First Brew! True Brew India Pale Ale

[cebo40]

Last night I purchased all my equipment for my first extract brew. Going with the True Brew - Maestro Series India Pale Ale.

I've done a good bit of research and wanted to go step by step on my plan of attack. Below is basically the directions from the Home Brew Box with my input and questions. Please feel free to chime in with any helpful insight.

1. First and foremost, clean and sanitize all equipment! Sounds like this is one of if not thee most important part.

2. Bring 1-1/2 gallons of water to 160 degrees F. Place grains in steeping bag and steep in hot water for 30 minutes. After steep, use an additional cup of hot water to rinse the steep bag.

3. Slowly pour in cans of extract and stir. Continue stirring and add the Pilgrim Hop Pellets. Stir and bring to a boil. Boil for 45 minutes, adding First Gold Hop Pellets for the final 2 minutes.
*Should this boil for 60 minutes?

4. After duration of boiling, move pot to a cold bath to bring down the temperature as quickly as possible. Few questions here:
*Do I add additional water to make up 5 gallons here or wait until i've transfered to the carboy, then add cold water to bring down temp?
*What's ideal temp for wort going into carboy? 70 degrees F?
*I've read a lot about aireation and it's importance. What's the best method? Pour from pot to carboy back and forth a few times? Swish around in carboy? Pour through strainer into carboy?

5. Steam sanitize the oak chips in a separate pot. Add these to the carboy.

6. Sprinkle yeast over top of mixture in carboy. Mix gently. Airlock, and store in cool place.
*Ideal temperature between 70-78?

7. Store for 2 weeks. Bottle and store for additional 2 weeks.
*Is this correct? I hear more time is better.

That's what i've come up with. Where / what advise or changes do I need to make?

Thanks and cheers! :rockin:

 

[jpeebs]

Last night I purchased all my equipment for my first extract brew. Going with the True Brew - Maestro Series India Pale Ale. I've done a good bit of research and wanted to go step by step on my plan of attack. Below is basically the directions from the Home Brew Box with my input and questions. Please feel free to chime in with any helpful insight. 1. First and foremost, clean and sanitize all equipment! Sounds like this is one of if not thee most important part. 2. Bring 1-1/2 gallons of water to 160 degrees F. Place grains in steeping bag and steep in hot water for 30 minutes. After steep, use an additional cup of hot water to rinse the steep bag. 3. Slowly pour in cans of extract and stir. Continue stirring and add the Pilgrim Hop Pellets. Stir and bring to a boil. Boil for 45 minutes, adding First Gold Hop Pellets for the final 2 minutes. *Should this boil for 60 minutes? 4. After duration of boiling, move pot to a cold bath to bring down the temperature as quickly as possible. Few questions here: *Do I add additional water to make up 5 gallons here or wait until i've transfered to the carboy, then add cold water to bring down temp? *What's ideal temp for wort going into carboy? 70 degrees F? *I've read a lot about aireation and it's importance. What's the best method? Pour from pot to carboy back and forth a few times? Swish around in carboy? Pour through strainer into carboy? 5. Steam sanitize the oak chips in a separate pot. Add these to the carboy. 6. Sprinkle yeast over top of mixture in carboy. Mix gently. Airlock, and store in cool place. *Ideal temperature between 70-78? 7. Store for 2 weeks. Bottle and store for additional 2 weeks. *Is this correct? I hear more time is better. That's what i've come up with. Where / what advise or changes do I need to make? Thanks and cheers! :rockin:

1. A longer boil will give you better hop utilization so 60 minutes would better than 45.

2. I would do an ice bath and get it down to at least 70 degrees. Might be different for your yeast strain but 70 is a good start. After cooling, transfer to carboy and add top-off water. For aeration, pouring back and forth is a common method. I usually either stir the hell out of it or put a lid on it and shake the hell out of it.

3. Fermentation temp will depend on the yeast strain. 68-74 is fairly standard but look on the yeast pack and see what it says.

4. 2 weeks is fine but you'll only know for sure if you take hydrometer readings. Do one before you pitch, and again at 2 weeks. At the 2 week mark, take a reading, wait 3 days and take another. If they're the same, it's done fermenting and you can bottle it. It's ok to let it sit longer than 2 weeks and past personal experience says at least 3. Your beer will clear up nice and you won't have any funky tastes. After bottling, let it sit as long as you can stand it. It's tempting to drink but the longer it sits the better it gets. I'd say 2 weeks min.

Good luck with it!

 

[flars]

Don't add warm wort to a glass carboy. The warm wort can heat stress the glass and perhaps cause evential failure. Estimate how much top off water you will need. Subtract one-half gallon for safety. Add the cold water to the carboy and then the chilled wort. Finish topping off to 5 gallons.

I try to play it as safe as possible with my glass carboys. It may not make a difference, but if it does and the carboy cracks in your hands the results can be bad.

 

[cebo40]

1. A longer boil will give you better hop utilization so 60 minutes would better than 45.

2. I would do an ice bath and get it down to at least 70 degrees. Might be different for your yeast strain but 70 is a good start. After cooling, transfer to carboy and add top-off water. For aeration, pouring back and forth is a common method. I usually either stir the hell out of it or put a lid on it and shake the hell out of it.

3. Fermentation temp will depend on the yeast strain. 68-74 is fairly standard but look on the yeast pack and see what it says.

4. 2 weeks is fine but you'll only know for sure if you take hydrometer readings. Do one before you pitch, and again at 2 weeks. At the 2 week mark, take a reading, wait 3 days and take another. If they're the same, it's done fermenting and you can bottle it. It's ok to let it sit longer than 2 weeks and past personal experience says at least 3. Your beer will clear up nice and you won't have any funky tastes. After bottling, let it sit as long as you can stand it. It's tempting to drink but the longer it sits the better it gets. I'd say 2 weeks min.

Good luck with it!

Thanks! 60 min over 45 boil makes sense. Same holds true with ferment and bottle time. The longer the better (to an extent).

 

[cebo40]

Thanks for the replies!

I've been doing some more research and have come across a few more diddys... Steeping and more boil volume.

To steep in more water vs less water. Sounds like the opinion is split. Thoughts?

It also sounds like upping the size of the actual boil itself (from 1-1/2 gallons to around 2-1/2 or 3) is a great idea.

 

[flars]

Do you plan on brewing this one again? The longer boil will darken the wort. The longer boil may get more IBUs into the wort, but the higher bittering IBUs may mask the aroma hops.
If the beer does not taste good, is it the recipe or the modifications to the recipe.
Often been said on these forums, brew according to the recipe and if you don't like it, tweak it. Being your first brew I would go with the recipe. Except for taking hydrometer readings and longer time in the fermntor for the yeast to clean up.

 

[FatDragon]

A couple notes:

Taking the bittering hops addition from 45 minutes to 60 minutes will mean a more bitter beer. Maybe you want that, maybe you don't, but if the recipe was formulated for a 45 minute bittering hop addition, you might want to follow the recipe.

Many extract brewers would suggest holding most of the extract for the late boil. How much, and whether or not you should actually do so, would be up to you, though someone here might have more specific suggestions for this if you ask around.

And yes, glass carboys and swift temperature changes are bad; I have had glass jars and mugs break on me when either adding hot water to a cold vessel or cold water to a hot vessel. A lot of quality glassware can handle those changes, but I understand that carboys generally can't. Combine that with the horror stories of people whose carboys have broken on them (the horror is mostly from the spilled blood, but the spilled beer is also of note), and I would be careful to avoid swift temperature swings in either direction with one.

 

[emontag]

I started the exact recipe kit a week and a half ago. It's also my 1st brew. According to the directions, it said the fermenting would be done in a week. I measured the gravity after a week and it was 1.02, down from an original of 1.051. I'm giving it another week to measure again hoping it'll be down to 1.012 since that's the final gravity in the instructions. I plan on racking to a carboy for a week or two before bottling.

I have a habit of staring at the airlock to see signs of fermentation even though I know that this is unreliable. At around the end of the 1st week the bubbles slowed to about 1 every 3 minutes but now it's just over a minute. I'm guessing that the rate waxes and wanes as the yeast cycles. So I'll use gravity measurements every 2 or 3 days after 2 weeks and wait till it's constant. My brewing kit came with a bottling/brewing bucket and a glass carboy. I decided to get another brewing bucket for the primary and then use carboy for the secondary. That way I have dedicated bottling bucket and I can start another batch while the beer is in the carboy.

My biggest fear was that I didn't let the batch cool enough before adding the yeast. My instructions didn't say anything about ice. But things seem to be OK. I tasted the sample I used to measure the gravity and it had a pretty good flavor (a bit of a sting though) and color.

 

[Snicklefritz]

6. Sprinkle yeast over top of mixture in carboy. Mix gently. Airlock, and store in cool place.
*Ideal temperature between 70-78?

Not so sure about the "mix gently" part. You really want to shake the **** out of that carboy to aerate the wort and then pitch the yeast.

 

[emontag]

Not so sure about the "mix gently" part. You really want to shake the **** out of that carboy to aerate the wort and then pitch the yeast.

The instructions say sprinkle yeast on top, wait 10 minutes, and then gently stir yeast into the wort with 1 or 2 strokes of the spoon.

That's another reason why I went with a bucket and not a carboy.

 

[cebo40]

I started the exact recipe kit a week and a half ago. It's also my 1st brew. According to the directions, it said the fermenting would be done in a week. I measured the gravity after a week and it was 1.02, down from an original of 1.051. I'm giving it another week to measure again hoping it'll be down to 1.012 since that's the final gravity in the instructions. I plan on racking to a carboy for a week or two before bottling.

I have a habit of staring at the airlock to see signs of fermentation even though I know that this is unreliable. At around the end of the 1st week the bubbles slowed to about 1 every 3 minutes but now it's just over a minute. I'm guessing that the rate waxes and wanes as the yeast cycles. So I'll use gravity measurements every 2 or 3 days after 2 weeks and wait till it's constant. My brewing kit came with a bottling/brewing bucket and a glass carboy. I decided to get another brewing bucket for the primary and then use carboy for the secondary. That way I have dedicated bottling bucket and I can start another batch while the beer is in the carboy.

My biggest fear was that I didn't let the batch cool enough before adding the yeast. My instructions didn't say anything about ice. But things seem to be OK. I tasted the sample I used to measure the gravity and it had a pretty good flavor (a bit of a sting though) and color.

Keep me posted on how you come out. Sounds like i'm looking at sticking close to the recipe with a 45 minute boil.

Sound like most folks transfer to a secondary during fermentation. As of right now I have one glass carboy, but may pick up a secondary. I'm assuming i'll syphon from one to the other to minimize oxygen contact with the brew.

I was looking for a higher alcohol content so my homebrew guy gave me additional (I think dry malt, sorry if i'm wrong). He mentioned the kit was around 4% brewed from the box. With that said he mentioned to only take my SG after tumbling the yeast as it wouldn't match what was shown in the instructions with the addition of the malt.

 

[cebo40]

Do you plan on brewing this one again? The longer boil will darken the wort. The longer boil may get more IBUs into the wort, but the higher bittering IBUs may mask the aroma hops.
If the beer does not taste good, is it the recipe or the modifications to the recipe.
Often been said on these forums, brew according to the recipe and if you don't like it, tweak it. Being your first brew I would go with the recipe. Except for taking hydrometer readings and longer time in the fermntor for the yeast to clean up.

Good advice thank you. I do plan to brew this one again as I enjoy IPA's.

 

[cebo40]

Not so sure about the "mix gently" part. You really want to shake the **** out of that carboy to aerate the wort and then pitch the yeast.

Would pouring from pot to carboy through a strainer provide enough aireation?

Sounds like I need to give it a good shake and maybe pour between pot and carboy a few times.

 

[cebo40]

In regards to fermenting temperature, i've seen the 70-78 degree range works.

After doing more research it sounds like the ideal temperature is more in the 65 range. With that said, I do have a mini fridge and plan to make some tweaks (power timer or A19) to get in that temperature range.

Anyone have experience with this temp range and IPA's?

 

[Snicklefritz]

Would pouring from pot to carboy through a strainer provide enough aireation?

Sounds like I need to give it a good shake and maybe pour between pot and carboy a few times.

Pouring back and forth a few times would work as well.

 

[emontag]

My beer (this IPA kit we're talking about) has been in the primary for 15 days. The OG was 1.051 and after a week the gravity was 1.020. Now, after another 8 days the gravity is only down to 1.018. The FG is supposed to be between 1.012 and 1.014.

Should I be concerned? Is it stuck? Should I leave it in the primary longer?

This is my 1st brew ever so I really need advise.

Thanks

 

[skunkfunk]

I've had an extract brew do that. Just wait until the gravity is stable before bottling. If it's not stable you could get exploding bottles. Sometimes extract brews do not attenuate as well as expected. Other times, they attenuate more than expected.

 

[TungstenBeer]

I've had an extract brew do that. Just wait until the gravity is stable before bottling. If it's not stable you could get exploding bottles. Sometimes extract brews do not attenuate as well as expected. Other times, they attenuate more than expected.

Exactly.

Also, did you mention that you pitched the yeast when the wort was fairly hot? Just how hot? The "my kit didn't mention ice" kind of concerned me.

That being said, it might not even matter so you can relax for now. My first extract brew I didn't use specialty grains, I didn't measure, had a late boilover, and ran out of ice so it took a looong time to cool. At the end of the day, it ended up being one of the best extract beers I ever made, ha.

 

[emontag]

Exactly. Also, did you mention that you pitched the yeast when the wort was fairly hot? Just how hot? The "my kit didn't mention ice" kind of concerned me. That being said, it might not even matter so you can relax for now. My first extract brew I didn't use specialty grains, I didn't measure, had a late boilover, and ran out of ice so it took a looong time to cool. At the end of the day, it ended up being one of the best extract beers I ever made, ha.

The instructions said that the wort should be under 90 degrees before adding the yeast. I didn't measure the temp but the 3 gallons of water I added to the mixture was from the fridge water supply so it was pretty cool and I waited about an hour so I was pretty sure it was cooler than 90 deg.

 

[cebo40]

The instructions said that the wort should be under 90 degrees before adding the yeast. I didn't measure the temp but the 3 gallons of water I added to the mixture was from the fridge water supply so it was pretty cool and I waited about an hour so I was pretty sure it was cooler than 90 deg.

I cooled my wort down to 70 degrees before pitching yeast. Saw good fermenting activity start around 10-12 hours.

In regards to cooling wort down to 70, I put boil pot with wort into a cooler filled with ice and water. Stirred wort CONTINUOUSLY in pot and got it down to temp in about 7 minutes. I think the stirring also provided good aireation in the wort.

Right now i've got the minifridge set to 64 degrees. Going on day 4 today. Planning for a 3 week ferment, then 2 week bottle.

 

[TungstenBeer]

The instructions said that the wort should be under 90 degrees before adding the yeast. I didn't measure the temp but the 3 gallons of water I added to the mixture was from the fridge water supply so it was pretty cool and I waited about an hour so I was pretty sure it was cooler than 90 deg.

OK - that's likely not an issue then. I still think it's just your typical low attenuating extract.