re: Homebrewing: In-Process Thread

Awesome. I really believe they work and are well designed.

$100 normally but if you look you can find them on morebeer.com daily deal for $85 pretty regularly.

I'm going to attempt a double brew day tomorrow. A black ipa that I'm going to see the difference between hop bursting at 180 and dry hopping at the home brew level. Going to chill down to 180 then move half to small carboy and throw in the hops to the kettle. So a slightly longer brew session but not much.
The other is a Thomas Hardy Ale clone that has a decently long mash and a 2 hour boil.

Which one should I tackle first?

So an update on my IPA. I kegged it Sunday, and force carbed it. Tried a half a pint yesterday. It's already carbonated, though not quite the level i want just yet. Will let it carb another couple days before i try it again.

I will say, is that i don't think i care for this recipe too much. I find the IPA to be too dry. It finished at 1.009 and sits at 7% ABV with about 70 IBU's. Used Chinook, Simcoe, and Columbus. It does have a good piney hop flavor to it, but i don't care for the malt bill. Tried to make the malt bill very light, 90% 2 row, 5% Munich, 5% Vienna. Well it's light, but not enough malt backbone to give it some sweetness, and it finished very dry, though that was my target.

I think from now on, i will continue to throw some crystal 15 in my IPA's, and keep my Base malt levels to no higher than 85-88%. It's not a bad beer by any means, and will probably turn out quite good. Did not secondary this IPA, and did a large whirlpool and dry hop addition.

Again, this is also early on, so i think with a little age it may smooth out a little. I'll revisit in about a week on here with updated review of my beer.

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That said, you probably won't gt what you are looking for with that malt bill, but it sounds exactly like the kinda of IPA I love

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Well i've been constantly playing with malt bills to find what i like. And the last IPA i made before this one, was pretty close. That one was 84% base malt, 7% crystal 15, 5% vienna and 5% acidulated for PH (i use acid now). That one i really liked, however i would like it slightly lighter. So i think when i brew that one again, if i remove the acid malt, i'll be left with 87%-88% base malt, 7.5% crystal 15 and 5% Vienna. I also think that keeping the FG no lower than 1.011/1.012 will leave me with the residual sugars i like.

Like you said though, give it a couple weeks and this could end up being my go to IPA malt bill for all i know. Just happy to be dialing in my IPA's.

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I find the IPA to be too dry. It finished at 1.009 and sits at 7% ABV with about 70 IBU's. Used Chinook, Simcoe, and Columbus.

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Glad to take some of that terrible sounding IPA off your hands.

I always here that IPAs need to be drank as fresh as possible but find mine are best from about 2 weeks in the keg until they are empty, 6 weeks or so is probably the longest I've had one kegged and it was still great. I think as long as you are careful about oxidation IPAs benefit from a little cold conditioning just like any other beer.

I'll take you up on that Bug. Never had a beer of yours.

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so the way i bottle is i use some tubing and attach it to my faucet and put the other end in the bottle. I drop the pressure to about 2-4 psi and pour into bottle then cap it.

I haven't had any of my kegged beer from the bottle, so i'm not sure of how well the carbonation holds up that way.

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Every homebrew medal I have was earned by bottling my beer the same way. The carbonation will hold up just fine.

Here's another keg question. Let's say i have 2 taps on my fridge. If i were to buy a 3rd keg. Could i force carb it for a couple days, then disconnect the keg and let it sit in the fridge until i drain one of my other kegs?

I would think that it wouldn't matter, as long as i wasn't brewing anything that has a quick time limit like an IPA. Haven't came across the need yet to have a 3rd keg in the wings, but would be nice to have one or 2 more if ever i brew rapidly.