Youngs American IPA

[GhostShip]

Schoolboy error! My AIPA finished fermenting around the weekend. Tuesday evening I switched from the Inkbird to fridge only to drop the temperature and help clear the beer, with a view to bottling tonight.

Came in from work and got everything together that needed sterilising while my wife made some dinner. Went to get the brewing sugar out of the box and there staring me in the face was... the packet of hops. Completely forgot about it.

Now I’m upping the temperature of the beer again with a view to dropping the hops in either late tonight or tomorrow morning. I’ll then have to use some of my Sunday doing the bottling that I should have done tonight. Don’t really want to leave everything sterilising for 3 days, so will have to rinse it all and then sterilise again on Sunday.

Not a mistake I’ll make again (hopefully)! Just hope I haven’t done any harm.

 

[Clint]

Could you do a hop tea instead and get on with it...

 

[GhostShip]

Could you do a hop tea instead and get on with it...

That's a really good idea! Unfortunately, I didn't see your post until late last night.

The hops went in this morning with a view to bottling on Sunday.

 

[napolean]

Mine turned out pretty awful. Not sure why. Brewed as instructions. Was in the FV for maybe three weeks, been bottled for nearly two months. It doesn't have the HB taste or a taste like there was an infection. The one thing I did that was maybe suspect was to add a little more sugar when bottling, but I usually do that. Probably won't try kit this again, which is a shame as I love hoppy beers.

 

[Crappyfish]

Stick with it I made a Youngs IPA as my first kit after years of absence it was great.

 

[GhostShip]

Mine turned out pretty awful. Not sure why. Brewed as instructions. Was in the FV for maybe three weeks, been bottled for nearly two months. It doesn't have the HB taste or a taste like there was an infection. The one thing I did that was maybe suspect was to add a little more sugar when bottling, but I usually do that. Probably won't try kit this again, which is a shame as I love hoppy beers.

That's really odd. Something has clearly gone wrong - or there was an issue with the kit extract to begin with. I've made the kit twice (and my third batch was bottled yesterday) and it's definitely one of the best on the market if you like lighter, hoppy, craft-type beers. It also seems to be pretty reliable.

 

[napolean]

Yeh, this is the first kit that's turned out plain bad, and I've done quite a few. I spend ages cleaning and rinsing and noticed no off-smells during the process. I'm hoping that it'll improve. It's still a bit cloudy. However, I bottled some dregs at the bottom of the FV that were sludgy and labelled them, they've really cleared up.

 

[sponge86]

Hi guys, I'm 17 days into this kit as we speak. It's my third ever home brew and just wanted to ask a question to those more experienced... I forgot to take the S.G. until after I added the yeast, and taking it afterwards gave 1.064, which seemed kind of high. I read that yeast can increase the gravity slightly, can anyone confirm that? And if so, by how much roughly does it change it? I'm currently sat at ever-so-slightly above 1.010, it tastes beer like - pretty damn bitter, but definitely not still sweet - and it's been stable for a few days (maybe like a fraction of a point difference but it's hard to be sure). I think I'm ready to dry hop for a couple of days before bottling but I'm SUPER paranoid about bottle bombs... I kind of messed up my last brew and ended up having to open up the bottles out of sheer paranoia - they sent geysers of beer at the ceiling... So basically my question is even though the kit manual recommends a final gravity. of 1.007 or below, does it sound like I'm probably safe to think it's ready?

Cheers!

 

[terrym]

@sponge86
When you make wort from a kit which contains just malt extract and maybe you add some additional sugar the OG will always be as predicted against a particular wort volume; it can't be otherwise . So if you put x kg LME and y g sugar into your FV and made it up to z litres the OG will always be the same whoever makes it up. This is unlike AG where grain mashing efficiences can be different from predicted and these affect the OG, and perhaps the FG.
So if you only used all of the malt and sugars that came with the kit (excluding the priming sugar) the only thing that can raise the OG from where you expected it to be is a reduced wort volume, irrespective of what your hydrometer told you.
Anyway moving on the most important reading for brewing kits imo is really is the FG. In particular as you have recognised bottling too early can cause bottle bombs. As far as your kit is concerned at 1.010 there is likely to be some way to go. And although some people apparently got this kit to ferment out within a few days others like me did not find this. For me one was well over 20 days before I considered it done enough to add the hops, other people even longer. So I suggest you leave it alone for another 3/4 days then take another reading. If its below 1.008 its nearly there and you can add your hops although it might even finish up as low as 1.006

 

[Kenboy]

Hi guys, I'm 17 days into this kit as we speak... So basically my question is even though the kit manual recommends a final gravity. of 1.007 or below, does it sound like I'm probably safe to think it's ready?

Cheers!

It you get down to 1.010 & it's stable, go ahead and bottle it. I've done this kit 3 times and haven't ever got it lower than 1.009.

I often forget to take a sample b4 adding the yeast. After checking I can never see any difference in the OG. I also keep the sample near the FB as this gives me an indication of what is going on inside the bucket and it saves me having to take further samples until I'm ready to dry hop.

 

[TonyCall]

I did this kit a few times a couple of years ago and like @Kenboy I never got below 1.009. If the gravity reading stays the same for three days then it's ready to bottle.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I want to get some bittering hops into this kit what's the best way?

 

[Crappyfish]

Dont know if it's a common thing to do or even a reliable way to check if fermenting has finished but I stick my nose into the FV and do a big sniff and if it's still fermenting I get a feeling in my nose of the gas from the bubbling, if it's done I dont get a tingle in my nose. It works for me never let me down I believe I picked it up from my dad when he made wine.

 

[pms67]

Maybe I should have posted here

 

[Waggy91]

Just started this kit today while my bulldog double ipa conditions.
SG:1.054
Brewed to 23 litres in a 30l vessel after what I read about this being feisty.

Got it on an ink bird in the shed set to 22C wrapped in a few blankets.

this is my second kit, the double ipa is leaving lots of sediment In the bottles So trying to avoid that this time. Will be leaving for 3-4 weeks in fv.

 

[pms67]

This is the reason I wouldn’t “pimp” a kit, for £20 there is 3kg of LME ,100g of Chinook,Simcoe and Centennial, 6 or 700g of dextrose, priming sugar and 20g of West Coast yeast.
One question though, it’s been so long since I done this kit what’s people’s opinion on the yeast?
I’m so used to using CML yeast and I’m not sure what brand comes with this but I can’t remember any problems from before

 

[pms67]

Compared to the miserly 6g of yeast with some Muntons kits it’s a decent amount

 

[Waggy91]

Does anyone know if the Krause can lift the yeast out so it gets stuck to the side of the fv?

had mine going 3 days and noticed the bubbles had all but stopped. Noticed a lot of scum on the inside of the fv where the Krausen got high. Gave it a shake and it started bubbling again?

 

[Waggy91]

Looks like this has fermented in 5 days at 22C. Gravity is 1.008. Gonna leave it for 2 weeks total and let it settle. Tastes and smells great though so don’t think the fast fermentation has done any damage.

 

[pms67]

Looks like this has fermented in 5 days at 22C. Gravity is 1.008. Gonna leave it for 2 weeks total and let it settle. Tastes and smells great though so don’t think the fast fermentation has done any damage.

I’ve had fermentation’s that fast although this kit usually takes a while.
Good beer at the end of it though