First Brew Advice

[MrLiam]

G'day all,

First timer here.

For reference, i'm using a coopers brewing kit, but not a coopers recipe. I went into my local brewing shop and purchased a kit from there, that came with the following;

Wal’s IPA 1.5kg Lt Liquid Malt
500g Lt Powdered Malt
150g Caramunich 1
12g Cascade, Citra & Azacca (Inf.),
M44 Yeast

I followed the instructions I was provided, however ran into a little bit of confusion. The hops came in three separate "tea bags" filled with their respective hops pellets, and the instructions said "remove tea bag from foil, place into mug and add boiling water and stand for 10 minutes. Add to fermenter (bag and all) just prior to adding yeast."

So that's exactly what i've done, but i'd love some clarification if tossing the bags into the fermenter was the right call? And if so, what do i do with them from here, do they stay in for the entire fermentation time, or do i remove them at some stage?

Thanks in advance!

 

[philrob]

Just leave them in there while you are fermenting. Dispose of them along with the rest of your trub/yeast/hops residue after you have bottled/kegged your batch and you are cleaning your fermenter. No need to worry about it. Good luck.
You probably don't have temperature control for your fermenter, but that is something to consider for the future, as that actually is a big step in producing quality beer.

 

[MrLiam]

Just leave them in there while you are fermenting. Dispose of them along with the rest of your trub/yeast/hops residue after you have bottled/kegged your batch and you are cleaning your fermenter. No need to worry about it. Good luck.
You probably don't have temperature control for your fermenter, but that is something to consider for the future, as that actually is a big step in producing quality beer.

Ah thanks for your swift reply, wonderful, that's what I was thinking, but nice to have some confirmation!

And thanks for the tip, that'll be my next step after this brew or another one or two, work out what gear I can add or improve upon.

Cheers

 

[MrLiam]

Update, it's been in the bottles for 3 weeks, I tried it last night and it was extremely sugary to taste. Any idea what I've done wrong? Or does it just need more time?

 

[Ditchnbeer]

Best guesses are either final gravity (FG) was high (under attenuated), or bitterness too low (didn't extract properly). It is important to measure original gravity (OG) and FG with a hydrometer, to ensure fermentation is complete. If under attenuated there is a chance of making 'bottle bombs' which can be slightly dangerous

 

[MrLiam]

Best guesses are either final gravity (FG) was high (under attenuated), or bitterness too low (didn't extract properly). It is important to measure original gravity (OG) and FG with a hydrometer, to ensure fermentation is complete. If under attenuated there is a chance of making 'bottle bombs' which can be slightly dangerous

Yea I did use a hydrometer and had three days in a row where the reading was the same, which I thought indicated it was finished fermentation?

 

[bradmcm]

Well, it had _stopped_ fermentation, not necessarily _finished_ fermentation. The final gravity should be somewhere around one quarter of the original gravity.

 

[MrLiam]

Well, it had _stopped_ fermentation, not necessarily _finished_ fermentation. The final gravity should be somewhere around one quarter of the original gravity.

I see, looking back at my notes, my starting gravity was 1.046, and final was 1.010, after about 12 days in the fermenter.

 

[bradmcm]

Then it had finished. I'm not sure why you are tasting sugar, 1.010 is not sweet. Try again in a few weeks and possibly take a bottle in to your homebrew shop and get their opinion.

 

[MrLiam]

Then it had finished. I'm not sure why you are tasting sugar, 1.010 is not sweet. Try again in a few weeks and possibly take a bottle in to your homebrew shop and get their opinion.

Ok, thanks for the advice. I'll give it a few more weeks and hope it improves.