Hello!
Was attempting to brew an IPA/NEIPA for the first time, and it turned out waaaaay different than I was expecting. Instead of slightly sweet w/ grapefruit/citrus hop notes, I have sour + bitter (haze is there though!).
BOM:
- 7.7 Gallons of RO water
- 16oz Cascade Hops
- 6.6 lbs of 2 Row (Great Western 2-row)
- 4.4 lbs of Flaked Oats (bulk from Winco)
- Llallemand Voss Kviek (Dry Yeast)
My Cleaning process before the brew (day before):
1. Soak everything needed on brew day in PBW (3.75 oz in 5 gallons of hot water) for ~30m
2. Soak fermentation vessel in PBW for ~30m
3. Clean vessels for holding water (2, 5 gallon food safe buckets)
4. Soak and scrub wort chiller in 2 gallons of Star San
4a. Bought wort chiller used and was a bit grimy, so let it soak for 4+ hours then scrubbed
My process for this brew (using brew in a bag method):
1. Heat 7.7 gallons up to ~160F (took ~45m).
2. Mash @ 154 for an hour (yes, I hit this target temp).
2a. Stir mash ~15m.
3. Strain grain bag and squeeze out as much wort as possible.
4. Heat to boil (took ~30m).
5. Boil for 30m.
5a. @ 15m, add wort chiller in order to sanitize.
6. At flame out, start to circulate cold water through chiller and add 2oz of hops.
7. Once at 100F, take out wort chiller and dispense wort into fermentation vessel.
8. Add rest of hops (trying to avoid dry hopping in order to not oxidize beer, this is where I think I screwed up)
9. Pitch yeast
10. Shake fermentation vessel (didn't shake it vigorously, as siphoning into fermentation vessel left quite a bit of bubbles on the top, making me think that the wort was plenty oxygenated).
Fermentation:
It was really hard to keep fermentation temperatures up. Where I live, we are in a weird cold spell (usually June is in the 70's and 80's outside and our ambient temperature in the house matches that). I tried to wrap the fermentor in a couple blankets to keep temps up, as I know the yeast likes it hotter. I would guess that I was able to keep the yeast at an average of ~78F. Fermentation went off on the first night, then the next few days activity was gradually less and less. Took one reading at 3 days and gravity was a 1.010. Took another at 6 days and gravity was at 1.010. At this point I thought fermentation was basically done, even though there was a very small amount of activity in the air lock.
Kegging:
Soaked keg in PBW for ~30m and ran PBW through dip tube/beer lines. Soaked keg in Star San for same amount of time, and dispelled sanitize out of beer lines, leaving a ton of foam in the fermentor. At the same time, I also soaked some silicon tubing in Star San to prepare it for transferring beer to keg. I let it soak for about 30m (I did not clean from manufacturer, thought sanitizer would be enough). Once beer was in the keg, I purged the head space and let it sit at 25psi overnight, then the next day had to tweak hosing due to a gas leak. Once I fixed the gas leak (took roughly an hour), I set the gas to 12psi and it has been sitting 3 days at the time of writing.
Tasting:
The beer tastes sour-ish (hard to describe), with a hint of bitterness from the hops. There is no discernible malt flavor, and the beer doesn't have any head retention. Initial pour has a decent head, then it dissipates very shortly after.
A couple notes:
- I wanted a sweeter end product, hence the slightly hotter mash.
- My brew kettle is a converted keg. When transferring work from brew kettle to fermentor, I totally forgot to sanitize the spigot, though I did run a bunch of PBW through the spigot the day before.
- My brew bag was new, and I rinsed it out before using in order to make sure there weren't any manufacturing particles.
- I understand adding hops at yeast pitch is a bit unorthodox. I was trying to rush to get brew day done, and meant to perform step 9 before step 8 (though I am unsure if the outcome would be different).
- Forgot to take an OG reading *facepalm*.
All that to say: does anyone know where something may have gone wrong?
I am thinking it may be in the transfer from brew kettle to wort, and dry hopping before yeast pitch. Please let me know if any clarification is needed on any of the points. I have tried to be thorough, but it is quite a brain dump.
Was attempting to brew an IPA/NEIPA for the first time, and it turned out waaaaay different than I was expecting. Instead of slightly sweet w/ grapefruit/citrus hop notes, I have sour + bitter (haze is there though!).
BOM:
- 7.7 Gallons of RO water
- 16oz Cascade Hops
- 6.6 lbs of 2 Row (Great Western 2-row)
- 4.4 lbs of Flaked Oats (bulk from Winco)
- Llallemand Voss Kviek (Dry Yeast)
My Cleaning process before the brew (day before):
1. Soak everything needed on brew day in PBW (3.75 oz in 5 gallons of hot water) for ~30m
2. Soak fermentation vessel in PBW for ~30m
3. Clean vessels for holding water (2, 5 gallon food safe buckets)
4. Soak and scrub wort chiller in 2 gallons of Star San
4a. Bought wort chiller used and was a bit grimy, so let it soak for 4+ hours then scrubbed
My process for this brew (using brew in a bag method):
1. Heat 7.7 gallons up to ~160F (took ~45m).
2. Mash @ 154 for an hour (yes, I hit this target temp).
2a. Stir mash ~15m.
3. Strain grain bag and squeeze out as much wort as possible.
4. Heat to boil (took ~30m).
5. Boil for 30m.
5a. @ 15m, add wort chiller in order to sanitize.
6. At flame out, start to circulate cold water through chiller and add 2oz of hops.
7. Once at 100F, take out wort chiller and dispense wort into fermentation vessel.
8. Add rest of hops (trying to avoid dry hopping in order to not oxidize beer, this is where I think I screwed up)
9. Pitch yeast
10. Shake fermentation vessel (didn't shake it vigorously, as siphoning into fermentation vessel left quite a bit of bubbles on the top, making me think that the wort was plenty oxygenated).
Fermentation:
It was really hard to keep fermentation temperatures up. Where I live, we are in a weird cold spell (usually June is in the 70's and 80's outside and our ambient temperature in the house matches that). I tried to wrap the fermentor in a couple blankets to keep temps up, as I know the yeast likes it hotter. I would guess that I was able to keep the yeast at an average of ~78F. Fermentation went off on the first night, then the next few days activity was gradually less and less. Took one reading at 3 days and gravity was a 1.010. Took another at 6 days and gravity was at 1.010. At this point I thought fermentation was basically done, even though there was a very small amount of activity in the air lock.
Kegging:
Soaked keg in PBW for ~30m and ran PBW through dip tube/beer lines. Soaked keg in Star San for same amount of time, and dispelled sanitize out of beer lines, leaving a ton of foam in the fermentor. At the same time, I also soaked some silicon tubing in Star San to prepare it for transferring beer to keg. I let it soak for about 30m (I did not clean from manufacturer, thought sanitizer would be enough). Once beer was in the keg, I purged the head space and let it sit at 25psi overnight, then the next day had to tweak hosing due to a gas leak. Once I fixed the gas leak (took roughly an hour), I set the gas to 12psi and it has been sitting 3 days at the time of writing.
Tasting:
The beer tastes sour-ish (hard to describe), with a hint of bitterness from the hops. There is no discernible malt flavor, and the beer doesn't have any head retention. Initial pour has a decent head, then it dissipates very shortly after.
A couple notes:
- I wanted a sweeter end product, hence the slightly hotter mash.
- My brew kettle is a converted keg. When transferring work from brew kettle to fermentor, I totally forgot to sanitize the spigot, though I did run a bunch of PBW through the spigot the day before.
- My brew bag was new, and I rinsed it out before using in order to make sure there weren't any manufacturing particles.
- I understand adding hops at yeast pitch is a bit unorthodox. I was trying to rush to get brew day done, and meant to perform step 9 before step 8 (though I am unsure if the outcome would be different).
- Forgot to take an OG reading *facepalm*.
All that to say: does anyone know where something may have gone wrong?
I am thinking it may be in the transfer from brew kettle to wort, and dry hopping before yeast pitch. Please let me know if any clarification is needed on any of the points. I have tried to be thorough, but it is quite a brain dump.