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Cage

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I’m getting ready to brew my fourth batch of beer. I picked up a Black IPA kit that I plan on brewing this weekend.
I’ve read up on some forums and it seems the instructions with these kits are not really specific to kits and kind of vague. After glancing at the instructions for this kit it seems pretty similar to other ive used, with the exception of dry hopping. Steep grains at 160 degrees for 20 minutes, bring to a boil, add lme and dme, 3 additions of hops, cool, add yeast, ferment, dry hop in secondary.

My question is is this good enough instruction? Or is there more I need to do? Any specifics to a black ipa?
 
Being your 4th batch I assume you know to remove the steeping grains before bringing to a boil. Only change I'd make to those instructions is to skip secondary and dry hop in primary.
 
Yes I do know to remove the grains, just out of curiosity why would you skip the secondary? And when would you dry hop?
 
Yeast quality has improved to the point that secondary is really only needed for extended aging (months) or when transferring onto fruit. There are different opinions on dry hop timing but I personally dry hop 5 days before bottling.
 
Awesome thanks for the advice. I’m currently waiting for my wort to chill. This is the biggest batch I’ve done before, considering going to the store to get some ice. I gotta say, I’m really excited for this. I’ve never even heard of a black ipa until I saw this kit.
 
These suggestions from another thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/rehydrating-dry-yeast.650742/ are well worth considering:

Kit instructions are horrendously outdated, and sometimes plain wrong.
(Beer) kits are made for convenience, almost foolproof if you can follow directions. But they may not give you the best possible beer from it.

If someone buys a kit and brews it as is, that's fine, doesn't know any better. It will be beer, but no real Ringer 6-8 weeks later when he or she opens the first bottle.

But if that brewer has been on HBT, looked around, posted a thread on that kit, and is now better informed, why shouldn't he or she apply some of that wisdom right there?

The brewer is still adhering to the kit, mostly, with any or all of the following optional tweaks:
  • just adds only half the extract to the 3 gallons of steeping water at the beginning of the (partial) boil,
  • the balance of extract added at flameout,
  • jostles some hop additions around and adds a couple ounces,
  • adds a 30' hop stand at a lowered temperature, rather than outdated 30, 15, 10, 5, and/or 0 minutes hop additions,
  • rehydrates the dry yeast before pitching,
  • and possibly aerates the wort a bit.
  • Then sticks the fermentor in a nice cool spot, ferm fridge, or in a water filled tote,
  • skips the whole 2-4 weeks of secondary,
  • dry hops in the primary fermentor, 2 weeks after pitching or when FG is on target and stable,
  • cold crashes if possible,
  • packages 5 days after dry hopping rather than after 2 weeks,
  • and limits exposure to air as much as possible during the whole process
 
Awesome thanks for the advice. I’m currently waiting for my wort to chill. This is the biggest batch I’ve done before, considering going to the store to get some ice. I gotta say, I’m really excited for this. I’ve never even heard of a black ipa until I saw this kit.
I saw a guy on YouTube that rigged his wort chiller to some lines that connected to a submersible pump in an ice chest . One line pumping through the chiller and an exit tube going back to the igloo. Works like a charm . I made my own chiller and now im getting a wort to 70* in about 35 min . Previously it was an hour and a half almost just by setting in a sink of ice .
 
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