First brew. What am I tasting?

Discussion on brewing beer from malt extract, hops, and yeast.
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Jim my

First brew. What am I tasting?

Post by Jim my » Mon Nov 09, 2015 11:59 am

I have brewed an extract IPA kit from my LHS.
It was in the primary for 14 days, it's been in the secondary for three weeks now at around 12C.
I want to add finings today so I can keg it in a few days time but had a little taster first.
Basically it reminds me of a grapefruit wine that I made once. I've heard of people saying they can taste grapefruit in a beer but this taste is so strong it really threw me. It doesn't taste ( to me ) like beer at all!
It is very bitter across the back of the tongue but I'm guessing that is just the hops and will subside over time.
Hops used are:
15g Herkules. Beginning of boil
40g Bravo, 40g Centennial, 40g Cascade at power off
40g Bravo, 40g Centennial, 40g Cascade Dry hop last four days in primary.
19 litres at 6.2%
Is the strong grapefruit down to the hops or has something gone wrong do you think?

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D4nny74
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Re: First brew. What am I tasting?

Post by D4nny74 » Mon Nov 09, 2015 12:11 pm

Not really educated enough in the home-brew world, but this should mello out , Ive made brews that I think “oh s**t” but have turned out really nice,

Danny

ncmcdonald

Re: First brew. What am I tasting?

Post by ncmcdonald » Mon Nov 09, 2015 12:24 pm

My guess is you are tasting the hops. Both the finishing hops and the dry hop are fairly substantial and use hops that have big citrus aromas. Although the beer is 6.2% the recipe favours hop aroma and not the malt.

I think if the beer were off it would taste sour and vinegary not bitter and citrusy. Keg it and see how it develops?

bquiggerz

Re: First brew. What am I tasting?

Post by bquiggerz » Mon Nov 09, 2015 1:45 pm

Feel free to send a bottle my way and I'll let you know ;) but seriously it sounds fine! Maybe this beer isn't for you, I've brewer one that I gave away because I just didn't like it.

Happy brewing, well in this case happy drinking,

Ben.

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Jocky
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Re: First brew. What am I tasting?

Post by Jocky » Mon Nov 09, 2015 2:16 pm

It doesn't sound like anything is wrong - you've just added a lot of quite powerful hops. It sounds great!

For a fairly big hop aroma I add 3 grams per litre when dry hopping - you've added 6g/l there, so it's going to be HOPPY.

It will fade though - I'd get it bottled soon.
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.

Jim my

Re: First brew. What am I tasting?

Post by Jim my » Mon Nov 09, 2015 10:34 pm

Thanks for the replies. I have to admit it did seem a lot of hops but as it was a kit I just bunged them all in. I'll get it kegged and carbed this week :D

faeyd

Re: First brew. What am I tasting?

Post by faeyd » Mon Nov 30, 2015 5:15 pm

WOW!!! You created a Hoppopotamus ! :) nice one - I love that grapefruit smack in the kisser from Cascade and Centennial (as does my misses). For 'normal' beer people (those who purchase theirs from stores and pubs) I brew 19L of IPA with about 50G of Citra and 50G of Amarillo total (no dry hop and only late hop additions... no 60 minute addition), all in the last 20 mins) and they still find it too hoppy in the first month or so... it all calms down in the end.

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