Forcecarbing an IPA

fwiw, all beers are delicious on paper. otherwise we wouldn't brew it.

"isn't good" is a bit sketchy though. infected? green?
though it is possible the beer has not reached got to its optimal vols, this wont fix a bad brew.

4 days? if it were me, I would keep it cold, 34 degrees. add finings, gelatin if you can, and cross your fingers. still, have a back up plan. no amount of fixing will ever make "isn't good" into a beer you want to own at a party.
Cheers.

 

What's wrong with it?

 

Have you brewed an IPA that you liked in the past? How experienced a brewer are you? Just trying to gauge what your opinion is worth re: looks good on paper, I've seen new brewers get really excited about really bad ideas (even been there myself once or twice). If you post the recipe that would be helpful.

If I had an IPA I wasn't happy with I would hit it with more dry hops and try to hide behind a big hop aroma. That probably isn't going to work in four days though. With that timeframe you can't do much more than cross your fingers and hope it comes around on its own. Trying to force a beer to be ready when it isn't usually doesn't turn out well.

 

I'd say this will be time/money well spent. I think mashing without knowing what's in the water and adjusting accordingly is asking for trouble. Or it's at least asking for blind luck.

 

“I should note that the beer is getting better by the hour ..”

My recommendation is that you permit the beer to age (or “mellow” if you prefer that word) more. I recognize that it is conventional wisdom that IPAs should be consumed young/fresh. It has been my consistent experience with both my homebrewed IPAs and some commercial IPAs as well that a bit of ‘extra time’ (e.g., 1-2 weeks of ‘extra’ conditioning post packaging) leads to a more enjoyable beer. My theory/guess is that the hop aroma/flavors need some time to ‘meld’ together.

I would also encourage you to research your water as well.

Please report back whether some extra time leads to improving flavor of your IPA.

Cheers!

 

I have found that my hoppy beers take a little time in the keg before the flavor peaks.

 

Seems like a good recipe, so yeah you might want to look at the water. Though in my experience, most water is fine for most styles as long as it is carbon filtered to remove whatever form of chlorine your municipality puts in it.

 

As others have commented, it takes time for everything to come together. It looks like you are about the 3 week mark . . . way too early to expect great results. My clone of Pliny started out rather poor . . . tasted at dry hop, then racking, and was not pleased. Now it's 5 weeks old the taste is really starting to develop. All it needed was time. You want to drink your IPAs fresh, but fresh starts when the beer has finished conditioning. Every time I taste one before the six week mark I wonder why I bothered.

Regarding switching to all grain: I suggest you take a hard look at your mash/sparge techniques . . . this is what's new to you. Don't ignore your water analysis, but this is where you can improve efficiency and taste. With some help, I discovered several errors I was making that weren't covered well by Palmer (and others). Things like mash tun design, temp control, and wort collection are key steps. The good news is once you figure it all out, you are pretty much set. This is where I would put my efforts.

 

Maybe it's because you are drinking it on paper. I pour mine into glasses.

 

When ever I keg a beer from the primary I always pour off a pint or two before I drink it. A lot of particles and yeast that was suspended in the beer will settle on the bottom and will be the first thing poured out of the keg. I wonder if this is what you tasted.

 

Sounds like a classic case of a "problem" that will take care of itself with a little conditioning time. Will it be ready by Thursday? Let's just say I would be sure to have a back-up plan.

 

Post the water report. pH can be a problem for hop flavor if out of range. Flavor ions also help. Try putting a pinch of gypsum in a glass.