Brew Day - Chinese IPA

Another attempt at brewing today - this time it is an IPA and we are hoping to rectify the efficiency issues that we had last time we brewed.

10 gallon batch

Grain Bill
10kg Pale Malt
500g Carawheat
500g Munich

Hops:
Nugget - 40g @ boil (60)
Nugget - 27g @ 10
Qingdao Flower - 40 @10
Qingdao Flower - 40 @ 5
Qingdao Flower - 40 @ 2
Qingdao Flower - 25g @ FO

Additional Additions:
Lyle's Golden Syrup - 2#s
Gypsum - 10g
Both added with 10 min left in the boil.


Expected OG - 1.069

Yeast Fermentis 05

Will start fly sparge in 15 minutes.

Kettle is on the burner - waiting for the boil.
Expected 1st pull gravity reading = 1.071
Actual 1st pull gravity reading = 1.085

Waiting for last pull and pre boil pulls to cool down before measuring their gravities.

So far so good...

Final gravity reached 1.071, which was above our target. Looks like we hit with 80% efficiency as well.
24 grams of Fermentis 05 pitched.
Wait and see!
Planning on doing a 21 day fermentation with the last 7 days dry hopped with qingdao flower hops.

What are the characteristics of Qingdao Flower? Never seen that varietal in the states...

I was just in Beijing a couple weeks ago. Where were you when I was craving a HB?!?!

homebrewedipa said:

What are the characteristics of Qingdao Flower? Never seen that varietal in the states...

Click to expand...

its used in tsingtao beer

microbrewswhoo said:

I was just in Beijing a couple weeks ago. Where were you when I was craving a HB?!?!

Click to expand...

You should have hit me up! I would have taken you over to Great Leap Brewery!
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/24935
Home - qingdao flower is used in qingdao/tsingdao beer - 7%aa, floral notes, good all-around hop. I'll have a better idea of it's aroma characteristics once this brew is kegged.

We kegged this on Sunday after 14 days in primary. Tasted it last night after it was on the gas for 24 hours - still very green, a bit cloudy, even bitterness and a ton of hop aroma. Should get better as it sits and chills for a week or two, but I will check it day by day just to make sure!
We ended at 1.015 and an abv of 7.4%
Officially called Chinese Imperialist Double IPA - or CIDIPA, which in Chinese means great beer by big nosed foreigners.

Awesome beerspitnight. I want to try some haha!

The beer is starting to mellow a bit - had 3 pints tonight
The mouthfeel is a bit strong and it is sweet still - coats your mouth, at least by the 3rd one my mouth is coated. Maybe that is from the Munich and Carawheat, along with the sugar? I would have thought that the sugar fermented out though and wouldn't leave any flavors behind...

what was your mash temp?

We mashed in at 165 (strike) and got it down to 150 in 9 minutes - mashed at 150 for 60min.

beerspitnight said:

We mashed in at 165 (strike) and got it down to 150 in 9 minutes - mashed at 150 for 60min.

Click to expand...

Yea that should have made it fairly crisp.

beerspitnight said:

We mashed in at 165 (strike) and got it down to 150 in 9 minutes - mashed at 150 for 60min.

Click to expand...

For a 150F mash, I always give it 90 minutes. I must admit, I don't know if the extra time is necessary, but I get great attenuation, and I'm not fond of under-attenuated IPA's.

-a.

I think it fully attenuated - measured actual attenuation at 79% - going from 1.071 to 1.015. Maybe it just needs to mellow some more?