Sierra Madre Beer Kit (NB)

[Nicknack]

Sierra Madre is a beer kit from Northern Brewer. It is supposed to be a clone of Sierra Nevada. It is currently in the primary and will soon be in bottles.

The OG was 1.052 for this 5 gallon extract kit. According to last night, I checked my primary and it was 1.008. I checked it a few days ago and it registered the same reading. That being said, it's ready for bottling, correct? Is there really any advantage in keeping it in the primary longer? It's been there now for three weeks (instructions recommend 2-4).

For my first Sierra Madre, I want to stick with the directions without any intended deviation. However, provided that I like it, I plan to buy another kit to experiment with additions. As much as I like Sierra Nevada, two things that I would modify slightly would be making it a little more hoppy and having a stronger aroma. If the beer kit ends up being very similar to Sierra Nevada, then I will want to experiment in those ways. In order to accomplish this, I'm thinking about adding more hops at the beginning of the boil (for a more hoppy/bitter taste) and dry hopping (to get more flavor/aroma). Does this sound right? Next question, should I just add more chinook at the beginning and more cascade at the end? How much hops would you recommend being that I am just looking for a small change.

The ingredients are detailed below:

KIT INVENTORY:

MAILLARD MALTS SPECIALTY GRAIN
0.5 lbs Briess Caramel 60

EXTRACTS & OTHER FERMENTABLES
6 lbs Gold malt syrup
-
1 lb Briess Golden Light DME

PREMIUM HOPS & OTHER FLAVORINGS
-
0.75 oz Chinook (60 min)
-
1 oz German Perle (20 min)
-
2 oz Cascade (0 min)

YEAST
Safale US-05 Ale Yeast

PRIMING SUGAR
5 oz Priming Sugar

 

[TexasDroughtBrewery]

Three weeks should be plenty of time and the sure fire way to know is testing it with a hydrometer which you have done. You can bottle now.

Also, just for experience don't get your hopes up to much that it will be an exact clone..the beer will just be similar. I personally don't like many clone beers.

 

[HopHeavy]

As a general rule, if you intend to foster hop flavor and aroma, you are angling on late additions and dry hopping. Adding up front (60 minute addition) will increase overall bitterness but not add to aroma much at all. Curious how this works out. SNPA is a staple of mine, but I have often wished it had a bit more aroma hop character, too.

 

[Cain]

I've made this kit twice, and it turned out very well both times.

I will definitely make it again.

I did a side by side comparison, and thought the homebrew was slightly more hoppy than the original. You may not need to add as much additional hops as you think...

 

[TeamCanada]

I recently made a" brew house kit hack" that was bang on sierra navada. Super good. Three weeks primary then Racked to secondary for 5 days dry hopping for mine anyways.