Question: Experienced Double IPA brewers...

[saeroner]

Extract Kit

For you experienced x2IPA guys, how long (bottle conditioning) until you thought your beer was perfect? How many weeks?

I'm reading anywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months

This coming Sunday it will have been bottled 3 weeks and I thought it would be ready for everyone at a tailgate party -- but it tasted like crap at 2 weeks.

The final gravity was supposed to be 1.017 but came out 1.020.

I know RDWHAHB....

Just wanted to hear from some experienced guys.

tasted one bottle at 13 days that had been chilled for 24 hours and it was really bad - yeast taste or some bad after taste - plus Cider taste. Thought to myself this is not going to be ready at 21 days.

What experience have you guys been through with X2IPA?

 

[Yooper]

As soon as it's carbed up, usually! I love the big "in your face" hops aroma from a fresh IIPA.

If it's "hot" it may need time to mellow, but hopefully that is avoided so the beer doesn't need to age out.

 

[saeroner]

As soon as it's carbed up, usually! I love the big "in your face" hops aroma from a fresh IIPA.

This worries me then because i've had 2 that were awful and they were really carbed up - didn't even taste like an IPA and I dry hopped them with cascade

 

[Yooper]

This worries me then because i've had 2 that were awful and they were really carbed up - didn't even taste like an IPA and I dry hopped them with cascade

It could be several things- the recipe, the fermentation temperature, yeast health (enough yeast in the beginning), the water chemistry, etc.

If you want to post your recipe along with some details about pitching and fermentation temperature, we could maybe see if this is something that will age out or if it's due to a process.

 

[Homercidal]

Generally a IIPA is not much different than an IPA, but just a bit stronger and with more late hops (IMO).

I agree with Yooper, that this is likely a recipe or process problem. It would be helpful to see a recipe and your methods. It could be as simple as fermenting too warm, or having too much alcohol and still young. Or maybe there is something with your water.

 

[saeroner]

Thanks^ It was a Kit (hop Head x2IPA from Midwest)

The directions/recipe were easy.

Basic Extract/steep grains/ then boil/add LME/then boil.

I lost the paper but i did everything perfect (pretty sure) and was sanitizing everything.

Hops schedule is only thing i saved

1oz chinook (60min)
0.5oz cascade (45min)
0.5oz centennial (30min)
0.5oz cascade (20min)
0.5oz centennial (10min)

Pitched yeas at high 70s

Bubbles withing 20 hours like crazy for 3 days.

used swamp cooler and tried to keep the temp at around 62 degrees but it might have gotten up to 70 a couple of time while i was working.

let sit in the primary for 2 weeks than to secondary for 1 week (3 total) with 1 oz dry hop cascade.

bottled at 1.020

The bottles were used bottles that i cleaned out in the dishwasher twice using the sanitize function. and then using no-rinse sanitizer before bottling (pored in using a funnle then shook by hand and dumped). Some of the bottles might have only gotten the 2 washes in the dishwasher (using the sanitize function) because i ran out of NO-Rinse powder.

 

[thisisbeer]

My last IIPA finished out at 1.009, I don't think one at 1.020 will ever be what I think your looking for. I like to cut way back on specialty grains and use a lot of base malt to make sure it finishes out dry. I say that because with an IIPA that sounds like the problem a lot of people have is adding to many grains. Although like yooper said it could be many things. Sometimes I'll use an English yeast to enhance the malt character of the beer to make up for the specialty grains. But I'm not the most experienced brewer just my .02 cents.

But I would say you really need to enjoy a IIPA young. The hop aroma will fade with time and you will miss out the things people love about IPA's. Some age out well from what I hear, DFH 90 minute comes to mind.

When I first started I had an issue with getting my extract recipes to finish where I wanted them. They all came out to sweet for my taste. That could be an issue. I never got the problem fixed I just moved to all grain.

 

[Homercidal]

Once trouble with a beer this big is that if it gets going, it can get going HARD and raise the temp quickly. It could be that the temp got above 70 on the inside of the fermenter, even while the outside is close to 70.

I tend to agree with thisisbeer about IIPAs in that they already have a pretty high grain bill, which makes the FG a bit higher so you have to be careful not to use too much crystal malts and the like or they could end up too sweet and cloying. Some people use sugar to dry out these bigger beers.

My feeling is that a couple of weeks will probably help out the most here. Do you know if the water you used had chlorine or chloramine? They can sometimes not taste too bad plain, but after fermentation they can give a nasty off flavor. In this case I wouldn't get my hopes up too much. With a lot of hops I think this could give a definite plastic or chemical taste to a beer.

Is it too sweet?

 

[DoWBrewer]

I don't think you are using enough hops for a IIPA. Look for high alpha varieties for dry hopping rather than cascade. My IIPA that is on tap now had 8 ounces of hops just in the dry hop for a 10-gallon batch. It still doesn't have the aroma I would like. I would up your dry hop to at least 2-ounces. I agree with the other comments on minimizing crystal malts. You should consider a sugar addition. I like to add sugar on day 3. I boil some water, yeast nutrient and sugar. I cool that and pull the temp control and let it free rise. It finishes out cleanly. My IIPA finished at 1.010 from 1.078. The other thing that I think helps is swirling your fermenter daily after your kruesen drops to keep your yeast in suspension.

As far as you bottle conditioning, transfer your bottles to a warm room for a week. That gives the yeast time to cleanup all of the by products from the priming sugar.

 

[thisisbeer]

I don't think you are using enough hops for a IIPA. Look for high alpha varieties for dry hopping rather than cascade. My IIPA that is on tap now had 8 ounces of hops just in the dry hop for a 10-gallon batch. It still doesn't have the aroma I would like. I would up your dry hop to at least 2-ounces. I agree with the other comments on minimizing crystal malts. You should consider a sugar addition. I like to add sugar on day 3. I boil some water, yeast nutrient and sugar. I cool that and pull the temp control and let it free rise. It finishes out cleanly. My IIPA finished at 1.010 from 1.078. The other thing that I think helps is swirling your fermenter daily after your kruesen drops to keep your yeast in suspension.

As far as you bottle conditioning, transfer your bottles to a warm room for a week. That gives the yeast time to cleanup all of the by products from the priming sugar.

What he said. The beer I mentioned earlier is a 5 Gallon batch and has 40 ML of hop extract for bittering and another 7 ounces in the end of the boil. Plus another 7 1/2 for dry hopping. I know that sounds like a lot....that's because it is :rockin:

Also I used about 1 pound of corn sugar to help bring the FG down further. It's 100% fermentable so it increases the alcohol without leaving any residual sweetness behind.

 

[saeroner]

^ i guess that's an issue with Midwest Supplies calling it a double IPA.

It was my 1st batch and I just followed the directions that Midwest provided for the ingredients they provided in the kit.

The Midwest directions said FG should between 1.016 - 1.018 so i was a tad higher

Oh and i used all spring water that i bought at the store

 

[thisisbeer]

I prefer my IPA's to finish below 1.015, and closer to 1.010 most of the time. Like I said I never got my extract kits to come out like I wanted for IPA's. I could brew some other beer really well such as cream ales, bocks, and porters. But I had another friend that could brew IPA's really well with extract, so who knows.

I'm not saying it will be a bad beer, just not exactly what you were looking for. I know most people will say to go all grain, which isn't always feasible for everyone. But I would recommend getting away from kit's and using the recipe section located on this website. There are some good kits out there but there are also some that just don't produce what you want. At least in the recipe section you can talk to people about the recipe to see if it's what your looking for.

 

[billl]

IIPA's are kinda tough from extract kits

Problem #1 - they never have enough HOPS!!! You are going to want 4+oz in the 0-15 range plus another 3+ in dry hop.

Problem #2 - extract isn't as fermentable as most people like a IIPA. You can get around this by using a regular IPA base and adding simple sugar to increase the gravity.

 

[saeroner]

OK thanks.

So i guess doing an IIPA Extract kit as a 1st time brew is pretty much a bad idea.

Hopefully batch #2 doesn't come out this bad (bottled last weekend)