First time super bare-bones BIAB

How about this..next time I'll "juice the trub" / "future juice" and put it into its own bottle to see what I get after it carbs and conditions like the rest of the beer. Mmmmmmmm yum.

A question about liquid yeast:

So this batch used 1/3rd a packet of wyeast "activator" style liquid yeast. I put the rest in a sanitized tiny little tupperware in the fridge. Can I use it for the next batch? Will only end up being maybe 3 or 4 weeks old since opened when I use it. Should I proof it or something to confirm its good to go? Its london ale III

The little tupperware is mostly dark amber liquid, with a layer of sediment/yeast/trub at the bottom. It took on this appearance within a day or 2 of putting it in the fridge and hasn't changed since then.

Out of curiousity...could you "protect" the liquid yeast by adding enough ethanol to bring the mixture up to say 10% or so?

 

So I cheated and tried a beer two days ago. Smell was outrageous, honestly don't even know how to describe, worth the hype! Flavor so-so...just seemed like standard hop bitterness (intense and good though), couldn't taste the crazy smells. Was only at 20 psi so carbonation was pretty flat (so thats probably why). I am okay with saying this beer needs time to condition and more carbonation.

It looks like carbonation has slowed down greatly. Only about 2 psi rise in 36 hours. Should be more like 6 psi rise. I hope it can get up near 30 because I think it needs the carbonation to get the flavors going.

Because of the NEIPA oxidization horror stories I am keeping a very close eye on the color of the clear bottle beer. I've read reports that things can look fine until day 9+ and then turn purple or gray etc.. So far no color change, still looks bright and cheerful.

Can the yeast in the bottle consume the dissolved + headspace O2, just like they do in the primary?

I tried to leave only a small headspace when filling but I think I should have filled it up to the brim.

Also a side note: after reading more onilne it seems that I may be having such good luck with my first batches because of the temperature controlled fermenting/conditioning. I see people saying that all their off-flavor problems went away when they could control the temperature tightly.

 

Well here is my final report:

Carbonation plateaued at 23psi after 6 days.

At 70F thats a little lower than I would like. It was enough but I wouldn't want any less. Basically 2.2 volumes.

The aroma is insane. Exactly what I would want. Maniac fruit and yeastyness. But the flavor didn't follow. It was intense biting hops but couldn't really pick out any fruit. I think the astringency from my first batch was reduced but I am not sure.

There is only 1 bottle left. I am worried it might oxidize. All the beers I had so far looked and tasted fine. But today, I had the plastic one. It started to look darker once I put it in the freezer to cool down from 70F to 45F. And it tasted a little odd.

The one thats left is in a brown glass bottle so I can't tell what it looks like. I suppose for learnings sake I could either a) drink it tomorrow to see what if it oxidized or b) wait a week to see how it bottle conditions and maybe improves fruityness (assuming it didnt oxidize)

Is it possible the large amount of hops in this recipe are dominating any fruity yeast esters? All hops were either flameout or dry.

What kinds of things make the more complex/fruity hop flavors hard to taste?

Also one thing I noticed..BONE DRY. No sweetness whatsoever. I think this particular beer would be better with some sweetness. Can I test that theory by actually mixing in a little table sugar when I have the last bottle, to see if how it changes the flavor?