Two weeks ago tomorrow I brewed my first five gallon batch. I did the Highrise IPA kit from Northern Brewer. It had a hop profile that looked good to me so I went for it.
The NB site suggested a starter and since I didn’t want to mess with that I pitched two packs of Wyeast 1272. I finished the brewing at about 11pm and had a an OG of 1.060 which is slightly off of the kits stated 1.068. No big deal. Maybe I didn’t have it mixed well and maybe I didn’t get all the extract out of the jugs. No worries on my end. Close counts.
The next morning I saw a few bubbles. When I got home from work it was bubbling pretty good. About 48 hours in and it was churning like crazy. I was a little worried as the stick on thermometer was only reading about 58-60 degrees which I was constantly thinking was too cold.
Yesterday, after about 12+ days the huge foamy krausen dropped. The beer has started to clear up but is noticeably still bubbling and churning.
My plan is to wait two more weeks (four weeks from brew day) and take spaced hydrometer reading to see if fermentation is finished and to see what my FG is. After that I’ll pitch my dry hops into the primary for 5-7 days before bottling.
I think I’m good to go but would love some support or criticism! All help as I’m learning is certainly appreciated.
Sorry for being long winded but I’ve been lurking and reading for a long time and am really enjoying this.
[quote=“mrv”]I’d say you’re good to go. You’re not in a rush to bottle, you kept the temp. low, probably anal about sanitation.
If you haven’t already, warming up a bit to finish out can help. Welcome to the forum. :cheers: [/quote]
MRV, is there a way to warm it up to finish? Is it just moving to a warmer ambient temp room? I’ve read that the ambient temp has little effect on the temp inside fermentation. Any help is great!
Yes simply move it to a warmer area. Not sure where you read that about ambient temps but they have EVERYTHING to do with ferm temps. Usually your ferm temps will easily be 3° above ambient. So if you are fermenting at 70° ambient you can easily be 73° actual ferment temps.
Dryhoping in the primary is fine if you are not going to reuse the yeast. Personally I would transfer to secondary before dryhoping.that way the yeast is cleaner for reuse.
I wasn’t planning to reuse the yeast but after doing some reading that might be a good option. I do have a second carboy I can use.
Regarding raising the temp. I could move the primary to a warmer 70 degree room or just leave it where it is (60 degree). Is it worth it to make the move to warmer temps for a week or two?
OK, brought the space heater into play and have it at 70. Took a gravity reading today and it is at 1.012. That gives me a calculated abv of 6.3%. I may have overshot the five gallon mark.
Using an online calc this gives 79% apparent attenuation. Wyeast 1272 is labeled as 72-76% attenuation. Should I be happy with where I am at?
The hydrometer sample has a very clean hop flavor. No off flavors that I can detect. Will be interesting to see if I eek out a bit more fermentation. If it is truly done then I move on to dry hopping.
