How to fix my IPA

[UTaustinBrewer]

Hello everybody, my first post to the forums!

I wanted to ask some more experienced brewers about a some problems and potential solutions for my second brew.

I made a strong ipa (5 gal with 6oz boil hops and 3oz dry hop) extract plus specialty grains beer.

On brew day, when I was transferring to primary fermenter, I did not account for the amount of wort the hops would absorb, and since I was not doing full volume boil (3 gallons) my target SG of 1.062 was undershot and I ended up with about 1.053 post boil after adjusting for temperature.

This means my beer is likely to be incredibly unbalanced.

The beer is currently a week into secondary, and will likely go to the fridge to cold crash for a few days before bottling.

My Questions:
1. How am I supposed to account for hop absorption? (I will be doing full volume boils from here out but maybe an extra 1/4 gallon needs to be added?)

2. Is there anything I can do at this point to improve the chances of enjoying my beer more or should I just expect a beer that will be in the fridge for too long? (thinking about gelatin fining to make it at least look nice)

3. I am thinking about switching to BIAB all grain for my next beer, does this seem like the next logical step in the learning process?(cant currently justify the cost of real all-grain setup)

 

[Euphist]

1. Did you use whole hops or pellets? Whole hops do tend to absorb more and you need to increase batch size a little. Pellet hops I bag, and raise the bag while chilling so that it can drain back into the kettle...almost 0 loss.

2. RDWHAHB. Being a partial boil, it's quite possible that the OG reading is off. If not, Oh darn...a very happy IPA.

3. Absolutely! I've been BIAB brewing for several years now. I was recently trying to convince myself to switch to a 3 vessel system (I really like shiny things :-D) and couldn't come up with a good reason to do so.

Sent from my GT-P3113 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[ArcLight]

>>1. Did you use whole hops or pellets? Whole hops do tend to absorb more and you need to increase batch size a little. Pellet hops I bag, and raise the bag while chilling so that it can drain back into the kettle...almost 0 loss.

That's not been my experience. I use a hops bag and even after raising it and letting it drain and squeezing it, it's stick squish and has some trapped wort. I couldn't tell you the total amount but it's not zero. I will estimate loss at 6 ounces of wort per ounce of hops. If you don't squeeze its going to be higher. Without squeezing I can see losing over a liter of wort to 6 ounces of hops.
Given that this is a 3 gallon boil thats around 11.5 liters. If you lose 1 to 1.5 liters and top off with water, that can account for a 10% drop in gravity.

One suggestion, not sure it's worth it, is to squeeze, then dunk/soak your hops bag in your top off water, raise the bag and squeeze some more. That will rinse out some of the trapped wort.

 

[UTaustinBrewer]

>>1. Did you use whole hops or pellets? Whole hops do tend to absorb more and you need to increase batch size a little. Pellet hops I bag, and raise the bag while chilling so that it can drain back into the kettle...almost 0 loss.

That's not been my experience. I use a hops bag and even after raising it and letting it drain and squeezing it, it's stick squish and has some trapped wort. I couldn't tell you the total amount but it's not zero. I will estimate loss at 6 ounces of wort per ounce of hops. If you don't squeeze its going to be higher. Without squeezing I can see losing over a liter of wort to 6 ounces of hops.
Given that this is a 3 gallon boil thats around 11.5 liters. If you lose 1 to 1.5 liters and top off with water, that can account for a 10% drop in gravity.

One suggestion, not sure it's worth it, is to squeeze, then dunk/soak your hops bag in your top off water, raise the bag and squeeze some more. That will rinse out some of the trapped wort.

I used pellet hops and I would guess that I lost about a liter of wort to the hops. I didn't used a hop spider or hop bag so I wasn't able to drain all the wort. Can a nylon grain bag double as a hop bag or should I find something with smaller holes?

 

[Euphist]

I used pellet hops and I would guess that I lost about a liter of wort to the hops. I didn't used a hop spider or hop bag so I wasn't able to drain all the wort. Can a nylon grain bag double as a hop bag or should I find something with smaller holes?

I made mine out of left over voile from making my grain bag and use a binder clip to hold it to the side of the kettle.

 

[ArcLight]

>>Can a nylon grain bag double as a hop bag or should I find something with smaller holes?

I used some cheap bag held on with a binder clip, like this (it holds a lot of hops, even when expanded):

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/nylon-straining-bag-10-x-23-fine-mesh.html

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/nylon-boiling-bag-8-x-9-in.html

 

[CTownBrewer]

Trial & error is your best bet on figuring out your hop absorption. If you use a program like Beersmith, you can plug in your estimated absorption loss numbers & it will give you your necessary water volumes...especially useful if & when you go all-grain.

I found that when shooting for a 5 gallon batch of IPA, I usually end up with about 4.5 gallons due to the extra hop absorption loss/trub loss. Now, I have a 6.5 glass carboy that I use for primary fermentation & shoot for 6 gallon batches. That way if I end up losing a 1/2 gallon or more, I still have 5 gallons going into the keg, usually with a few bombers to spare.

Also, search eBay for a hop spider. It's one of the best purchases I've made for pretty cheap. It contains the majority of the hop sludge & is reusable. From my experience with hop bags, they are tougher to clean & I only got a handful of uses out of each one before pitching them.

As for your current brew...what's it taste like? Is it overly bitter due to the low FG? If it's drinkable, I'd say cut your losses...bottle...& drink as is. If it's excessively bitter, you could brew a small batch of a lightly hopped beer & blend until you have the balance you want.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

For pellets I usually don't worry about it for a full-volume boil, I'm give or take a liter on my final volume anyway ;-)
For whole leaf I toss them in a 5gal paint strainer from HD. They were like $4 for 2 of them and can be re-used many times. I normally use my stir paddle to squeeze any wort I can out after the boil.
As for how to correct any potential problems... It's beer, count this as a learning experience. If it's okay, great. If not, it reinforces the need to do something different. How many kids learned what "the stove is hot" meant before they at least got close to it themselves?

 

[ArcLight]

>> From my experience with hop bags, they are tougher to clean & I only got a handful of uses out of each one before pitching them.

I've used the same bag for 3 years. Cleaning consist of turning it inside out and rinsing it. Takes a minute.

 

[UTaustinBrewer]

Trial & error is your best bet on figuring out your hop absorption. If you use a program like Beersmith, you can plug in your estimated absorption loss numbers & it will give you your necessary water volumes...especially useful if & when you go all-grain.

I found that when shooting for a 5 gallon batch of IPA, I usually end up with about 4.5 gallons due to the extra hop absorption loss/trub loss. Now, I have a 6.5 glass carboy that I use for primary fermentation & shoot for 6 gallon batches. That way if I end up losing a 1/2 gallon or more, I still have 5 gallons going into the keg, usually with a few bombers to spare.

Also, search eBay for a hop spider. It's one of the best purchases I've made for pretty cheap. It contains the majority of the hop sludge & is reusable. From my experience with hop bags, they are tougher to clean & I only got a handful of uses out of each one before pitching them.

As for your current brew...what's it taste like? Is it overly bitter due to the low FG ?If it's drinkable, I'd say cut your losses...bottle...& drink as is. If it's excessively bitter, you could brew a small batch of a lightly hopped beer & blend until you have the balance you want.

When I moved it to secondary it tasted incredibly bitter(I have had beers that had similar perceived bitterness though), I am thinking that secondary + bottle conditioning + carbonation will smooth it out a little bit(hopefully). It had really great (i mean amazing) hop aroma, but the bitterness was overpowering any other flavor.

I just did a BIAB all grain blonde ale that is in the primary now. I might save some of both and do some blending there.

For pellets I usually don't worry about it for a full-volume boil, I'm give or take a liter on my final volume anyway ;-)
For whole leaf I toss them in a 5gal paint strainer from HD. They were like $4 for 2 of them and can be re-used many times. I normally use my stir paddle to squeeze any wort I can out after the boil.
As for how to correct any potential problems... It's beer, count this as a learning experience. If it's okay, great. If not, it reinforces the need to do something different. How many kids learned what "the stove is hot" meant before they at least got close to it themselves?

Just finished reading atlas.... great book, I like your profile name btw.