Fresh Squished IPA

Hi all, So this is my second brew and i made sure to follow instructions to the T…it says the OG is 1.064…mine came in at 1.056. After two weeks in primary my gravity is at 1.011. Is this pretty normal. As of now i have abv at 5.91%. Transferred to secondary today to sit for a week then will dry hop for another week. Will my FG change much or stay same?..Will bottle condition for two more weeks as the directions call for. Made the Chinook previously which turned out ok but i did make a couple mistakes which i made sure not to make this time. (Monitoring temps, aeration before pitching yeast)…Overall it came out pretty good . Having fun with my new hobby though! Any help or ideas is appreciated.
Thanks!

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Extract or all grain? If extract it can be difficult to get a consistent gravity reading, especially if you are “topping off” after the boil.
Your gravity is pretty normal for fermentation. It really shouldn’t drop much after going to ‘secondary.’ Maybe a point or two if that. Really secondary is simply a brite vessel to get the yeast to drop and the beer to clear up. After your dry hop check your gravity. If it’s still at 1.011 bottle it up and start that carbonation!

Thanks for the feedback…This was an extract kit. My first time using the secondary (Big Mouth Bubbler) and am wondering about using a muslin bag or buying a type of metal mesh cylinder to put hops in for the dry hop process. I really don’t want any hop sediment since it is nice and clear of that now. On the subject of gravity are you saying my OG is not too accurate since I had to top off the wort with added water? I did aerate it pretty well before my measure of OG. I am ok with where the abv is at the moment. like them around 6% - 8%. Thanks again!

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I use the big mouth bubbler and gave up on dry hopping in the depth charge that they sell for the purpose. I have best luck just tossing the hops in free range style and filtering when I siphon with a organza bag I put on the end of the tube in my bottling bucket

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If you save yeast to repitch you can use a muslin or nylon bag to contain most of the hop debris.
In regards to your OG- if you use top off water to bit your 5gal volume it. An be difficult to get it completely mixed and often results in stratification which can give low or high readings. If you used all your extract and hit 5gals then your OG is what is specified in the recipe.

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Good deal…thanks for the input. Two weeks till I bottle it then two weeks conditioning. Going good so far. Hope its Hoppy!

I had one more question about dry hopping. I have read that this recipe is grapefriuty in flavor and i wondered if anyone has added grapefruit rind or anything else during the dry hopping week to add a little more flavor.

You can add some peel in the last moments of the boil. You want to grate the peel and not get any of the bitter pith. I use a micro planer for this because it’s not really capable of reaching the pith.

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So I just added 1oz. Citra and 1oz. Mosaic hops to the Big Mouth secondary. I just popped the top and poured them straight into the beer. I’ll wait another week until I bottle I guess. That is what the recipe calls for. Would longer make it more hoppy or just condition it better? Thanks for the input. I appreciate all your guys help!

Google Scott Janish + Dry hopping. It’s worth the read.
Short answer is that there are various opinions.

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IME you don’t get much more out of your hops after 5 days or so. The more you use the more likely you are to get vegetal flavors over time.

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Gotcha, ill give it 5 days then check FG and then on to bottling it. I think I’m going to give it two weeks bottle conditioning then I’ll try it.
:v:

So the hops are floating on top of the beer after one day. The question i have is will the introduction of oxygen when adding the hops to the Big Mouth Bubbler hurt the beer? Is there a way to purge the O2 from the Bubbler or is this not necessary?

Your going to hope there is a small secondary ferment from the hops… Mine are floating right now too… Usually get saturated enough to sink… Got a bottle of CO2? Just blast a small bit into the opening of your fermenter… How do you rack out of the fermenter?
Sneezles61

Going to transfer into the bottling bucket then bottle it up. im going to filter it into the bucket as I siphon as squeegeethree said above.

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So my batch has been in bottles for 7 days. Planning a cookout in 4 more days and want to drink some of these Fresh Squished ipas. Is 11 days long enough for conditioning? I did notice my last batch was better the longer it was in the bottles. Opinions?
Thanks!

Gonna be tight. At what temp are you conditioning them? If below 70° I would move them somewhere warmer. Then make sure you get them cold the day/night before so the CO2 will be absorbed better.

In my basement on floor so probably like 66°-68°…I can move upstairs to a closet until the weekend then get em cold. Only reason I’m pushing for this weekend is my son and his wife wants to try them out otherwise I would wait longer. Guess we can just try a couple for now. Thanks

Move them somewhere warmer. Then, you could ‘flash’ chill one using a water/ice solution and see if the carbonation is where you want it before putting them in the fridge.

Heating/seed starter pad? I do not know if it hurts to heat up past 70*…
Sneezles61