The Elusive NEIPA (HELP!)

Nothing special, man. Carboys as fermenters and a plastic bottling bucket and racking cane. Super simple stuff.

 

I don't "do" anything special. I use an autosiphon, I minimize splashing, I don't do CO2 blanketing or any of that mumbojumbo. My beers seem to hit their stride at week 6, and around week 8 the falloff begins. It's not as O2 free as weldwerks or odd13, but 8 weeks of shelf stability is pretty good for a homebrewed neipa. I recently picked up a keg system, and am excited to attempt a neipa. Looking forward to closed transfer, keg hopping, spunding etc.

 

The transfer from carboy (or any type of fermentor) is probably the biggest exposure to introducing oxygen into the beer at the time of bottling. The outflow end of the siphon tube has to be placed all the way to the bottom of the bucket and parallel with the side of the bucket to minimize splashing.

 

I want to make sure we're on the same page on this... when you say you don't treat your water, do you mean you don't add any minerals such as calcium chloride or calcium sulfate? Or do you just mean that you don't have to worry about chlorine?

 

Are your bottle caps tight?

 

You will likely find a huge difference in shelf life when kegging. My IPAs taste reasonably fresh for at least six months in the keg. Cheers!

 

Try brewing a NEIPA without lactose for starters, imho

 

Weedy (@honkey) who is a commercial brewer at Tombstone Brewing Company commented in a ‘NEIPA thread:

“…our cans, properly stored, have a far better shelf life than kegs for this style.”

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...se-only-when-ready.553873/page-3#post-5817403

Are you doing something ‘unique’ as regards your kegging of ‘NEIPA’ beers? How are you able to achieve a shelf life of 6 months while Weedy at a commercial brewery can’t?

Cheers!

 

Keg. It worked for me. A small investment but worth it.

 

Motion seconded.
Also, lay the tubing on the bottom of the bucket (parallel to the floor) and against the side, instead of hanging it straight down. It will create a gentle mini-whirlpool effect that aids in mixing the priming solution, of which I gently pour half when there's about an inch of beer in the bucket, and the remainder when the transfer is about half complete.

 

Do you reserve different buckets for different styles? Do you find it necessary to replace your bottling bucket after "x" number of batches, or after batches of a particularly strong and flavorful beer?
Just wondering about the life span of a bucket.

 

I have one bucket for clean beers and another for brett and mixed fermentations. I've had both for years. They still seem to work just fine.