I racked to secondary today, after about a month left in the primary due to the July 15 and 22nd floods that have kept us busy. Our basement rose to about 80 degrees during that time, so I hope no odd flavors or aromas are born from that. My FG was 1.013, making my ABV 8%, due to the 60 degree pitch OG and the 77 degree secondary OG. Should be a good beer from what I’ve read but I’m concerned about the heat. Also, the beer is a lot darker that I thought, but who cares if it taste great I guess. Now I’ll let it set until early October, then dry hop for a week.
Tag Archive for 'secondary'
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Moved to secondary. Took a FG reading and got 1.004 HOWEVER, I did realize after testing my hydrometer in water, that it is off by .002-.004. So, with a 1.048 SG and a 1.006 (corrected) FG my ABV will be ~5.6% (taking into mathematical consideration of 60 degrees reading for OG and 67 degrees for FG). Very light in color, similar to the Patersbier.
There was very subtle hoppiness to the beer, granted I needed to add my dry hop addition. (ADDITION – I dry hopped 2 days after this post). I think bigger boils are better for IPAs (see below), so maybe I wasn’t able to extract all the acids properly. Would have liked to capture those sharp Chinooks. Loved the smell. Actually let Abby taste one of the hop pellets. For the record she’s not a fan of pure hops 
For my tastes right now, I think I’m going to step up and take a swing at the Double IPA kit. It is a pricey kit but compared to a $12/6pk of great IPA beer in my basement, I’ll have 2 cases for $60. That’s ok with me.
I did learn something today after talking to NB on the phone. I was asking about a “hop tea” that is often used when doing a brew with large malt extract bill. The hop tea is a side boil just for your early addition hops that you time along with your primary boil. It is so that there is a purer extraction of the alpha acids from the hops. Otherwise, if I added the hops to the primary boil, the sugar level would be so high that chemically, the extraction process would actually be hindered quite a bit. More on this when I post the Double IPA brew day.
I dry hopped my first beer tonight. It was a simple process. Poured 1 oz of Cascade pellet hops right into the secondary. Prior, I heated my carboy up to 70 degrees. I was told that the beer will absorb the hops for a better aroma at that temperature. I’ll likely leave them in for 2 more weeks and then bottle. They are supposed to fall out of suspension and accumulate on the bottom with the hibernating and dead yeasts. They really expand within 24 hours as seen in the photos.
I racked to secondary with a FG of 1.010. My OG was 1..060, giving me an ABV of 6.7%. The beer had a great aroma, worthy of IPA stature. My sample was a dry mouth feel and first sip taste was bitter/dry turning to malt and the lingering taste was more hops than malt, which I think is good. If it carbs up decent I’m excited about this beer. A little darker than I expected but I dont’ really care. All about the taste on this go around.