[Erik_Mog]

Hello everyone.  Newbie brewer here.  I've always been good at drinking beer, and decided it was time to give making it a shot.  I'm already a professional chef, so I guess amateur brewer can go along with that.  For my first batch, I am doing an American IPA.  One of our local breweries, Raleigh Brewing Company, also runs Atlantic Brew Supplies, so I picked up one of their equipment kits, that included a copy of "How to Brew".  The beer I am doing is from one of RBC's recipes...Half Nelson IPA.  It is an extract and specialty grain.  It was,t in a pre-packaged kit form as they will print you the recipe, and then you go and measure, weigh, crush the specialty grains, and whatnot all of your ingredients.

I did the boil, and got it in the fermenter on Monday afternoon.  It showed a few bubbles forming in the airlock after about 5 hours, and has been bubbling steadily since, and has a good kraeusen on top.  I will be leaving it in the primary for at least 2 weeks, and dry hopping with 1 oz of Nelson Sauvin for 3 days before bottling.

For this style, will 2 weeks in the bottle be sufficient for a drinkable beer, or should I wait longer before cracking one open?

I'm not sure if I will ever get into all-grain brewing or stick with extracts, due to time and space constraints, although BIAB looks intriguing.  I had to get a propane burner as my stove at home is pretty weak.  I only have a 5 gallon boil pot so I had to do the boil with 3 gallons, and top of with water in the fermenter.  Before the next batch I will probably get at least an 8 or 9 gallon pot, and a wort chiller.  An ice bath and chill stick brought the temp down to 70F in about 30 minutes, but an immersion chiller looks like it would be faster and more efficient.

Anyhow, wanted to introduce my self and hope to get to know some of you.  I'm sure I will have more questions in the future.

[HoosierBrew]

Welcome to the forum! You (and your significant other) may be surprised at the amount of time you'll burn here.     As for the beer, 2 weeks in the bottle at room temp may be plenty for good carbonation, maybe not quite enough. Depending on the yeast strain you used, it should be fully carbed in 2-4 weeks. You can speed up the process by putting the primed bottles in the warmest room of the house. Good luck.

[yso191]

I'm sure 2 weeks in the fermenter will be sufficient.  However, weird things happen so a gravity check is always a good thing to do.  If your final gravity is within a point or two of what was predicted and is constant over two days, you're done!

Welcome!  I think a culinary perspective is essential in brewing beer.

[Erik_Mog]

Welcome to the forum! You (and your significant other) may be surprised at the amount of time you'll burn here.     As for the beer, 2 weeks in the bottle at room temp may be plenty for good carbonation, maybe not quite enough. Depending on the yeast strain you used, it should be fully carbed in 2-4 weeks. You can speed up the process by putting the primed bottles in the warmest room of the house. Good luck.

The yeast called for was Wyeast #1056, and it will be primed with 3.93oz of corn sugar.

[blair.streit]

Welcome! Fortunately (or unfortunately) this hobby laughs in the face of your time and space constraints. Many late nights, two chest freezers, half a closet and half a garage later my wife is still supportive (or she hides it very well).

One word of caution on How to Brew. It's a fantastic book and John Palmer is a great brewing mind. He's currently in the process of revising it though, as he says some of the information is dated and would not be his advice today. The biggest one that comes to mind is the "secondary fermentation" for typical/ales lagers (he no longer recommends this). So, if you come across anything that seems complicated or doesn't make sense, you may want to check another source.

The good news is, there are lots of experienced folks here who are willing to help, so don't be afraid to ask. I wish I knew about this place when I first started -- that process likely would've been a lot easier 

[klickitat jim]

Fun stuff! Welcome to the hobby! If you have more hops you might feel free to dry hop with more than an ounce. I like one ounce per gallon in my IPAs and many consider that still too little.

[Erik_Mog]

Fun stuff! Welcome to the hobby! If you have more hops you might feel free to dry hop with more than an ounce. I like one ounce per gallon in my IPAs and many consider that still too little.

Being my first batch, I feel safer sticking to the recipe so I can get the basics (I'm a little chicken at this stage) and see how it goes.  It does have a lot of Hops in it already (I think anyway):

.5oz each of Cascade and Falconer's Flight in First Wort
.5oz Simcoe at 60min
1oz Falconer's Flight & .5oz Cascade at 15min
1oz Cascade at 5min
.5oz each of Falconer's flight and Simcoe at flame out. 

The recipe says it comes in at 70.6 IBU.  Guess we will know in a month or so.....

[69franx]

Welcome aboard. The recipe does look good. As others have said, might be light on hops. I have no experience with Falconer's flight but have used the others and like them a lot. my most recent IPA used 15oz between boil, whirlpool, and dry hopping for a 6 gallon batch. Its a lot of hops, but its what I like. This forum is awesome for answering any spur of the moment questions rapidly and most of what you will see here is helpful and easy going. I started out with kits and an 8 gallon kettle doing extract plus stepping grains, now 3 years later I use a 15 gallon kettle, have a chest freezer, etc, etc, etc for my 5-10 gallon all grain batches. It really is an addiction or obsession if you get to liking it.

[klickitat jim]

Fun stuff! Welcome to the hobby! If you have more hops you might feel free to dry hop with more than an ounce. I like one ounce per gallon in my IPAs and many consider that still too little.

Being my first batch, I feel safer sticking to the recipe so I can get the basics (I'm a little chicken at this stage) and see how it goes.  It does have a lot of Hops in it already (I think anyway):

.5oz each of Cascade and Falconer's Flight in First Wort
.5oz Simcoe at 60min
1oz Falconer's Flight & .5oz Cascade at 15min
1oz Cascade at 5min
.5oz each of Falconer's flight and Simcoe at flame out. 

The recipe says it comes in at 70.6 IBU.  Guess we will know in a month or so.....

I totally get it. Do what you're doing. My tip on dry hops is just fyi, in the event the aroma is low, you'll know the possible cause and fix.

[Erik_Mog]

Fun stuff! Welcome to the hobby! If you have more hops you might feel free to dry hop with more than an ounce. I like one ounce per gallon in my IPAs and many consider that still too little.

Being my first batch, I feel safer sticking to the recipe so I can get the basics (I'm a little chicken at this stage) and see how it goes.  It does have a lot of Hops in it already (I think anyway):

.5oz each of Cascade and Falconer's Flight in First Wort
.5oz Simcoe at 60min
1oz Falconer's Flight & .5oz Cascade at 15min
1oz Cascade at 5min
.5oz each of Falconer's flight and Simcoe at flame out. 

The recipe says it comes in at 70.6 IBU.  Guess we will know in a month or so.....

I totally get it. Do what you're doing. My tip on dry hops is just fyi, in the event the aroma is low, you'll know the possible cause and fix.

And I appreciate your and everyone else's suggestions.  I'm pretty sure I will be using them down the road as I get more comfortable with what I am doing.  I am already trying to figure out what I want to do for the next batch.  I have an idea of what I want to do, just can't decide.

[juggabrew303]

Welcome Erik! You're taking the right approach IMO starting out.  Get comfortable with the basics and your process first before anything else. You're off to a good start this is an awesome "life style"

Two weeks is plenty for carbing in my experience.  You can chill one bottle after 10 days to check carbonation.  I know I was impatient after my first batch.

I also honestly would recommend a 10 gal pot. I picked up a 9 gal which works but boils overs sometimes are cutting it close.  Have fun man



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