What Went Wrong

[Frog 1]

So I brewed what I was hoping would be a nice tropical IPA just over a week ago, this was to be dry hopped and the recipe I had tried to follow stated that I should dry hop during and after fermentation, which I have dutifully done. There were a lot of hops in this recipe, the main being nelson sauvin 83 grams, Mosaic 45 grams and Galaxy 45 grams. These batches were popped in twice during fermentation and 1 remaining after fermentation. All was going well until the temperature dropped to 15 degrees C for a couple of days, the batch was still bubbling, albeit slowly, then on the fifth day everything ground to a halt and at a gravity far too high (1.043) OG was 1.060, target is 1.013. Fermentation stalled. So I had a chat with White Labs, they suggested blasting with CO2 which I didnt have the facility to do, or pitching more yeast, so I decided to pitch more yeast and turned the temp up toi around 22. Worried about too much oxy I decided not to introduce any more with stirring etc. Next day, slight change, down to 1.041, but no bubbling evident, popped the lid, nothing much going on, so I decided to give it a good stir and now I'm waiting to see what happens. I'm starting to feel like a kid who didn't get a present at Christmas or a father who's child got sent home from school sick. It's looking like curtains for the brew, not sure what else to do.

 

[terrym]

I presume you have checked your SG measuring kit
Some ideas in here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/what-went-wrong.85494/
Otherwise ?

 

[An Ankoù]

Have you tried tasting it? Is it unduly sweet. Sounds like your hydrometer might be playing up. Temp dropping to 15C shouldn't stop any but the funniest of yeasts. How long has it been in the fermenter?

 

[pms67]

So I brewed what I was hoping would be a nice tropical IPA just over a week ago, this was to be dry hopped and the recipe I had tried to follow stated that I should dry hop during and after fermentation, which I have dutifully done. There were a lot of hops in this recipe, the main being nelson sauvin 83 grams, Mosaic 45 grams and Galaxy 45 grams. These batches were popped in twice during fermentation and 1 remaining after fermentation. All was going well until the temperature dropped to 15 degrees C for a couple of days, the batch was still bubbling, albeit slowly, then on the fifth day everything ground to a halt and at a gravity far too high (1.043) OG was 1.060, target is 1.013. Fermentation stalled. So I had a chat with White Labs, they suggested blasting with CO2 which I didnt have the facility to do, or pitching more yeast, so I decided to pitch more yeast and turned the temp up toi around 22. Worried about too much oxy I decided not to introduce any more with stirring etc. Next day, slight change, down to 1.041, but no bubbling evident, popped the lid, nothing much going on, so I decided to give it a good stir and now I'm waiting to see what happens. I'm starting to feel like a kid who didn't get a present at Christmas or a father who's child got sent home from school sick. It's looking like curtains for the brew, not sure what else to do.

Sorry I can’t help but I can sympathise, I brewed a beer with 300 g of Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo and it’s S***e
Smells amazing but taste is off.
Gutted

 

[The Baron]

pms67 was it oxidised or do you think an infection? I would guess oxidised as a infection generally has a off smell as well

 

[An Ankoù]

So I brewed what I was hoping would be a nice tropical IPA just over a week ago, this was to be dry hopped and the recipe I had tried to follow stated that I should dry hop during and after fermentation, which I have dutifully done. There were a lot of hops in this recipe, the main being nelson sauvin 83 grams, Mosaic 45 grams and Galaxy 45 grams. These batches were popped in twice during fermentation and 1 remaining after fermentation. All was going well until the temperature dropped to 15 degrees C for a couple of days, the batch was still bubbling, albeit slowly, then on the fifth day everything ground to a halt and at a gravity far too high (1.043) OG was 1.060, target is 1.013. Fermentation stalled. So I had a chat with White Labs, they suggested blasting with CO2 which I didnt have the facility to do, or pitching more yeast, so I decided to pitch more yeast and turned the temp up toi around 22. Worried about too much oxy I decided not to introduce any more with stirring etc. Next day, slight change, down to 1.041, but no bubbling evident, popped the lid, nothing much going on, so I decided to give it a good stir and now I'm waiting to see what happens. I'm starting to feel like a kid who didn't get a present at Christmas or a father who's child got sent home from school sick. It's looking like curtains for the brew, not sure what else to do.

Understand your concerns. Unless it's obviously off, don't abandon it. Most of all resist the temptation to open the lid too often to see what's going on So there;s no obvious bubbling- doesn't mean it's not fermenting. Leave it for a week in the warm (about 18C) and then have another look. The sheer volume of hops should provide some protection against infection. If all else fails and it still smells sound...
Well let's wait and see.

 

[Frog 1]

Hmmmm..... thanks everyone, some good food for thought there, to answer some questions, I havent tasted it recently, but it does smell very sweet. I bought a refractometer recently and calibrate it before each use with distilled water (by distilled I mean steam from the kettle caught in a cup) I'll maybe check it with the hydrometer tomorrow. It's been in the fermenter for 10 days. It doesn't smell off, just very sweet but I have to admit it has a nice beer aroma. I'll take all that advice and leave it for another week and keep taking measurements. I really don't want to lose this as it was my first try at something a bit more technical, that being said, I'll give it another go, I've found my favourite hobby ever, can't believe how much I enjoy brewing. I'm very new but enthusiastic. first two brews are ready for popping the caps on soon, cant wait. Cheers for the help, I'll keep you posted.

 

[Richie_asg1]

That may be your problem because refractometers are accurate for wort which is a sugar solution, but as soon as your solution contains water sugar and alcohol all accuracy goes out the window.
Use it for wort only at the start and before you pitch yeast. Use a hydrometer thereafter. Most of us just sanitise it well and drop it in.
Lifting the lid too often has spoiled many good brews. I listen to the side of mine until it stops making a crackling noise - which are the little bubbles popping.
Give it another week with the lid on and nice and cosy - then drop a hydrometer in it.

 

[Brew_DD2]

Run your refractometer reading through an online calculator that has a correction factor for alcohol. Richie is right. Alcohol throws the reading way off.

 

[An Ankoù]

Get a hydrometer.
Good luck.
I don't think "smelling sweet" is any indication at all of the amount of sugar in the liquid. Sugar doesn't really smell. Perhaps it's the hops.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Sorry I can’t help but I can sympathise, I brewed a beer with 300 g of Citra, Simcoe and Amarillo and it’s S***e
Smells amazing but taste is off.
Gutted

You’re using a lot of high octane hops there, it might be worth leaving it for a couple of weeks and see if the flavours mellow. I’ve made a strongly hopped beer that I thought would be no good and it became nice - but took far longer to condition. I also think that beer used Amarillo, I’m quite wary of the strength of Amarillo since.

 

[pms67]

pms67 was it oxidised or do you think an infection? I would guess oxidised as a infection generally has a off smell as well

I think oxidised, I’m wary of dry hopping now, maybe should have cooled to below 80 then chucked in 200g of hops for ten minutes!!!

 

[Brew_DD2]

I think oxidised, I’m wary of dry hopping now, maybe should have cooled to below 80 then chucked in 200g of hops for ten minutes!!!

NEIPAs are an absolute ballache to brew. After about 5 oxidised batches, I gave up brewing them until I could do closed transfers. Before that, they were a sickly sweet purple-brown mess within 2-3 weeks.

 

[Frog 1]

Okay, so again, I am learning all the time and thanks to everyone for their help and supportive comments, I've broken out the hydrometer and the level seems to be between 1.020 and 1.019, tasted it and it's pretty good, not actually as tropical as I was expecting, but maybe all my messing has caused that. I'm going to leave it for another week then will dry hop the last batch to see what happens, what the hell. Cheers again everyone, hope I can one day be as much help to you lot.

 

[dwhite60]

Now, give it a couple days and check it again. If it hasn't moved its time to bottle.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Zephyr259]

Reading this my first thought was you're using a refractometer aren't you? And turns out you are. The brewers friend refractometer calculator is really good. I have it converted into a spreadsheet and never use my hydrometer anymore. Having said that I did use both for about a year to get 30 data points to work out the error in the refractometer reading compared to a hydrometer, for mine its just under 2%.

 

[Frog 1]

Time for an update, the beer has been rescued perfectly, well not rescued, but just me learning along the way and realising it was never really in danger. So the final gravity is 1.017, the last dry hopping has worked really well, it has a great tropical flavour with a spiky bitterness, hoping that will settle down a little with conditioning but its not a bad flavour, just more bitter than I was expecting, I think the ABV will be around 5.6 upwards, I just need to let it settle out for a bit longer before bottling. On that, my first batch hasn't carbonated very well, bit of a flat pancake, but I'm going to warm them up a little to see if that makes a difference.

Next brew is going to be something with a lime flavour (hopefully), I've bought some experimental hops to play with including the following

Probably going to use some amarillo for bitterness and dry hop after fermentation with those, thinking of using lime zest and juice, anybody got any experience using strong citrus acids, can I use it during fermentation or should I add after?

Cheers.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Glad it turned out ok in the end, Amarillo can be a bit potent as I found out luckily I like bitter

 

[Frog 1]

Glad it turned out ok in the end, Amarillo can be a bit potent as I found out luckily I like bitter

Cheers mate, any suggestions for something a bit lighter, we're going for something in the IPA category with average bitterness, I was warned off using the new hops we have bought for bittering as they are expensive, they mentioned amarillo at the time, but it was a throw away comment I think.

The whole lime thing is a gamble anyway, so will keep you posted.

 

[Rodcx500z]

I am no expert but others will guide you, my main hop for bittering is Target only because its cheap