Youngs American IPA

[Racinsnake]

I just launch the hops and let the filter bag on my syphon filter them out, but yes does take a bit more cleaning up at the end.
Your conditioning plans sound spot on.

 

[ProjectBeer]

Which end do you usually put the filter bag on? I've tried putting it in the end that is dipped into the FV, but hop particles (especially when using pellets) still seem to clog it up.

 

[robhullfury]

I set this going yesterday, it is only my second brew so hoping it works out right. Read instructions to a T so hope it all goes OK. Starting SG of 1.052 but abit over on the water probs 700ml. I have a wilko fv drilled airlock but no bubbles yet? Am I been impatient at 36 hours. I have no real way of keeping it nice and warm so its stood on a folded towel and wrapped twice in towels to keep heat best I can? (Any advice)??

When I added yeast it clumped together abit so spent some time breaking it up and gentley stirring it back in? (Is this normal)

What advice do you have for simply sterilising all the gear to start with. I clean worktops down with antiseptic spray so I can place spoon down etc, how far do you need to go? In my bucket (fv) I place a jug spoon airlock etc along with sanitising powder and leave it all to soak together. (Am I over doing it)


Thanks in advance from a newbie

Rob

 

[Coups]

Havent made this kit yet but it is on my list. Having read through a few pages it seems alot of new brewers are doing this kit and i just wanted to share my experience to help you guys get a nice clear and great tasting brew.

Firstly sanitising, its always said but ive made about 12-13 kits so far and had one bad one, that was down to sanitising. Remember to thoroughly rinse (depending on the sanitising agent)
Next up, try not to move the FV, it might sound obvious but only after making 10 brews i was told on here (think it was clibit) to keep movement to a minimum as the sediment does get kicked up and is enough to make your beer cloudy.
Another note ive found that works well, is syphoning into a secondary FV and leaving on a tiled floor for a week (after fermentation obviously) this helps alot of the sediment then fall out and hit the bottom. I have since then re-syphoned into original FV on priming sugar and bottled using little bottle but you could always ignore this step if you prime your bottles rather than batch priming.

Just a few tips that might help, kit beers are simple once you've done a few - but once you've mastered the basics it becomes easier to get the beer you're looking for.

 

[robhullfury]

Hhmmm, problem. Came to the fv this morning and its kinda foamed everywhere. What should I do. Take a few litres out and re sanitise the lid/airlock?

Thanks
Rob

 

[terrym]

Rob
My experience with this kit is that it will be 'very lively' for about a week from when the krausen gets established. If you are using a nominal 25 litre FV the krausen will probably have hit the lid by now. You don't want a blocked airlock or you could end up with a real mess (look for videos of this on Youtube!!).
So your options include
a) Remove some wort from the FV, clean up and sanitize everything before you put things back, like you suggest. I did this to stop the airlock getting clogged. I removed about 2 litres, and carried on with a separate fermentation for this in an emergency 6 pint ex milk container. The risk in doing this is you could contaminate your brew when it is at its most vulnerable. I would not do this again.
b) Crack the lid on your FV in one place to release the pressure and put an old towel over the area where the lid is just open. There may be some mess to clear up. That is what my homebrew shop recommended. You can reseal when the krausen has subsided.
c) Make up a blow-off tube venting into a glass jar. There are instructions for this on this Forum or on Youtube. That's what I do now.
Hope this helps.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

c) Make up a blow-off tube venting into a glass jar. There are instructions for this on this Forum. That's what I do now.
Hope this helps.

How to make one guide here - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52893

 

[robhullfury]

Thanks for replies guys, popped to lhbs the lady said its got too warm and it should be OK. Clean it up etc. Come home cleaned the lid up and airlock it was bubbling away happily. Come back 2 hours later it's done the same again gone all over the lid luckily I'd put it on a towel so no mess. Wiped it down and let some pressure out cleaned the airlock but its not bubbling away now like it was before?

Am I onto a loser now or can I still rescue it? Does the fermentation take a pattern eg, its abit cooler now outside so its slowed down abit. It sounds obvious to me but just want to check. Its gone from 1 bubble/sec to 1 bubble/min if that

Don't know what to do now???

Helppppp haha

 

[terrym]

Rob
The good news is you may just have a lid which leaks slightly. Not a problem, just leave it alone. I find leaking lids are normal. I solve that problem by sealing the lid with cling film when the primary has subsided a bit.
The bad news is you could have a blocked inlet to the inlet to your airlock.If the FV lid is domed and there is yeasty stuff in the airlock inlet then that's what's happened, so you need to crack open the lid like I said in my option b), vent the FV, and just leave it until the krausen has subsided.
Remember every time you take the lid off your FV you risk infecting your brew.
But if you still have a good krausen over your brew that's all you need for the time being.
Don't panic, all will be OK. :thumb:

 

[robhullfury]

Thank you for taking the the time to reply. The bubbles have started again I found the hole I cut in the lid was letting a slight air leak around the bung probably not right but it was small enough so I used a hot melt glue gun to put a spot on the hole and its fine now there was no way it would contact the wort and its non-odiferous. Think I need to make a blow off pipe as described for the first week til its settled down. Job for morning! Thanks to you all for all the help.

Its a learning curve!


Rob

 

[Archbishop]

On my second one of these kits and its bubbling away nicely. Can't wait to get stuck into it, easily the best kit I've tried.

 

[robhullfury]

Hi, So its been brewing away (mostly behaving) since the 9th june checked SG yesterday and found it to be 1.013 so waited, done it today 1.010 bang on. Watched the airlock/bucket of water for a few minutes with very little bubble activity so hopped the beer. (so as per instructions) Sprinkled on the surface and put lid back on. The bubbles are back with vengeance! Counting 3 in 10 seconds or so....... is this right, and will it calm down after awhile? Too much CO2 puts the aromatics at risk doesn't it? This is the first kit i've ever dry hopped so bit unsure about what is happening...?

I had a quick taste of the beer which I did the SG on and it smells a lot like Punk IPA now, really nice which will only get better once hopped. I had a quick taste and it tastes nice but the after taste left a bitter/chemically taste in my mouth. Is this going to disappear with the dry hopping stage abit and the final sugar stage in the bottles.

Advice appreciated. Thanks

Rob

 

[terrym]

Rob
Adding hop pellets to the brew has probably just released some dissolved CO2.
Nothing to worry about. This will die down very soon, although fermentation may continue at a slow rate. Follow the usual rule about SG measurements being the same on at least two consecutive days before you think about bottling.
Early 'tasters' always are a bit odd, so don't be put off at this stage. In my experience this kit was ready to drink in two weeks after bottling, although did improve with keeping for few weeks and was best served chilled.

 

[YeastFace]

Yep, the hops act as nucleation sites for the CO2 dissolved in the beer, so this isn't generally a sign that fermentation has restarted.

I thought it was perfect after 5 weeks in bottle. 2 warm, 3 cold conditioned. It was excellent for a good 6 weeks after which point the aroma and flavour started to degrade slightly.

 

[HisDudeness]

Had mine cold conditioning for 6 weeks + now half in a keg and half in bottles, unfortunately it hasnt turned out quite as nice as I had hoped. Didnt ever seem to get the big fruity hop hit that everyone else is raving about and its still a bit harsh bitterness wise. Im putting this down to user error rather than any issue with the kit though as I made a few cock ups on this one. Firstly I used an aquarium heater in the FV for the first time and didnt check the calibration of the thermostat on it, as a result it was fermenting out at 25/6degrees for most of the initial ferment It ended up finishing at 1.002 which could have been related to the high temp or maybe it got some wild yeast in there at some point who knows, but I think this made it a bit on the dry side which didnt help with the relative bitterness. The hops smelt great and early samples definitely had the big fruity aromatics but in my wisdom I decided to rack it off after dry hopping and leave it in the bottling bucket for a few days. Not sure why I did this as it was pretty clear anyway and would have been fine going straight into bottles. When I did bottle it a lot of that lovely hoppy aroma had already dissipated and I think this had a big impact on the final beer. All that said its still quite drinkable and is very strong because of that low FG but it just didnt reach the heights I was expecting, the bottles worked better than the keg for me, the keg gives it a very dense creamy head which doesnt seem to suit this style in my opinion and it also seemed to condition a bit better in the bottles. I would like to have another go at this one at some point to try and get it right but not sure if I will be able to fit it in with all the partial mash and AG projects I have lined up at the moment but hopefully other people can now avoid the silly mistakes I made and get the most out of it!

 

[robhullfury]

Fantastic thanks for all the replies. I had a read the other day about hops acting as nucleation sites but didn't expect vast amounts of co2 like I got and so quickly! I'll do a density Thursday and Friday hopefully be ready I have a few hours spare with no little monster running about trying to (his version) help with daddy's mucky beer!!

Thanks for the fast replies much appreciated :)

Rob

 

[HarrowBrewer]

This is the only kit brew I would definitely do again. I gave it three weeks in the FV, added the hops three days before bottling and it was fantastic just three weeks after that. As good as many commercial IPAs I've had. It doesn't keep well, the big hop hit fades after a while, I've just had a final bottle I'd forgotten about, only two months old, but not as good as the earlier ones.

 

[Wolfracer]

My first IPA had a lingering chemical taste to it once bottled. The same taste as my APA which was so bad I had to throw the whole lot.
i have since done 3 more kits and thry have all been fine.
my tip is start it brewing. Leave it alone, these brews take a while. After 3 weeks have a look. Dry hop in a muslin bag for 2 -3 days and bottle wit 1/2 teaspoon supplied sugar.

Now back to this first brew.

It is now delicious, all that chemical taste has gone. A lovely clear pint, bright white creamy head. A smashing pint. I think it still tastes hoppy and its been in the bottle for maybe 6 months now...

 

[stevey]

I started mine on 15/6/15, followed the instructions without adding any more fermentables. Og 1057. It went bezerk after one day in the fv and I had to hastily rig up a blow off tube. It settled down after around a week to a few bubbles every 30 seconds ish. Fermentation seemed to have finished on 26/6/15, so I left it a couple of days and took a reading today (28/6/15). Fg 1004 which makes it 7%. It tastes pretty good from the sample jar, sort of sweet with slight bitterness , although it will probably taste totally different after the hops have been added. I added the hop sachet, I just sprinkled the hops on top of the wort. I had planned to put them in a muslin bag that I had saved from a previous kit, but I couldn't find it, so I'll have to filter it when I syphon it.
I will bottle half and keg half on Tuesday when the hops have been in for 2 days.
This is one of the best kits that I have used, i.e I think the first one that has fermented straight down to 1004 without a little help getting past 1020. It smelt great while fermenting and the hops smell beautiful. I will try to leave it for 3 weeks before I taste a bottle or 2, although that may prove difficult.
I highly recommend this kit for ease of use and its reliability, just don't forget that blow off tube. I'll report back in a few weeks when I've tasted it, but I have high hopes for this one. Could become my new favourite. :-)

 

[stevey]

Forgot to mention that I used bottled water for the first time (sainsburys caledonian £1.10 for 5 litres) as our water is very hard and chalky at times. This could possibly explain the better fermentation.