First timer: how to brew in 14 days or less?

OPENED FIRST BOTTLE

This would be approximately 4 days and 19 hours of bottling time.

Bottle cooled to about 42F

Slight hiss on taking cap off.

Poured with 1 finger head!!

First taste..plenty of carbonation. Tastes like a slightly higher quality pale ale than the store bought ones I have in cans. Good bitterness. Standard issue hops aroma/flavors, a little more yeasty/fruitier/richer than store bought average pale ale. Unfortunately the more complicated mangoy tropical aromas and flavors are no longer ridiculously strong like they were in the fermenter, but next time maybe I can dry hop.

The beer is fantastic and in my opinion they are all ready to drink right now. But I will let them bottle condition for another few days. No guarantee I wont sneak another one though.

I detect no off flavors and nothing out of the ordinary. I would prefer a more complex set of flavors, but comparing this to other pale ales, I think it is what its supposed to be. Next time I think I need to do a dry hopped IPA that really focuses on complicated flavors because thats what I like.

This beer I made seems to have more alcohol than I expected..probably 7%? (total guess based on buzz alone)...I am definitely feeling it. I didnt taste it at all though.

So 4 days primary ferment and about 5 days bottle conditioning seems to have worked!

Thanks for all the help!!

Video of first bottle opened:

 

I will probably only have a couple more and then the rest will condition longer, at least 2 weeks bottle time. I didn't taste any greenness, it literally tasted just like the pale ale I bought at the store, only with a bit more hop richness and I think more alcohol (based on effect).

But yes I know that frosted mug is limiting the flavors..but wow though what a guzzle that was

Next one I will do in a room temp tulip

As far as sediment, all the bottles have a little thin white layer on the bottom, but it doesnt seem easily disturbed. It was still there after I poured and I had to work to rinse it out of the bottle.

Next time I will get some of that to see what it tastes like cuz now I'm curious

 

It did taste perfectly carbonated, I couldn't tell the difference between it and the pale ale I had last night from a can in that respect. But maybe when I try it in a warm tulip I will notice a difference.

The hiss when I popped the cap seemed right inline with what I would expect from a typical beer

 

Also the head stuck around even when the beer was gone, like whipped cream. A good finger maybe 2 at the start (see vid). Stuck to the glass too.

Can there be a head without enough carbonation?

 

Yep thats right the gose grain bag. The room temp tulip will yield some more beer science data as well as some more days in the bottle.

 

Tonight will be 7 days of bottle time

Yesterday poured into a tulip but sorry it was frosty haha! Can't resist its 106F here. So I guess it doesnt really say anything. Still had a 2 finger head and seemed to have more carbonation based on a louder bottle hiss.

Today, went to the homebrewing shop! And I took a bottle of the beer for the owner of the shop to analyze. (This is not the shop I got the questionable advice from earlier).

He poured it into a thin plastic tumbler and it had maybe a 1 finger head on his and none on mine. The smells though! Way more tropical and fruity, it all came back. Was nice to drink too. Carbonation was still there no problem.

He said it was pretty good and had plenty of carbonation and didn't seem to be infected. His main comment was that it had alot of astringency. Thats the "infinite bitterness" I tasted pre-bottling and still taste. Its not the hops he said, and now that makes sense to me. He thinks it was because something didn't go right in the mashing/sparging. Probably wrong temperature. That seems very plausible to me as the temperature control was a bit unstable and I wasn't sure when it was boiling so things got a little wacky. I actually like the astringency, but can see how it would be a fault.

He thinks its up to me to stop bottle conditioning and just put it in the 40F fridge. The carbonation is there and there arent really any off flavors so now its just about whatever aging improvements there may be. I will keep them in the 70F fridge and have maybe 1 a day, pre-chilling it to 45F to drink on demand.

I have named this beer "Too Soon Pale Ale"

SO. For the next batch, he made me up a recipe for 1 gallon. This time it will be a hazy fruity IPA (which I requested). I also said I wanted to try dry hopping. Heres the recipe he made up. I bought all the ingredients:

2# Cali Select 2 row malted barley. Shooting for 6 to 7% ABV
1/4# Carafoam (for mouthfeel/body)
1/2# Flaked oats
1/2# Flaked wheat

Yeast: Wyeast london ale III (for haziness/fruityness)

1 oz (1/4 oz each) of Citra, Amarillo, Mosaic, Galaxy at FLAME OFF
1/4 oz citra + 1/4 oz galaxy @ day 4 of fermentation (DRY HOP)

(Yep! All hops at flameout and dry hopped..no boiled hops!)

Mash @ 150F ~ 1 Gallon water
Strike water 160F
Sparge water 170F

I bought a new hydrometer. He said that digital thermometers aren't accurate but I am going to use mine anyway. I will test it against my thermocouple setup to confirm its accuracy first.

I also bought some Irish Moss just for fun

 

Yep yep..just bought it because he had lots of goodies on the shelf and it was cheap.

On this batch I will be doing proper OG and FG measurements

Can I measure tap water minerals properly using pool test strips?