From cider and mead to beer aka the beginners NEIPA

[Takeshi_pilis]

Hey, guys!!

Time has come - after many ciders and meads I finaly decided to brew a beer. Giving my nature to go all in I decided to brew a NEIPA for my first beer! And yes I know a NEIPA for a first brew? Dang.. But I wanted a challenge.

To sum up I did ~12h of total research - yeasts, grains, temperatures, water chem, specific hicups on NEIPAS, oxidation etc.

Three days ago was the brew day! I followed clawhammer juicy neipa.

I feel like everything went pretty smooth except I think I efed up with fermentation temps. The temp was dead on constant. 0 fluctuation but it was a tad high. Room temp was 23C fermenter showed 25C inside. I am using lallman verdant. Oh I wish I went with KVEIK..

I have some questions and thoughts on this brew. Maybe yall would be kind enough to comment on them:

-Expected volume to fermenter had to be ~20.8L. Mine was 20.2. Thats pretty close I guess?

-Expected OG had to be 1.060. Mine was 1.050. Did I efed up on mashing? Or did I took a false gravity ready? I let the wort settle before measuring because I thought all the settlement would throw off the OG reading. I did read later on that beer kind of layers. And the lighter gravity part of the liquid sits on top and the heavier sinks down. Is that true?

-My trub kind of seems pretty big. Around 2l worth of the volume. Was this a mistake in the brew or that kind of trub is normal? Hops are filtered out.

-Yesterday at the 48h mark I dry hopped. During that day the krausen shot up like 10cm and when I came to dry hop it already started to deteriorate? Doooes that mean that the bulk fermentation is completed? Or my yeast just stalled out and died because of the wrong temps?

-Lastly after reading alot about dry hopping and oxidation I decided to dry hop at the 48h mark. Now im left with thoughts what do do next? I realy dont mind leaving the beer for a long time in the fermenter for the yeast to cleap up after itself. I brew session meads and I let them chill 2-3 weeks in total. But then I remember that there is alot of hops in there. Will it negatively impact the beer if I leave those hops for two more weeks? Or I should bottle sooner?

All in all what an experience! A new world opened up form me! Im attaching a few media files to show the process.

Will apretiate any kind of comments and tips!

Thank you!

 

[wepeeler]

Congrats on brewing your first beer! Neipas can be fun, but challenging. First off, 25C is high suring fermentation. You may be ok, but you may get some unwanted alcohol flavors (fusel, harshness). Your OG may have been low for a number of reasons, but I think that it's most likely from stratification. Grain crush, mash pH and temp, and volume are the other usual culprits, but it seems as though your volume is close to what you expected. 2L of trub is not uncommon with neipas. High protein malts, and hops can make a lot of waste. Fermentation will show visible signs of slowing down, but the yeast can still be in cleanup mode. I never go longer than 14 days with a neipa. One note I would add, would be the majority of us don't dry hop at 48 hours. We let fermentation finish, soft crash to drop the yeast and then dry hop for 24-48 hours. If you don't have a way to drop temps, I would suggest leaving that alone, because you can introduce oxygen and that's a big no no for this style.

 

[marc1]

You certainly picked a challenging style for your first beer! You've posted this in the beginners forum but this isn't really a beginner's style.
For this style especially it is critical to prevent oxygen from contacting the beer.
Now that your dry hops are in do not open the fermenter again. If there was still some fermentation going on when you added them that will have helped.
If you don't have a way to add CO2, don't cold crash it; the shrinking air volume in the fermenter from the temperature drop will suck air back in through the airlock.
Are you bottling or kegging? Plan this packaging step carefully because that will be the next area where your NEIPA can have its shelf life shortened considerably.
Keep is posted how it goes and good luck! Hopefully you are enjoying and learning from the experience. If this doesn't work out don't get frustrated; learn from it and try something more beginner friendly.

 

[Takeshi_pilis]

Congrats on brewing your first beer! Neipas can be fun, but challenging. First off, 25C is high suring fermentation. You may be ok, but you may get some unwanted alcohol flavors (fusel, harshness). Your OG may have been low for a number of reasons, but I think that it's most likely from stratification. Grain crush, mash pH and temp, and volume are the other usual culprits, but it seems as though your volume is close to what you expected. 2L of trub is not uncommon with neipas. High protein malts, and hops can make a lot of waste. Fermentation will show visible signs of slowing down, but the yeast can still be in cleanup mode. I never go longer than 14 days with a neipa. One note I would add, would be the majority of us don't dry hop at 48 hours. We let fermentation finish, soft crash to drop the yeast and then dry hop for 24-48 hours. If you don't have a way to drop temps, I would suggest leaving that alone, because you can introduce oxygen and that's a big no no for this style.

Oh boy, thats the main thing I am afraid off - fusils. So basicly on bottling day, taste test the sample. And if its harsh just bottle it and forget about it for many months?..

Unfortunately I do not have a way to soft crash. By saying “I would suggest leaving that alone” you mean skip the dry hop overall?

So in my case what day should I plan to bottle - on 8th or maybe wait a bit untill like 12th after pitching?

 

[wepeeler]

Oh boy, thats the main thing I am afraid off - fusils. So basicly on bottling day, taste test the sample. And if its harsh just bottle it and forget about it for many months?..

Unfortunately I do not have a way to soft crash. By saying “I would suggest leaving that alone” you mean skip the dry hop overall?

So in my case what day should I plan to bottle - on 8th or maybe wait a bit untill like 12th after pitching?

Bottling is a whole other issue with this style. I would venture to say 95% of brewers keg this style.

By suggesting leave it alone, I was meaning wait until fermentation is complete, then dry hop. The key is to get the yeast to drop out (flocculate) before dry hopping. You can some harshness from yeast and hop interaction.

 

[Takeshi_pilis]

You certainly picked a challenging style for your first beer! You've posted this in the beginners forum but this isn't really a beginner's style.
For this style especially it is critical to prevent oxygen from contacting the beer.
Now that your dry hops are in do not open the fermenter again. If there was still some fermentation going on when you added them that will have helped.
If you don't have a way to add CO2, don't cold crash it; the shrinking air volume in the fermenter from the temperature drop will suck air back in through the airlock.
Are you bottling or kegging? Plan this packaging step carefully because that will be the next area where your NEIPA can have its shelf life shortened considerably.
Keep is posted how it goes and good luck! Hopefully you are enjoying and learning from the experience. If this doesn't work out don't get frustrated; learn from it and try something more beginner friendly.

Thank you for encouraging me! I do understand that this beer is not for beginers. But I decided to write in the beginers forum because well thats who I am. No clue whats happening. Haha. Im keeping fingers crosed. Bu oh well if this does not work out. I have planed a smash pale ale.

Now on to the problems.

Yes I have a feeling that the fermentation or atleas degasing was in full swing. After quickly droping the hops and closing the lid, bubbler started pushing gases like a few minutes later.

Im bottling. I do have a step by step plan, cap tested my bottles. My fermenter is on an angle so on bottling day I will set it horizontaly and I hope to have a slope so less trub will be in the way. Im planing to add sugar to each bottle for like 2.1 volumes. Before that Ill try to drain them upside down to remove as much starsan bubbles as possible. As I understand those have alot of disolved o2 in them. Will fill as close as possible to the brim with a bottling wand. Aaaand I asked my frend to help me out. He will be bottling and I will try to cap as fast as possible.

The only true question left for me - on what day after pitching should I plan to bottle!?

 

[Takeshi_pilis]

Bottling is a whole other issue with this style. I would venture to say 95% of brewers keg this style.

By suggesting leave it alone, I was meaning wait until fermentation is complete, then dry hop. The key is to get the yeast to drop out (flocculate) before dry hopping. You can some harshness from yeast and hop interaction.

Oh ok! Got it! Tho I should not try to open the lid while dry hopping? Plan on some magnets for this task? Because in my head its like “DO NOT OPEN THE FERMENTER AFTER FERMENTATION IS DONE” haha

 

[wepeeler]

Oh ok! Got it! Tho I should not try to open the lid while dry hopping? Plan on some magnets for this task? Because in my head its like “DO NOT OPEN THE FERMENTER AFTER FERMENTATION IS DONE” haha

You're mostly correct. Although before I was able to close transfer to a keg, I opened the lid to dry hop and used an auotsiphon to keg. I never got much oxidation, that I was aware of. Just keep it short.

 

[Takeshi_pilis]

You're mostly correct. Although before I was able to close transfer to a keg, I opened the lid to dry hop and used an auotsiphon to keg. I never got much oxidation, that I was aware of. Just keep it short.

Got it!

Thank you so much for your insight! I will probably use my guts when to go for bottles but it will probably be on day 10-11ish.

Atm I am a bit worried that I picked a neipa. But on the other hand with a beer like this I got alooooot of questions and answers sorted out for the future. God help me! Either it will be a big and expensive lesson or a proud moment. Still have Revys post in mind - never dump your beer. We will see how it goes!

 

[marc1]

If you left your hydrometer in there like in the picture, you can probably get a good idea when it is done fermenting because you have a clear fermenter.

Your bottling plan seems ok, you do want a tiny bit of head space.

As soon as they are carbed get them in the fridge to slow the aging.

If they taste harsh right away, try them at least every week. Leaving them for months is not recommended for this style.

 

[Takeshi_pilis]

If you left your hydrometer in there like in the picture, you can probably get a good idea when it is done fermenting because you have a clear fermenter.

Your bottling plan seems ok, you do want a tiny bit of head space.

As soon as they are carbed get them in the fridge to slow the aging.

If they taste harsh right away, try them at least every week. Leaving them for months is not recommended for this style.

Thnx for the info man!

I will update this post after bottling and carbing up!

Most concerns now for me are fusil and hop burn tastes and managing the o2.

Hopping for atleast drinkable beer. If it turns out this way I will definetly consider on a keg system. And for sure the next brew will be much much MUCH simplier..

Thinking about azaca smash pale ale, an american wheat beer or maybe a simple filly sour.