Or at least that’s how much I should’ve yielded. This was based on Northern Brewer’s Dead Ringer IPA and their instructions (mostly), scaled to 1 gallon and done with Brew in a Bag method. I did not even come close to the OG of 1.060 that I was supposed to. Brewed on 11/10/15. The one modification I made is no dry-hopping. I made the decision not to dry-hop because it cleared up so much after racking to secondary and I didn’t want to take a chance – and I’ve never dry-hopped, feared contamination, etc. I will save that for when I’m more experienced.
Brew Day (11/10/15):
NB Dead Ringer IPA – 1 gallon – no dry hopping
Grain bill:
- 2.2 lbs 2-row (Briess)
- 0.2 lbs caramel 40L (Briess)
Hops:
- 0.15 oz centennial at 60 min
- 0.2 oz centennial at 20 min
- 0.25 oz centennial at 5 min
Yeast:
- Safale US 05
Process:
1.) measured just under 1.5 gallons (176 oz) Brita pitcher water (using cleaned (not sanitized) glass jug and cleaned (not sanitized) measuring cup) into cleaned and sanitized sauce pot (and clean/sanitized lid) (* all this pre-boil sanitization probably unnecessary)
2.) heated water to ~162F
3.) mashed in in bag 1 hour, got temp down to ~151.5F by adding some cold Brita water
flame back on low about half way thru for a bit to get temp back up
4.) mashed out, low flame and stirring by raising temp to ~168F, then let rest for 10 min
Pre-boil gravity at (around temp 100 degrees? forgot to take temp!): 1030 (adjust to about 1034)
5.) Removed bag and Boiled for 1 hr with hop additions.
6.) cooled to 68F in 32 minutes; had to add room temp Brita water to bring to 1 gallon
Post-boil gravity (OG) at 62.2F temp: 1051 – probably inaccurate since this was taken BEFORE extra water was added
7.) pitched about 1/2 (maybe a little more) of 11gram safale us05 (dry) at around 68 degrees, shook vigorously for about 1 min
Secondary
Racked to secondary fermenter on 11/14/15 – Gravity around 1010. It looked nice and clear now, but I lost a lot of liquid. A tasting too. It’s flat, young, beer! Much better than beer #1, which was skunky.
Bottling
Bottled on 11/29/15 with about .5 ounce of white table sugar. I did not make a solution with the sugar, just poured it on the bottom of my bottling bucket. That may have been a mistake. Yielded much less than one gallon, due to evaporation, avoiding siphoning the trub, and general inexperience.
Tasting
Tasted on 12/11/15. VERY low carbonation. Probably due to not making a solution of (diluting) the table sugar? Otherwise, tasted quite good… Not quite the depth of flavor or bitterness I’d like, but no bad flavors either. The OG was lower than planned, so this is probably to be expected. To attempt to carbonate more, I shook the bottles gently and moved to a hopefully (slightly) warmer location. Planning a Christmas tasting and sharing (will be 4 weeks in bottles at this point)
Tasted on 12/23/15. Still very low carbonation. It’s been in bottles about 3.5 weeks now. When it first hits your mouth, it feels like water or a flat flavored drink, because there’s almost zero carbonation. Other than that same comments as above regarding the taste. There’s very little hop aroma to it. I really have to get my nose into the glass to slightly detect it. I think the flatness is due to not making a solution with the table sugar. (?)
Tasted on 12/24/15. I shook it last night, and now… carbed! Perfectly carbonated in fact. Decent tasting beer for my second ever brew. A trace of skunkiness but I know I’ll get better at it.
Tasted on 12/25/15. I got a flat bottle or two. Seemed to be hit or miss whether it would be carbed when you open it.