Bottling: AG#73 "Get Even" IPA v2
Yield = 21 x 500ml bottles
Batch primed with 35g table sugar for a modest 1.66vols CO2
Colour = Pale, hazy, like weak orange squash, but seems bright.
Aroma = Grapefruit
Taste = Sharp grapefruit bitterness - nice, but not the pine/resin I was aiming for or expecting from these hops! I could be persuaded there's a bit of pine/resin in there but not totally sure.
OG = 1.038
FG = 1.005
Apparent Attenuation = 86%
ABV = 4.3%
SRM = 3.9 (Pale)
IBU = 60 (Rager)
To reduce O2 exposure I didn't cold crash or open the FV to add any finings prior to bottling. Instead I added 2.5ml "BrauSol" finings from The Malt Miller to the bottling bucket after pouring in priming solution but before starting syphon (think it's basically silicon dioxide, similar to Harris Starbrite).
Filled all bottles before capping. Filled each one higher than normal to approx. 10mm from top to reduce air gap (and hence O2) by holding bottling wand against inside of neck.
Experimented with several different ideas to try to mitigate hop fade due to oxygen exposure - I treated each bottle individually then capped immediately after:
13 bottles - Purge headspace / Cap on Foam. Used "Private Preserve" spray from Amazon. The spray is rather too powerful so ended up with a mixture of purging, foaming and beer sprayed everywhere!
4 bottles - Cap as normal, no special treatment. Control experiment.
2 bottles - Added a small scoop (approx 0.1g) vitamin C powder.
2 bottles - Added a small scoop (approx 0.1g) bicarbonate of soda, but it didn't fizz up - best guess the beer is not acidic enough for a vigorous reaction.
Interesting to note that just 4-5 hours after bottling a lot of sediment had already started to settle in the bottles so will be interesting to see if or how they clear.
Also interesting to note that it attenuated even more than expected due to the "Aromazyme" enzyme added at yeast pitch: without I would expect about 75% from BRY-97; with it I assumed (based on last time) 80%; but it actually ended up at 86% - glad in hindsight I reduced the grain bill a bit to allow for this.
I'll give it a week or two to carbonate before getting stuck in - will be interesting to see what difference (if any!) my bottling experiments make as time goes on