Youngs American IPA

terrym · Dec 14, 2018

Eight Ace said:
Mine appears to have gone to pot .

The hop flavour has gone and it's become rather harsh and, well, homebrewy. It's weird as the first one was glorious and it seems to have fell off a cliff in the 2 weeks since. IlI' be leaving them alone until Christmas now in the hope that it mellows out. If not then I'll have to bid it farewell.

On the plus side, my burco could do with being tested out.....

In my experience, this kit is best drunk young, i.e. as soon as it's clear. Leaving it to 'mature' after then didn't make much difference to it, in fact as time passes the effect of the dry hop slowly disappears and it will all be gone after about 4 months or even sooner, and what you are left with is quite a harsh taste as you have found out.

GhostShip · Dec 15, 2018

That’s all of my AIPA poured down the sink. Smelt and tasted disgusting - and as black as Guiness. Might get the replacement kit Young’s sent me underway this weekend which should help me feel a bit better about things.

stephen1546 · Dec 15, 2018

Hello

My Youngs AIPA. This has been in the bottle for 1 month. A little cloudy i think but the taste has become more subtle. In the beginning after being in a bottle in a warm place.. The beer had a mad hoppyness to it. Mellowed out now. Tastes good

Eight Ace · Dec 16, 2018

Further update on my AIPA issues.

Thanks for the responses, yep all bottled in Cooper's PET bottles. I dont think these are the issue (though currently amassing a load of glass anyway!). They've carbed fine and the beer neither tastes stale or off. Just incredibly harsh.

Tried another today, it's improving and the hoppiness is in the background. Whilst not harsh anymore I do think it's the dreaded HBT. But as mentioned it is improving so think I'll just have to be patient.

As for the cause, there's two things I can think of possibly. Whilst in date it was an old kit I'd found as a last minute back up si might have a bearing. Also I did add sone Calcium Sulphate to the FV whilst knocking it up.

At least it's drinkable now!

terrym · Dec 16, 2018

Eight Ace said:
Also I did add sone Calcium Sulphate to the FV whilst knocking it up.

In my view when you are making up kits treating your water for salts and hardness makes little or no difference to the finished product, and the same goes for extract brewing. Treating the water for salts is only really necessary when you are brewing with grain. However you may need to treat your brewing water if there are chloramines present in the tap water which which is different and applies to all types of homebrewing.

GhostShip · Dec 31, 2018

My AIPA is bubbling away in the FV now. As others have mentioned previously, when I open the brew fridge door, there’s a very strong, slightly unpleasant ‘eggy‘ smell. I’m hoping it’s nothing to worry about. I’ve set the temperature to 21C for fermentation and everything else looks fine.

Meza · Dec 31, 2018

Good luck with this one!

Had my first bottle yesterday. Tastes good, and it's its strong too.

GhostShip said:
My AIPA is bubbling away in the FV now. As others have mentioned previously, when I open the brew fridge door, there’s a very strong, slightly unpleasant ‘eggy‘ smell. I’m hoping it’s nothing to worry about. I’ve set the temperature to 21C for fermentation and everything else looks fine.

MJB · Dec 31, 2018

this is one;y my third brew so still learning. I started mine off yesterday and it appears to be doing well so far. Good fermentation has started. I've got min in a bucket fermenter in my kitchen (21-24c). It gets great reviews so hoping it turns out well. Ive purchased a set of bottles for this one and going to bottle this brew so I can chill it down before drinking it!

Im expecting PF for 12 days before adding this hops for 2 days and the bottle - does this sounds about right to you?

Thanks
Martin

stephen1546 · Dec 31, 2018

Its really good, done this kit a few times, it can take a while to ferment out, my last kit took 16 days. I hopped mine for 4 days.

terrym · Dec 31, 2018

MJB said:
Im expecting PF for 12 days before adding this hops for 2 days and the bottle - does this sounds about right to you?

Be prepared for this beer to take a long time before it's time to add the hops, so don't rush it. I did this kit twice and it took 17 and 20 days before I added the hops, although I fermented it at 19*C. And I suggest you leave the hops in longer than 2 days, say between 4 to 6 days, with the last two days in a cold place to help clear the beer. And if you have not dry hopped before you will need to either put the pellets in a bag or filter them out with something or you will undoubtedly end up with hop bits in your beer. More here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/a-newbies-guide-to-dry-hopping-your-beer.61045/

MJB · Jan 1, 2019

thanks for the advice - i'll try not to be too impatient with the fermentation! and dry hop for 3-4 days.

Apophis · Jan 1, 2019

I am brewing this at the moment SG was 1.058 and after 8days it was down at 1.008 I have been using a brew cupboard set to 22degC.
I have dry hopped it @ 8degC for two days and this was the first time using pellets I found that they throw a cloud into the brew I have now taken the teabag out an lowered the temp again to 5degC and will leave it for a week to clear then bottle

GhostShip · Jan 2, 2019

Apophis said:
I am brewing this at the moment SG was 1.058 and after 8days it was down at 1.008 I have been using a brew cupboard set to 22degC.
I have dry hopped it @ 8degC for two days and this was the first time using pellets I found that they throw a cloud into the brew I have now taken the teabag out an lowered the temp again to 5degC and will leave it for a week to clear then bottle

8 days? Blimey, that has to be a new world record for AIPA.

Apophis · Jan 2, 2019

Well I will have to ring the Guinness book of records then and get them to verify
Like I said brew cupboard set to 22Deg c and I let the brew thermalize before pitching the yeast it had reached 6.5 / 6.7 % depending on calculator so
I took it of the yeast and now sitting clearing after dry hopping.
I also had the eggy smell during the process but only when the fridge / brew cupboard door was opened

It has been at 5.5 deg for 1 day now so it will be interesting to se how long it takes to clear before bottling can take place

MJB · Jan 2, 2019

Is it a good idea to reduce temperature before adding the hops? Ive read that co2 can reduce the flavour so I guess lowering the temperature will help with this as the yeast will stop working / producing co2..... If this is the case, if you leave the beer to clear before bottling are you in any danger of there not being enough residual yeast to carbonate the beer?

Apophis · Jan 2, 2019

I made a coopers larger kit and dry hopped this with citra hops and lowered the temp on that and still got good carbonation when bottled that is what I’m drinking now I short brewed that and got it to 5.8% and is a good clear amber larger however I think I will increase the sugar buy a gram per bottle next time
Also bring the temp back up before bottleing
And leave in a warm place once bottled for a couple of weeks

terrym · Jan 2, 2019

@MJB
Don't complicate things!!
Add the hops when the primary has all but finished, but don't reduce the temperature. This allows the yeast to clean up and gives the best extraction conditions for the hops (you don't make tea with cold water). Then towards the end of the dry hop reduce the temperature as far as you are able for a day or two, which will help to drop the yeast and also help to remove most of the hops from suspension, although you will still need to filter out some hop bits if you haven't used a bag. I usually dry hop for six days total with the last two days in a cold place. And unless you have left your beer in the cold for a few weeks rather than a few days, even though it may look clear at packaging time, there will still be enough yeast present to carb up your beer, it just takes a little longer that's all.

terrym · Jan 2, 2019

Apophis said:
Also bring the temp back up before bottleing

Why?

Apophis · Jan 2, 2019

If you leave the brew low and bottle the yeast will work a lot slower than if you bring it back to room temp this enables the residual yeast to kick start quicker than if you keep the brew low in temp that is why

Also dry hopping for more than 72 hours is a wast of time as the hops will do there thing in the first 48 -72 hours

terrym · Jan 2, 2019

Apophis said:
If you leave the brew low and bottle the yeast will work a lot slower than if you bring it back to room temp this enables the residual yeast to kick start quicker than if you keep the brew low in temp that is why

Having taken the trouble to reduce the temperature to help clear the beer, why not just package at the lower temperature and then allow the packaged primed clear beer to warm up to carbing temperature in its own time? If it's in a bottle that will be within a few hours only.

Apophis said:
Also dry hopping for more than 72 hours is a wast of time as the hops will do there thing in the first 48 -72 hours

We have different views on that.

Youngs American IPA

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