NEIPA Fermentation Schedule (Bottling)

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phusion_

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Hi all,

Over the weekend I brewed my first all-extract NEIPA, and have a few questions about fermentation I was hoping to get cleared up.

As an overview, I made a 2.5 gallon batch and my brew OG was 1.061 (targeted 1.060) and I pitched ~50 billion cells of WLP067. I had airlock activity within 9 hours and full blown fermentation within 18 hours. I added my dry hops (~3 oz total of mosaic, cascade, and citra) at hour 48 and have been monitoring its gravity through a spigot and my refractometer. It still seems active in the airlock but the past few refractometer readings have been relatively the same. This is day 4 of fermentation for me, so I had kind of expected this, but still have a few questions.

1. My OG was 15 Brix, and my gravity has stabilized at 8 Brix. I know this 8 Brix is probably wildly wrong because of the presence of alcohol in the beer at this point, so should I just wait until it stabilizes, and not worry about what the reading is on my refractometer? I could pull a hydrometer reading, but I'd rather not since this is only a 2.5 gallon batch and that would basically take my yield down by a bottle. Additionally, the spigot is pretty low on the bucket, so I think I'm pulling trub and yeast sediment into the refractometer sample as well, would these throw off the reading?

2. I don't have a fermentation chamber, so the coldest I could get the beer was 68F (reading on the outside) so I know the actual temp inside was probably closer to 72F+. I know this may have made some fusel alcohols, but this also speeds up fermentation right? So I could expect to probably be around final gravity by now, I'd think? The first 24 hours were actually probably closer to 76F inside the fermenter, my AC couldn't keep up with the outside temps of Texas (come on now its October!). When do you think I could expect this beer to be done fermenting?

3. I'm planning to bottle this (I know, not ideal) as I don't have a kegging setup (future plans) yet. I guess my question is should I even bother letting the beer condition in the fermenter or just go straight to bottles around like day 7-9 and be as careful as I can about introducing oxygen. I don't want to have any bottle bombs, so I guess I should make sure primary fermentation is done too, right? I have oxygen absorbing caps, so this should at least do some to reduce oxidation from the headspace/dissolved oxygen in the beer, right? I just want to confirm my plan is probably not terrible, and may work, lol.

I plan to have the beer finished one month after carbonation is done, if not sooner, I know this style is better than way. Let me know what answers to my questions you all have for me. Thanks!
 
I would let it go for 2 weeks min. I always leave in my fv for 3 weeks. Your right about bottle bombs so don't rush.

Beer ferments on its own time. Along with the importance of cleanliness in brewing comes patience . Yes those high fermenting temps can produce fusels. You can use a "swamp cooler" set up. You set the carboy in a container of water .

When bottling its beneficial to leave the beer in the fv for 3 weeks because it limits sediment. As for oxidizing, it is an issue especially for hoppy beers. You might think about priming each bottle then bottle from the fv.
 
I would let it go for 2 weeks min. I always leave in my fv for 3 weeks.
It seemed to me like the consensus online was to limit time in the fermenter for NEIPAs unless i'm mistaken? I had read that leaving dry hops in for too long can create harsh grassy flavors.
 
limit time in the fermenter

If you're concerned about oxygen ingress from the beer sitting in the fermenter and you're concerned about bottle bombs, you'll want to take some FG measurements to confirm that the FG is stable within the expected range for the recipe. This will cost you some beer. IIRC, some of the most interesting suggestions for minimizing loses when fermenting and packaging can be found over in 1-Gallon Brewers UNITE!.

harsh grassy flavors
People taste beer differently (see The New IPA, chapter 5 for a link to a science-y article). Or based on anecdotal reports, one person's delightful hoppy IPA is another persons "smells catty".
 
I think you’re done. And, I definitely wouldn’t let a NEIPA go 2+ weeks on dry hops.

Use a refractometer calculator to get FG. Otherwise your numbers are off with the presence of alcohol
 
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