Stone Ruination clone tasting a little weak

[webguyatwork]

I've just recently jumped from a Mr. Beer 2G kit to a full-fledged 5G plastic bucket kit, and decided to try out a clone for Stone Brewing's Ruination, which in my opinion is a relatively strong brew. I missed out on purchasing a hydrometer before I brewed, so I don't have the starting O.G., but after about 2 weeks of fermentation, plus another week of dry hopping in the original bucket, I've tried the first brew after another week, and aside from being a bit flat still, it didn't have that strong IPA taste that Ruination has.

I assume that leaving the rest alone for a few more weeks will allow for carbonation to really kick in, so that part doesn't worry me much. I'm curious about what I could have done to make the brew so weak. What I CAN tell you is that the ingredients list called for 2.0 lobs (0.91 kg) Northwestern Gold dried malt, yet the recipe never indicated when (or whether) to mix it in, so I included it near the end of the 60 minute boil. I'm wondering if the ingredient was mistakenly added to the list when it shouldn't have been used, and could maybe contribute to there being too much sugar for the yeast to consume? Does the yeast just continue to eat the sugar until it's done?

Sorry, that's probably a lot of questions. The main one is regarding the weak taste and what I might be able to do to improve it next time I try this same brew.

 

[likwidbliss]

You bottled it without taking any specific gravity readings? I would be concerned that it may still be fermenting and exploding bottles.

The yeast will consume the sugar and barf out booze.

Leaving the beer to age will improve some flavor but providing a recipe can help to diagnose your concerns.

 

[Calder]

If you want constructive feedback, you need to give details. The Recipe would be a good start, brief summary of process, yeast type, etc. Anything new or unusual.

Assuming the alcohol content is not too high for the yeast, it will continue to eat through the fermentable yeast.

 

[webguyatwork]

Found in "The Best of Brew Your Own" - Clone recipe issue

OG = 1.075, FG = 1.010
IBU = 100+, SRM = 6
ABV = 7.7%

6.6 lbs (3.0 kg) Northwestern Gold liquid malt extract syrup
2.0 lbs (0.91 kg) Northwestern Gold dried malt extract
1.0 lb (0.45 kg) Breiss 2-row malt
1.0 lb (0.45 kg) Briess crystal malt
1 tsp. Irish Moss (15 minutes)
36.0 AAU Magnum hops (60 mins, 2.25 oz/64 g of 16.0% alpha acids)
15.7 AAU Centennial hops (0 mins, steep for 5 mins, 1.5oz/43 g of 10.5% AA)
21.0 AAU Centennial hops (2.0 oz/56 g of 10.5% AA)
White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
0.75 cup of corn sugar (for priming)

Steep the two crushed grains in 3 gal of water at 149 degrees F for 30 minutes.

Remove grains from wort, add Magnum hops, malt syrup and bring to boil. Add Irish moss and boil for 60 minutes (why does it say 15 minutes in the ingredients list then?).

*** No mention of adding the 2.0 lbs NW Gold dried extract, so I did it here, about mid- to-end of boil ***

Add the first addition of Centennial hops at the end of the boil and let steep for 5 minutes.

Add wort to 2 gallons cool water in sanitary fermenter (my 6G sanitized bucket), top off with cool water to 5.5G. Cool the wort to 75 degrees F, aerate the beer and pitch the yeast.

*** Next note, I cooled the wort in my sink with a couple bags of ice and cold water. I probably could have found better options for cooling it, but this is all I had for the time being. I brought the whole thing outside to the patio to pour the wort into the cool water. At this point, and capped off the bucket and brought it back in the house to cool to room temp over the next 3 hours before adding the yeast, which had been brought to room temp over the same 3 hours. I did nothing special to prepare the liquid yeast, just dumping it in from the container that it was in.

The recipe continues...

Allow the beer to cool over the next few hours to 68 degrees F and hold at this temperature until the yeast has finished fermenting. (No visible bubbling in the chamber after 15 days). Add last addition of Centennial hops for dry hopping. Dry hop for 3 to 5 days, then bottle your beer, carbonate, and enjoy!

***

For the dry hop, I left the entire batch in the original fermenter, keeping it open only long enough to drop the hop sack in, then left it alone for an entire 7 days. At bottling time, I transferred the batch over to the secondary bucket, fully sanitized, siphoning the batch through a sanitized filter. I added the corn sugar directly from my measuring cup while stirring the batch to mix it in thoroughly. The first taste was probably a bit optimistic at 6 days. The next taste another week later was carbonated better, but still lacked the strong flavors that I was shooting for in this particular brew.

 

[VTBrewer]

Withougt any hydro readins it's really hard to talk about the fermentation process, ie: did it finish, get stuck for some reason, etc. However, while i use Wyeast and not WLP, I believe that its best suited for OG's of 1.060 and less. at 1.080 you underpitched and probably did not reach the target FG you wanted, which would leave you with a sweet beer.

But the alcohol level/sweetness isn't what you're talking about, its the hops aroma (and bittering) i assume that you're missing. I'm surprised with that hop schedule that you're not getting it actually, along with some sweetness.

A few off topic notes from your process:

--It says 15 mins on the Irish Moss because that's when it goes in, at 15 mins left.

--When adding your corn sugar, common practice is to boil it in 1 cup of water in a sanitized pot for about 5 minutes at least, then cover with a sanitized lid and let cool. Add to the bottling bucket and rack on top of it. I don't stir it up after and have even carbonation thruouught my bottles.

**EDIT**
PS -- I like the ambition, but that's a big beer to step into from Mr. Beer. May want to find a nice 1.055 one for your next batch and something without yeast starters, dry hopping, etc. But cool you gave it a go. I think you'll have a fine brew, that you may enjoy just as much as you would have enjoyed a hoppier one.

 

[webguyatwork]

Can you explain what you mean by underpitching? I've found most all of my brews so far to be a little sweeter than they should be. The worst one EVER was my very first batch that came with the Mr. Beer kit. That one probably should have turned me off completely from home brewing, but I kept it up and have had some successful batches since. But most of the terminology is still foreign to me. Maybe next time, I'll work with a 5-Gal kit instead of piecing it all together myself. You're right though, it was pretty ambitious, but DARN IT, I really wanted to give it a shot.

P.S. I'm having another right now and it seems better than the last. So maybe this batch just needs to last me a few months as it slowly gets better and better.

 

[trufleshufle13]

you can give it a little bit oftime or as much as you like, but be careful on leaving it for too long. very hoppy beers will start to lose the hop flavor if aged for too long. a lot of other big beers would be fixed over time. but if you feel it is under hopped letting it sit for too long will only make this worse.

 

[VTBrewer]

Underpitching means not providing enough yeast to fully ferment out all of the sugars in your beer, which could leave it sweet and not let some other tastes come thru...though once again, there's plenty of hops in that beer. +1 on not letting an IPA wait too long, they are best drank young.

http://www.mrmalty.com/ has information on how much yeast you should be pitching to each batch. I think you were a little light on this one, but it's a learning process and hey, you're drinking it.

 

[tallybrewer]

I used Yooper's recipe and it came out great; got excellent reviews from friends & local brewer's league.

I let it sit in the primary for 4 weeks, then secondary & dry hopped for a week; didn't take readings.

 

[BrookdaleBrew]

Found in "The Best of Brew Your Own" - Clone recipe issue

OG = 1.075, FG = 1.010
IBU = 100+, SRM = 6
ABV = 7.7%

6.6 lbs (3.0 kg) Northwestern Gold liquid malt extract syrup
2.0 lbs (0.91 kg) Northwestern Gold dried malt extract
1.0 lb (0.45 kg) Breiss 2-row malt
1.0 lb (0.45 kg) Briess crystal malt
1 tsp. Irish Moss (15 minutes)
36.0 AAU Magnum hops (60 mins, 2.25 oz/64 g of 16.0% alpha acids)
15.7 AAU Centennial hops (0 mins, steep for 5 mins, 1.5oz/43 g of 10.5% AA)
21.0 AAU Centennial hops (2.0 oz/56 g of 10.5% AA)
White Labs WLP001 (California Ale) or Wyeast 1056 (American Ale) yeast
0.75 cup of corn sugar (for priming)

All other things aside, that recipe does not include enough late addtion hops to get you Ruination flavor levels. I would go with Yooper's recipe linked above.

 

[cheezydemon3]

uncarbed beer will have little bitterness.