First homebrew: Scurvy Cure IPA

Looks good, matey...argh!

I believe your LMEs already has Carapils and crystal in it...so you might want to leave it out of your next batch if your FG is too high on this one. (a lb of sugar for a 5 gal batch might be a little excessive also, IMHO.

Cheers

 

Personally I think adding the sugar is a fine idea. It will dry it out and let the hops shine a little brighter. More of a west coast style. Looks like a great beer. Nice name too.

 

Unless you're going for something specific with the carawheat, you could simplify your grain bill pretty significantly - I would probably go with just 6.6 lbs of Golden Light LME and the dextrose, or 6.6 lbs Pils LME + some crystal if you wanted a little more crystal character than a typical golden LME will yield. The way you have it written is by no means bad, but you could simplify it if you want.

The hops I would definitely tweak - switch out the bittering hop to Magnum or Horizon and save the Citra for a late addition. Also, the 30 min additions are pretty useless. Given your total quantities of hops (3oz Citra, 2oz Galaxy, 1oz Simcoe), I'd go with something like this:

Magnum/Horizon @ 60 min
1oz Citra @ 10 min
.25oz Galaxy @ 10min
1oz Citra @ Flameout
.75oz Galaxy @ Flameout
1oz Simcoe @ Dry Hop
1oz Citra @ Dry Hop
1oz Galaxy @ Dry Hop

You can tinker around with those quantities as you see fit, but the Citra, Simcoe, and Galaxy are all going to shine as late additions and/or dry hops, putting them in any earlier than 15 min left will lose a good portion of the aromatics and flavor from them. Let a clean hop do the heavy lifting early in the boil, then use your flameout and dry hops to build up a massive, juicy aroma.

 

I like it as-is. Do tell how it comes out. I'll put my money on "tasty beer."

 

If it ain't dry yeast and you're doing 5 gallons, you always need a starter.

Dry yeast = 200 billion cells
liquid yeast = 100 billion cells

average (non-imperial) beer (5 gallons) requires 200 billion cells

this assumes optimal yeast freshness, and is a gross generalization. Better to use a calculator every time. If you use a calculator, you'll see that liquid yeast plus 5 gallons = starter every time.

 

"If it ain't dry yeast and you're doing 5 gallons, you always need a starter."

Pretty damn true...unless it was something like a Berlinerweisse...for a ~ 3% ABV sour beer...who cares...I should have probably only used a 1/2 a pack on the one I brewed a week ago...cheers

 

You underpitched. But that doesn't mean your beer is doomed. Also, bubble counts are not a good quantitative indicator of fermentation activity.

Next time, try the Mr. Malty Calculator or the YeastCalc Calculator. Or you could try the yeast calculator integrated in BrewCipher, a general (and free) brewing spreadsheet.

 

Yes. It may not be a great beer, but chances are it will be quite drinkable. It's your first batch. You'll probably enjoy it.

I'm generally not a proponent of serial pitching, but I can't say for sure that it wouldn't help in this case.

 

Probably. A lower pitch rate often means a slower fermentation, so it will probably need to stay in the fermenter longer in order to finish. And some of the potential problems associated with underpitching are helped by time in the presence of yeast. You can always taste it before bottling to see if there are any off flavors that still need to be cleaned up.

But try not to worry about it. As I said before, it's likely this beer will be quite drinkable.

 

You'll be fine man. I usually leave in the primary for 2 weeks and have never had a problem. Let the yeast clean stuff up. Let us know

 

Bud light has its place. So will this. Just hope its not down the drain like Bud light lime.