Beer Forum

Hello, Im new to brewing and to this forum.. but very excited about the whole thing..
I received a beer making kit for my birthday with two ingredient packs.. (both everyday ipa's from brooklyn brewshop) but i found the first batch to be a bit boring in taste.. no real orange zest taste as one might expect from a nice ipa.. so my question is; is there a way i could spice up my next batch a bit without making things to complicated?

Hope you guys can help me!

Thanks

Welcome!

Try adding an extra oz of Amarillo in about the last 5-10 minutes of the boil, and add an additional oz of dry hops in the 2nd week of fermentation.

Other citrusy hops will work too. Cascade, Centennial, or Columbus will add grapefruity flavors. Citra adds a lot of fruity and citrusy notes. Nelson Sauvin adds lemony notes. Galaxy will add tropical fruit flavors. Chinook will add piney notes.

You should go to the HopUnion web site and check out the hop guide for desctiptions of what the various varietals taste and smell like in the finished product.
http://www.hopunion.com/hop-varieties/

hope this helps

perfect, yes that helps a lot! I'll probably brew it this weekend... i'll let you know how it turns out

Thanks!!

ok so with a bit of delay i finally brewed yesterday! I ended up getting 1 oz of citra and 1 of centennial.
But while brewing started doubting the fact if the 1 oz you mentioned was actually meant for a 1 gallon batch or for 5..? It seamed like a lot of extra hops....!

it was definitely for a 5 gallon batch.

I have an IPA I make that uses mostly late hops.

Divide all the numbers in half because it's for a 10 gallon batch, but it is absolutely NOT out of the ordinary for a well hopped IPA. I included the thought process behind the recipe in the commentary. That might help you and anyone else who is new to brewing and/or recipe formulation.

http://www.brewtility.com/ViewRecipe.aspx?RecipeID=50

Hope this helps-

haha ok, so i def. put in to much hop than... anything i can do to save it or is it going to be awful ?
Should i still put in some hop in the 2nd week of fermentation ?

Thanks,

How much time was left in the boil when you added them?
These hops were very late so you will get a lot of flavor and aroma but not a lot of bitterness.
Let this play out and be sure not to dump it. I love a lot of late hops so it may end up tasting really good.

That said, you can always brew another batch (without the extra hops)
and blend them before bottling if the hop character is too intense.

1 gallon is not a lot so you have a lot of room to play with this. Wait for it to finish before passing judgement.

I added them around 5 minutes before i ended the boil.. so shouldn't be to bitter!

Ill let you know how it turns out, kind of curious what it will taste like!