Brew Six - American IPA

Having considered my options I opted to proceed with an American IPA for the sixth brew since the feedback about Brew 4 has been overwhelmingly positive.  I used the Brewing Classic Styles 'Hoppiness is an IPA' recipe as a guide again but made some minor changes to the malt and hops.

3.8 kg Blackrock Light LME (2x 1.5 kg cans plus half a can left over from last time)

0.5kg Briess Munich LME

0.6kg New Zealand Pale Malt

30g Nugget (@ 60 minutes)

15g Centennial (@ 20 minutes)

15g Centennial (@ 15 minutes)
30g Simcoe (@ 7 minutes)

15g Cascade (@ 5 minutes)
15g Cascade (@ 0 minutes/flame out)

Boil volume: 9 Litres.

Yeast: US05.

Notes:

1.  I didn't have time to get down to Brewers Coop so I dropped by Hauraki for my ingredients.  When I got home I suddenly realised that I didn't know whether the NZ Pale Malt was the same as the Pale Crystal I had used previously from Brewer Coop.  Lesson learned: just ask if you don't know.

2.  I split the Centennial and Cascade hop additions in half in the hop it will improve the hop profile in both taste and aroma.

3.  The overall process was quicker this time - it took approximately 2.5 hours from start to finish as opposed to the 3 hours previously.

Summary of the first five beers

Here is a quick summary of the first five beers I've brewed:

1. Mangrove Jacks Munich Lager:  The can came with the Copper Tun home brew kit.  While it was fermented with an Ale yeast the good news was that the finished product was a drinkable, if not somewhat unremarkable beer.

2.  Blackrock IPA: This was a virtual repeat of the first beer while I refined and built up my understanding of the brewing process in particular the importance of cleaning and sterilising.  While the end result was lacking in any discernible flavour it has over time matured into quite an easy drinking beer.  

3.  Amber Ale:  This is where things get interesting.  I've got my hands on the How to Brew book by John Palmer and joined the Aussie Home Brew forum for general advice and guidance.  The resulting recipe included a hop boil and a move to LME from the kits.

4.  American IPA: Adding another step into the process I steeped some grains in this recipe.  The recipe itself was based up the 'Brewing Classic Styles' Hoppiness is an IPA recipe.

5.  American Brown Ale:  Once again I've used a BCS recipe to guide me through the process of making this beer.

I've come along way in my understanding of brewing in the last four months and I'm looking forward to continuing on the journey to making great beer.

Brew Four - Bottling the IPA

Progress on the fermentation of Brew Four has been smooth sailing.  On day seven I added 30g of Imported Cascade hops into the fermenter for dry hopping.  I've read that some people bag it up but I decided it was just as easy to drop the pellets in and hope they don't block the tap when it comes to bottling.

I took a gravity reading on day nine and it was already down to 1014-ish so the plan was to bottle on either Saturday or Sunday (Day 14 or 15).

I've decided to bottle the IPA on the same day as I make the next brew which has the potential to complicate matters somewhat but I've managed to enlist the assistance of my brother Jeremy for the brew so two extra sets of hands should make light work of it.

I'm planning to carbonate with less sugar - because there is only 21L I don't want to overcarbonate the beer and since I've had such success with carbonation so far I figure I don't need it to be so bubbly.  I'll aim to prime the beer with 180g sugar before bottling.

Brew Four - American IPA

Having considered my options I opted to proceed with an American IPA for the fourth brew.  I used the Brewing Classic Styles 'Hoppiness is an IPA' recipe as a guide.

I decided to dial back on the LME as the recipe asked for more than 4kg of it and the outcome would have been a 7% ABV beer which I thought was a bit of overkill.  In doing so, I also saved myself another $15 which may not seem much but by my calculations I had already spent about $60 on this brew (excluding the grain bag, 2/3s of the Briess LME and half the hops since I purchased 60g of each).

I ended up using:

3 kg Blackrock Light LME (2x 1.5 kg cans)

0.5kg Briess Munich LME

0.6kg Pale Crystal

30g Nugget (@ 60 minutes)

30g Centennial (@ 20 minutes)

30g Simcoe (@ 5 minutes)

30g Cascade (@ 0 minutes/flame out)

Boil volume: 9 Litres.

1. Steep Pale Crystal for 30 minutes in hot water (65 deg).

2. Added 0.8kg of LME 

3. Top up with water to 9L.

4. Bring to boil - wait for hot break.

5. Start 60 minute timer 

a)  Add 30g Nugget.

b)  Add Centennial after 40 minutes.

c)  Add Simcoe after 55 minutes

d)  Add Cascade after 60 minutes when you turn off heat.

6. Stir in remaining LME immediately after Simcoe addition.

7. Cool in ice bath to <30 degrees.

8.  Mix into fermenter to make 21L of beer.

9.  Take OG reading: 1050.  Stir and wait.  Repeat.  OG reading again 1050.

10.  Pitch yeast.

Notes:

1. Briess LME only came in a 1.5kg container so the remaining 1kg is stored in the fridge.

2. Pale Crystal used in lieu of  Crystal 15L and 40L as defined in recipe.

Comments:

1.  I can see why people go for a full boil - I don't fully understand the calculations used to ensure your partial boil gravity is the same as the boil gravity but the recipe spreadsheet from the Aussie Home Brewer forum instructed me to add 818g of LME to achieve the same so that's what I did.  If you do a full boil you don't have to worry about the calculations which is appealing.

2. The steeping process was a lot easier than I imagined so it'll give me confidence for the next brew.

3. The whole process (excluding initial prep the night before including sterlising equipment) took 3 hours which is about as efficient as I can make it.

4.  I need a larger sieve which can sit over the top of the fermenter to collect the hops etc when pouring boil into fermenter.

5.  The ice bath dropped the temperature of the boil quite quickly (approx 20 min) and once I poured it into the fermenter which already had approximately 10L of cold water the digital thermometer on the side was reading 24 degrees so I pitched the yeast in straight away.

6.  Contemplating dry hopping the rest of the Cascade hops (another 30g) into the fermenter once the primary has been completed in about a week.  If I'm going to have a hoppy IPA then I might as well go the whole hog.

7.  If I've spent $60 to make this beer, the per litre cost is $2.85.  The per 750ml bottle cost is $2.15.