Dangit BierMuncher, had to get the IIPA thing going.

Since my 15 gallon pot will be delivered by the brown santa tomorrow, I figured no better way to break it in than to do 10 gallons of Maharaja. SoperBrew and I both love this beer, and I nearly cried when I discovered the local beer store was already sold out! .. so we will split the batch and all will be well with the world again. In a few months, anyway.

Note that Avery uses a staggering 42# of hops per batch to dry hop the Maharaja. Granted, anyone who has seen my freezer blames the hop shortage on me but I still don't think it's NECESSARY to dry hop with that many hops. Instead, I'll use a mere 8 ounces for dry hopping, and apply a slick innovation I came up with for this beer: I'll be stuffing sachets with the blend they use to dry hop the beer. Plunk a sachet in the glass, let it sit for a few minutes.. and voila. Should be able to smell the hops from the next room!

Here's the recipe as I will be brewing it. I planned for 11 gallons after the boil, since I will lose a lot of beer to dry hopping; depending on my brewhouse efficiency (I planned for 65%) I may boil extra wort on the stove top to add after the boil to bring up the volume. At 133 IBUs, I don't think a small change in hop utilization will be noticed!

38# Rahr 2-row
3 3/4# Victory
1 1/4# Crystal 120L
3oz Simcoe 90
3oz Centennial 90
1.5oz Zeus 30
1.5oz Zeus 15

OG 1.090 / FG 1.012 / 133 IBU / SRM 15

Dry hops:
4 oz Simcoe for 2 weeks
2 oz Centennial, Crystal for 2 weeks
1 oz Simcoe + 1/2oz each Centennial and Crystal for hop sachets

Wyeast 1028 London Ale, 1.5 gallon starter, split between two pails

Oh, and a big *** blow-off tube x2.

Per Avery, this beer will be mashed at 151*F. Probably for 75 minutes. With this much grain, I will probably dough in at 130-140*F by adding 75% of the strike water, and then step to 151*F once I get the rest of the strike water heated! I plan to pitch around 62*F and ferment as close to 64*F as I can keep it for a week. It will remain in the primary three more weeks, and get secondaried for another two weeks before bottling in 22oz bottles.