The Barbican IPA

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tcgraham

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I am decidedly not scientific enough about my brewing process. I generally don't get gravity readings because I never remember and have discovered that regardless of the beer, enough of it will get me plowed.

However, the goal here was to create my own recipe for the first time. The Barbican is still in primary so I can't give tasting notes yet. Standby for details.

I'm shooting for smoky hints and if I don't get enough from the smoked malt, I'll add 1 oz oak chips to the dry hop. I'm also shooting for a SoCal styled IPA (big, bitter and tropical flowers–think Ballast Point Sculpin IPA or AleSmith IPA) with notes hinting back to it's India Pale roots.

As it stands today the off-gassing from the carboy smells heavenly. I may order a metric ton of New Zealand hops if this works out. Oh, also a :mug: to mistercameron for helping me brew this beast.

Grains (single infusion mash @153 for 60minutes):

9 lbs English 2-row pale
1 lbs 60L Crystal
.75 lbs Cherry Wood Smoked Malt
.75 lbs Carapils

Hops:

New Zealand Motueka (pellets) - 1oz, 60 minutes
New Zealand Southern Cross (pellets) - 1oz @25 minutes, 1 oz @40 minutes
Amarillo Gold (whole) - 1oz dry hopped

Yeast: Cali Ale V @68 degrees. (We've got a nice little Santa Ana kicking right now, so the brew-garage is about 80 degrees. I have the carboy wearing a t-shirt sitting in a tub of cold water about 2 inches deep. According to the thermometer it's keeping it pretty steady at 68)

Racking: I'll be moving it over into a new carboy when the beer is around 80% fermented. I think it will be around 5 days. We'll see. The goal is to get the beer off the yeast and reduce particulates. I'll rack out of secondary and into kegs. (EDIT - No more racking! dcp has shown me the light)
 
Racking: I'll be moving it over into a new carboy when the beer is around 80% fermented. I think it will be around 5 days. We'll see. The goal is to get the beer off the yeast and reduce particulates. I'll rack out of secondary and into kegs.

why would you move it so early? you want it to be on the yeast for at least a few days after it finishes up so that the yeast clean up any by-products, especially acetylehyde and diacetyl. also, racking it to a secondary doesnt cause things to clear up any quicker than in a primary.

I'd bump up the dry hop to 2oz to make up for the lack of any other aroma additions.
 
Thanks for the notes!

I'd always heard it's better to get it off the yeast cake as fast as possible. My experience hasn't really yielded any evidence one way or the other. Maybe I'll extend the primary and try to come to some conclusion one way or the other.

My opinion has always been that it annoys me that racking from primary to secondary is "supposed" to be a good thing, but all I've noticed is that it ties up two carboys instead of one. I'll give your method a shot we'll see what happens.

As for dry hopping at 2oz....I'm glad you mentioned it. I was teetering back and forth between 1 or 2. Someone else throwing in a 2 oz. recommendation is enough to sway me over. I'm a hop head so I tend to temper their use knowing most folks don't want it so hoppy. But then again...it's my beer right?
 
actually, racking to a secondary is no longer the recommended method. basically, using a secondary is an old technique from back when yeast was crappy and autolysis was more of a possibility. most people here just leave there beers in primary for 3+ weeks (some have gone over 5 months). shorter is certainly doable, but the idea is that longer time cleans up, conditions, and clarifies the beer more. it all comes down to personal preference either way cuz some do notice a difference in flavor. IME, its just an added risk of oxidation/contamination and only useful for long term aging. you can read this if you want more details into the debate: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/secondary-not-john-palmer-jamil-zainasheff-weigh-176837/

id def bump up the dry hop. only 1oz late is pretty lite for an IPA. in general I'd keep any additions that aren't bittering 20mins or under as additions in between dont add as much to the flavor and certainly dont add any aroma.
 
Yea, I was just reading up in the thread. No more secondary for me. I don't mind the wait time and if I can free up a whole carboy by not going to secondary, I can increase my schedule and simply have more beer in my life. Win-win for me.

Thanks again for the reply. I'll definitely be posting up pics and flavor notes once this batch is ready.
 
glad to help. im interested to hear how much of the smoke comes thru on this
 
Moved the beer over to a keg last night and crash cooled it. Sat in primary for just shy of 3 weeks. It's carbing right now.

The cold, but flat taste on the beer was nice. Very strong hop bittering on the front, but the citrus flavor of the NZ hops is showing through. The smoke in the malt isn't showing through as much as the oak flavor from the dry "oaking". I'll reserve full tasting notes for a few days since those bubbles will change the hop character a bit. But, for a first taste, it smells great and tastes great. It's cracking up to be an interesting beer.
 
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