First Brew

[Mike Peterson]

New to brewing and the forum. Have a couple questions. My wife bought me a kit but she wasn't sure what it was. Thought it was IPA but after brewing and drinking the first bottle it is clearly a DIPA - alcohol content by taste is the dead giveaway. I'm a regular IPA drinker, so my questions:

1. I followed the 1g recipe - it called for 1lb dry and 1.5 liquid malt on a 45 min boil. Would everyone imagine this is going result in a DIPA due to sugar count?
2. I want to experiment with my hop drop timeframes during the boil and doing dry-hopped eventually so I want to continue to do small batches until I find one I like - what would be the recommended malt additions for IPA 6-7% ABV? I know there are a lot of variations but looking for a good rule of thumb
3. I'm certain it depends on how bitter I want my IPA but is there a particular amount of hops recommended for a 1g batch?

I also keep reading that using a strainer to move from fermenter/carboy to bottling bucket is a no-no but my first batch turned out just fine when I did it - people write it "ruins" the beer...how so? Again, I'm new plus either my siphon sucks or a suck at using it so that's why I went this route.

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[chickypad]

DME gives 45 pts per lb in a gallon, and LME gives about 36. So you had 45 + (1.5*36) = 99, or a 1.099 beer if you put this in exactly one gallon. That's getting up into triple IPA range, if reasonably attenuated up above 10% ABV likely. If you want a regular strength IPA you want to aim more like 1.5 lb DME and that's it for a gallon.

I would recommend using a recipe calculator to figure out your bittering hop addition. There are free online one's like brewer's friend. You need to plug in the hop with it's AA value, your volume and OG, and then it will calculate the IBU for you. If you make more additions later in the boil that can also contribute IBU so you may need to then adjust your bittering addition down. A regular American IPA range would be like 50-70.

Straining/pouring the beer after fermentation will introduce oxygen. You might not notice anything right away but the beer will stale more quickly, losing hop aroma and tasting dull, or if badly oxygenated it may develop more off flavors like sherry or cardboard.

 

[GoeHaarden]

I will try to shed some light on your questions, but I'm no expert. However, I will go ahead and tell you that need a hydrometer! A hydrometer will answer your first question by telling you your original gravity (OG). Dare I say that it is the gold standard for measuring the "sugar content" in your beer. With measuring your original gravity and final gravity you can calculate ABV.

1. Yes, this much extract in a 1 gallon batch will probably land you around 1.1 OG. There are several calculators that can help you with this. https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

2 & 3. This all depends on what you really want out of your final beer. The above calculator will also help with this. Make sure you adjust your alpha acids for hops that you have in your possession. They will vary from batch to batch, and manufacturer or whatever...

Introducing oxygen post fermentation will in fact create a stale beer, and it best to be avoided. The hoppiness, specifically, will definitely be effect. You could try fermenting in a bucket with a spigot, which you can just drain when you're ready to bottle.

Good Luck! Cheers!

 

[stieg000]

You could buy a small auto siphon, works great for 1g jug batches.

Mobile Beersmith 2 ($8) or 2 lite ($4) are easy to use for calculations. Can scale 5g recipes down to 1g.

 

[ncbrewer]

You could buy a small auto siphon, works great for 1g jug batches.

^ This.
I don't think you should give up on siphoning - the auto siphon makes it easy. If you're getting trub siphoned over, maybe you're not giving it enough time to settle in the fermenter. Or maybe letting the racking cane get too low, into the trub. You might need to hold it up off the bottom just a little to prevent this.

And if you're not leaving it in the fermenter long enough, fermentation might not be finished - possible bottle bombs. Have you made sure it's been long enough?

 

[Mike Peterson]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I'll try a new siphon. And appreciate the heads up on the Malt levels. Gives me a good idea of what I need moving forward. I just went thru the beer recipe calc online...should have been working with that all along lol

Finally, yes, the krausen had subsided so it was ready, from what I saw at least. Guess it is all trial and error in this game.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

In addition to the siphon, a "jewelry" scale - one that weighs small amounts with .01 accuracy / precision - will be helpful when weighing hops / yeast. They tend to run around $15 (vs $10 for scales that have .1 accuracy/precision).

If you're working with DME for your gallon batches, a number of online homebrew stores have munich, vienna, wheat, and "pale ale" DME. So you don't have to brew with just "light" DME.

 

[Mike Peterson]

If you're working with DME for your gallon batches, a number of online homebrew stores have munich, vienna, wheat, and "pale ale" DME. So you don't have to brew with just "light" DME.

I had eventually planned on experimenting with different DME - does that give off the same sugar level and just a different flavor profile?

 

[ncbrewer]

Finally, yes, the krausen had subsided so it was ready, from what I saw at least. Guess it is all trial and error in this game.

Kraeusen subsiding doesn't guaranty it's finished - could have a few more gravity points to go. I suggest being very careful with these just in case - they could continue to ferment.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I had eventually planned on experimenting with different DME - does that give off the same sugar level and just a different flavor profile?

Short answer: yes.

You'll want to find the manufacturers product information sheets for the details on the DME composition (for example: http://www.brewingwithbriess.com/Products/Extracts.htm).

 

[Lefou]

I not only agree with the idea of using a hydrometer, I recommend TWO, just in case you break one. Accurate triple scale hydrometers are comparatively cheap and it doesn't hurt to double-down and get a refractometer.
A good refractometer can be bought for about $20-$30 and they're well worth the money.
A digital scale is a must have for those split addition hops! Recommended.

Briess is company that has quite a trove of reference data sheets on malts and extracts. Unlike some distributors, they put dates on their extracts so you know how old a product you're getting right off the shelf. One of my local shops re-packages liquid extract by weight from the barrel with no dates or supplier data. At first, I used them but decided I wanted better information and possibly fresher ingredients when doing extract brews.