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i'm about to rack off my first batch of full-grain IPA. It's a small batch that has been fermenting about 14 days in a demijohn.

I tasted some briefly when racking and it tasted very strong which is not a bad thing but unexpected tbh. I thought maybe it's over fermented but after reading Is it possible to over-ferment? post i am unsure that's the case.

Now don't get me wrong it tastes fine but just very strong. Apparently i'm to add some sugar water and condition in in the bottle - Will this mellow the flavour?

Any advise would be gratefully received!

Thanks all!

Rik

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I think you are going fine. In my experience, beer directly from fermenter, warm and uncarbonated, could taste to much different of the same beer in final drinking conditions. Every beer I've brewed taste better after tasting from fermenter. When it goes wrong I could identify this when tasting. If you don't think it's bad, probably it isn't. Don't add sugar with water. Just prime it carefully to achieve a good carbonation and you'll be ok. It will be a good IPA if you don't mess around it to much. Good luck!

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    I'll disagree...the best way to achieve even carbonation is to boil your priming sugar with some water. Put that in your bottling bucket and rack the beer onto it to get even mixing.
    – Denny Conn
    Commented Aug 3, 2015 at 15:27
  • Hello, Denny. Maybe it was just a understanding problem, I'm no native english speaker. If he was saying just about priming with water+sugar, it's ok and good as you say. But my understanding when reading was he was talking about prime (whatever way) and add sugar water to 'weaking' the strong flavour. He is a novice brewer and my goal was to tell him to just do a carbonation process. My fear was that he could prime it AND add sugar water just to try mellow the flavour. If you or someone could edit my answer to make this point more clear, I would be grateful.
    – jards
    Commented Aug 4, 2015 at 13:56
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    jards, if that's the case, then I agree with you completely.
    – Denny Conn
    Commented Aug 4, 2015 at 14:33
  • Thanks, Denny. Sometimes is difficult to me to understand what people are really saying and to write my thoughts clearly too.
    – jards
    Commented Aug 4, 2015 at 15:00
  • Thanks guys, i did prime it with boiled water with light brown sugar in it. I was advised to just use any sugar but a bit of brown adds to the flavour so i thought i'd give that a go. I mixed it in the fermentor first to get an even distribution.
    – tea2sugars
    Commented Aug 4, 2015 at 15:14
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Could you elaborate on "strong"? As in, too much hop bitterness? Grainey? Sweet? Esters? Some other flavor? If it just tastes "good, balanced flavors, but like its concentrated" then you could potentially boil some distilled water to sterilize it and use it to dilute the beer, but it will also lower the ABV, IBU and color...

The more batches you do, the more you will learn what to expect from tasting at different intervals, like pre and post boil.

Also jot all this down in your brew log so you know what to adjust next time. If your very first all-grain batch in drinkable, you should pat yourself on the back and enjoy a cold one :)

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  • Concentrated is a perfect description. It actually mellowed a bit once I added the priming sugar liquid. Only time will tell now i suppose. I did write down everything, i keep a journal for making bread so the beer has made it into the back of that book.
    – tea2sugars
    Commented Aug 4, 2015 at 15:10
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I all, thanks again for your help! I bottled the beer a week or so ago and primed it before hand with a little priming sugar and water. I had about half a bottle with the dregs of the demijohn that was reasonable clear so kept that as a test bottle whilst the other bottle conditioned. I opened the test bottle on Saturday and apart from being a bit cloudy it was a great brew. I am very proud of my first full-grain IPA!

Here's a pic - instagram.com/p/6Hy1EySOKl/?taken-by=tea2sugars

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