First of all, I am not an experienced beer brewer, but I have a lot of interest. I had previously brewed a Mr Beer kit a few years ago, and later became really interested in the process of making Mead.
I have brewed several gallons of mead over the past couple of years, so I decided to give an all grain IPA a shot. I stopped by a local brew supply story and he gave me a recipe and the grains and hops, then I went home and gave it a go. I went with the bag method, and it seemed to turn out pretty good once I got to the fermentation stage, but I had a lot of trouble getting the it cooled enough to add the pitched yeast, since I hadn’t anticipated cooling it as much as I needed to. After letting it sit in my garage fridge, checking it occasionally until I got it down to 85 F, popped on the airlock, then pitched the yeast. My OG (I know… way too low but I was new at this part) was only 1.012. It seemed to bubble a little, but after 2 weeks I checked the gravity (I’m quite familiar with this part from making mead) and I was only at 1.5% ABV. I pitched more yeast and waited another couple of weeks… I’m barely breaking 1.5% still. It smells like beer. It doesn’t taste bad… it’s just weak as hell.
This past weekend, after 5 weeks since I first started fermenting, I melted 2 lbs honey and 2 lbs sugar in a pot with some of my beer, added it to the 5 gallon bucket, and pitched a whole new round of yeast. I assume I’ll basically have a mead/IPA hybrid, but I’m just hoping I get up to 5% finally… but it still doesn’t seem to be bubbling. My airlock seems to be sealed really well. Does anyone have any advice?
