Tony B
Well-Known Member
Saturday morning I bought a “ Once used, Northern brewer kit” from someone through OfferUp. It included everything from the original kit (Brew Share Enjoy Homebrew Starter Kit), 2 cases of 22oz glass bottles and a rec pipe kit for “ Fresh squished” IPA.
Once I got it home, opened it all up to check it out and the only date I could find in the recipe kit was on the yeast packet. It was 4/2023. So I figured I at least need some fresh yeast.
My girlfriend and I went down to the local Home Brew Mart/ Ballast Point tasting room and figured we’d have a couple beers and get some advice and yeast. I showed the instructions for the recipe to the dude there and explained the situation. He said that since everything was about a year old and stored in unknown conditions, the only thing that was probably still worth using was the LME.
He recommended buying all new hops and yeast. There was also a small bag of grain that came with the kit and the instructions said to steep for a half hour before boiling. His advice was…
Skip the grains. Boil the bittering hops ( 1oz CTZ) for 60min. Remove from heat at 45min add all the LME. Return to boil, then drop the other hops ( 2oz mosaic and 1oz Citra) as directed, 5min.
After cleaning everything, that’s what I did. Made 2.5 gallons of sanitizer in the bottling bucket and did my best to be neat and clean.
I finally got the batch down to around 75 degrees and pitched the yeast ( White labs WLP001.
That was about 9:30pm. When I checked on it before work, around 7am, was already bubbling. Just got home a little while ago and it’s still bubbling steadily. More than I expected.
So. Please advise. Should it be bubbling that quickly?
Also, I’m supposed to dry hop with 1oz each citra and mosaic 7 days before bottling. Can I just open the lid and toss it in?
I appreciate any advice.
Once I got it home, opened it all up to check it out and the only date I could find in the recipe kit was on the yeast packet. It was 4/2023. So I figured I at least need some fresh yeast.
My girlfriend and I went down to the local Home Brew Mart/ Ballast Point tasting room and figured we’d have a couple beers and get some advice and yeast. I showed the instructions for the recipe to the dude there and explained the situation. He said that since everything was about a year old and stored in unknown conditions, the only thing that was probably still worth using was the LME.
He recommended buying all new hops and yeast. There was also a small bag of grain that came with the kit and the instructions said to steep for a half hour before boiling. His advice was…
Skip the grains. Boil the bittering hops ( 1oz CTZ) for 60min. Remove from heat at 45min add all the LME. Return to boil, then drop the other hops ( 2oz mosaic and 1oz Citra) as directed, 5min.
After cleaning everything, that’s what I did. Made 2.5 gallons of sanitizer in the bottling bucket and did my best to be neat and clean.
I finally got the batch down to around 75 degrees and pitched the yeast ( White labs WLP001.
That was about 9:30pm. When I checked on it before work, around 7am, was already bubbling. Just got home a little while ago and it’s still bubbling steadily. More than I expected.
So. Please advise. Should it be bubbling that quickly?
Also, I’m supposed to dry hop with 1oz each citra and mosaic 7 days before bottling. Can I just open the lid and toss it in?
I appreciate any advice.