123josephg
New Cornwall Brewer
Hi all,
Newbie to beer brewing here. i brewed a couple of all grain brews in South Korea (where I was living), but with the help of a friend who was an expert.
No, I've moved back to the UK and bought some equipment to start brewing down here. I've got most of the basic things i thought I needed. Four gallon kettle, fermenting bucket, Hydrometer, bubble air lock etc.
I tried brewing an IPA, and followed a recipe online. I was aiming to make 4 gallons. Here's the process I followed, and the issues I had listed below. I've also included what I think went wrong, but i'm unsure. help appreciated!
1) boiled 3kg of extra pale malt with as much water as would fit in my 4 gallon kettle, for 40 mins.
2) Sparged, (into bucket) added cold water to the wort, and sparged again, until i had 4 gallons of wort.
3) Added back to the (cleaned kettle) and added cascade hops (32g as I recall) and boiled for a further 45 mins.
4) Added citra hops (cant remember amount) at flameout
5) Cooled in a sink of cold water, and racked into fermentation bucket.
6) Added dry yeast packet (English ale) Heres where i think I went wrong, i think i added the yeast whilst it was still too hot. As I got some funky banana-y flavours i had read about.
7) Let ferment for 2 weeks. Not much seemed to be going on. Didn't see much going on in the airlock or the bucket.
8) Racked into a barrel, and added 2 tablespoons of sugar and dry hopped with 40g of Chinook hops in a muslin bag.
9) left for further two weeks.
The result was a pale, cloudy, extremely bitter mess. It also didn't have any carbonation at all. It smelled and tasted vaguely 'beer-y', and I'm pretty sure it was alcoholic, but it tasted terrible. I also couldn't work out my hydrometer. Whenever i put beer in the test cylinder, and dropped the hydrometer in, it just sank all the way to the bottom, or leaned against the side of the cylinder.
What do you think I'm doing wrong?? I think possibly I added the yeast to early and also didn't add enough sugar to the barrel? Any other ideas? I want to try another brew next week. so any help appreciated.
if anyone's got a foolproof recipe for these ingredients, I'd love to hear that as well! I have: extra pale male 3kg, Crystal malt 500g, chinook, cascade and citra hops.
TIA everyone, happy brewing!
Newbie to beer brewing here. i brewed a couple of all grain brews in South Korea (where I was living), but with the help of a friend who was an expert.
No, I've moved back to the UK and bought some equipment to start brewing down here. I've got most of the basic things i thought I needed. Four gallon kettle, fermenting bucket, Hydrometer, bubble air lock etc.
I tried brewing an IPA, and followed a recipe online. I was aiming to make 4 gallons. Here's the process I followed, and the issues I had listed below. I've also included what I think went wrong, but i'm unsure. help appreciated!
1) boiled 3kg of extra pale malt with as much water as would fit in my 4 gallon kettle, for 40 mins.
2) Sparged, (into bucket) added cold water to the wort, and sparged again, until i had 4 gallons of wort.
3) Added back to the (cleaned kettle) and added cascade hops (32g as I recall) and boiled for a further 45 mins.
4) Added citra hops (cant remember amount) at flameout
5) Cooled in a sink of cold water, and racked into fermentation bucket.
6) Added dry yeast packet (English ale) Heres where i think I went wrong, i think i added the yeast whilst it was still too hot. As I got some funky banana-y flavours i had read about.
7) Let ferment for 2 weeks. Not much seemed to be going on. Didn't see much going on in the airlock or the bucket.
8) Racked into a barrel, and added 2 tablespoons of sugar and dry hopped with 40g of Chinook hops in a muslin bag.
9) left for further two weeks.
The result was a pale, cloudy, extremely bitter mess. It also didn't have any carbonation at all. It smelled and tasted vaguely 'beer-y', and I'm pretty sure it was alcoholic, but it tasted terrible. I also couldn't work out my hydrometer. Whenever i put beer in the test cylinder, and dropped the hydrometer in, it just sank all the way to the bottom, or leaned against the side of the cylinder.
What do you think I'm doing wrong?? I think possibly I added the yeast to early and also didn't add enough sugar to the barrel? Any other ideas? I want to try another brew next week. so any help appreciated.
if anyone's got a foolproof recipe for these ingredients, I'd love to hear that as well! I have: extra pale male 3kg, Crystal malt 500g, chinook, cascade and citra hops.
TIA everyone, happy brewing!