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Hello. I'm a complete beginner (1 failed Coopers kit and 2 batches of all grain still in the bottle - never tried anything else) so please be gentle if these are stupid questions...

What yeast should I use with this recipe?
Is there an alternative to torrified wheat - I'm in S.Africa and I can't get my hands on any?
Presumably I need to work out how much water to use based on the grain bill?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
 
CopperBeechBrew said:
Hello. I'm a complete beginner (1 failed Coopers kit and 2 batches of all grain still in the bottle - never tried anything else) so please be gentle if these are stupid questions...

What yeast should I use with this recipe?
Is there an alternative to torrified wheat - I'm in S.Africa and I can't get my hands on any?
Presumably I need to work out how much water to use based on the grain bill?

Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks

You can use american, California, chico ale yeast (like white labs wlp-001) or any "clean" yeast to be safe. I have used white labs English ale yeast on some IPAs in the past as well.

I am not an expert on ingredients but I would use whatever wheat grain you can get.

I am not sure I understand your water question. If your doing full boils, then do whatever you need to do in order to end up with a full carboy while accounting for boil off. I boil 13 gallons to end up with about 11.5 between 2 carboys.
 
Hi

Thanks for the advice. These are the yeasts i can get here:
Safale S-04
Safale US-05
Safbrew S33
Safbrew T-58
Safbrew WB-06
Saflager W34/70

I think i'll try the US05 – got to start somewhere.

Re the water questions, maybe I don;t fully understand the ratio of water to grain but the two brew I've done had specific quantities of grain and water in the recipe so I was basically told exactly what to do. My limitation is my boil volume – I only have a 21litre (5.5gallons) pot so I can safely only boil about 18/19litres (4.8/5gallons). Not totally sure how to calculate how much to mash/sparge etc based on the grain bill from this recipe. Sorry if this is a stupid question but I have to ask!

Thanks again
 
CopperBeechBrew said:
Hi

Thanks for the advice. These are the yeasts i can get here:
Safale S-04
Safale US-05
Safbrew S33
Safbrew T-58
Safbrew WB-06
Saflager W34/70

I think i'll try the US05 – got to start somewhere.

Re the water questions, maybe I don;t fully understand the ratio of water to grain but the two brew I've done had specific quantities of grain and water in the recipe so I was basically told exactly what to do. My limitation is my boil volume – I only have a 21litre (5.5gallons) pot so I can safely only boil about 18/19litres (4.8/5gallons). Not totally sure how to calculate how much to mash/sparge etc based on the grain bill from this recipe. Sorry if this is a stupid question but I have to ask!

Thanks again

Us05 is a great choice. I have heard of some folks using us04 but I understand you need to have the ability to control the fermentation temp to keep it below 68 deg or less (I think it produces some ethers at higher ferm temps which would distract from your malt and hop flavors). I am not familiar with any of the others you listed.

Sorry I can't help more on the water as I have only done partial mashing where I mashed about 8lbs of grain and then topped up with water and DME to get my boil volume and gravity where it needs to be. When I do mash though, the water to grain ratio is between 1.25 to 1.5.
 
I would definitely suggest getting a bigger boil pot so you can do a full boil - but if you can't then you'll have to run off 4.8 gallons of wort from your mash tun, boil it 90 minutes and then take a starting gravity reading. Depending on how much over the mark you are you just add water to bring it up to 5 gallons/correct starting gravity. You can also run off more than 4.8 gallons and boil that separately in a smaller pot and then add it to your main boil. here is a great tool to help you figure out your water to grain ratio.

http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php

and this is a calculator to help figure out how much water to add depending on starting gravity after boil.

http://merrycuss.com/calc/gravityadjustmentwater.html
 
Try raising your fermentation temp to room temp AS SOON as your krausen begins to drop. Usually this is at the 3 day mark. Then make sure you leave it in primary 3 weeks. I think you will be pleased with the results.

Do you also use an aeration system (paint mixer or air pump etc)? or do you just dump into your fermenter and shake a bit? I'm planning to try your approach of raising to room temp after krausen drops on my next batch. but I thought I'd try to aerate more as well. getting tired of my fermentation hitting the dreaded 1.020 stall!
 
Hi, thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

I just noticed something odd, when I view the first post via the HBT iPad app it leaves off the information about the brew - which is partially why I asked about the yeast and volume etc. Screenshots attached of both the iPad view and safari, not sure why it does this.


image-3184162060.jpg



image-2548929181.jpg
 
On a wet and windy Saturday morning here in New Zealand, I spent a very pleasant few hours brewing this recipe (partial mash style).

It's the first time I have done an IPA, so the hop quantity is a fair bit higher than I have encountered previously. Despite straining the wort through a stainless steel sieve when transferring to my fermenter, I was still amazed at the amount of hop material in there. I'm not particularly worried, I'm sure it'll settle over the next few weeks.

I pitched Safale US05 yeast, and despite a slowish start, it is now fermenting furiously. Amazing to watch - the hoppy trub is swirling around as if the beer was boiling, and the airlock bubbling along like a jet engine. Fantastic!

Looks and smells great - can't wait to sample it in a couple of months.
 
64-65 air temp or beer temp? That would be ideal, if not a bit high for room temp. We keep our fermentation room at 62-64 when fermenting an ale like this one and that keeps our beer temp right in the sweet spot. That will vary depending on your setup, but you want the beer to be around or under 68 degrees I believe.
 
illMATTic said:
Will I be fine fermenting at 64-65* ??? It is hard for me to bring the house up much past that in the winter.

Depends on your yeast. But in general, I think those temps are ok for ipa's. Usually have to worry about higher temps with certain yeast strains. Also remember your beer will ferment about 6 deg warmer than ambient.
 
Finally tried some after a month and a couple of week and all I can say is wow. Best beer I've brewed.
 
I tried one after about a week in the bottle and it was a bit rough around the edges yet. After three weeks and a few days in the fridge - they're awesome!
 
A longer boil can help eliminate DMS. The half-life for DMS is 40 minutes, so half of the DMS will be boiled off in a 40 minute vigorous boil. So if we do the math, a 60 minute boil gets rid of 64.7% of the DMS and a 90 minute boil rids us of 79% of the DMS. That is why most experienced brewers recommend a 90 minute or longer vigorous boil. Cooling your wort quickly after the boil helps keep more DMS from forming as well - which can't be boiled off obviously. Just tricks of the trade when using lighter, paler malts.
 
That makes sense. My problem is I can only boil 6 gallons at once. So would it be better to lose the extra boil off doing a 90 min boil? or just stick to 60 since it doesn't seem that it will affect anything other than DMS?

Or can I add more wort from mash tun say 30-40 minutes into boil so that I still end up with 5 gallons?
 
when I brewed this the 90 minute boil got me a bit under 5 gallons and my OG was high so I just added water to bring the OG within range. I would test your gravity and make the water adjustment accordingly as opposed to just adding water to make an even 5 gallons. Here's a calculator to help.

http://merrycuss.com/calc/gravityadjustmentwater.html
 
Also I would invest in a bigger pot - like a ten gallon. makes brewing life so much easier. You can get 60 qt stock pots on eBay for around $65 or $70 bucks.
 
Thanks for the info. I have a keg that will soon be a keggle I just don't have time between now and Saturday to do it.

Another quick question... Being that this is my second AG I plan to use bottled spring water do I need to mess with the ph of the mash water?
 
apparently the mash ph should be around 5.1 or 5.2 to get the best conversion of starch to sugar. I haven't ever checked my ph level. probably should. there's a product called 5.2 mash stabilizer that will bring the mash to 5.2 and keep it there. anybody have any experience with the 5.2 stabilizer? cheers.

p.s. as for the ph level of bottle water - here's a list I came across. if yours is one of the higher ph levels then maybe add the 5.2 stabilizer.

http://healthychoices.askahealer.com/2008/02/28/ph-levels-in-bottled-water/
 
I have this feeling though, that since this isn't a super light nor a really dark beer the mash ph level probably won't affect the final product too much. but I could be wrong...
 
parrotpoet said:
Also I would invest in a bigger pot - like a ten gallon. makes brewing life so much easier. You can get 60 qt stock pots on eBay for around $65 or $70 bucks.

I saw a 10-gallon pot at Food Maxx for $22 about a month ago.
 
Brewed this yesterday and hit all my numbers... Kind of. So I had to use three pots since I don't have a big enough kettle to hold 7 gallons, definitely not brewing again till my keggle is ready.I did the 90 minute boil and ended up with 4.5 gallons, my goal was 5.5 gallons, but the OG was really high I think around 1.085 so I added one gallon and ended up at 1.065. Perfect... I think. Is it bad that I had to top it off although I calculated 5.5g at 1.065?

Also can I dry hop this in secondary?

Thanks for the recipe!
 
Walshy87 said:
Brewed this yesterday and hit all my numbers... Kind of. So I had to use three pots since I don't have a big enough kettle to hold 7 gallons, definitely not brewing again till my keggle is ready.I did the 90 minute boil and ended up with 4.5 gallons, my goal was 5.5 gallons, but the OG was really high I think around 1.085 so I added one gallon and ended up at 1.065. Perfect... I think. Is it bad that I had to top it off although I calculated 5.5g at 1.065?

Also can I dry hop this in secondary?

Thanks for the recipe!

Ideally you don't want to top up with a whole gallon if you don't have to. That being said, you can still make great beer. I doubt you will notice. Yes, you can dry hop in primary.
 
that happened to me too. I ended up with less wort because of a nice, vigorous 90 minute boil and my OG was 1.075 or so. I added about a half gallon of water. I dry hopped in primary as an experiment but will definitely rack to secondary next time to let it clear and settle more. Otherwise it came out great! Ended up spot on at 1.012. tasty!!
 
What about adding pectin enzyme? I use it in mead and works great, but I don't recall seeing anything about adding to beer. Has anybody tried?
 
I see there are a couple of extract versions floating around. I'm new to beersmith, just downloaded the trial, can't seem to get it to convert correctly. I'll keep tinkering with it but in the meantime, is there an extract version with a good track record? Thanks.
 
EineProsit said:
Hey why does this recipie call for a 90 min. boil when hop schedule starts in the last 30 mins

We don't just boil for the hops. A lot of caramel flavors develop during a boil. It also gets rid of DMS. Plus a 90 min boil allows you to sparge with more water, getting more sugars out of your grain.
 
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