Hello everyone. Newbie brewer here. I've always been good at drinking beer, and decided it was time to give making it a shot. I'm already a professional chef, so I guess amateur brewer can go along with that. For my first batch, I am doing an American IPA. One of our local breweries, Raleigh Brewing Company, also runs Atlantic Brew Supplies, so I picked up one of their equipment kits, that included a copy of "How to Brew". The beer I am doing is from one of RBC's recipes...Half Nelson IPA. It is an extract and specialty grain. It was,t in a pre-packaged kit form as they will print you the recipe, and then you go and measure, weigh, crush the specialty grains, and whatnot all of your ingredients.
I did the boil, and got it in the fermenter on Monday afternoon. It showed a few bubbles forming in the airlock after about 5 hours, and has been bubbling steadily since, and has a good kraeusen on top. I will be leaving it in the primary for at least 2 weeks, and dry hopping with 1 oz of Nelson Sauvin for 3 days before bottling.
For this style, will 2 weeks in the bottle be sufficient for a drinkable beer, or should I wait longer before cracking one open?
I'm not sure if I will ever get into all-grain brewing or stick with extracts, due to time and space constraints, although BIAB looks intriguing. I had to get a propane burner as my stove at home is pretty weak. I only have a 5 gallon boil pot so I had to do the boil with 3 gallons, and top of with water in the fermenter. Before the next batch I will probably get at least an 8 or 9 gallon pot, and a wort chiller. An ice bath and chill stick brought the temp down to 70F in about 30 minutes, but an immersion chiller looks like it would be faster and more efficient.
Anyhow, wanted to introduce my self and hope to get to know some of you. I'm sure I will have more questions in the future.