Yuk

[Dave T]

just made a Dogfish 90 min ipa from a recipe I found on American home brewers site, extract version. Got good og numbers (082 vs 086), but it seems really dark, and tastes like tree bark. First ipa, -probably should have started with a kit, but that’s in the past...

Is this normal, or am I in for an interesting beer next month?

 

[Pappers_]

I wouldn't worry about it yet, I can never tell anything from tasting unfermented wort. Have hope!

There are lots of really good IPA recipes here on HBT's recipe database, too, including some Dogfish Head clones. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/#homebrewtalk-com-recipe-database.54

Once you get to the ales, lagers, specialty beer, etc., use the pull down menu to browse through particular styles, like American IPA.

 

[Dave T]

Yeah...bad beer is still beer, just drink it later in the day or serve it to people I don’t like (or who have no clue because quality beer to them is bud...)

Still have to dry hop, maybe that’ll give it some taste that’s not tree-like On a good note, my daughter home from college and we had a science day. Fun fun.

 

[Pappers_]

seriously, don't assume its going to be bad from what you taste in the wort - its nearly impossible to tell what the final product will be from what your wort tastes like

 

[Dave T]

Got it, thanks. 5th brew, first one I’ve tasted, heard it somewhere. Maybe that was pre bottling? No worries though, great day, and 5 more gallons of beer. I haven’t bought beer from a store in ages.

 

[RM-MN]

I always taste the beer before I bottle. I agree that it doesn't taste like the finished beer but I taste it to see if I have made a huge mistake and left something out.

In my opinion, we do IPAs wrong, especially ones with a high OG. We know that beers need some time to mature and that beers with higher alcohol content need more time than the low OG beers. Now we do this high gravity IPA and as soon as fermentation stops we dump in a bunch of hops and a week later we bottle or keg it. The beer would be much better if we gave it time to mature but then we start losing the hop aroma we crave. It would be much better if we left the strong IPA in the fermenter much longer to let start maturing before we dry hopped it. Then it wouldn't take so long in the bottle to get really good. It still needs some time to get heading but not as much as normal.

 

[Dave T]

So...longer in the fermenter before dry hop? I usually (yes, 4 brews worth of experience) leave in for 2+weeks, mainly due to time availability, some laziness. For this I’m hoping it’s drinkable by Christmas, but fully expect it to get better after a couple months after bottling

 

[waldoar15]

I could only ever stand the 60 minute DFH and the 90 always tasted like what you describe. So maybe it is a good clone.