Simonh82's brewday thread

[Simonh82]

As I'm back brewing fairly regularly I thought I would follow suit with a brewday thread to collect my brews in.

Last night's brewday was an English IPA. All British hops but a more American hopping scheduled. It was a really good brewday especially with my 8 year old son helping me with the first hour or so before I packed him off to bed. He helped weigh out the grains and mineral additions. I talked to him about why I was adding acid and gypsum to the water. Then he helped me grind the grain. Finally after mashing in he helped me take a mash pH reading. He had a great time and said he wanted to help again.

The only problem with the brew was mashing in. I usually spend a few minutes sprinkling the crushed grain into my kettle/mash tun stirring the whole time with a whisk. Last night I ground the grain directly into the bag and plonked the whole thing into the kettle. It's the first and only time I've ever experienced dough balls and it was a massive pain breaking up 5.5KG of grain. It took way longer to make sure everything was fully wetted and I lost more heat than I usually do because of all the stirring. Back to sprinkling and stirring next time.

After that the brew went pretty smoothly. I tried taking the bazooka filter off for this brew to see if it sped up the drain from the kettle, through my counterflow chiller and into my fermentor. In the end that didn't make any difference, it still drained slowly and I guess it is chiller which is actually restricting the flow. I had a good post boil gravity but I topped up with slightly too much water in the fermentor so the OG was about 3 points under.

BTW, the name of the beer (Douchecanoe) came from the best new insult I've heard in a while. So good I thought it deserved a beer being named after it.


Douchecanoe Ale
Brew Method: BIAB
Style Name: English IPA
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 29.5 liters (fermentor volume)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.048
Final Gravity: 1.009
ABV (alternate): 5.15%
IBU (tinseth): 47


FERMENTABLES:
3.9 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (70.9%)
0.8 kg - Ireland - Ale Malt (14.5%)
0.5 kg - United Kingdom - Wheat (9.1%)
0.1 kg - German - Carapils (1.8%)
0.1 kg - United Kingdom - Crystal 15L (1.8%)
0.1 kg - United Kingdom - Crystal 60L (1.8%)

HOPS:
25 g - Admiral, Type: Pellet, AA: 13.8, Use: Boil for 60 min, IBU: 32.64
40 g - First gold, Type: Pellet, AA: 9, Use: Whirlpool for 20 min at 98 °C, IBU: 6.67
40 g - Pilgrim, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.3, Use: Whirlpool for 20 min at 98 °C, IBU: 7.63
40 g - Bramling Cross, Type: Pellet, AA: 5.1, Use: Whirlpool for 20 min at 98 °C, IBU: 3.78
60 g - First Gold, Type: Pellet, AA: 9, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
60 g - Pilgrim, Type: Pellet, AA: 10.3, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
60 g - Bramling Cross, Type: Pellet, AA: 5.1, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 65 C, Time: 60 min, Amount: 22 L
2) Temperature, Temp: 75 C, Time: 10 min, Amount: 22 L, Mash out
3) Sparge, Temp: 85 C, Time: 10 min, Amount: 12 L, Dunk sparge

White Labs - Essex Ale Yeast WLP022
Attenuation (custom): 78°C
Fermentation Temp: 19 C

TARGET WATER PROFILE:

Ca2: 180, Mg2: 4, Na: 24, Cl: 48, SO4: 280, HCO3: 0

 

[Simonh82]

My previous brew was a really simple west cost APA. I realised when I audited the hops in my freezer that I still had quite a few hops from 2015. I don't mind using these for bittering but I thought I should use up any that were aroma hops before they lost their punch. This included two packets of Cascade and also a packet of Columbus. I kept the grain bill very simple with a mixture of Maris Otter, Irish Ale malt, light and dark Munich malt.

As I mentioned in another thread, I think the low mash temp lead to slightly poor conversion and a lower OG than I was expecting but the low final gravity meant that I still got a reasonable beer out of it.

I kegged it on Friday night and carbonated it at 40PSI for about 20 hours. I started drinking it on Sunday and it is a really delicious beer. Still pretty hazy but that will drop out in the keg. Loads of citrus from the Cascade with a firm bitterness and present dankness from the Columbus.

Title: Oregon-and-on-and-on Pacific NW IPA
Batch Size: 32 liters (fermentor volume)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.044; Final Gravity: 1.008; ABV : 4.65%; IBU (tinseth): 54.83

FERMENTABLES:
3.4 kg - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (59.6%)
1 kg - German - Munich Dark (17.5%)
1 kg - Ireland - Ale Malt (17.5%)
0.3 kg - German - Munich Light (5.3%)

HOPS:
20 g - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15.1, Use: First Wort, IBU: 24.22
30 g - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15.1, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 13.05
30 g - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 9.3, Use: Boil for 10 min, IBU: 8.03
25 g - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15.1, Use: Whirlpool for 20 min at 98 °C, IBU: 5.9
25 g - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 9.3, Use: Whirlpool for 20 min at 0 °C, IBU: 3.63
25 g - Columbus, Type: Pellet, AA: 15.1, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days
145 g - Cascade, Type: Pellet, AA: 9.3, Use: Dry Hop for 7 days

MASH GUIDELINES:
1) Infusion, Temp: 62 C, Time: 45 min, Amount: 23 L
2) Temperature, Temp: 69 C, Time: 10 min, Amount: 23 L
3) Temperature, Temp: 78 C, Time: 0 min, Amount: 23 L
4) Sparge, Temp: 85 C, Time: 10 min, Amount: 12 L

YEAST:
White Labs - Essex Ale Yeast WLP022
Attenuation (custom): 84%
Fermentation Temp: 19 C

TARGET WATER PROFILE:
Ca2: 150, Mg2: 4, Na: 24, Cl: 48, SO4: 200, HCO3: 0