First IPA from Listermans kit

[zefbarnes]

I started my first brew from a Listermans IPA kit on January 6, 2012. I plan to transfer it to a glass carboy and dry hop it on January 13, one week later. Next I intend bottle it on the 27th after two weeks in glass carboy and a total of 3 week from initial brewing. After bottling I would like to open and drink on February the 3rd, one week after bottling. That would be super bowl Sunday and I would like to share it with my brother and father.

So here is my question. Does this timeline sound good or should I change it up a bit? One thought I had was to shorten the time in the carboy and lengthen the time in the bottle to insure its carbonated?

An advice would be appreciated!

 

[bobbrews]

Transferring to secondary just to dryhop is not a necessity, but if that's what you want to do then it works fine just as long as you don't have a lot of headspace in the secondary.

If racking to secondary, I would do the reverse time frame you currently have, i.e. keep the beer in the primary for 2-3 weeks and the secondary with dryhops for 5-10 days. Complete carbonation will take an additional 2-3 weeks at 70-F ish.

If you really want it to be drinkable by Superbowl Sunday, you can shorten this time frame a bit but have a slightly less quality beer. You would need to have the beer bottled by the 21st of January, give or take. In that case, dryhop on the 17th for 5 days total.

 

[fall-line]

Welcome to the forums!

A couple of things.

1) You will find that you'll need 2-3 weeks to properly bottle condition and carbonate a beer after bottling. I'm sorry to say this, but I don't think you can turn this beer around (in bottles) for the superbowl. You can speed up the brew to glass timeline a bit if you keg, but patience is a virtue with all things homebrewing.

2) If I read you correctly, you are planning to primary for one week and then dry hop in secondary for 2 weeks? Personally, I would reverse these. I never dry hop for longer than 7 days (recently, I have been dry hopping for 2-3 days, sometimes twice). If you leave beer on dry hops for too long, you will get grassy, vegetal flavors out of them.

If you really want to rush it you can try to shorten the secondary time and bottle earlier. Just be absolutely certain that fermentation is complete (via hydrometer samples taken on successive days) before bottling, or you are putting yourself in danger of creating bottle bombs.

Remember, good beer is worth the wait. I definitely understand the desire to have your beer ready for the big game, but I really think this batch will be better if you give it more time.

Cheers!

 

[zefbarnes]

I will take the advice and ferment longer in the primary, shorter in the secondary and bottle longer. Although I believe I will sample a bottle on the 3rd just so I can understand how the flavors change overtime and I just can resist!

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Calder]

If you want it for Feb 3, you are going to have to bottle it earlier than you plan.

When I started I used to do 5 days primary, 9 days secondary, then bottle and I thought the beer was pretty dam good. These days I never have anything in the bottle before 2 months.

These days, even secondaries are not used by many.

My recommendation would be to leave in primary (don't use a secondary), add dry hops when fermentation activity has subsided (about day 5 ... today), and bottle around day 14 (Jan 20th). That will give you 2 weeks in the bottle for conditioning.

When bottling, use a strainer over your racking cane to prevent hop particles going through the siphon tube. A 5 gallon paint bag from Lowes or HD will do, and can be washed and re-used (useful for BIAB too).

Temps are going to get cold around here come Monday. To keep this timeline, you need to ensure your fermenting beer stays in the mid 60s, and when in the bottle, it will condition quicker if the bottles are kept above 70 (so don't put them in the garage).

Good luck. Hope it turns out great.

 

[jethro55]

I'll cast serious doubt on having a good brew to serve within a total time frame of one month. I have read here that it is possible in special circumstances with special equipment and lots of experience.

If you stay with the shorter schedules for an early bottling, it will likely be carb'ed up by super bowl Sunday. If served, I'll bet that you will not have good reviews on the taste. Green beer tastes weird and you won't want to finish drinking even one bottle of it. And the acetaldehyde in un-aged beer is a big-time hangover producer.

It takes about 7 to 8 weeks from the day of pitching yeast for regular beers to get to the point of tasting good. See https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/time-elapsed-pitching-drinking-378767/

You can give it a try. The shorter schedule will not likely change the final product for the average beer. The aging will just happen in the bottle rather than in fermenter/secondary. And it will be a great beer. I did the Listermann's Cream Ale back in early November and it is really good now.

Shoot for St Patties Day to serve this one. And definitely give it taste on Superbowl Sunday to see how it is coming along .

 

[zefbarnes]

I wanted to report on how the beer turned out.

We had a few on the 3rd Super Bowl Sunday. I thought they were pretty good although thee carbonation was light.

The second and third week in the bottle definitely improved the quality and carbonation. After the third week they were all gone.

So now I am on to my next batch!

Thank you all for your help.

 

[fall-line]

Glad you were able to enjoy them! You'll find that most beers really hit their stride after several weeks in the bottle or keg, so the more you can keep in your pipeline the better. If my pipeline is running dry I will drink a beer that has only been aging a couple of weeks, but every time I do I can't help but think that I've robbed my future self of an even better beer.