Bulldog, Evil Dog Double IPA

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Old thread but just brewed this yesterday and pretty excited about it. Until now I've only brewed Coopers, mainly dark ales etc (couple of full grain batches that didn't go that well 😑) Great kit, much prefer the full liquid malt rather than using dry ingredients, and finishing hops included is awesome too. Got a OG of 1060, looks like it will ferment under 1010 judging by the comments so should get 7%+. I brewed yesterday at 12:00 and it's bubbling away this morning. I have mine in the kitchen though so it's about 22-23°. Will be adding hops near the end and kegging (well pressure barrelling). 🤞
 
Old thread but just brewed this yesterday and pretty excited about it. Until now I've only brewed Coopers, mainly dark ales etc (couple of full grain batches that didn't go that well 😑) Great kit, much prefer the full liquid malt rather than using dry ingredients, and finishing hops included is awesome too. Got a OG of 1060, looks like it will ferment under 1010 judging by the comments so should get 7%+. I brewed yesterday at 12:00 and it's bubbling away this morning. I have mine in the kitchen though so it's about 22-23°. Will be adding hops near the end and kegging (well pressure barrelling). 🤞
That’s what I did. I’ve had 2 too 7% and brewed one fir a friend that came out at 9.1%. I use a bee fridge and ferment for 3 weeks. The 7% ones I brewed didn’t taste of alcohol but had a slight ‘twang’.
But generally a great kit.
 
Interestingly I brewed this on Sunday, very active fermentation since monday morning (could have been overnight) and this morning, which is less than 72 hours later no more bubbles. Also the yeast cake seems to have conpacted nicely. I looks like how I'd expect it to look at a week or more. I'll take a gravity reading later but this seems TOO fast?
 
Sitting at 1018, I'll check again tomorrow but the SG was 1060 so only looking like 5.5% which is a bit disappointing.
 
Sitting at 1018, I'll check again tomorrow but the SG was 1060 so only looking like 5.5% which is a bit disappointing.
Sounds like a stuck fermentation. It will be on the sweet side if you can't get the gravity down further. Could try giving it a gentle stir to rouse the yeast.
 
Yeah you're right Graz. I think I've stressed them out as the temp has been all over the place recently. I've given it a swirrel as I don't really want to take the lid off and risk O2 getting in, especially since I've still to dry hop.
 
Hello everyone.

What a great (old) thread. - i've been reading through every comment in this thread.
This is my second time homebrewing.
First time was the standard "1,75 kg Bulldog Beer IPA Kit", which was a great success. The beer came out really good, and i experienced absolutely no problems underway in the process.. The only "downside" to the beer, was that i didnt think it was really comparable to other ipa's, in terms of level of hoppyness.
Therefore i recently ended up buying this evil dog double ipa.

I started the process april 11 at a little past 8 in the afternoon, instead of 23L, i filled the fermenter up to 24L, in hopes that it would lower the final products alcohol content a bit, without watering down the taste too much. The next morning, the airlock was already bubbling, and over the next couple of days, the bubbling intensified. unfortunately, on day 1, i dropped my hydrometer on the floor, which led to alot of glass and metal balls all over my floor.. because of this, i was not able to take a OG reading, and i wont be able to take a FG reading either. Anyways, im going to describe how the fermenter has been bubbling, although im aware that its not the best way to judge the brewing process.
around day 3-4, the airlock bubbled around once every 5-10 seconds. now, im on day 11, and the bubbling has slowed down significantly.. 9 days into the ferment, i timed the time between bubbles in the airlock, and it bubbled around every 2mins and 15 seconds, whereas today, 11 days into the ferment, it takes around 10 mins for bubbling action. judging by other comments on this thread, i see that this generally takes around 3 weeks to ferment completely for most people, instead of the 7-10 days in the instructions. I have a feeling that my fermentation has been a bit quicker then most other people here, since the fermenter has been at a constant 23-24C, instead of "normal" room temperature, which is around 20C. Therefore, my plan is to add the hops in a couple of days, maybe on day 14, then i plan on leaving the hops for around 2 days, and then finally, bottling on day 16/17.. i have both 330ml and 500ml bottles. My plan in to add 1 coopers drop to each bottle, regardless which size (330 or 500ml), and store the bottles in another room at around 20C. I hope there wont be any bottle bombs lol.
Anyway, i intend on taking one of the bottles from the storage room after a week has passed, putting it in the fridge, and then have a taste. I will make an update once i reach that milestone.
 
Just a quick update - Today is day 14 in the brewing process.
I just added the hops to the FV, and since i already had it open, i made sure to take a sample of the beer with a sanitized glass.
So far, the taste is amazing, even without the dryhops.. It tastes like a real storebought craft beer.. i cant wait for the final product!
I also did a PH test of the sample i collected, and it came in somewhere between 4-5 on the ph scale, closer to 4.. So everything seems to have went perfect thus far.
By the way, before drinking out of the glass with the sample, i had a smell.. That stuff is extremely potent.. i could sence the alcohol vapors in the nose.. But the wierd thing is that when tasting it, it did not feel as strong as it most likely is.. the current taste of the beer is very "deep and dark".. I have a feeling that the complex taste might be the reason that you don't taste the alcohol as much..

So far, everything seems to have gone perfect! - I will make an update again later on :)
 
Just a quick update - Today is day 14 in the brewing process.
I just added the hops to the FV, and since i already had it open, i made sure to take a sample of the beer with a sanitized glass.
So far, the taste is amazing, even without the dryhops.. It tastes like a real storebought craft beer.. i cant wait for the final product!
I also did a PH test of the sample i collected, and it came in somewhere between 4-5 on the ph scale, closer to 4.. So everything seems to have went perfect thus far.
By the way, before drinking out of the glass with the sample, i had a smell.. That stuff is extremely potent.. i could sence the alcohol vapors in the nose.. But the wierd thing is that when tasting it, it did not feel as strong as it most likely is.. the current taste of the beer is very "deep and dark".. I have a feeling that the complex taste might be the reason that you don't taste the alcohol as much..

So far, everything seems to have gone perfect! - I will make an update again later on :)
Kennie
This was my favourite of the bulldogs but I’ve been band from drinking it as SHMBO says that I’m a changed person after drinking a couple of pints so be warned 🥴
 
Alright, so here is the update after 1 week of secondary fermentation. The beer has absolutely no head when poured. The carbonation is like a beer that has been opened for a little too long. The taste of the brew itself is very good (although I very much dislike "flat" beer). But to be honest, I don't find the beer nearly hoppy enough. I dry hopped for around 3 days in FV before bottling. I used both the Simcoe and the Summit hops and made sure to put them in a cup with hot water straight from the kettle for 10 minutes before adding it all to the brew. I think the carbonation might get better by fermenting longer in the bottle since I still find it to be slightly sweet.

So, while I will drink it all later on, when it hopefully gets some more carbonation, I'm not a big fan of this beer. I like a really hopped beer, one that has an extreme amount of hop aroma/taste, which is why I bought this double IPA kit to begin with. I find it odd that the brew doesn't have enough hop aroma, given it's a double IPA, and the fact that when I opened the hop "envelopes" with the hops in tea bags inside, the aroma coming off of them was extremely potent and delicious. But it's like they never really transferred their deliciousness to the brew.

After bottling, I took out the hop bags from the bottom of the FV and opened them. Then I had a smell of the inside of the "hop pellet mass," and the smell was still very strong on the inside of the lumps of hop pellet mass. It almost feels like the tea bags themselves did not allow the beer to get into the hops and take their aroma. Almost like the fabric of the tea bags is so tightly woven that it only allows the hops to uptake moisture from the brew, but not really transport the hop flavor to the brew. But that's just a thought I have. I'm not sure that's the problem.

All in all, the beer, as of right now, is a 5/10, I would say. After more carbonation, I would most likely rate it 8/10 - not as an IPA, but just a general "special beer." By the way, the smell that the Simcoe hops had when opening the envelope is exactly the kind of beer I like. That taste is what, for me, is a perfect IPA. The Summit hops also had some good aspects to the smell, but at the same time, they had some kind of "spice" smell that I'm not a fan of. If anyone knows a beer kit that produces a beer with lots of Simcoe-like taste, please let me know!
 
Update - Tried another beer yesterday (2 weeks in bottle) - The carbonation has improved.. still not optimal levels of carbonation, but much better then week 1!.. Also, this beer is so strange.. When drinking it, you dont really feel the effects of the alcohol, so you have another pint.. after the second pint, you start to wonder if the beer is at like 1% or so.. but then suddenly you are drunk as fk.. very interesting..
 
Okay, so it has been a couple of months since i brewed this beer, and i really need to comment this important observation.
When brewing this beer, please for the love of god, before you add the dryhop, remove that stupid teabag that they come in.
I have just recently brewed another beer called "muntons hazy ipa". They supply you with 4 different bags of hops, where 2 bags are added day 2, and the other 2 bags are added on day 14.
This munton beer i just brewed, is bursting with hop flavor.. This has made me realize that the teabags for evil dog double ipa, does not allow the beer to flow through the hops enough. The swell up inside the teabag, and then the hop oils and stuff that is at the center of the swelled mass, never gets exposed to the beer in the fermenting vessel, thus not allowing the beer to uptake the important aromas. The only downside to cutting open the teabags, and dropping the hop pellets straight into the liquid, is that whenever you go to bottling, there could be sedament in the beer.. This can easily be avoided by putting a strainer or a 1 time teabag (the ones you can get at most supermarkets) - over the hose/siphon. Trust me, it would make a world of a difference. I know that evil dog most likely made their teabags for the convenience of not having to deal with the particles, but the teabags really seem to hinder the hops from doing their job.
 
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