Brewing an IPA for my first competition!!!! 2014 http://beerbaconmusic.com/
I entered the Pale Ale, IPA, IIPA category, and for this I am brewing a late-hopped American IPA, relying mostly on the Columbus hops that I bought in bulk from NikoBrew 🙂 Thanks, NikoBrew!
I used the silver thermometer, as a few days ago I tested the silver and black thermometers back to back, and the black thermometer ran a little colder than the silver. I need to mash low for this one, so I don’t want to mistakenly mash hotter than I want, in the case that the silver is correct and the black runs cold. I mashed in with 5 gallons of water at 159*. Using the red mash tun, there was a lot of head space. At 20 minutes, it was down to 145*, so I added some hot water (maybe a quart or so) at 180*. At 40 minutes it was down to 140*, and at 45 minutes I added another quart at 180*. At 60 minutes I conducted an iodine test from a few different locations, and it passed the test (no purple: complete conversion!)
Recipe Type: All-Grain
Yeast: WLP001
Yeast Starter: 500mL Starter
Batch Size (Gallons): ~6 gallons
Original Gravity: 1.053
Final Gravity:
IBU: ~50
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 6.5?
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 2 weeks primary, 1 week secondary/dry hop
12# Rahr 2-row
1# Torrified Wheat
.6# C60
.5 oz CTZ (17.5%) FWH
1 oz CTZ (17.5%) 10 min
1 oz Amarillo (10.7%) 10 min
.5 oz CTZ (17.5%) 5 min
.5 oz Amarillo (10.7%) 5 min
.5 oz Simcoe (12.7%) 5 min
.5 oz CTZ (17.5%) 1 min
.5 oz Amarillo (10.7%) 1 min
.5 oz Simcoe (12.7%) 1 min
1 whirlfloc – 10 minutes
whole of the first runnings: SG 1.05 at 138 (corrected to 1.064)
beginning of 2nd runnings: SG 1.016 at 128 (corrected to 1.028)
cooled wort to 69* before pitching. Got ~5.5 gal into the 6g carboy, put an additional .5 gal into the 1g jug. I stopped by Nepenthe a picked up some Safbrew T-58 to put into the 1 gal jug. wheeeee!!!!
UPDATE 3/31 – Nice krausen in both fermenters, with a very familiar slightly peppery nose that I always used to get from WLP001. Chico yeast, I’ve missed you. Tub water is holding steady at about 70* (maybe 69)
UPDATE 4/13 – this has dried WAY out to FG of 1.002 (6.69%). Great flavor and aroma, quite thin body. I’m gonna dry hop it on 1o Amarillo, then we’ll see how it does in the keg 🙂
UPDATE 4/20 – I’VE KEGGED MY FIRST BEER! EVER!! I guess I’m taking a few chances here, but here it goes. I’ve had my single ball-lock keg full of startsan for a week or two. I hooked up the CO2 and transferred all of the starsan via party tap to a new keg, leaving the target keg full of C02, freshly sanitized, and ready to go. I disconnected the gas, bled the pressure, opened the lid (covered it with some sanitized foil) and racked the IPA to the keg. It reads 66* in the keg, so by www.brewersfriend.com/keg-carbonation-calculator, I need 21.9PSI to get 2.2 volumes of carbonation, which is at the middle of the road for American ales and lagers (and maybe moderate but on the low end of the range for IPAs). I’ll leave it on the gas at this pressure for about a week and see where that gets us! PROSIT!
UPDATE 4/27 – I have kept the keg on ~20# of pressure since racking to the keg, to force carbonate slowly. This is the pressure on the chart at 65* that will get me in the low 2s for carbonation level. I bottled a sixpack tonight, and I will try a few over the next few days. If this goes well, I’ll send the final 2 off for judging 🙂