for a clearer beer and to dryhop. Too much headroom? When should I move it and how long in there?

 

[kh54s10]

1) This is pretty subjective. It depends on the style of the beer, hops you like etc. What hops came in the kit? 2-4 ounces for 5-7 days is pretty standard for dry hopping.

2) The 6 gallon might not be too big if dry hopping but I would limit the secondary to the time it takes for the dry hopping. The 6 gallon carboy in a kit like that is intended for primary and the bucket for bottling.

For me I would primary and dry hop in the carboy and skip secondary all together.

I would also give the glass carboy to someone else, but that is a different thread.

 

[rlmiller10]

I bought the brewcraft deluxe starter kit. Includes a 8 gallon plastic fermentor/bottle bucket with spiggot, and a 6 gallon glass carboy. I am brewing the brewers best extract double IPA kit and have it fermenting in the plastic bucket now. 1.080 SG... 24 hours and its pretty active so far @ 62 degrees.

Questions:

1. I want to dry hop it. What hops and how much and when/how long?

2. Id like to Secondary fermentation in 6 gallon glass carboy for a clearer beer and to dryhop. Too much headroom? When should I move it and how long in there?

Looking at the brewers best recipe it uses columbus and cascade. So I would add 2 oz of cascade for 5 days. But if you like a citrus/grapefruit IPA go with 2 oz of Citra.

You will have a lot of headroom if you rack to the carboy for secondary. I would recommend either getting a 5 gal carboy or just putting the dry hops in the bucket. If it were me, I would gently remove the stopper and airlock from the bucket lid. Push in my dry hops. Let sit for 4 days and then cold crash for two more days. Since the bottling bucket is now the primary I would siphon to the carboy in which I would have already added my priming sugar dissolved in 1/2 cup of water. I would be very careful not to disturb the sediment on the bottle of the bucket during siphoning. So I would probably end up leaving a 1/2 gal or so of beer in the bottom of the bucket. Finally I would use my siphon with my bottling wand to bottle. The other option would be to clean my now empty bucket and siphon back into it to bottle but that would risk oxygenation from the extra handling.

 

[C-Rider]

After 3 weeks in the primary pop the airlock, make a funnel from a sheet of paper and pour the "dry hops" into the primary. Let them sit there for another 5 days. Forget the carboy and get another bucket to use for bottling. And maybe a 3rd bucket so you can brew 2 ales at the same time.

 

[Costantino]

Well I ended up racking to a secondary after a week. Its been there for a week. FG hit 1.020 right where I wanted to be. I just threw in dry hops 1 oz each of cascade and Amarillo.

Is that enough dry hops?
Was thinking 5 days then bottle?

I'd like to bottle real soon as its my 1st batch and anxious to try...

Can I cold crash while this is dry hopping? What about gelatin?

 

[Subdivisions]

That's sounds like a nice combo of dry hops. 2oz should be fine. Don't cold crash or fine until you let it go for the 5 days. That will drop the hops out of suspension and they won't have time releasing their hoppy goodness into the beer

I know you want to bottle soon but guess what, after you bottle you'll have at least 2 weeks before you can have a nicely carbed beer anyway. Don't rush the beer. This was the hardest thing for me to learn

 

[HB_in_Subic]

Taste a sample when you take your FG reading before bottling. I let mine sit for a full 3 weeks before popping one open. Try one once a week so you can see how it develops and finishes. It will give you incentive to let it sit longer.

Also, before you open it, put in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours. This forces the CO2 back into solution. Otherwise you run the risk of "gushers", especially at the 3 week mark.

 

[jethro55]

I bought the brewcraft deluxe starter kit. Includes a 8 gallon plastic fermentor/bottle bucket with spiggot, and a 6 gallon glass carboy. I am brewing the brewers best extract double IPA kit and have it fermenting in the plastic bucket now. 1.080 SG... 24 hours and its pretty active so far @ 62 degrees.

Questions:

1. I want to dry hop it. What hops and how much and when/how long?

2. Id like to Secondary fermentation in 6 gallon glass carboy for a clearer beer and to dryhop. Too much headroom? When should I move it and how long in there?

That Brewcraft Starter kit looks nice. I am interested in what the kit says about using the vessels.

 

[Costantino]

About 3/4 of the hops already fell are they still working sitting on the bottom?. I'll start cold crash on Sunday evening. gelatin Monday. Pull out of fridge Wednesday morning and bottle on Wednesday afternoon which will be exactly 21 days.

 

[kombat]

Yes, hops on the bottom are still working.

I'd skip the gelatin, as it can strip out some of the hop oils you just worked so hard to impart during the dry hop. Cold-crashing should be fine/sufficient. I would bottle immediately after taking it out of the fridge though - no need to let it warm up (it will actually be detrimental to clarity to let it warm up).

 

[Costantino]

Thanks everyone for the great tips!

 

[Costantino]

Botteling went great. Cold crashed for 2.5 days. Beer looked clean but not very clear. I got 46 bottles. Guess I lost .5 gallons to trub and hops.

I have a RIS going now for a week in primary. And since I just cleared up my 6 gal carboy what should I get going next to get my pipeline going strong.. I was thinking a black IPA or brown ale. Any recommend kits?

 

[Costantino]

Well I got curious and tossed a bottle in the freezer and poured a glass... After 6 days in the bottle there was not much carbonation at all. When I popped the cap it sounded promising but I was disappointed. The beer was still flat, but it was very fruity and sweet..and banana aroma, didn't get any of the dank dry hop I was expecting...also had some warmth alcohol taste Will all of this mellow out or this go away?

 

[kombat]

Banana + hot alcohol suggests a too-hot fermentation. Did you have any kind of temperature control for this batch? Did you monitor temperatures at all? The flavours will mellow to some extent, but unfortunately they'll never go away completely. Don't feel bad, we've all been there. Nothing drives home the importance of temperature control like having your hopes dashed after patiently waiting weeks for a batch of beer.

6 days is pretty early to expect much carbonation. Give it at least 3 weeks, and make sure they're in the warmest part of your house (70+° F, ideally).

 

[snow16]

The hardest part of homebrewing is putting those bottles somewhere and forgetting about them for 3 weeks. But you just have to do it!

I agree that banana and hot alcohol flavors suggest a warmer-than-ideal fermentation, but there's simply no way of knowing what you're beer can and will become until you wait.

Also, as to rapidly chilling bottles in the freezer...while the beer may get cold, the CO2 in the neck of the bottle doesn't have time to fully dissolve into the beer. 6 days is young and probably not fully carbonated, but I'm willing to bet if you put that same beer in the fridge for 48 hours you would have been happier with the carbonation because the CO2 would have dissolved. That's why it 'sounded promising' when you opened it and allowed the CO2 in the neck to escape, but was disappointing when you poured it.

 

[kombat]

Also, as to rapidly chilling bottles in the freezer...while the beer may get cold, the CO2 in the neck of the bottle doesn't have time to fully dissolve into the beer.

That's a myth. Store-bought beer doesn't suffer from such a problem, so why would homebrew?

 

[snow16]

That's a myth. Store-bought beer doesn't suffer from such a problem, so why would homebrew?

I've been researching in vain for something to back up what I wrote...I guess it's one of those things that gets said so often I took it as fact without checking for myself. My bad for perpetuating a myth. You learn something new everyday...

 

[blackbeer]

since you only primary fermented for a week it may not have been enough time for the yeast to clean up some of those off flavors. especially for a 1080 beer. next time you do a big beer let it ride for at least 3 weeks. just watch the temps. there are some good experiments that say that secondary is unnecessary for beers that will be bottled within a few weeks or a month. secondary can be done for aging RIS and barley wine types.

 

[joshesmusica]

i was about to comment on the myth of the co2 dissolving back into the beer, but somebody beat me to it. i agree that you should just do all 3 weeks primary next time, especially considering that you're cold crashing.
but since you are cold crashing i wonder if you do actually have temperature control? as stated those flavors typically only come from poor temp control, BUT can also come from the fact that those off-flavors will almost always be produced by the yeast, but that they clean up later. it seems if you went to a secondary after 7 days that they might not have had enough time to clean up your by-products.