Don't really consider myself a beginner anymore but just wanted to post this for the beginners.
I made a pretty volatile batch of IPA (fermentation started within hours and was still actively going three weeks later). Once I thought it was finished, I started taking gravity readings to confirm. Three-and-a-half weeks in the fermenter and I got two of the same readings so I suspected it was done. I tasted it and took some notes and used words as "piney," "leafy," and "leathery" for the aroma and taste. I was honestly wondering if I ruined the beer (it was my first recipe from scratch) and how I could dry hop it so that it didn't smell like rotting wood and taste like worn leather shoe! I went out of town for a week and took one final gravity upon returning last night; got the same reading as last week so it's definitely done fermenting. I tasted it one last time before dry-hopping and just in the last week in primary it REALLY mellowed into something that will be pretty darn good.
Just goes to show what 7 days can do...
I made a pretty volatile batch of IPA (fermentation started within hours and was still actively going three weeks later). Once I thought it was finished, I started taking gravity readings to confirm. Three-and-a-half weeks in the fermenter and I got two of the same readings so I suspected it was done. I tasted it and took some notes and used words as "piney," "leafy," and "leathery" for the aroma and taste. I was honestly wondering if I ruined the beer (it was my first recipe from scratch) and how I could dry hop it so that it didn't smell like rotting wood and taste like worn leather shoe! I went out of town for a week and took one final gravity upon returning last night; got the same reading as last week so it's definitely done fermenting. I tasted it one last time before dry-hopping and just in the last week in primary it REALLY mellowed into something that will be pretty darn good.
Just goes to show what 7 days can do...
