Better Brew, IPA

[Monkeybrew]

Drinking this steadily at 6 weeks, brewed as per instructions with a tin of LME. A fantastic hoppy, creamy headed brew and a liver warmer to boot. Very highly recommended.

 

[RobWalker]

Had one of these in the LHBS so can't comment much on a sample glass. All I remember is great flavour, really impressed and tonnes of passion fruit.

If you're considering buying it, go for it!

 

[Bungz]

Hey guys.

I brewed this after many good reports.

Brewed it along side and bottled it along side a coopers stout that has turned out fantastic :) .

The IPA however I suspect is rotten :wha:

Brewed both with 500 dme and 700 dextrose.

It pours fantastic and has a perfect head with a light carbonation.

However it also has a horrid chemically twang on the after taste. Not particularly strong but something that I haven't had in about 7 other brews I have done in the last few months.

Now I would say it maybe down to infection but the fact I bottled/brewed it alongside another beer has me a little stumped.

Is it possible the kit was bad?

I will leave it to see if the taste dies off as the beer is only 3 weeks old but not sure I trust it to get better.

Shame as it was my first kit of this kind in the bags and it has put me off some what.

 

[calumscott]

I'm just supping a pint of my second batch of these...

...which is exactly the same as the first batch...

:drink:

when you say "chemically", what kind of chemically? Swimming pools, matches, mothballs...? What does it remind you of?

 

[Bungz]

Swimming pool would about sum it up :lol:

Bit gutted tbh and cant see how it would be from infection :|

 

[calumscott]

Swimming pool is chlorine which will either be from your water or from your steriliser.

What did you use?

 

[Moley]

Just bottled one of these. I bought the kit a few months ago from a homebrew stall on an indoor market because he had them on an introductory offer and they sounded interesting. Brewed it with a Cooper's enhancer no.2 which I got from Tesco for about two quid when they reducing everything.

It has had 3 weeks in the bucket because I went to bottle it last weekend and found the gravity was still at 1.015, so I gave it another week behind the sofa where it's fairly steadily around 18-19°C. It has only come down another couple of points and finished at 1.013 from an OG of 1.045 but I did leave it short and have ended up with 35 pints.

Pretty clear and with a good solid sediment, I got every last drop out of the bucket, 34 through the syphon tube then gently poured the last one through a funnel.

Tastes good, nice and clean and well hopped (and I didn't add any extra), so I will report back in a month or two.

 

[PD]

I've made 3 of these kits. 2 have been a very nice drink indeed and a bit of a favourite.
However the middle brew for some reason turned out with a very bad aroma. It always smelt wrong from when the first it started to ferment. after 6 weeks in the bottle its gone up into the shed and I'm leaving it till after christmas....if she dont improve I'll reclaim the bottles.
So......two out of three ain't bad.

 

[mikep42]

Just transferred my second one of these to a secondary FV, and made the mistake of having a good old sniff after I cracked the top off the primary FV - gee whizz, there's a lot of booze in that beer!!

Once again, putting it into a secondary Fv seems to have re-awakened the yeasties, but given the smell I've got no idea what they are feasting on!

I think this is a cracking kit based on my one and a half brews thus far.

 

[calumscott]

Just transferred my second one of these to a secondary FV, and made the mistake of having a good old sniff after I cracked the top off the primary FV - gee whizz, there's a lot of booze in that beer!!

Don't mistake CO2 for alcohol! What you got a noseful of is mostly carbon dioxide (and some aromatic stuff) which disolves in the moisture of your nasal passages creating carbonic acid giving you that WHAM! effect...

Once again, putting it into a secondary Fv seems to have re-awakened the yeasties, but given the smell I've got no idea what they are feasting on!

Why do you think the yeast is working again? Airlock activity? Bubbles rising?

Could easily just be CO2 coming out of solution rather than any additional fermentation - be guided by your hydrometer...

I think this is a cracking kit based on my one and a half brews thus far.

I agree, and it gets even better if you dry hop it with 40g of chinook for a fortnight... :thumb:

 

[mikep42]

Thanks Calum - interesting info there, that's my "you learn something everyday" for today.

What I got was certainly a WHAM! effect (though thankfully not a Careless Whisper).

As far as the second FV goes, and the yeastie activity, I am going by the airlock activity (which is still persisting today). I agree that a hydrometer is the guiding force of science, though. My previous experience with this kit in a single FV is that two weeks is the required time (by hydrometer readings), so I'm going to leave it that long before cracking the lid and taking a sample.

I'd not thought of dry hopping as the last one I did was pretty, er, hoppy. However, I think there's going to be another one of these in my future, so I might well give that a go.

Carbonic acid..... cheeky blighter, getting all in my nasals.... :nono:

 

[simcoe soup]

Ive got 1 bottle left of a batch I started brewing on 15/08/12. Made a hop tea and added at outset with 25g each of Amarillo and simcoe and dry hopped after a week with the same. Going to order again and dry hop from the start.

 

[Bungz]

Swimming pool is chlorine which will either be from your water or from your steriliser.

What did you use?

I used campden for that particular batch. I would maybe point the finger at my sterilising and rinsing but I did another kit at the exact same time which turned out fine.

Strange!

Also the bottles have been sat two months and are not particularly clear but thats been mentioned around when I have read about this kit.

Oh well will maybe try it again, could have been down to me I guess.

 

[mikep42]

Hmm,

So here's an interesting one then...

Just kegged up my latest one of these, and my hydrometer told me that it was 0.995, which I'd be very surprised at. This was a standard kit with brewers sugar added as per the recipe. In between and after I've been doing WOWs and Tubro Cidres which have all been measured as per, so I don't think the hydrometer is borked.

Any ideas on the so-low reading ?

 

[Andyhull]

Hi all started sampling my BB IPA at the weekend 6 weeks in the bottles.
Made this to 23lts with 1kg of brew enhancer and an aditional 500g of table sugar
I brewed this because it got great reviews.
It doesn't have the strength of hops that i was expecting for an IPA, don't get me wrong it's there but not in the levels i thought it would be.

Nice brew ok flavour maybe the adition of a hop tea and making it to 20lt would take it to the next level.

Andy

 

[crobey01]

I have bought the Better Brew Kit and a can of LME and am itching to get started on this brew, just wondering if I could throw an extra 1kg of brewing sugar in to bump up the ABV.

Would all this sugar be too much of a struggle for the yeast? I'm using the sachet that came with the kit and will be re-hydrating it. I also have a sachet of Gervin Ale Yeast from Wilkinsons knocking about, should I use both packets to be sure?

Any help would be really appreciated.

 

[calumscott]

I have bought the Better Brew Kit and a can of LME and am itching to get started on this brew, just wondering if I could throw an extra 1kg of brewing sugar in to bump up the ABV.

Would all this sugar be too much of a struggle for the yeast? I'm using the sachet that came with the kit and will be re-hydrating it. I also have a sachet of Gervin Ale Yeast from Wilkinsons knocking about, should I use both packets to be sure?

Any help would be really appreciated.

The yeast will be fine but if you want stronger beer sugar isn't the way to go about it. You'll get stronger beer alright but the alcohol will kill the flavour and body.

BB IPA is a lovely beer in its own right, and even better dry hopped as an american IPA. If you wanted it stronger and still decent as a beer you would probably want to use the kit + 3kg LME then boil up a good few litres of a hop tea to add bitterness, then dry hop with a big american hop like chinook.

 

[crobey01]

If you wanted it stronger and still decent as a beer you would probably want to use the kit + 3kg LME then boil up a good few litres of a hop tea to add bitterness, then dry hop with a big american hop like chinook.

Ok, I'll leave the brewing sugar in the cupboard then. Since this is the first time I'm brewing this kit I think I might just follow your recipe, 6% is nothing to be sniffed at. I have cascade hops and a muslin bag to add in about a weeks time. How many grams of hops do you use for the tea? and is it worth doing both a tea and dry hopping or will I just be doing two different things that give the same result?

 

[calumscott]

If you wanted it stronger and still decent as a beer you would probably want to use the kit + 3kg LME then boil up a good few litres of a hop tea to add bitterness, then dry hop with a big american hop like chinook.

Ok, I'll leave the brewing sugar in the cupboard then. Since this is the first time I'm brewing this kit I think I might just follow your recipe, 6% is nothing to be sniffed at. I have cascade hops and a muslin bag to add in about a weeks time. How many grams of hops do you use for the tea? and is it worth doing both a tea and dry hopping or will I just be doing two different things that give the same result?

If you go with the kit + 3kg LME you'll come out somewhere around 8.5%, If you go 1.5kg LME then you'll get about 6%.

Basically if you are going to stick to 6% then don't bother with the hop tea, just dry hop with about 40g cascade for 10-14 days. Otherwise you're going off piste a bit and will have to employ some judicious guesswork based on the size of pan you have and just how bitter you like your beer. Probably a half hour boil of 9l with 30 or 40g should do if you are going with the higher strength...

...I think...

 

[mikep42]

Hi Calum,

Just wanting to clarify as much for my own understanding as for future forum warriors reading this thread...

For enhancing this kit, are you suggesting :-

- using 1.5Kg liquid malt extract (or is that powdered Light Malt Extract - LME is a little ambiguous when I try and google it)

- dry hopping by putting something like 40g cascade hops - is that putting the hops in when you start the kit ?

Finally, do I understand correctly that if you're making a hop tea, as you quoted for instance, you take 9l of water, throw in 30 to 40g of hops, boil in a pan for half an hour, and then toss the whole lot into the fermentation vessel, instead of using plain boiling water at the start of the kit process ? Should you strain the hops out if you're making a hop tea ? I also assume that when you say we're going off-piste, you mean that we're adding to something where we don't know the bitter-ness to start off with, so adding to that then becomes guesswork.

Apologies if this is all Noddy stuff - please feel free to direct my googling!

Thanks Calum...