After seven long weeks I finally got to drink my first homebrew last night! Dead Ringer IPA extract kit from NB. I was satisfied to find that it is quite drinkable, but it's definitely not great.
This beer has rave reviews on NB - over 100 and nearly all 5/5 stars. Many others did this for their first brew and were ecstatic about how great it turned out. Something in mine is definitely off, so I'm hoping someone here can shed some light on what I may have done wrong.
First, it has an extremely malty aftertaste. I like malty beers but this one is supposed to have a well-balanced hop/malt taste. I would say it is at least as malty as He'brew Lenny's RIPA maybe moreso (obviously without the rye taste) and in fact it is even darker in color than Lenny's. Dead Ringer is supposed to be a pale amber color.
That doesn't bother me terribly, other than the fact that it's not supposed to be that way. What does bother me is that the hops seem underpowered, and the finish of the hop taste also seems off. I'm having a hard time describing it, but the finish is an extremely bitter perhaps grassy taste. I've read on other parts of this forum that it might be from dry hopping too long, but I'm not sure if they were just too old. I dry hopped it exactly 1 week before bottling day (instructions said dry hop for 1-2 weeks). At least it has a great aroma.
I pretty much followed the recipe and instructions found here, with exceptions noted below.
Here are some things I did that were probably wrong or less than ideal:
1.) The recipe kit was about a year old (it's been a busy year, lol)
2.) The temperature during fermentation ranged from 71-75 (I live in Florida and can't afford to keep the temp much cooler, and a water bath won't fit in the closet I have available right now).
3.) The boil actually went for 65 minutes instead of 60 due to accidentally adding some hops too late. I decided to just let the hops boil for the correct amount of time.
4.) I let the beer sit in the fermentor (6 gal glass carboy) for a total of 4 weeks and 5 days (no secondary), then bottle conditioned for 2 weeks.
5.) Oh, and don't ask about hydrometer readings because I forgot to measure the OG :O
6.) Probably something else I don't know about...
This beer has rave reviews on NB - over 100 and nearly all 5/5 stars. Many others did this for their first brew and were ecstatic about how great it turned out. Something in mine is definitely off, so I'm hoping someone here can shed some light on what I may have done wrong.
First, it has an extremely malty aftertaste. I like malty beers but this one is supposed to have a well-balanced hop/malt taste. I would say it is at least as malty as He'brew Lenny's RIPA maybe moreso (obviously without the rye taste) and in fact it is even darker in color than Lenny's. Dead Ringer is supposed to be a pale amber color.
That doesn't bother me terribly, other than the fact that it's not supposed to be that way. What does bother me is that the hops seem underpowered, and the finish of the hop taste also seems off. I'm having a hard time describing it, but the finish is an extremely bitter perhaps grassy taste. I've read on other parts of this forum that it might be from dry hopping too long, but I'm not sure if they were just too old. I dry hopped it exactly 1 week before bottling day (instructions said dry hop for 1-2 weeks). At least it has a great aroma.
I pretty much followed the recipe and instructions found here, with exceptions noted below.
Here are some things I did that were probably wrong or less than ideal:
1.) The recipe kit was about a year old (it's been a busy year, lol)
2.) The temperature during fermentation ranged from 71-75 (I live in Florida and can't afford to keep the temp much cooler, and a water bath won't fit in the closet I have available right now).
3.) The boil actually went for 65 minutes instead of 60 due to accidentally adding some hops too late. I decided to just let the hops boil for the correct amount of time.
4.) I let the beer sit in the fermentor (6 gal glass carboy) for a total of 4 weeks and 5 days (no secondary), then bottle conditioned for 2 weeks.
5.) Oh, and don't ask about hydrometer readings because I forgot to measure the OG :O
6.) Probably something else I don't know about...