Raw IPA

[CaptAwol]

I've been doing raw brewing for a few brews now and still learning.
Recently I acquired a pressure FV after successfully brewing a lager type under pressure in corny kegs, so 1st raw brew under pressure FV.

As always I changed my mind a bit on the recipe and made a few adjustments for the brew, but it's pretty much similar to all my ale brews, 10kg of grain for a 60l batch aiming for OG 1.042
The day before I always boil my water for both mash and sparge and add a few bits of water treatment.

So here we go grain added by underletting, lower the grain basket in and go make a bacon butty and drink a to much coffee, after which I then give the grain a good stir and start 60min mash at 65°c and a mash out 30 min at 75°c, grain to water ratio is 2.7.

Once I'm happy with the flow rate, I spend a few visits to the bathroom following the coffee overdose.

After the mash SG1.081 temperature is maintained at 75°c and the sparge water is started at the same temperature.

I have 2 hoprockets and load each up with 75g of leaf hops, these also act as filters.

Previously chilling was done via a plate chiller and I would use one hoprocket as a whirlpool/hopstand for 30m at 75°c then change out and use the second transfering to the FV.
Whilst chiller plate's are efficient especially with the amount of water used which I recycle, the water efficiency goes out the window trying to clean them, therefore I decided to make my own immersion chiller out of 25m of copper pipe.

OG 1.044 a bit high on the intended 1.042

All collected in pressure FV and ready for the rehydrated yeast

My 1st clear FV and I'm thinking the beer is looking darker than planned, so long as it tastes ok who cares.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Hi, i find all my pale brews look dark in my all rounders just like yours, it will be the right color when in the glass

 

[CaptAwol]

After day 1 SG 1.030, today is day 2 SG 1.019
Normally I aim to dry hop when SG gets down to 1.018 but the way it's gasing off I think I'm going to have to leave it a bit longer, presently I dry hop with spectrum liquid hop and take a sample of beer to mix it. I intend to go back to dry hop pellets on next brew.

Whilst I had concerns about the colour it does appear to be lighter now.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Lighter colour is just because there is a lot of suspended yeast now during active fermentation

 

[CaptAwol]

Day 3 and SG 1.013 still to much pressure to get a sample and dry hop, after googling and youtubing I've decided to drop the temperature from 25°c to 18°c and reduce the pressure to about 5psi, hopefully it'll calm down enough so I can dry hop before fermentation has finished

 

[CaptAwol]

Day 4 and I finally managed to carefully get a sample to mix with liquid dry hop and get a proper SG, the Tilt was now reading 1.005 which I knew was incorrect, my experience of the tilt is that it's fine at the start but goes silly as fermentation progresses. The hydrometer read SG 1.013 so still some fermentation left to go.
Unfortunately I didn't get a pic, I filled the container of the dry hop liquid with beer and allowed it to pressure up a few times purging out any possible air before the long shake and mixing.
I added this to the FV resealed and purged with co2.
Following this it became obvious that the Krausen was settling out and no fermentation appeared to restart, so set temperature up again above 24°c and pushed pressure up to 15psi, then dropped pressure to 5psi and like magic it all started kicking off again, so I'll probably leave it at the lower pressure and assess again tomorrow.

 

[CaptAwol]

Today day 7, leaving the beer alone for a few days after liquid dry hopping it was time to confirm FG which was 1.010 which is normally what I aim for with an IPA. So I've now added 20ml of Isohop for bittering and started the crash cool, as I'm not in a great rush for this beer I've opted not to add gelatin, I don't use it that much anyway and usually get crystal clear beers and if not gelatin can always be added later. My only concern is the grunting my fridge has started to make when I've flashed it up with the inkbird.
My first brew with this FV and I like being able to see what's going on.

When I restarted the fermentation a few days ago

Today starting the crash cooling

 

[CaptAwol]

Due to bad timing and hols etc, I left the fermenter at about 10 psi and 3°c for over 2 weeks before racking off, I filled 2 kegs about 18.5L each and remainder about 19.5L in a polypin bag, obviously some sediment went into bag. Leaving 3L in the fermenter 2L of this was solid yeast.
The idea of the polypin was for my current narrowboat trip, it's still only geared up for polypin served through a beer engine. After leaving the beer to settle for a day, it is crystal clear.
I'm amazed at the hop aromas and taste, I've used the same hops as previous brews but never had such a successful hop taste, with this I feel the need to experiment more with the pressure fermenting.