My Austin Homebrew's PTE clone: Looking for some insight.

[Mordhaus]

I started this extract kit two weeks ago everything went well. I tried some new (to me) procedures like steeping in .75 gallon of water per pound of grain, a late addition of 5 of the total 8 pounds of LME ten minutes before the end of the boil, made my first starter with my handy new Stirstarter. Nailed O.G., got the mountain of hop material/trub filtered out going in to primary. It was a great brew day.

This brew loved the 66 degree ferm chamber and fermented actively for six days, then I turned the temp up to 72 for the rest of primary. I pulled it out the other night to take a gravity reading and rack to secondary. Gravity was at 1.011 and the beer tasted fantastic. I was pumped. I racked it to secondary and as I basked in it's glory, crap, I meant to rack on top of the hops for dry hopping. No worries, I just funneled them in on top.

The next day rolls around and I thought, crap, I should have waited until the last week to dry hop. Now my brain is scrambling. What to do? This beer tasted phenomenal and I want to try and keep it that way.

This was going to be a six week beer. Two in primary, four in secondary, cold crash the last week, keg and then let it carb at 12psi on it's own until it's ready, no force carbing. I then wanted to let it sit for a couple of week with only small tastings here and there to let it age a bit.

Since that plan has changed, here's my new rough plan and I'm looking for thoughts/ideas/criticism, whatever.

-It's been in primary for two weeks.
-Let it dry hop in secondary for two weeks, cold crash the last four days.
-Keg and let it slow carb on it's own and give it a taste after two weeks.
-Try and leave it alone for another two weeks, then give it hell.

I think my main concern is leaving it in secondary for only two weeks, but it's because I've always left beers in secondary for four and it's all I know. If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with my novel.

 

[Peruvian802]

The recipe doesn't call for waiting that long.

 

[g-star]

You seem to have a lot of unnecessary steps and waiting. This beer should not be aged, fresher is better.

Assuming you pitched enough healthy yeast, oxygenated, and had a controlled ferment, there is no reason to age a beer like this for more than a few days after it has hit FG and you are done with the dry-hopping. Excessive contact time with the dry hops can also result in unwanted vegetal flavors.

If it were me, I would dry hop for 5-7 days, cold crash it, keg and burst carb it. You'd be drinking it less than 30 days from the time you brewed it, and it would be at the peak of freshness. This is how I do most of my IPA's, but I don't bother with the secondary nonsense, which is just another way to introduce unwanted oxygen.

 

[Mordhaus]

Well, this thread has reminded me that no matter how prepared you think you are, you'll overlook the dumbest detail. This is my fourth brew and all along, even though I knew the right way, I've been making a big mistake. When a beer says it takes 'X' weeks, they are factoring in time for bottle conditioning. I don't bottle, I keg. I've been leaving my beers in secondary two weeks too long. I knew this going in to kegging and still completely missed it. No telling how long I would have gone on making this mistake. Funny thing, this homebrewing. Thanks for the response g-star. It's what triggered my "wtf were you thinking".

 

[ronjonacron]

Something to put in your toolbox for down the road: most hoppy beers are better young as hop aroma/flavor will fade over time. More reason to enjoy it quick!

 

[Mordhaus]

This beer turned out to be the best thing I've made to date. It sat in primary for two weeks. I transferred it and dry hopped it for 5 days, cold crashed for 3 days, and force carbed for 48 hours. After that it was still a little green for about 4 days. Last night it crossed over to excellence. No extract "twang", great aroma, body and flavor. I couldn't be happier with this one.