Vermont IPA Brewday

[YeastFace]

I encountered a number of issues on this brewday, so this will be devoid of photographs.

I've never tried a Northeastern-Style IPA, however they sound right up my street. Due to the unlikelihood of me getting to try one, I thought I'd try to brew one. This has taken inspiration from a few recipes from blogs such The Mad Fermentionist and Ales of The Riverwards.

The idea is to get a creamy mouthfeel, load with late and dry hops, use a low-flocculating British Yeast and the result should be something resembling tropical fruit juice. They are intentionally murky to evoke to sense of fruit juice and I've even read reports of commercial breweries using whey powder in order to prevent the hop matter from coming out of suspension.

I was aiming for the stone fruit end of the flavour spectrum, with a bit of citrus so hopefully my hop choice will reflect this.

After a few amendments to my original receipe in order to increase the batch size, the receipe was thus:

Target Batch Size: 18l
Target OG: 1.056
Target FG: 1.010
Target ABV: 6.04%
Target IBU: 45
Target Efficiency: 70%

60 minute mash at 65°C

2.00kg Pale Ale (Propino) (UK) - 46%
1.25kg Lager (UK) - 28.7%
500g Pale Wheat (UK) - 11.5%
350g Malted Oats (UK) - 8.1%
200g Vienna (Ger) - 4.6%
50g Acidulated (Ger) - 1.2%

300g Oat Husks

200g Dextrose - Added at flameout

22g Magnum (Ger) - FWH

10g Rakau (NZ) - 10 minutes
10g ADHA-527 (USA) - 10 minutes

20g Rakau (NZ) - Whirlpool
20g ADHA-527 (US) - Whirlpool
20g Mosaic (US) - Whirlpool
20g Mandarina Bavaria (Ger) - Whirlpool

20g Rakau (NZ) - Dry Hop - 5 days
20g ADHA-527 (US) - Dry Hop - 5 days
20g Mosaic (US) - Dry Hop - 5 days

1 Whirlfloc Tablet - 15 minutes

The Yeast Bay Vermont Ale Yeast

I mashed during my lunch break and there was a healthy 4 hour infusion until I could sparge. As I was short on time and rushing, I forgot to preheat the mash tun. As a result, I was a few degrees under target mash temp. A kettle full of boiling water seems to sort this out.

Previously I've been using a home-made false bottom, in conjunction with a grain bag. I thought the false bottom was probably superfluous, so I decided to go without. This turned out to be an awful decision.

The first runnings came out ok. I vorlaufed about 4 litres and then disaster struck. The runnings started to come out very milky. At first I thought this was just due to the flaked oats so continued to vorlauf. I then encountered what I assume was a stuck sparge. I added another 200g of oat husks and left for 30 minutes.

Upon my return to the mash tun, the runnings started to flow again, but after a short while it became stuck. I lifted the grain bag out which allowed the runnings to flow. Still very milky, but I was out of ideas. I added my batch sparge and left for ten minutes. Again the mash stuck, so I lifted the bag again. Despite all these errors, I did end up with the requisite wort, albeit 4 points short of the desired gravity.

Did I mention how milky the runnings were?

The boil went without incident and the wort was whirlpooled prior to adding the last hop addition for 30 minutes once the wort had got below 80°C

Due to the sheer amount of protein in the wort, I only managed to get 15l out of the kettle. However, the wort had cleared up quite a lot. The lauterhexe (this was the first time using it after I'd trimmed it down to fit properly) handled the hop pellets incredibly well.

I continued to chill to 30°C using the immersion chiller and then transferred to the FV. This went into some ice water until it got to pitching temp when a 1.5l of Vermont Ale Yeast was added.

Despite the issues, fingers crossed this will turn out as intended. The yeast is absolute ripping its way through - had to replace the airlock with a blowoff tube this morning.

Lesson learnt - Keep using the false bottom with the grain bag until I've bought a proper one.

Questions remaining - Was this a stuck mash? It didn't seem gloopy as I'd expected when I'd read about them. If so, did the prolonged mash cause any issues? Was it simply a flow issue due to the lack of a false bottom?

 

[YeastFace]

Down to 1.022. A bit to go, but it's gone like the clappers so far.

Hydro sample displayed the peach character I'm after. Not sure if that's the hops or yeast as this stage. Planning to dry hop Monday.

 

[GHW]

Sounds like an awesome brew, despite the issues. It's complex but if it comes off I can imagine it will create something special. Hadn't seen the initial post sorry but very keen to see how this comes out.

 

[YeastFace]

This was dry-hopped with 20g each of Mosaic, Rakau, ADHA-527, Motueka and Hallertau Blanc on Wednesday.

Will be bottling later (meant to do yesterday but couldn't drag myself away from the sunny garden).

 

[Alan_H]

I recently tasted my friend's midsummer ale cold-hopped with Hallertau Blanc - amazing hops!! I cannot find them here though.. at least for now.

 

[MyQul]

I recently tasted my friend's midsummer ale cold-hopped with Hallertau Blanc - amazing hops!! I cannot find them here though.. at least for now.

Your google fu is weak!

http://www.geterbrewed.com/hallertau-blanc-hop-pellets-2014-9.3/

 

[YeastFace]

Malt Miller has both leaf and pellet too.

This turned out almost as I wanted - mostly soft stone fruit with a bit of spice and some subtle tropical notes. The oats, yeast and large dry hop did combine to make a hazy beer.

Unfortunately after 4 weeks in the bottle the hops have started to fade. I think I will keg next time to avoid oxygen and also do a keg dry hop addition.

 

[Alan_H]

Your google fu is weak!

thanks, man :) of course I googled it, I'm just avoiding buying from other countries unless I get more things. Getting 50g of Hallertau Blanc for 2GBP and paying 10 for shipment is not exactly clever :lol:

But thanks for the tip anyway :thumb: