Mr Bowenz English India Pale Ale

MO, C60, Amber and Wheat.  EKG w/Chinook Dry hops.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/anyone-brewed-ipa-ekg-140192/

LowTech IPA v4 - Whirlpool Hopping

1st Year Centennial Hops

A run of the mill American IPA with hop additions at 60 minutes and flame-out/whirlpool only.  Inspired by the Avery recipes for Homebrewers, I really wanted to find out what kind of bittering, flavour and aroma I could get out of my whirlpool setup.

Brewday wasn't smooth at all.  I missed my target mash temperature (or so I thought) of 65c/149F.  Turns out the calibration on my thermometer is off once again and my attempts to correct, what I thought to be a low mash temperature, were unneeded.

During the correction attempts, I depleted the water reserved for sparging.  Since I don't use a sight glass, I rely on accurate strike and sparge water measurements to correctly predict final volumes into the primary (x-in, y-out).  I didn't want to mess up my pre-measured water and opted to not replace the sparge water (used for mash temp correction as noted above).  Since I didn't rinse the grains as well as I would have liked, the resulting pre-boil SG was lower than anticipated.  I increase the boil time and strength slightly but still fell short of the desired OG (1.055 vs 1.059) and volume (22L vs 23L).

A cam-lock fitting and adapter was added to my MLT.  The intent was to recirculate the wort through a pump and back over top of the grain bed to improve run-off clarity.  Well, the electric leads on the pump must be poorly connected because the power would cut in and out intermittently.  A frustrating experience.  Troubleshooting lead to loss of temperature and wort.  Given these issues, I thought it prudent to conduct a starch conversion test which proved successful.  Apparently, it's really hard to mess up a mash although I gave it my best shot!  To cap it off, I forgot to treat the strike water with Campden.  If I have band-aid beer, I'll know why...

So, what does the recipe look like?

LowTech IPA v4

OG 1.059/ IBU ~75/ SRM ~ 5/ ~23L

84.0% OiO Domestic 2-Row
16.0% Gambrinus Vienna

30g of Columbus @ 60 minutes
120g of Cascade @ whirlpool (IBU's calculated as a 15m addition)
I plan to dry hop with a mix of Centennial, Columbus and Chinook.

BRY-97 America West Coast Ale Yeast (used 1x, making this the 2nd pitch)

I treated my mash water with 3ml of 88% Lactic Acid, 4g of Gypsum, 3.4g of Calcium Chloride and 4.5g of Epsom Salt.  EZWater projected a room temp mash pH of 5.41.  Sparge water was treated with Campden to remove Chloramine from the municipal water.  8g's of additional Gypsum added to the boil. Whirlfloc @ 5m to help precipitate cold break proteins.  Final water numbers: Ca 100, Cl 50, S04 250

At flame-out, the pump/whirlpool was started and 120g of Cascade dumped into the near boiling wort.  The intent was to whirlpool (hot) for 20m but in going with the theme of the brewday... I was distracted when a neighbour popped by for a visit, misread my timer and started the chill water @ 10m (10 minutes too early).  As a result, the flame-out hops had half the hot wort contact time than I would have liked.  After an additional 10m, the whirlpool was shut down and the chiller continued to drop the temperature to around 25c.  At this point the BK was drained to my fermenter.

The primary was placed into the fermentation chamber, STC-1000 set for 17c.  Once at 17c, the wort was well aerated with a Fizz-x for 2-3 minutes before pitching 250ml of cold, compacted BRY-97 slurry.  Based on the age of the yeast (claimed Aug 1, 33% viability), Mr Malty recommends 200ml of slurry.  I didn't use a starter.   STC-1000 controller raised to 18c/~65F where I plan to ferment for 1 day at full krausen before ramping to 20c/68F through completion.

If this beer turns out, I am not to blame.  Ha!

Update Sept. 9th

Light krausen @ 24hrs, full krausen inside 36hrs.  Wort temperature peaking at 18.2c before the freezer drops it back to 17.5c.

Update Sept. 10th

The IPA has been at full krausen for 24hrs, fermentation controller set to allow IPA to free rise to 20c.  Attempted to top crop the krausen/yeast

Update Sept. 11th

Temperatures rose rather quickly.  At 11pm last evening the controller was reading 19.5c.  Today it continues to hover around 20c.  I top cropped the yeast a final time, collecting a total of 200ml of slurry.  I placed my sanitized hydrometer into the pail and it sits at 1.030, would have thought it would have been further along?  Perhaps something to do with the lag time after pitch and the fact the yeast had been sitting in the fridge for a month.

Update Sept 15th

Moved to secondary @ ambient, added dry hops

Update Sept 22nd

Moved back to freezer to crash cool to 1c,  FG measures 1.010.

Update Sept 24th

Racked to keg, added an additional 30g of homegrown whole leaf nugget hops.

Tasting - IPA (LowTech v3)

LowTech IPA v3

Beautifully clear
Wonderful deep orange colour
Intense tangerine orange flavour
Bitter but verging on balance
Olfactory overload. 
Finish dry and crisp
A near perfect IPA

LowTech IPA v3

I loved the IPA brewed for BSB2013.   Couldn't wait to get another in the pipeline.  Not to mention I have an incredible inventory of hops at the moment.  First order of business... Amarillo/Simcoe IPA.  WLP023 should be an interesting twist to the standard American IPA.  Hoping a lower mash temperature and sugar addition will aid to fully attenuate the beer.  If this could finish lower than 1.013, I'd be happy.

LowTech IPA v3

LowTech IPA v1

OG 1.060/ IBU ~77/ SRM ~ 6/ ~21L

65.0% OiO Domestic 2-Row
32.0% Gambrinus Vienna
03.0% Corn Sugar (added to the boil)

2 tsp of Gypsum
25g of Columbus @ 60 minutes
25g of Cascade @ 30 minutes
30g of Simcoe @ 10 minutes
70g of Amarillo @ 10 minutes

Dry Hop (keg):
60g Citra

WLP023 (2nd gen, cropped from Mild v2)

Brewed July 2nd

I decided to revert back to my standard batch sparging method, this time using the newly converted turkey fryer pot and manifold as my MLT (rather than the old coleman cooler).

Preheated MLT and striked at 71.2c.  After a good stir with the paint mixer, this settled to 66c which is 1c hotter than brew software projected.  Would have liked 65c for better attenuation.  Held temp at 66c for the entire 1hr mash. I didn't need to adjust temp or anything, held rock steady.  Sparged with 88c water which only raised the temp to 71c.

After collecting 30L pre-boil, a quick gravity reading with the refractometer showed a pre-boil gravity of 1.047-48 which equates to a mash efficiency around 80%.  1/2tsp Gypsum, 1tsp Epsom, 2tsp Calcium Chloride and 40g of Acid malt added to mash for a pH of 5.50.  2 tsp of Gypsum added to the boil for final water numbers:

Ca 119, Mg 14, Na 18, Cl 93, S04 221

Proceeded with boil for 70 minutes adding hops and sugar as scheduled above.  After chilling to 25c, wort was transferred to primary and aerated with a Fizz-x wine degasser for a couple minutes.  The pail was then placed into the fermentation freezer and chilled to 17c.  

I had intended to collect 21L but due to a low boil-off rate (10%/hr), 23L made it into the pail.  This meant my OG was slightly lower than anticipated, 14.6 brix (actual reading) = 1.057 (14.04°P)

Update July 3rd

After chilling for the night, I woke this morning @ 6:30am and pitched 100ml of 2nd gen WLP023 slurry to 17c wort.  The temperature controller was then set to 20c.  The wort will free rise to this temperature.

@3pm - Light Krausen 
@7pm - Krausen has completely covered the surface and starting to rise 
@11pm - First (dirty) skim 

Update July 4th

Temperature controller raised to 21c

Update July 5th

I wasn't able to tend to the skim yesterday and today I find the yeast krausen has breached the pail.  After cleanup, I skimmed again. 

Update July 6th

Skimmed again 

Update July 7th

Skimmed again, likely a final time 

Update July 8th

Skimmed yet again.  FG reading 1.0132 (3.38°P)

Update July 9th

...and again

Update July 10th

... again

Update July 14th

Returned home from vacation, light krausen has once again covered the surface of the beer.  At this point I will rack from under the Krausen to either secondary or keg for dry hopping and further conditioning.

Update July 16th 

First taste test.  Nice bitterness.  Colour is awesome.  Aroma and hop flavour lacking.  FG measured
1.0126 (3.23°P).  Racked to keg and made an split decision, added 60g of Citra

BSB 2013 - IPA

Our gracious sponsors for BSB 2013 provided most of the malt in this recipe.  We used whole leaf flowers for all the late hops.

BSB 2013 - IPA

OG 1.060/ IBU ~83/ SRM ~6/ ~41L

53.0% OiO Domestic 2-Row
42.0% Muntons Maris Otter
03.0% OiO Wheat Malt
02.0% Weyermann Carabohemian

2oz of Warrior @ 60 minutes
1oz of Warrior @ 30 minutes
2oz ea Centennial/Cascade @ 5 minutes
1oz ea Centennial/Cascade @ 0 minutes

WLP007

Brewed June 1st

Mashed in at 150F.  Mashed for 60 minutes before collecting 46L pre-boil volume.  Boiled for 70 minutes adding hops as scheduled above.  Whirlfoc at 5 min remaining in boil.  Gravity measured 1.060.  Chilled to ~80F.  Collected ~32-34L into two fermenters.  Had a bit of an issue with chill water on site, BK sat for 20 min (hot) while waiting for water.

2 tsp Gypsum, 2  tsp Calcium Chloride, 1 tsp Epsom Salts, 150g Acid malt, added to mash for a pH of 5.48.  1tsp Gypsum added to the boil. Final water numbers: 
Ca 89, Mg 10, Na 18, Cl 63, SO4  174

Update June 2nd 

Gave the fermenter a quick shake but most of the aeration was done yesterday while racking the beer to the pail.  Re-pitched WLP007 from one of the LowTech APA v4 carboys.   This is the yeast's 3rd pitch (3rd gen).  Full Krausen within 5hrs.

Update June 3rd

Fermenting strong.  Used my cold room to keep temps down, ambient 18c.

Update June 6th

Ambient in the cold room down to 16c.  I checked on the IPA this morning and it appears to have completely fermented out.  Fermenter has been moved to a warmer room, will give it a few days to clean up before dry hopping.

Update June 8th

Added a whack load of whole leaf dry hops to the primary

Update June 16th

Racked off hops and to secondary for further conditioning .  Gravity measured 1.015.

Update June 18th

Racked to keg, pressure set to 12psi

LowTech IPA v2

LowTech IPA v1

For a style that I love so much, it's really surprising how little I brew it.  This recipe has been inspired by Avery's Recipes for Homebrewers.  I've intentionally kept the OG on the low end of the IPA style so the beer will finish drier.  I plan to use a big pitch of 2nd generation WLP007, 80% attenuation is likely.  I like my IPA's bitter, hoppy and dry.  Subbing in some Rye malt for a twist, otherwise I'd use Wheat malt.  I am going to try skipping the secondary and dry hopping directly in the serving keg.

LowTech IPA v2

OG 1.059/ IBU ~70/ SRM ~3.5/ ~41L

90.0% Pils Malt
05.0% Gambrinus Vienna Malt
05.0% Weyermann Rye Malt

10.15 AAU (.7oz) of Columbus @ 60 minutes
10.15 AAU (.7oz) of Columbus @ 30 minutes
25.40 AAU (2oz) of Chinook @ 12 minutes
21.80 AAU (2oz) of Centennial @ 12 minutes
13.60 AAU (2oz) of Cascade @ 12 minutes
Dry hop 1 oz (ea) Chinook/Centennial/Cascade for each 19L keg

WLP007

Brewed Apr 28th

Mashed in at 143F (mistake, too low),  boiled  water and infused to raise mash temperature to 146F (attempt to correct).  Mashed for 60 minutes before collecting 46L pre-boil volume.  Boiled for 70 minutes adding hops as scheduled above.  Whirlfoc added at 5 min remaining in boil.   I forgot to sanitize the pump so I ended up extending the boil time by 5 minutes.  Gravity measured higher than anticipated, 1.063, may have collected slightly less than I had hoped for.  Chilled to ~72F.  Collected ~36-38L into two fermenters.  Pitched 8 fl oz of thick yeast slurry into each fermenter.  This is the second  pitch on this yeast.  

1.5 tsp Gypsum, 1.5 tsp Calcium Chloride, 1 tsp Epsom Salts, 210g Acid malt, added to mash for a pH of 5.48.  1 tsp Gypsum added to the boil.  Final water numbers: 
Ca 74, Mg 10, Na 18, Cl 50, SO4  157

Update Apr 29th

Both pails have significant Krausen.

Update May 8th

Airlock activity has completely stopped.  Awaiting availability of a keg.  Will dry hop directly in the keg this time.  No secondary.

Update May 13th 

FG 1.015.  Both fermenters racked to keg.  Dry hops added.  Pressure set to 38psi.

Update May 15th 

Pressure dropped to 12psi.   Bagged dry hops caught in the Bev tube on both kegs.  Beer is very turbid... something's wrong.

Update May 21st 

Well, first failed batch in a while .  Couple things went wrong, first and foremost, dry hopping in the keg with bagged pellets was a big mistake.  I ended up racking out of the keg into another (losing 1/2 the batch in the process).  In the future I will certainly stick to my secondary or primary dry hopping.

Secondly, I didn't get near the attenuation I was hopping for, the balance towards bitter, isn't where I want it to be.  Too malty sweet for a good IPA.   Back to the drawing board on this one, likely won't even do tasting notes as I've likely oxidized the beer pretty bad with on the racking and tickering.

Tasting - "BSB2012", 100% Centennial IPA

Brewday Post and Recipe
BSB2012, 100% Centennial IPA

Appearance

Darker than my typical pale ales, likely due to the Maris Otter base malt.  Pours with a medium, one finger width of head.  Small amount remains after sitting for 10 minutes, lasing apparent.  Chill haze significant.   

Aroma

Hoppy.  Similar to my experience with Cascade, perhaps a touch more pungent.  Nice and inviting.

Taste

Nicely balanced American IPA.  I was concerned the IBU's may have been too high given the simplicity of the grain bill, not so.  The Centennials provide a nice sharpness up front but this gives way to a grapefruity hop flavour.  I would say the hops are quite one dimensional but this would be stating the obvious since I only used one hop!  The ale does have a very nice malt backbone.  The 5% carafoam does a nice job rounding our the body. 

Overall Impressions

Very pleased with the results.  The chill haze does take away from the appearance, the few I had at cellar temperature were very nice looking.  The aroma and flavour are really nice, too bad Centennial hops are so hard to come by, would be on my regular rotation for sure.  Body on this brew was stouty, likely on account of the carafoam.  Interestingly, my BMC drinking friends also enjoyed this IPA.  The Centennials offer a more mellow bittering when compared to Columbus for example.

After a few weekends of camping, I've burnt though the entire batch, hopefully there is a picture on the digital camera that I can upload for you...

Brewday - "Starry Night"

Notes

A Cascadian Dark Ale.  Some might call it a Black IPA or American Dark Ale, I feel the Cascadian folks of the Pacific Northwest who created the style should be paid some form of homage.  A style I love to drink (often) yet oddly enough have never tried to brew;  today should be the day.

I am shooting for the body a basic American IPA, more to the dry end of the spectrum, with solid hop bitterness, a touch or roast flavour and of course, dark brown to black colour.  The trick will be not/not turning this into a robust porter, another style I love, but alas, not a Cascadian Dark Ale.

My homebrew club provided a recipe from Homebrewtalk.com, I've more or less kept the same hop schedule but modified the grain bill to suit my tastes.

Specialty beer (23)  <I guess?>
Cascadian Dark/Black IPA/American Dark Ale
Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Fermentis US-05

Yeast Starter: Nope
Additional Yeast : Hydrated
Batch Size (Post Boil): 26L
Original Gravity: 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.014 (est)
IBU: 63.7

Boiling Time (Minutes): 65
Colour (SRM): 25 (est)
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 15 @ 66F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 12 @ 66F 
Conditioning [Bottle] (# of Days & Temp): 21 @ 66F

Ingredients

90.0% Pale Malt (Gambrinus)
03.0% CaraAroma (Weyermann)
03.0% Wheat Malt (OiO)
03.0% Melanoidin (Weyermann)
00.8% Acid Malt (Weyermann)
(Added at Vorlauf)
200g Black Patent (Muntons)
200g Chocolate (Muntons)
100g Roast Barley (Muntons)

23 IBU Centennial @ 60 min (1oz)

1oz Centennial @ 30 min
1oz Centennial @ 20 min
1oz Cascade @ 15 min
1oz Cascade @ 0 min
1oz Willamette @ 0 min
1oz Willamette Dry-hop (12 days)
1oz Cascade Dry-hop (12 days)

Water (City tap water treated with Campden)

Acid Malt, Calcium Chloride, Gypsum and Epsom Salt added, pH 5.49

Ca-84/Mg-14/Na-18/Cl-94/S04-135

Mash Instructions
Single Infusion, 60 minutes (151F), 1.25qt/lb
Add Black Patent, Chocolate and Roast Barley @ 1st Vorlauf
Double batch sparge (170F), collected ~30L into the boil kettle

10/08/2012 - Brewed, over shot the mash temp, 152F.  Using Gambrinus malt for the first time, not sure what happened but I ended with some insane extraction efficiency.  Estimated 80% and ended with near 90%!  This means my OG was measured at 1.070 rather than the anticipated 1.062.  This has also had an impact on the IBUs.  My brew software recalculated the IBUs at 58.2, significantly lower.

The colour turned out near perfect.  Brown-black with a touch of mahogany.  At 1.070 the hydro sample was quite heavy.  I aerated the wort heavily trying to help the US-05 yeast.  I hope the FG finishes near 1.014.  Before pitching, I am thankful I took a final temperature reading, the wort was sitting at 80F, much too warm for this yeast.  I opted to let the wort sit in the primary until the next morning before pitching.

11/08/2012 - Pitched US-05.  Initially I though to hydrate the yeast before pitching, however; I was in a rush to get out the door and opted to sprinkle on top dry.

12/08/2012 - Primary showing signs of vigorous fermentation.  Air-lock very active.

26/08/2012 - Primary fermentation appears complete.  Will test and transfer to secondary soon...

27/08/2012 - Racked to secondary.  Will require some major conditioning time.  Sample was very "hot".

03/09/2012 - 1.5oz Cascade + 1/2oz Willamette Dry Hop added

Brewday - Denny Conn's Rye IPA

Notes
I first read about Denny Conn's "Rye Smile" on Homebrewtalk.com.  The recipe is unique on many levels.  First and foremost, Rye Malt.  Accounting for near 18% of the total grist, I suspect Rye to play a major roll in this IPA's flavour profile.  Secondly, Mt. Hood hops, prominently used in lagers, are the featured hop.  The quality's of the rye malt are said to be grainy and slightly spicy.  The Mt. Hood hops are said to impart a spicy, earthy, somewhat fresh noble aroma. Sounds like a fantastic combo and well suited to an IPA!  

The recipe also calls for First Wort Hops (FWH).  1oz of Mt. Hood are added to the boil kettle while collecting the mashes first run-off.  The FWH technique is said to provide subtle, smoother bitterness similar to that of a 20 minute addition.  Dedicated FWHoppers claim an improvement in flavour or aroma as well.  I've configured my brew software accordingly, the anticipated IBU's are noted in the recipe details below.  I understand this number to be an estimation based on much theory and speculation, I am not aware of the science behind such theories. Since I believe everything I read on the Internet, I say "let's roll with it"! 

I needed to make a few changes to the grain bill on account of low inventory.  68% of the grist was intended to be your basic, everyday Domestic 2-row.  I was only able to muster up a couple of kilos.  I subbed in some Light Munich to pick up the slack.  Also, wheat malt in place of flaked wheat.  The recipe was scaled down to 20L post boil.  I would have liked to brew my typical 23-24L but adjustments were needed on account of inventory on hand .

I bought my Mt Hood hops in anticipation of this brew well in advance (uh, like April 2011), as such, using my brewing software's hop storage index calculator, I've approximated the residual AA% .  The resulting total IBU's are a touch lower than Denny's original recipe specs.

American IPA (14B)
Recipe Type: All Grain

Yeast: Fermentis US-05
Yeast Starter: Nope
Additional Yeast : Re-pitched from Little Devil APA
Batch Size (Post Boil): 20L
Original Gravity: 1.060
Final Gravity: 1.014 (est)
IBU: 52
Boiling Time (Minutes): 65
Colour (SRM): 7.6 (est)
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 15 @ 64F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 12 @ 64F 
Conditioning [Bottle] (# of Days & Temp): 21 @ 64F

Ingredients

45.5% Domestic 2-Row (OiO)
20.9% Light Munich (Weyermann)
19.5% Rye Malt (Weyermann)
08.7% Crystal 110 (Muntons)
04.3% CaraFoam (Weyermann)

04.3% Wheat Malt (OiO)

01.7% Acid Malt (Weyermann)

10.6 IBU Mt. Hood @ FWH (1oz)
34.6 IBU Columbus @ 60 min (1oz)
Gypsum (1/2 tsp added @ 60 min)
1/2oz Mt. Hood @ 30 min
1.5oz Mt. Hood @ 1 min)
1oz Columbus (12 day Dry-hop)

Water (City tap water treated with Campden)

Acid Malt, Calcium Chloride, Gypsum and Epsom Salt added, pH 5.50

Ca-113/Mg-17/Na-18/Cl-63/S04-166

Mash Instructions
Single Infusion, 60 minutes (153F), 1.25qt/lb
Double batch sparge (170F), collected ~23L into the boil kettle

15/07/2012 - Recipe brewed

16/07/2012 - Yeast pitched, wort aerated

01/08/2012 - Racked to secondary

13/08/2012 - 2oz of Columbus hops added to the secondary 

29/08/2012 - Racked of Dry-hops to brite tank 

03/09/2012 - Bottled (possible infection)

Tasting - "The Drama"

Holy Mamma did I knock this one out of the freak'n ballpark!  I sampled a 341ml bottle of "The Drama" tonight.... speechless.  50g's of Cascade at knock-out + 56g Cascade + 56g Columbus dry-hop, the aromatics make my toes curl.

S04 yeast worked amazingly well.  The brew is crystal clear when served near room temps (as any IPA should).  When I racked from secondary to the bottling bucket, I tied a homemade hop bag to the end of my auto-siphon (article to come).  The result is a brew clear of any hop bits; impressive considering I use pellet hops.  Colour is nothing fancy and in line with the commercial OCB IPA's that I've sampled.

A single 10 minute, 50g addition of Cascade did a beautiful job rounding out the hop flavour which is pure Cascade... I love it.

At 50.3 IBU:1.061, the BU:GU ratio is on the low side for an IPA (0.82); however, near 42 IBU of Columbus @ 60 minutes hits above it's weight class. The bitterness is sharp, aggressive, pungent yet remains in balance because of a slightly heavier gravity ratio.  Honestly, it's everything I crave in an IPA.  The bitterness lingers on and on.  The malt is there for balance and nothing more.  The Melanoidin adds a little something, something but is by no means the star of the show, that honour goes to my favorite hop... Cascade.

This one's going into the recipe book, without question.

Brewday - "BSB 2012"

For my homebrew club's annual meet and collective brew day, I've designed the following Centennial IPA recipe...will let you know how it goes!

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Fermentis Safale US-05
Yeast Starter: Nope
Additional Yeast : Nope
Batch Size (Post Boil): 26L
Original Gravity: 1.066
Final Gravity: 1.015

IBU: 64
Boiling Time (Minutes): 65
Colour (SRM): 6

Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 15 @ 68F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 12 @ 68F
Conditioning [Bottle] (# of Days & Temp): 21 @ 68F

Ingredients

93.5% Marris Otter (Muntons)
05.0% CaraFoam (Weyermann)

38.7 IBU Centennial @ 60 min
57g Centennial @ 15 min
57g Centennial @ Flame-out

Water (City tap water treated with Campden)

100g Acid Malt, Gypsum, Calcium Chloride and Epsom Salt added, Mash pH 5.5
Ca-83/Mg-14/Na-18/Cl-93/S04-133 
 
Mash
Single infusion,  60 minutes (151F)
Mash-out (170F) , double batch sparge, collected ~30L into the boil kettle

FAIL - "Humulous Galaxy IPA"

You never really here about the failed recipes.  I have a few and thought I'd share some of my brewing disasters.

I picked up a half pound of this wonderful new, somewhat rare, hop called "Galaxy".  I got an idea to brew my first ever IPA using nothing but these Galaxy hops... all of them.  The result was a dirty, not quite pale muddy brown ale with no hop bite, burning alcohol warmth and an after-taste of mushroomed candy.  Nasty!

Ingredients/Mistakes
I've deleted the recipe from my brew software long ago, I recall using OiO Canadian 2-row, Light Munich, Crystal 110 and Chocolate Malts to the tune of almost 8% ABV.  Approximately 1.078 OG.  More IIPA territory now that I think of it.  In hindsight, the grain bill was far too complex for an IPA.  It totally masked the hops.

As stated, for hops I used all Galaxy.  A pathetic, completely overwhelmed bittering charge at 60 minutes left the beer with virtually no hop bite.  Something I crave in an IPA.  I believe I may have dabbled with a FWH addition as well.  The remaining 5oz or so were added sub-20 minutes, I believe 1oz each 5 min.  I finished off with an added 2oz dry-hop.  I recall thinking that this "hop busting" technique would give me a true sense of what the hop was about. Boy was I wrong.  All I got was this nasty, super sweet, mushroom tasting hop flavour.  Surprisingly, the brew had almost no aroma to speak of.  Maybe it was infected?  Maybe Galaxy hops taste of mushroom?  Either way, when I now hear "Galaxy hops", I shudder.

The yeast attenuated well, however it was into it's 7th or 8th re-pitch.  The process of reclaiming and washing after primary fermentations had rendered it some kind of super flocculator.  The yeast would floc out so quick, there was nearly none left to do the job of bottle conditioning.  The results left me with about 21L of flat mushroom beer.  The beer spent months in the bottle and never did get much better.

Lessons Learned
When brewing an IPA, keep it simple!  Less is more.  At least when it comes to the grain bill.  The hops need to shine.  This means a supporting malt back-bone with an assertive hop bitterness.  Don't skimp on the 60 minute addition, it should account for at least half (or more) of the recipes total IBU's.  The multi-award winning SSOS recipe uses an incredible 3oz Chinook bittering addition!   That's a lot!

The remaining IBU's should come in at the flavour charge.  Again, KISS.  One or two significant hop additions for flavour will be enough.  As stated in my post on hop schedules,  I feel a homebrewer's flame-out addition can and will contribute a fair amount of flavour.  Consider a single flavour addition at the traditional range of 10-20 min, with a supporting aroma/flavour addition at flame-out. 

Support the aroma with some additional dry-hopping and Bob's your uncle, you've got a solid IPA.

Brewday - "The Drama"

(My son's nickname)
American IPA (14B)

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Fermentis Safale S-04
Yeast Starter: Nope
Additional Yeast : Racked onto cake from previous APA (1.055)
Batch Size (Post Boil): 26L
Original Gravity: 1.061
Final Gravity: 1.016
IBU: 50.2
Boiling Time (Minutes): 65
Colour (SRM): 6.5
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7-10 @ 68F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 12 @ 68F
Conditioning [Bottle] (# of Days & Temp): 21 @ 68F

Ingredients

92% Canadian 2-Row (OiO)
5.1% CaraMunich I (Weyermann)
2.9% Melanoidin (Weyermann)

41.9 IBU Columbus (40g @ 60 min)

07.3 IBU Cascade (50g @ 10 min)
0.9 IBU Cascade (50g @ 1 min)
50g Cascade  (dry, secondary 12 days)
50g Columbus (dry, secondary 12 days)

Water (City tap water treated with Campden)

Acid Malt, Gypsum, Calcium Chloride and Epsom Salt added, pH 5.47

Ca-83/Mg-14/Na-18/Cl-93/S04-133

Anticipated Mash Instructions:
Single infusion,  60 minutes (151F)
Mash-out (170F) , double batch sparge, collected ~30L into the boil kettle

Anticipated Boil Instructions:
Heat wort, once hot break is controlled, add 1 tsp of Gypsum
Hops @ 60 min
Immersion chiller (IC) @ 15 min
Hops @ 10 min
1/2 tablet of Whirfloc @ 5 min
Hops @ 1 min
Flame-out, cool to 70F, rack onto S-04 cake

***Brew Day Update (5/15/2012)***

I was playing around with motorizing my Corona grain mill before brew day, I loosened the crush a touch and dropped my mash efficiency by 2%.  OG ended up being 1.061.  After testing my pre-boil gravity, I decided to lower the initial 60 min hop addition.  I've updated the numbers above accordingly.

I also tried a new method for transferring the wort from boil kettle to primary.  I dumped the entire contents, trub, hops and all through a sanitized strainer.  The results was a slightly better brew house efficiency and a larger volume into the primary.  Wort cooled to 70-75F before dumping to yeast cake.  Wort aerated with a Fizz-X for about 5 minutes. Numbers above have been updated accordingly.

Finally, I forgot my Gypsum boil addition, the final water numbers have been updated accordingly.

***Update June 12, 2012***


I always try to bottle a regular old 6-pack, I use these to test the carbonation.  I admit, I've sampled this brew as soon as two days in the bottle... damn!  Aroma will knock you socks off!  I guess that's what near 4oz of hops will get ya.  I've got to keep my hands off this stuff for another 2 weeks!